We all know the old adage that a shoe cobbler is always the one person without a new pair of shoes. That’s because they spend all of their time making shoes for everyone else. There are many professions that unfortunately live by the same adage, and one of them is the paint and body man.

When it comes to working in a body shop, the paint guy doesn’t usually have a ride that is worthy of highlighting his profession. While Judd Middlebrook of Plant City, Florida, does spend his days as the manager of a collision repair shop, he does make sure to take time and enjoy the automotive hobby — and build some really cool cars on the weekends.

When not rebuilding someone else’s daily mode of transportation, that has received some sort of body-transitioning engagement, you can find him at home, either restoring vintage gas pumps or a classic Chevrolet like his 1967 Camaro. Judd acquired this car more than 12 years ago, and after an 18-month restoration, has been enjoying the fruits of his labor, ever since.

Finding The Next Project

Judd tells us, “I received a phone call from a friend whose wife worked with a gentleman who was going through a messy divorce. The bad news for him, was that he reluctantly needed to sell his Camaro project that he really was not ready to get rid of. He hadn’t advertised it online or in any papers yet, and lucky for me, I was the first one to look at it the same evening I got the phone call. When I got to the where the car was located, I took a quick look, and bought the car immediately. The last thing the owner told me, was to never bring it back for him to see it when it was finished.”

What Judd was fortunate enough to find, was a complete car. It was factory-powered by a six-cylinder engine with a manually-shifted three-speed transmission, and while the car was in relatively good condition, it was in need of a complete restoration. Judd says, “The car had very solid rocker panels, frame rails, and front subframe.” Unlike the aforementioned shoe cobbler, Judd was able to immediately start the restoration, and spent the next 18 months, including nights and weekends, rebuilding the car.

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Judd added the rear spoiler, and the cowl-induction scoop.

The Project Gets Underway

During those 18 months, Judd and one of his coworkers, Alex Ortiz stripped the sheetmetal of all paint, fixed what little rust was found, and then straightened each panel before another coworker, Thi Trong Do, was able to cover the car with an eye-searing Torch Red hue. To upgrade the car’s appearance, Judd chose to include a 2-inch cowl-induction hood and rear spoiler in the rebuild, even though this car did not come so equipped.

Underneath, the stock suspension was rebuilt using all new bushings and such, but it has benefited from the addition of Hotchkis’ performance springs and front swaybar. When the car was new, a set of push-and-pray drum brakes would eventually bring the car to a halt, but in the name of safety, Judd has upgraded the front to now utilize factory GM disc-brakes. When you build a car this nice, why take chances?

When it comes to any car, the interior is the one place where you are supposed to spend the bulk of your time. When many classic Chevy’s are rebuilt, the person rebuilding the car usually takes some liberties, and upgrades the interior with items like aftermarket seats, air conditioning, and sometimes, even a tilt steering column. Judd is a self-proclaimed “old school guy,” so his vision didn’t include any of those items.

For his ride, the interior needed to remain stock. To keep that factory look, he contacted Rick’s Camaro Parts, and ordered new factory-correct seat skins, carpeting, and headliner, and installed the parts himself. The interior of the car might not resemble a high-dollar restomod, and that is just how Judd likes it — functional and classic looking.

A big choice to make when building any car revolves around the engine. Some guys want an unusable amount of horsepower, and some want reliability and longevity. When it came time to choose what would “motorvate” the Camaro, Judd was adamant that the six-cylinder engine would not remain under the hood. We don’t know of many hot rodders that could live with themselves if they settled for running an engine that was missing two cylinders. For that reason, he contacted Fatback Racing Engines in Valrico, Florida, and had them build a small-block that was not only reliable enough to allow Judd to use the car for daily transportation if need be, but also fill the performance void left by the original engine.

Mike Boyd at Fatback started with a bare 350 block, and opened the cylinders an extra .030-inch. Once the cylinder bores were the proper size, he filled them with SRP forged pistons, that are pinned to the stock connecting rods and cast crankshaft. Judd wasn’t looking for a tire-frying monster when it came to the engine, just a respectable small-block that sounded great, and performed well.

Under the Fatback-prepped Brodix IK-series cylinder heads is custom-ground, flat-tappet camshaft with .514/.524-inch lift, and 230 degrees of duration at .050-inch lift. Up top, a Weiand intake manifold with a Holley 650 cfm carburetor makes sure the engine is never starved for fuel. Fully assembled, the engine develops a 10.0:1 compression ratio, which is great for surviving the dismal, current-era pump fuels.

All performance models of the Camaro during this generation, came with the famous Muncie “Rock Crusher” transmission. But, since this was never a performance car from the factory, that option was not available. In order to retain the shift-it-yourself option, Judd found a Borg/Warner T10 four-speed transmission to fill the void. The Muncie four-speed transmission was used in General Motors cars from 1963 until early 1975. These gear boxes were chosen when power levels delivered by Chevrolet’s performance engines exceeded the limits of the early Borg Warner four-speed. The Muncie was actually based on the design of the T10, and uses the same basic gear layout. The T10 made its appearance in Chevrolet cars in 1957. From 1957 to 1963, there were a lot of changes that took place inside the gearbox, in an attempt to help it survive duty behind the increasing horsepower new engines were delivering.

The Muncie four-speed was used in production vehicles until power levels dropped in 1975. This was the year that led to the demise of the Muncie, and the reintroduction of the improved T10, called the Super T10. When it comes down to it, in terms of which is stronger, the Muncie wins. In terms of better? That depends on your needs. If you’re running a stock or mildly-enhanced V8, either one will work, and the Super T10 will likely be less expensive to acquire. Anyway, enough of the transmission class, let’s get back to Judd’s Camaro.

Once again, since this is not a factory-built performance car, the rearend only displays 10 bolts around the cover, instead of 12, which in Judd’s case, is not an issue — yet. Currently, the 10-bolt rearend is as the factory delivered it, with a 3.55 gear, and unfortunately, a one-wheel-wonder differential. Judd has plans to upgrade the car and eventually install a 12-bolt rearend, but sees no need to rush into conversion as he is having too much fun driving the car.

Finished And Fun

Sure, he’s owned the car for just slightly over 12 years, but take a good look at it and tell us it doesn’t look great for its age! Judd has received several offers from people wanting to buy the car, but according to him, “My friends and I have a lot of time and sweat in the car, and I just can’t part with it. Besides, how would I ever replace it”?

As any car guy can attest, working on these classics by yourself can be an overwhelming task, so Judd would like to especially thank Mike and Steve Boyd for keeping him motivated and pointed in the right direction.

Judd’s first-gen Camaro is definitely a Home-built Hero, and after being on the road for almost 10 years, it still looks great. What do you all think? We want to hear your thoughts about the car. Let us know in the comments section if you might have done anything differently, or if you think Judd built the Camaro just right.