Old Cars Reader Wheels: 1968 Chevrolet Camaro

"About two decades ago, my husband and I decided to buy another classic Camaro after having sold our '67 a few years prior to help give us a better down payment on a farm we bought. We finally found a nice '68 for a great price. The interior was still original, except for an added stereo, and in very nice shape. The exterior, although very nice, too, didn't have a whole lot of "wow factor" with it being teal with black stripes. The engine was your typical 350 in typical used condition, but it ran well.

5 years or so after getting the Camaro, we felt it was time to give it a new look. My husband, who is color blind, was set on blue, especially Cobalt Blue. I told him there are lots of blue Camaros out there, and we had a friend who already had a Cobalt Blue '68 Camaro and that we needed to do something different. Since I was a teenager, Kandy Brandy Wine was always one of my favorite car colors, but my husband said there are too many red cars out there. I tried to explain to him that Brandy Wine isn't really a red and showed him many online photos of cars painted in Kandy Brandy Wine, but his color blind eyes really couldn't see the significance of the color and continued to hold strong to wanting blue.

A few days of head-butting over color, we decided to go to car shows and hope to see a car in Kandy Brandy Wine. Luck was on my side at the first show we went to when we saw a '67 Impala painted in my favorite color, although not quite as deep as I would've wanted it, it still showed off depth and, if anything, my husband was beyond impressed and told me to take a hundred photos of that car so he could drool over them when he got home.

While waiting to get the Camaro in for its paint job, we replaced the stock hood with a 2" cowl, added new wheels and tires, replaced a couple chrome pieces and a couple of trim pieces.

The new color added the 'wow factor' that I was looking for and it really proved itself at just about every car show, winning trophy after trophy, but now the engine is even more of an eye sore, which just went along with the fact that it was starting to feel its age, anyway.

One too many repairs to the old 350 told me it was time to look into a new engine for the Camaro. I spent a ton of time researching my options and finally settled on getting one custom made and found an awesome, family-owned company in New Jersey that went above and beyond to build me the engine of my dreams. I didn't want a "go" car (don't want to risk damaging the Kandy Brandy Wine paint job), rather a "show" car, so, to me, the engine was to be more about looks and sound than horse power, but the 350 the Engine Factory built for me offered plenty of "go" while still looking and sounding fantastic.

One of the first shows we went to with the new engine was one where Ryan Evans, from Counting Cars, was the paint judge. Ryan gave the Camaro First Place, which included $500. As with that show, all other car shows the Camaro was entered in, it came home with First Place, so much so that now when I go to a car show, I most often just put "Display Only" in the windshield.

The Camaro has been a lot of fun over the years. Not only at car shows, but also just cruising around, reminiscing of days gone by, back when these old cars used to be our daily drivers. The Camaro was a stepping stone to many new things in my life, such as being president of a car club, getting involved with a lot more car-related activities, meeting many wonderful people, learning new things and buying more classic cars. When people ask if the Camaro would ever go up for sale, I jokingly tell them that I can't sell my heart, I'd die."