Who Makes a Non Z28 Hood for a 1981 Camaro?

[impcon]

My son has a 1980 Camaro Berlinetta that is his pride and joy that I really want to duplicate in 1/25 scale for him for Christmas this year. He actually has almost a dozen 1978-81 Camaros ( parts cars included ) - mostly Z28s that include an '81 Z28 convertible project - but his Berlinetta is his favorite as it was his first driveable Camaro. It's a REALLY good, dry, solid and totally rust free car that came out of Nevada to Washington State where we found it in 2004 while on a road trip. He was barely 14 at the time and he bought and paid for the car with his own money and I want to build a Berlinetta for him.

Here's a picture of the Berlinetta as we found it behind an old closed down gas station - it was slated to become a circle track race car had he not spotted it hidden away as we were driving through Soap Lake, WA.

AT 13, he had developed a thing for these cars and at 14, he bought his first one out of a wrecking yard in Tonasket, WA. It was a yellow factory 4 speed, air conditioned rust free car that was sitting at the crush pile and stuffed full of scrap metal and junk. The car was missing it's hood, engine and transmission and the back window was smashed out of it but it was very well optioned out ( power windows and door locks, tilt steering, air conditioning ) and otherwise nearly complete so needless to say, $100.00 changed hands that day and we went back with the trailer the next day to empty the poor car of it's load of junk and bring it home. What we found under all the junk was a amazing - a complete, dirty but very decent interior right down to the dash cluster with the factory tach and guage package. As we were coming home withthe car, we stopped for gas and a tow truck pulled in beside us. The driver askled where we had gotten the car and we told him it had come from Steven's Auto Wrecking ( now closed forever by the EPA goon squad ) and he laughed and informed us that he had hauled that car into that yard a number of years previously. Evidently, it had been abandoned in an orchard and the property owner had it picked up and hauled away as scrap. The tow truck operator said that it was already missing it's engine and four speed when he had picked it up. Obviously, the car had sat basically untouched in that yard for a few years.

Here's Matthew showing his Berlinetta at the 2005 Penticton Beach Cruise at age 15. The car is pictured here pretty much as he bought it aside from some mechanical work ( new brakes all around, new lower ball joints and some minor tinkering )and a good cleaning. It still wears it's original white paint today and it has what appears to be a factory red pin stripe option and today, it sits on period correct Z288 factory wheels which really suit the car even though it isn't a Z28. He is presently rebuilding a 350 for it as the old 283 that is presently in it ( not the original engine of course, but a tough little thing that has with stood four summers at the hands of a teenager who has been far less easy on it than I would have liked to have seen ) and he hopes to have the car repainted and restriped and detailed for next summer.

Here's a photo of the convertible that he bought a couple of years ago - This is at the local car wash the day after we haulked the car home from Vancouver. It was covered with black goo and slime from sitting outside in the wet but it cleaned up well. I have pictures of it sitting where it was when we first saw it but I don't know if anyone wants to see them as I have sort of gotten off topic here.

It is a real Z28 convertible ( not a home done hack job ) that we found through a friend of mine who is into cars and who knew that Matt loves Camaros. It had been hit on the driver's front corner and needed a new subframe but the firewall back body was unhurt in the accident and not tweaked at all. Matt bought the car from another young fellow in Vancouver, B.C. for $550.00 without the engine ( not the originall engine so it isn't a big deal ) and missing some interior pieces. We've had the car on the hoist in my shop and aside from a wee bit of rust on one of the smaller floor braces, the car is virtually rust free and solid! GM never made a Camaro convertible back then - this was made under license by GM in California where the car originated from. Matt had another badly rotted '81 Z28 that he had bought for $100.00 as a parts car about a year before getting the convertible and it was to become the donor car for the front fenders and complete subrame. That subframe has been cleaned, rebuilt and painted and it is hanging in my shop on an engine crane awaiting instalation under the convertible. Matthew spent a few hours on the front fenders from the parts car and they are now in epoxy primer, also awaiting instalation. He still needed a correct hood and a guy who was delivering a tractor to me just happened to have an '81 Z28 hood and a bunch of parts that he wanted to give away to a good home so Matthew got as good of a deal as anyone could ever hope to have - the parts were free - just pick them up! In that batch of stuff was a really nice Z28 hood, the front plastic nose with the correct grille and grille emblem and a bunch of other bits and pieces. The neat thing was the hood having the correct electric scoop that was apparently a thing unique to just one or two years and the plastic nose was almost perfect!.

He has since bought another '81 Z28 from the same guy who he got the Z28 that gave up it's fenders and subframe and it has the original aluminum Z28 8wheels on it as well as an original, rebuildable period correct small block in it with ALL of the brackets and smog junk still intact! Matthew plans to keep the convertible dead stock and so of course, the date correct engine is a good score as is the smog junk which is pretty difficult to find today as most of that stuff was removed and tossed years ago.

The convertible had been repainted not long before the accident but it was originally white with the blue Z28 graphics - the young fellow that Matt bought it from gave him a folder with appraisals ( one before and one after the accident ) and photos of the car before the repaint as well as after the repaint. It sure is a [pretty car with those blue graphics that match the blue interior. Near as we can determine, there was only a handful of these cars built in 1981 and once done, the car will be a worthwhile project if ever there was one. He does still need a couple of interior pieces that are unique to a convertible and those may be hard to find.

He also has a trio of '80/'81 Camaros that were used in the second last episode of the television series Stargate Atlantis. Two are drivers while the third is the car that gets shot up at the end of the episode..

He bought the Camaros from the film production company when they were filming parts of that episode here in our area. That alone is a story by itself and he has photos of himself with Joe Flannigan ( the lead actor in the series ) standing by one of the Camaros. Here's a link to a video showing two of the cars as they were filmed..

Sorry for getting off track here.. just thought that someone may appreciate the pics.. and I DO need a stock plain Camaro hood and any guidance on converting a Z28 to a Berlinetta. Thanks..

[mikemodeler]

Gary,

Nice stories and sounds like your son is a lucky man for finding some unique vehicles.

I am not sure but I thought that Reliable Resin had casted a stock hood for the 70-81 Camaro. Check with them, if not, how hard would it be to create one from one of the kits? Maybe a little cutting and splicing of sheet styrene?

Thanks for the pix and stories, hope you find the stock hood!

[ChrisPflug]

The resin hood mentioned is a copy of the flat hood from the original MPC annual

The hood you're looking for can be found in any of the earlier 70s MPC kits and be a direct fit for an MPC 79-81 Z28 annual- which is probably the easiest kit to start with for a Berlinetta

[george 53]

Try Matt, over at Dencon Resin he has ALOT of nice stuff for camaro's he MIGHT even have your hood.

[Reliable Resin]

We offer a Flat Stock hood & many of the misc. hoods to fit the 1/25 MPC & even offer the 78/79 Camaro w/ the 80 > 81 conversion to make the 78/79 to a 80/81

Flip me an email > ReliableResin@aol.com

Build ON !

Don