1969 Chevrolet Camaro

Paying Tribute

Dave Pawley 1969 396 SS Camaro

Story and photos by Cam Hutchins

When Dave Pawley of Rayleigh B.C. was 10 years old, his brother Steve’s 1969 Camaro SS 396 4-speed left an indelible impression on him. Riding around with his brother back in Ontario where he grew up, Dave always wanted to buy the car when he got old enough. That was not to be, as the car was destroyed a few years later. Pawley’s brother bought the car off a friend who at the advice of the police had given driving a break for a while. When he got his licence back he wanted to buy the car back from Steve. But he wrecked the car a short while later and sold some parts off the car and an auto wrecker hauled the carcass away.

Years later, after Pawley had decided he would build a clone of his brothers car, he want back home and rattled the first and last owner’s brain about the car, and found out yes, it had really been destroyed and no chance it existed. It was a real 375-horse 396 4-speed Camaro SS. It had an M22 Muncie 4speed manual transmission and 3:73 rear end gears. It was the deluxe with console and full gauges. This car also has the factory dash mounted clock and tachometer which came with Camaros that had the console gauges.

One special option on this car that deviates from his brother’s car was the rear disc brakes. For 1969 the “JL8 fourwheel-disc brake option” included the big 11.75 inch Corvette rear discs to the Camaro for over $500, more than ten percent of the Camaro’s price. Pretty good markup on parts they already have on hand, but records showed they sold only about 206 of the rear disc packages out of well over 200,000 Camaros made. But it was enough to meet the Sports Car Club of America homologation requirements for the Trans-Am series, allowing the racing Z/28s to have four-wheel disc brakes. For the 1969 production run, the disc brakes for the Camaro were single pistons

as opposed to the four-piston calipers of the 1968 model. Front disc power brakes, RPO J52 were standard equipment on the SS package and a mandatory option for Z28 packages.

Pawley added the rear Corvette discs because of the added stopping power but also the cost of the discs was less than getting all new drum brakes for the Camaro’s rear. This car, like his brother’s original car, was equipped with the Z27 Camaro Super Sport (SS) package and that included many performance items. Starting with at least the 300-hp Turbo Fire 350cid engine with bright accents, special hood, sport suspension, special striping, black body sill, rear fender chrome details, SS badging. The SS package sold well with 34,932 cars equipped. The SS package started out at $295.95 but increased twice during 1969 production, $311.75 and then $327.55. The Z28 package sold 20,302 units at an extra price of $458.15. Both the SS and Z28 were available with the RS package. There were two original dual exhaust systems available in 1969, including chambered exhaust, but this car and Pawley’s brother’s car did not have the chambered exhaust, but the dual exhaust that came with the SS package. This car now has an extremely good reproduction of the stock dual exhaust from Gardner Exhaust. The Concours kit includes all the hangers and clips and have the back 8 inches chromed just like the factory exhaust. The replacement system cost is about half of what the Camaro cost new.

The plan to build a tribute car was a long time in the making and Pawley spent a long time looking for the right donor car. He told all his friends what he was looking for and finally in 2006 a friend, Larry Bosa, called, saying he had found this car in a field. He was working on the highway in Lac La Hache and found it.

He asked a bunch of questions to find out who owned it. When Larry asked if he would sell it, the owner begrudgingly agreed to sell it. Pawley got the call from Larry that he had found his car and it was a steal for $1,000....but it needed everything.

Luckily Pawley is a body man as this car needed some love, and lots of replacement steel, which if he did not fabricate it, he bought from AMD, Auto Metal Direct. But it was a Big Block

4-speed car that was the correct Rallye Green. It was sold new in the U.S., so you cannot get the build info from GM like you can for Canadian cars. From the trim tag it is a X22, which means it is an SS 396 with Style trim. It does not tell you it is the 375-horse 396, but that it has the wheel well mouldings, drip rail mouldings and all the accent chrome. It also has the same black deluxe interior.

lifter 375 horse L78 or aluminum head L89. The engine and tranny were gone and interestingly, the SS package came with a special 3-speed manual as the base. Not sure who would go to the trouble of ordering a Camaro with the SS package and just a three speed manual. But there were also three 4-speeds, an M-20, M-21 and the very desirable “Rock Crusher” M-22 close ratio.

Many online sources do not mention the M-22 on the 69 Camaro and that may be because only 2,117 M-22 transmissions were ordered. The M-22 came into his shop powering a car which the owner wanted to be restored back to stock. So everything matches the VIN of his brother’s car.

It took a bit of time, but Pawley eventually found a period correct 396cid engine in Arizona and had it built at an engine shop in Kamloops. His friend Bob Wills had a place in Yuma and runs sprint cars. Sitting on an engine stand was a 396 and Pawley asked if it was for sale and it was, and luckily it was for a 1969. So the deal was when Bob comes home with his sprint car he would bring the mill home with him. But Covid hit and the engine got stuck at Bob’s shop in Washington. Pawley continued working on the car and then this February he really needed the engine to finish the car. So he contacted Richard at the Old Car Centre in Langley and he brought it across for Pawley.

It has an AM radio with the one speaker in the dash. The car has the correct Rallye wheels, 14x7 with centre caps and beauty rings, but while Pawley thought briefly of putting on bias ply tires, he decided he wanted to drive the car, so went with radials. The car was finished in June of 2021 and because of Covid only went to a few car shows. Sadly his brother passed away before ever getting to see the finished car, but one likes to think he is smiling somewhere!