Rebuilding 1969 Chevrolet Camaro to match owner's vision took him almost four years

When Mike Lewis bought his silver 1969 Camaro in 2004, he planned on one day tearing it completely apart and rebuilding it to an image that was floating in his mind since he was a kid.

But first Lewis, who lives outside of Paola, wanted to enjoy the car he bought from its previous owner in Oakland, Calif. It had 71,000 miles on it and was cool enough, even without the changes he was going to make.

Finally, one day in 2011, after going to a few car shows and seeing a few muscle cars that had been transformed into vehicles that run in Pro-Touring events, Lewis knew it was time to complete his dream.

“The one thing about this car and others like it is it breaks down all barriers,” Lewis said. “This car is a manifestation of my personality. I think the color is timeless. The look, stance and sound of the car are like none other.

“It is old-school muscle meets new-school Pro-Touring. That is exactly what this is.”

Pro-Touring is is a style of classic muscle car with enhanced suspension components, brake system, drivetrain and aesthetics, including many of the amenities of a new performance car.

In 2014, before the car was completely finished to Lewis’ satisfaction, he raced his 1969 Camaro on an Autocross track in a Goodguys show in Arizona. Autocross is is a timed competition in which drivers navigate one at a time through a defined course.

“It was a blast,” Lewis said. “I wasn’t as fast as the pros. There are guys who build cars just to do Autocross. I ran the course four times. My last time, I shaved 6 seconds off my time. That’s the idea. You get the feel of it and then you start stepping it up a little bit.”

The combination of original interior and new body and engine attracted the attention of the people who will run the first-ever Boyd Coddington Garage All Speed Expo, which runs Nov. 21-22 at the KCI Expo Center. Lewis’ ’69 Camaro will be in the car show.

“The guys who are running the All Speed Expo show said when they saw my car it represented the theme of their show,” Lewis said.

It took Lewis nearly four years to get the car in its current state. The process started with him and a couple of friends completely dismantling it.

“We lowered the car,” Lewis said. “We replaced all the suspension with Detroit Speed and engineering components.

They did a mini-tubbing, which is a widening of a car's rear wheelwells, moving the inner halves inboard to the location of the stock frame-rails to achieve maximum tire clearance without major frame hacking.

“It is to give more traction,” Lewis said. “When you have a big motor, you have to put more tire on the ground.

“We strengthened the frame and body. We put in a six-point roll bar. It is connected in six different places to strengthen the car. The interior is stock 1969 Z28, which makes this car unique. The interior is old school but the suspension is like a Ferrari underneath.”

Lewis needed faith and confidence that he and his two friends could put it all back together.

The longest part of the process was the painting. Before shipping the body to Denver, they removed everything.

There was no interior: No seats, no carpet or back seats, no dash, no steering wheel, no brake pedals, nothing. Everything was stripped out of the car.

“You got to be kind of nutty to do this,” Lewis said.

Lewis got the body work done first and then he reassembled the car.

“It was quite a job, to do all the suspension work,” Lewis said. “It took about two weeks. We also put 13-inch disc brakes all the way around.”

Another major job was putting in a new engine. The old engine was 350 cubic inches with about 300 horsepower.

Lewis wanted more horsepower to fulfill his vision. He had a Dart 598 cubic inch big block with almost a 1,000 horsepower built in New York.

“I said, ‘Here is what I want,” Lewis said. “You can’t go to Chevrolet and buy a 598. I want this in the engine and this in the engine. They built it and shipped it to me.”

By this time, Lewis knew he was putting a lot of money into the car. The purchase price was $30,000, and he spent another $30,000 on the body and paint job and another $30,000 on the motor.

“There was $100,000 spent, and we were not done,” Lewis said. “It is crazy to do something like this. If I knew it was going to cost this much when I first bought the Camaro, I probably wouldn’t have done it.”

The final total when the project was completed earlier this year was $180,000. The smile on his face when he talks about his car makes it obvious he has no regrets.

Lewis enjoys talking to anyone who asks him about his 1969 Camaro.

“There are no formalities to punch through for a conversation,” he said. “People will come up and say, ‘My dad had one of these when I was in high school.’ They might walk past a $300,000 Mercedes and they run to this car to talk about it. It is crazy.”

The thing that Lewis likes most about his car is that the interior retains its original 1969 look while the body and engine are his creation.

“As you go through the process, you have many opportunities to make the car better than what it was in 1969,” Lewis said. “This is the result of that vision.”

This story was originally published November 13, 2015 at 6:07 PM with the headline "Rebuilding 1969 Chevrolet Camaro to match owner's vision took him almost four years."