It’s been said that writing a blockbuster country tune is harder than it looks, (or sounds for that matter,) and for the last 50 years, guys and gals in “Nudie suits” have mined familiar themes of trains, trucks, drinkin and cheatin’, all to varying degrees of success.  To make things more complicated, you have to set up the structure of the song, lay down some catchy hooks and bring it all home in a scant three minutes or less. 

What does all that have to do with a Camaro build over at Pro-Touring.com?  Well, the same thing can be said for First Gen F-bodies. There ain’t nothing new under the sun and for some folks, the Camaro canvas might seem just a little overplayed. 

 Well, prepare to be surprised. Chip Foose and his “A-Team” at over at the Velocity Network, (including two fetching female wrenches,) have crafted a fresh take on a Pro-Touring F-Body for Episode 3 of Overhaulin‘ and it’s a skillful take on the automotive version of the aforementioned three minute country song conundrum.

Per Overhaulin’ practice, the “mark” is Pastor Bernie Federmann out of Lampoc, CA.and his ’67 Camaro he recently bought through an internet auction. Bernie’s car was of nice driver quality, but as we all know, everything can be improved on.

Foose combines current Pro-Touring themes and state and of the art speed goodies with Harry Bradley’s early “Hot Wheels” design language to good effect.

 The body was treated to a shave, tucked in bumpers, a rear cowl induction hood and smoothed gas filler at the rear. All this was sprayed out in Foose Huntington Blue Pearl with some very tasteful fire engine orange pinstripes on the hood and repeated on the wheels.

 The drivetrain consists of a 480 HP, big block Chevrolet 427 crate motor backed up by a Tremec TKO-600 5-speed gearbox from Bowler Transmission. The old stamped steel sub-frame was ash canned and replaced with a powder coated, tubular IFS unit and the rear end was upgraded with a torque arm solid axle sourced from TCI Engineering.

Completing the transformation are Wilwood brakes, rack and pinion steering and a sick set of staggered Foose “Knuckle” rims, 19’s in front and 20’s in the rear.

The black interior sports a vintage Chevy woodgrain steering wheel, all new guts from Classic Industries, a thumpin’ tune system and trick Cobra racing seats and door panels stitched in buttery leather with a Bentley-seque double diamond motif.

 The reveal was held at Peterson’s Auto Museum and “Car Crazy” Barry Maguiar was on hand for the emotional reunion of Bernie and his Chevy pony car. Look for it at the Meguiar’s booth at this years SEMA. The episode is on rotation on Velocity, so put it your DVR cue and check it out.

Until then, the only thing left to do is hit “play” on the Johnny Cash playlist and lay some stripes.