HINEY1's Custom Bumblebee Camaro (complete tear down and custom paint)

[Tran]

As featured on Camaro5 HOMEPAGE.

Our fellow member HINEY1 asked that I share the following story of his Bumblebee Camaro project. Thanks for sharing your experience with us Gary and congrats on the beautiful end product!

Originally Posted by HINEY1

my BUMBLEBEE………finally!

Here we go…..

Car was ordered Oct. 16th, 2008 from Gananoque Chev Olds. (near Kingston Ontario) Blair and Jamie at Gan Chev Olds knew how important this car was to me and kept me informed as much as they could. Promised build date was May 18th, 2009. Actual TPW was May 25th, 2009. Dealer invoiced and received shipment June 4th, 2009. Picked up Thursday am June 5th. It was weird that I had not seen any new Camaros driving on the road until I saw this one, and I was always looking. I waited almost 8 months.

My wife and I drove it for about a week. We had only put 400 km. on it. We then left it with a buddy's bodyshop (GATEWAY COLLISION). My wife liked the idea to make it look like the original BUMBLBEE from Transformers -- everything but the gas cap and the open rear quarter side vents. Here's how that came about.... you see, I also have an original 69 Daytona yellow RS Z28 that I am presently restoring. My 2010 Camaro was a rally yellow 2SS. My wife approved the colour (you married guys know what I mean). Well, I thought for sure I would get sick of yellow! So, with my friend offering to give me a great deal on a custom paint job I thought, that’s the answer, to make it just like the Bumblebee Camaro. That will make it special, just like the 69 Z28, around this area anyway.

I did not want to tackle the new Camaro myself. I thought it best to leave it for the experts. My friend, Bob, wasn’t that busy at the time and said now was as good as any to [complete the transformation] of the new Camaro. I remember him saying: Are you sure you want to do this? Answer: YES! Reply: you got balls!

The cost of the white base, SUNRISE gold paint and the clearcoat was around $3000. The gold paint is nothing without the base. I looked at this little box of cans and thought wow? Not much there! I can see why this paint job could cost $10,000 - $15,000 easily. They got the car stripped down and painted the front end around the engine compartment. That was the first step. As you can see in the pictures, it looked awesome!

Unfortunately for me and maybe (business) lucky for him, he started to get busy. It was like everybody was having a fender bender in June and July. Even the local Police cars, which he has a contract with, started smashing up their cars. The police cars have priority because they need to keep them in service.
So, instead of taking a few weeks, it turned into 6 weeks! IT WAS THE LONGEST 6 WEEKS OF MY LIFE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I drove my family crazy….ask my wife.

However, what amazed me was the care and detail the paint specialist took. Gary (his name as well) is good at what he does. There were times when I wondered how he was going to get the car back together. Some days I was scared to look at it. Most days it was pretty cool to see the car taking shape. It really was TRANSFORMED. The time and effort put into the paint job was incredible!

While it was being done, we went to the Camaro Nationals in Carlisle and showed Scott Settlemire the pictures that were on my camera at the time. I was impressed with Scott, Sheryl Pilcher and John Fitzpatrick. They all showed interest in the car. I thought to myself, these guys have met so many Camaro enthusiasts over the past years but they took the time to talk to us and answer questions about the car.

Also, the Camaro5 website has been a source of information like no other site could be. I have always been a Chevy nut! I’ve have probably owned about 10 Camaros. I presently have the 69 RS Z28 (plate: BAD 69), a 1971 454 Corvette, a 2005 FOOSE inspired GT Mustang (plate: HINEY1) and the 2010 (plate: TRANS4MR). Back in 2004, I remember being pissed off with GM. I wanted a ‘new” muscle car and GM wasn’t building the Camaro ever again, so I thought. So I ordered a 2005 GT Mustang. It arrived Nov. 9, 2004. I followed it on the Mustang forum. There was a lot of excitement but, not even close to the Camaro and the information on Camaro5 website. As you all know, the new Camaros are awesome!

Anyway,
ENJOY THE PICTURES……
(still have to install the CAMARO side emblems)

[Tran]

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[Tran]

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[Moorepheus]

Looks Sweet

[nUcLeArEnVoY]

... goo.

[drivingincamaro]

thats the first bumble bee painted camaro ive seen

looks great

[Legend]

WOW!

Awesome work!

[bluedevil02]

freakn sic....nice job it came out great!

[GTAHVIT]

Wow

[Milk 1027]

W


O


W

that's amazing.

[JewelZ]

I have a feeling this will turn out better than the GM Transformer pkdg.

[jpsuperman81]

Sweet!

[CamaroSS24]

I'm jealous! HOW MUCH $$$$???

[Andro]

Finally someone did a one up to the rest of the common rally yellow Camaro's with black stripes and they call it Bumble bee. This one deserves the Bumble Bee name. Good Job