Third Gen IROC named Z[ed]

[BigTone]

They say every dark cloud has a silver lining... or in this case a faded, black, third-gen IROC Camaro lining.

Mid last year, my extended family suffered a tragedy. A guy that I knew through family connections (my wife's brother's wife's father, aka my sister-in-law's father) shockingly passed away with almost no warning. Before he passed, we had hung out several times at family gatherings and such, and we got along well. His name is (was?) Ed.

After the initial shock wore off, my brother-in-law and his wife began the process of sorting through Ed's lifetime of stuff. I knew that he had loads of tools and such so I offered to help them sort out the wheat from the chaff. They happily agreed, which should have been the first sign of the adventure I was about to embark on.

The first day we went to his house together, they opened the door to his shop and I was dumbfounded. It was STUFFED, wall to wall with tools of all kinds, and a mass of just cool stuff. It was simultaneously thrilling and terrifying. It turns out this would be just the first of many upcoming Ed contradictions.

Ed was an extremely brilliant man, with a stellar education and successful practice. But Ed was also more than what that education and career would lull you into believing. He was a sailor, a diver, a gear head, a motor biker, a tinkerer, a tool aficionado, an RC plane lover, a bit of gun enthusiast and more. Ed was really on that fine line between genius and crazy, as I was about to find out time and time again.

After spending about half a day just getting an idea of was there (compressors, small mill/lathe combo, drill press, table saw, three rolling tool chests, high performance parts, motorcycle parts, Sailboat, dingy, SCUBA gear and on) we went out to the yard. Beside the house I saw a car under a cover, coated in leaves, tree debris, dust, and whatever else collects on a car out in the weather for years. I asked what it was. My sister-in-law beamed and said:

That's the Camaro!

[BigTone]

Then I remembered that they had talked about it being there, and I sort of just dismissed it. Up until I was at his his that day, I just assumed Ed had a clapped out beater of a Camaro project car, probably missing a door, mismatched color body panels, etc. But this was different. Whatever this was LOW, wide and seemed to be miles long. I asked if I could pull up the cover and she said "Of course!"


So I pull up the cover off the driver's side front end, and all I see is the the distinctive deep headlight recess and a gold stripe. I knew INSTANTLY what it was. A third gen, mid-eighties IROC Camaro.




It was a bit rough, but it looked to be all there. I looked at the front tire, expecting it to be flat, explaining why the car was so low. Nope. So I looked closer at the front wheel.



Wait, what? Willwood brakes? Man, let's pop the hood.



What the hell? Blow through hat... crazy forward facing headers... is this thing turbo'd? I wonder what the interior is like?



air ride! That's why it is so low. What's that in the back seat?



Oh my... this is, uhm, well this is going to need some work.

But the more I looked around the car, the more I noticed. Willwood manual master cylinder. It was converted to manual rack and pinion. Spohn camber / caster kit. Spohn tubular K member.

After a closer look I realized that it wasn't turbo'd (at least right then, it may have been in the past), but it did have a set of crazy custom built 180 degree headers that brought two ports from bank 1 over to the bank 2 collector and vice versa. The I realized that it wasn't carbureted at all; it was an EFI throttle body made to look like a Holley. Then I found the Holley HP stand alone ECU.

"What the hell?" I said. "This thing is like 60% awesome, and 40% basket case..."

"That's just like my Dad!" my sister-in-law exclaimed, so proudly that it was like I just cracked the code and unlocked the secret of his life.

[Hotwire]

man, you better start typing faster!!! I'm definitely invested in the story already! Sorry for the loss of an interesting guy, keep him alive by carrying on the legacy.

*EDIT* PS, hose down the engine bay with wheel and tire cleaner, scrub whatever you can, then hose it all down. On all the dirty aluminum pieces (radiator), spray it down with Napa Aluminum Brightener, work fast, wipe down what you can, then hose it off quickly, follow up with more wheel and tire cleaner to neutralize the acid in the brightener. It'll make all the aluminum look brand new. Try not to inhale the fumes from the brightener, it'll cause you to cough for a good while. Best of luck!!

[BigTone]

man, you better start typing faster!!! I'm definitely invested in the story already! Sorry for the loss of an interesting guy, keep him alive by carrying on the legacy.

Thanks! I have some more coming. Between weeks of helping clean up his estate, and all of the time I have put into the Camaro so far, it makes me wish I knew Ed better. In many ways he reminds me of myself, and especially own father who passed a few years back.

*EDIT* PS, hose down the engine bay with wheel and tire cleaner, scrub whatever you can, then hose it all down. On all the dirty aluminum pieces (radiator), spray it down with Napa Aluminum Brightener, work fast, wipe down what you can, then hose it off quickly, follow up with more wheel and tire cleaner to neutralize the acid in the brightener. It'll make all the aluminum look brand new. Try not to inhale the fumes from the brightener, it'll cause you to cough for a good while. Best of luck!!

This is great advice, thanks. The car sat under a car cover outside for about 9 years or so. Not only that, but in an area about 5 minutes from the Pacific Ocean. So there was salty sea air a lot. The car itself is essentially rust free, except for an odd patch in the middle of the driver's door. Everywhere steel on the car is great. But under the hood, the aluminum stuff (that you noticed) looks like it's dragged up from the bottom of the ocean.

[BigTone]

I walked around the car looking over things and discovering more good parts hiding in amongst the dust and debris. Besides the fact that it was fuel injected (with a Holley HP!), had air ride and tubular suspension, Wildwood brakes and all, I started to see more thing. It had TrickFlow Specialties aluminum heads. There was an open belt drive system for the cam. Crank trigger. Holley Dual Sync distributor. Innovate stand alone wide band O2 sensor and gauge. Huge Griffin rad. Everywhere I looked I saw something else and just giggled at the absurdity of it all.

"Do you want it?" my sister-in-law asked with a huge grin on her face.

"Hell yes. How much?" flew out of me without thought.

"We have to sell it because it part of the estate, but we're thinking (essentially free) because we know you will fix it up."

Instantly I knew that this car would find a new home with me, and that my 13 year old son and I would make this a project that might turn out to be his first car. We would return it to its former glory, and with goal of having Ed's project live on to celebrate him. And the car would be known as Z[ed].

Why Z[ed]? Well, I'm Canadian, and we say Z the correct way. And, this was Ed's baby. So the car would be called Z[ed] like ex, why, zed. Z. Ed. Z[ed]. None of this zee stuff.

A few weeks later, I finally got to go pick the car up and bring it home. Ed made this job quite a bit easier because there was still a lot of his tools there. I used his compressor and backfilled the air ride tank, then lift the car. it doesn't roll all that well, and the locker in the rear end makes it miserable to push around curves. Eventually we got it up on the trailer using a come along and a bunch of elbow grease.



This pavement hasn't seen daylight since Obama was in office.



Loaded up and trucking. Getting ready to go to a new home!



Could not pass up the car wash for a quick clean up on the way home.



Welcome home, Z[ed]. Don't worry; you're in good hands.



Momma's car got kicked out on the road for now so Z[ed] could have a place to chill. Can't put it in the garage right now because that's full of Ed's tools and equipment that were being sold.

Anyways... Looks so good aired out. Also, one of these things is not like the other one. The white hybrid electric commuter vs the thirsty V8 hooligan machine.

[ryeguy2006a]

Great story, and that's a really cool car! I'd love to hear more about what you find as you dig into the project more and details about the 180* headers!

[BigTone]

Great story, and that's a really cool car! I'd love to hear more about what you find as you dig into the project more and details about the 180* headers!

Thanks! Next post will be about me digging through mystery machine to figure out what is what. The headers were WILD but just made the engine compartment an overstuffed nightmare to do anything.