67 Butternut Build

[sjaroslo]

I lurked on this site and Team Camaro for some time, gathering ideas and watching others' dreams be turned into reality, and I noticed a supporting vendor who was going out of his way to provide advice, counsel and expertise to help others, in addition to running a pretty cool shop and turning out some pretty decent projects for many of you here. I had a general idea of what I wanted, but had nowhere near enough knowledge to feel like I could make educated decisions about the direction of my build, and as a result, I decided to take up Frank on his offers to consult on my project and determine some products to use and a direction to take. I should also at this time give a well-deserved shout-out to a gentleman at Campbell Auto Restorations, here in my neck of the woods in Silicon Valley. I regrettably don't remember his name, but I had also heard very favorable comments on the boards regarding the quality and thoroughness of their work, and he was very kind to look over my car, give me a lengthy tour of their facility, and helped me to frame up some realistic expectations of what a quality build was going to take for my car. I must admit, as rational as I was trying to be about the work needed, I was living in a fairyland compared to what a true high-end shop was going to do to create a memorable Pro Touring machine.



This is probably a good time to digress and point out a few facts that you may have already gleaned from having read this far: I possess a reasonable mechanical ability--nothing approaching what many of you exhibit here every day with your projects and your amazing customizations, but I can bolt things together OK. In fact, that is the best summary of my talents--I can bolt things together OK. I'm not that creative, I'm not that talented, I'm not that patient. So I knew that fabrication, welding, and most definitely paint and bodywork were NOT my bailiwick, but I knew from my time in high school and my experiences with the Corvette that I definitely wanted to be involved in doing a lot of the mechanical work on the car. So, having spent time with the folks at CAR the day before, I finally screwed up the courage to give Frank, a total stranger and a busy man, a call the next day and see about picking his brain. We had a fantastic, wide-ranging conversation that actually touched on all aspects of a nice Pro Touring Camaro build, with Frank sharing his experiences of having actually worked with many of the confusing choices available to us in this fabulous day-and-age of hot rodding. He provided me high level ballpark estimates on all of the major sub-systems, and really gave me food for thought regarding the reality of what these choices would cost. I took copious notes, thanked him for the generous amount of time that he had spent with me, and went about my business, head swimming with all of this new found detail to try to comprehend and digest.

The story might have ended there, or at least stalled out, as I had a lot to think about and CAR had a lengthy waiting list, if I was going to end up going that route, when I received a fortuitous call the next day from Frank--a scheduled build project had fallen through, and even though our previous conversation hadn't really centered around Prodigy actually doing any work for me, might I be interested in considering slotting my build in to this newly available slot? I was overjoyed at the prospect of having my car become a Prodigy-built vehicle, so after a little soul searching and discussions with the wife, and review of the financial situation, the decision was made and the Butternut Build was born!

Here she is on the transporter in December of 2010, Florida-bound: