Ok, so you've gotten this far on the Classic Industries' website, which isn't really far at all. [It's just the home page, for goodness sakes, but never mind]. With this whiz bang, sure fire Mastering The Classic Industries Knowledge Base: A Step-by-Step Guide, you'll be an expert American muscle car components investigator and shopping guru before you know it.

You don’t want your classic sitting in a museum, and you definitely don’t want it collecting dust in the garage while you wait on backordered parts from five different suppliers. You are building a machine meant to be driven hard. Whether it is a pro-touring Camaro with a Detroit Speed suspension, a restomod Mustang, or a street-brawling Chevelle rocking a Hurst-shifted Muncie, the engine is the heart of the build. And while LS swaps get a lot of the spotlight today, there is an undeniable, visceral authority to a traditional V8 breathing through a properly tuned high-performance four-barrel carburetor.

In this final segment of the Camaro restoration, you will at last see the fruits of your labor. For the most part, the reassembly process is a bolt-together operation, especially if most of the parts are either new or already refinished. Hopefully, by this time the majority of exterior replacement parts have arrived and the engine is rebuilt and awaiting reinstallation. If that's the case, the reassembly should move smoothly and quickly.

After completing the body and paint work (or at least the majority of it - you can save final color sand­ing and buffing until the sheetmetal is reassembled), the Camaro's interior can be reinstalled into the car.

When tragedy strikes and a car you love gets totaled, it's easy to become discouraged or frustrated. Nick Relampagos felt this impulse when a racing accident caused his pro-touring 1970 Camaro to spin into a concrete barrier. But rather than give up, he chose to rebuild it better than ever. The result is a wild 750-horsepower track machine that's packed with high-end upgrades and custom-built carbon fiber parts. Autotopia LA recently interviewed Nick about the story of his car and how it ended up in its current form.

Our project Z/28's interior was a mess. When we pur­chased the car, the interior looked like a remnant from one of those movie cars that has had its in­sides blown out by a terrorist bomb. In reality, our 1969 Camaro interior was a terror: the seat covers were ripped and torn, the carpet was faded and shredded, and the door panels were all of the above. But from the bright side, we were lucky - all the correct parts were in their correct places. At least no one had replaced the original 1969 seats with high ­backs from a 1973 Camaro.

In the end, your Camaro will be judged by its exterior fi­nish. No matter how good the interior looks, or how de­tailed the engine compartment is, people always look at the paint first. If the paint falls short, they usually don't bother to check out the rest of the car. But if the paint is really slick, really deep-looking, then you'll have to fight off the spectators with a stick. 

An engine rebuild should be an integral part of any car restoration. Six cylinder, small block, or big block, the Camaro's engine is the life-blood of the machine, so it deserves first-class attention during your full-scale restoration.

Front end components take a terrible beating. Consi­dering highway conditions - pot holes, rough rail­road crossings, speed bumps, driveway dips, high­way imperfections - it's miraculous that so many older cars are still roaming the roads on their original front end parts. Ball joints and bushings in particular absorb tremen­dous punishment because they connect the spindles to the con­trol arms and the control arms to the chassis, respectively, ac­tually supporting much of the Camaro's weight as the wheels and tires bounce over highway hazards. But although Camaro front ends have survived the mileage and the years, the damage of time and use eventually takes its toll, usually surfacing as tell-tale pops and squeaks before advancing to the dangerous level. 

After dismantling the Camaro, the restoration pro­ject can progress in a number of different direc­tions. If you intend to rebuild the engine yourself (more on engine rebuilding in a later chapter), dis­assemble the engine and send the block, crank, heads, etc. to a reputable machine shop for boring, polishing, valve work, bal­ancing, or whatever. That way, when you're ready to proceed with the engine rebuilding at a later stage of the restoration, all of the necessary components will be refinished and ready for reassembly.