What Will Restorers Think?

[KaBoom1701]

No worries....CarFax will still be around. lol

[olblue75]

I think factory sway bars, shocks, hub bearings, and other assorted suspension and chassis bits that are hard to identify

[Chevy_cowboy]

Tint on the portions of the vehicle designed to be a beacon to other drivers and alert them to your presence. Aka Lights.

[ChrisBlair]

Originally Posted by Red2014SS

.. think about this..

Imagine, the year is 2065. You've found a classic 5th Gen Camaro in a barn, covered in dust and dirt. She's a little rusty and she needs some work. You decide to restore the car. Come to find out, it was owned by a member of Camaro5.... As such, it was modified....and it's been sitting in the barn for 25 years.. What model? That's up to you. You can imagine it's a V6 or a Z28. You just need to bring it back to 100% stock and correct.

Your goal is to restore the car to exactly how it left the dealer's lot when it was new. In your quest to restore this car, what mods will confuse you the most?

Assuming the world is as it is today in 2065? Easy.

I was in the resto hobby from '89 to around 2006. No mods would confuse me on a car from 2010 in that scenario. The 5Gen Camaro is a 100% known entity. Especially in the internet age. Nothing will be a mystery, not even bizarre dealer-only editions. And 3D printing? You will prototype a part to the original manufacturer spec using the original drawing to see if it fits first, no more buying the wrong rare part sight unseen. And licensing? There are already new licensed resto parts. Not New Old Stock, but simply New Stock licensed by the original maker, which in most shows counts as "original".

Reference books will be scanned online decades before 2065. All part numbers will be known, all VIN codes will be decoded, all body tags will be decoded, all suppliers will be known and drawings- possibly .dfx files- for the parts will be out there for the downloading.

Consider this- even 25 years ago, you had to chase down the factory assembly manual or the set of chassis manuals. You might find a reprint if you were lucky, or, like me, you'd have to scour swap meets to find those books. Took me three years to find the original chassis manuals for my '70 Buick, and it covered every model Buick. All VIN? decoded. Body tags? Decoded. Parts codes? Cross ref to the original dealer illustrated parts manual...which took me two years to find. Paint codes? Right there. Interior options? There's a matrix. What part was original to this model? Drill through the drawings and parts. Why does my early '70 not have that part??? OK, look it up in the TSB reference that I had to send away for...oh, that lens was changed early in the production run to a different shape, OK, good, it's an original....all those things in 2065? At your fingertips.

THEN there will be more 5Gens that survived the ravages of time better. Construction is better today. There will be more "time capsule" 5Gens (Sure there will, even a half dozen of say, z/28 would be a large number). Those cars can be used to compare another car to 'factory correct' cars.

Now remember, a correct restoration includes the factory mistakes. And we have lots of video of the factory these days. The robots used make a more uniform result, no more say, overspray 6" inboard on the rockers at the Flint plant and 8" overspray in the same spot at the Framingham plant, because #1, it was probably automated and #2, it was only Oshawa.

The mods will not be a problem. The more sophisticated systems will, because those electronics will be obsolete. But a cottage industry appeared for classics that used vintage say radio housings, which had modern solid state radios in them. Outside looks like an original. Inside it's new. No reason to feel that wouldn't happen for today's cars.

[Chevy_cowboy]

Originally Posted by shibbs

lol @ people thinking electric is the future.

Electric is just a stepping stone to the next proper propulsion technology.

What that is, I have no clue.


As for the topic at hand, I think the reproduction wheels are going to be the biggest confusion.

I'm not even sure its a valid stepping stone, I don't think it'll ever be more than just a fringe market. Its not new, electric cars have been around as long as internal combustion cars have, and people have been saying electric was the future for about as long.

[1Coopgt]

Originally Posted by Bizaro

zl1 bumper on a v6 or v8, ss badging on v6 trying to pass as v8, non 1le or zl1 with zl1 type rims, non z28 with z28 rims, black hood on non 1le, npp on v6. v6 power mods.










U mad?

+10000 to this.

[revived]

god damn Chinese led DRL bulbs hahaha

[its a syn]

Trying to find the unobtainium that was used in the early model paint. It will drive them crazy trying to find that barrel that got washed away in the tsunami!

[thkfast]

If one was trying to restore a 5th Gen on a budget 50 years from now, I would think original BODY PANELS and WHEELS would be the hardest thing to locate. But who knows? Imagine what will be available on eBay in 50 years! It really depends if there's a demand for it. Chevrolet Camaro parts SHOULD always be available I would think.

Interesting topic...but I won't live to see it :(

[Cam_Cam]

Originally Posted by thkfast

If one was trying to restore a 5th Gen on a budget 50 years from now, I would think original BODY PANELS and WHEELS would be the hardest thing to locate. But who knows? Imagine what will be available on eBay in 50 years! It really depends if there's a demand for it. Chevrolet Camaro parts SHOULD always be available I would think.

Interesting topic...but I won't live to see it :(

You might. I heard they're pretty close to completing a full head transplant from one human body to another!

[LOBBS]

Originally Posted by Bizaro

zl1 bumper on a v6 or v8, ss badging on v6 trying to pass as v8, non 1le or zl1 with zl1 type rims, non z28 with z28 rims, black hood on non 1le, npp on v6. v6 power mods.










U mad?

Nah, this has been part of hot rodding since day one. Shouldn't be too difficult to sort back out. I don't understand the butthurt sometimes though. For instance, the ZL1 pieces on the SS. Done right, it provides some real aerodynamic advantages for a built-up SS. Not all swapping is sheer posing as something they're not. But there will always be a crowd that is upset about it.

[GretchenGotGrowl]

If it was my Camaro they found in the barn, then I think they would be scratching their heads over lots of things, LOL. Probably the number one thing would be the fogger plate with a NOS fuel solenoid but no nitrous hook up. WTF is up with that?