We’re here to tell you that in case you were unsure, the muscle car hobby is alive and well in places other than the United States. Take New Zealand for instance. While American muscle cars might not make up the largest number of “hot rods” on the road, those folks sure do like them. Rob Miller is one of those fans of American muscle. His ride of choice is a first-gen Camaro
“I picked up my ’68 Camaro around nine or ten years ago when I found it on a local auction site (similar to Craigslist),” he affirms. It is the first car I’ve ever purchased sight unseen. I was placing all of my faith in a few online pics and a brief description. The car was in Auckland, New Zealand, which was around 1,500 km away from where I lived at the time. With the deal done I waited patiently for about two weeks until the transporter finally arrived.”
As happens many times with purchases like this, the first-gen Camaro was in “okay” shape but not quite as described. “The description didn’t quite match the car in some respects, but all in all I was pretty happy with it,” Rob quips. “I’ve owned a few V8s over the years and my dream was always to try and find a first-gen Camaro.”
After going through all of the paperwork, Rob found where it previously sold on eBay and subsequently went under the hammer at Barrett Jackson around 2011. “It started life with a 327 with a Powerglide and a 10-bolt rearend,” Rob says. “It was originally Butternut Yellow. The original engine was long gone, so I replaced it with a Chevrolet Performance crate engine LS1 backed by a Turbo 350. The 10-bolt now has a limited-slip differential and 3.08 gears.”
As soon as he started to tear down the car to rebuild it, it found issues. “I started the teardown and found a heap of mechanical and electrical issues,” States Rob. “My plan was to build a restomod, and to be fair, I’m at a stage now, where I am pretty happy with the result. After various upgrades and improvements, I built a first-gen Camaro that is fun to drive and that’s what I do every chance I get.”
Do you want to read about more Home-Built Heroes? All you need to do is click here. If you own a Home-Built Hero, we want to hear about it. Since we’ve started the series, we have received more than a few candidates, but we still want to see more – we can never get enough. If you want to see more cars built by you the readers, send us a few pictures of your car showing the engine, interior, and exterior, along with all of the pertinent information, and we’ll make you internet famous. You can send your submissions to [email protected].