Gara’s uncle called him in September of 2017 informing Gara that he had sold his house, was moving, and couldn’t take his beloved 1973 Camaro with him.
His uncle knew that Gara had a 1974 Camaro when he was in college and a 69 Z/28 after he graduated. Gara’s uncle wanted his baby to go to a good home and to someone that would take the time to restore it.
Gara didn’t hesitate and jumped at the opportunity to own a 1973 Camaro. Before long it was loaded onto a flatbed in-route to his house and finally laid eyes on the ’73 in late October. Unfortunately, due to a busy work/life schedule, the car sat for 3 months until he could get started on it.
Once ready Gara had to decide what he wanted to do and make the hard decision between doing a resto-mod versus a classic restoration. After much deliberation, Gara decided to go for a resto-mod mainly because he didn’t want to deal with rebuilding the tired old 350 ci powerplant with a carburetor.
Ultimately, Gara went to an LS which had unlimited possibilities and fuel injection. Gara’s 1973 Camaro underwent a complete restoration from the Ground Up, down to bare metal and frame.
With the car being from New Jersey it had seen some brutal winters and needed a lot of work and even some TLC to get this project going in the right direction. Gara inevitably replaced the 10 bolt rear end with a much stronger 12 bolt positraction narrowed rear-end to hold up to the power of the new LS powerplant.
Gara mini tubbed the rear-end to allow for the fitment of some additional rubber with 11 1/2″ tires on the rear and changed the leaf spring suspension to a 4 link coil-over from Ride Tech. He’s almost done with the project and only has the interior and some minor elements to finish. Gara says;
“I’ll be searching page to page in the Ground Up Parts Catalog to get all the interior goodies I need to wrap this project up!”
Here are some more changes Gara has made to this from the Ground Up restoration.
- A Dakota Digital Dash
- Vintage Air System
- Ride Tech 4 Link Coilover Suspension
- Viking Coilover Shocks All-Around
- 12 bolt Chevy Rear End With 3.73 Yukon Gears & Axles
- Wilwood Master Cylinder
- Wilwood Calipers Front & Back
- Retrosound Radio With Alpine KTP445U Amplifier & USB Port
- Alpine SPS Speakers Front & Back
- New Braided Brake Lines
- Circle D Torque Converter
- New Weatherstrips
- New Tail Light, Front Turn Signal & Side Marker Lenses
- LED Snake Headlights
- LED Taillights & Front Turn Signals
- New Headliner
- New Seat Foam & Seat Covers
- Soundproofed With Noico 80 Mil Sound-deadening Butyl
- New Carpeting
- Borla Crate Mufflers
- Tinted Windows All-Around
