First published in the November 2004 issue of Street Machine

This Camaro is so sweet it makes men drool. It doesn’t have 1000hp, nor does it have myriad complex body mods. It doesn’t need to. The combination of details is damn near perfect. Sweet blue pearl paint looks stock but jumps out at you like no factory paint did in 1968. Its 15-inch rims have 60-series rubber that might not be trendy (particularly with raised white lettering on the sidewalls) but it suits the Camaro perfectly. Throw in a tough stance and immaculate brightwork, and you have found Dean Prodger’s 60s muscle-car Nirvana.

Life is magic for the 31-year-old. Dean loves this style of car and still owns the HK GTS Monaro he’s had since he was 14. He finished the Camaro almost two years ago. Since then his business, Dean’s Auto Restorations, has shaken the shackles of dictatorial insurance companies and their mundane repair jobs to focus purely on high-end custom and restoration work.

“I ended up spending 10 grand every 12 months for five and a half years!”

“There’s almost nothing on this car that hasn’t been done in my workshop,” he says without a hint of superiority. I suppose that’s how things are when your old man is a fitter and machiner who taught you all your early lessons in car craft, and then you jumped straight into an apprenticeship the moment you were able.

Being a paint and panel man, Dean concentrated on building the most beautiful Camaro he could. He began with a stuffed ’68 model in left-hand drive and finished up with a Top 60 Elite winner at Summernats 17 that has been a magnet for trophies — in just five shows it won 16 awards. And the prizes range from Top Street Machine through Best Engine Bay to Best Undercarriage. Plus, of course, Best Paint.

“My wife says it got out of control when I bought a new bonnet from the States,” laughs Dean. “After that, everything had to be new. Originally I aimed at spending 10 grand and having it finished in 12 months. I ended up spending 10 grand every 12 months for five and a half years!”

Dean dismisses the bodywork as being just what he does. Sure, it took up more time than anything else but it wasn’t hard by his standards. He added pearl to the paint to give it more grunt than the standard colour it was matched to. He loves stripes and they’re so much a part of 60s muscle cars it was a foregone conclusion he’d add the factory-option graphics. And he spent a long time getting that menacing stance spot-on.

His toughest task was the steering conversion, which is arguably his best achievement with the Camaro. He used a VL Commodore power steering rack and pump, plus HK Holden steering column that looks very similar to the Camaro original but helps get all the controls over to the Aussie side.

“Getting all the geometry and steering right — the overall combined job with the dash — was the hardest part of the build,” says Dean, “but well worth it for the way it drives now, much better than a stocky.”

Maintaining a pretty standard interior threw up other challenges. For example, upgrading safety with retractable seatbelts is a good thing but they tend to stand out as modern additions. Dean made them subtle by hiding the reels in a specially made pocket under the rear seats.

Some interior parts took years to find, particularly the shifter, but it seems the repro market for Camaro bits has improved in recent years. Dean hid a VK air conditioner under the dash but it was a bugger of a job and now he reckons he’d buy one of the little units that have since come on the market for hot rods. Jason Goulding from Carsound installed the all-Alpine sound system that’s crucial for cruising.

The highly detailed engine bay keeps its fairly original layout with the help of late-model exhaust manifolds rather than untidy extractors. The added performance of extractors wasn’t his prime concern.

“If you’re going for big power, appearance is probably secondary to how fast it goes but I’m the opposite,” he says. “The engine’s basically standard with a bit of compression, some half-decent heads and a few kind things you can do to an engine to get a bit of performance without spending a fortune on it. Performance wasn’t the big issue.”

Dean’s father shortened a VN Commodore diff to fit the rear while Dean added brackets to suit and turned the VN panhard system into an adjustable one for the Camaro. He had a custom tailshaft made up, too.

When the Camaro came together, it stopped people in their tracks. Dean’s had generous offers for it but reckons it’s not going anywhere. Meanwhile, he’s turning his thoughts to building something more outrageous and ambitious — a truly wild, show-going street machine.

“It’ll be pretty out-of-the-ordinary, put it that way,” he laughs. “I think I’ve got a pretty good imagination.”

If he’s got the concepts to wow the crowds, we could be in for a real treat because the Camaro proves he’s got a handle on quality work.

Dean Prodger
1968 Chev SS RS Camaro

THANKS
Everyone who supported me while I was building the car, especially my wife, Susan.