Father & Son team checkin' in....

[Bryan O]

....and saying hello from Carlsbad, CA.

My son's name is Trevor and I am Bryan.

Trevor is 12 and we went to the Vista Rod Run this past summer. He really liked the older cars and particularly the 1st gen Camaros. It struck me then that building a car with Trevor would be a great experience for the both of us. If we did the lion's share of the work ourselves. I didn't want to simply pay somebody to build the entire car for us.

So, we bought a '67 Camaro project about a month later.

Next we had to find someone willing to take us on in some sort of an "owner participation" role. Because I knew next to nothing about cars.

Luckily we met the good folks at Best of Show Coachworks in San Marcos!! Jon, Chris, Jesus and D!ck.

So, the goal is to build, or should I say rebuild, a good classic ride for Trevor by the time he's of driving age. However, the '67 is not simply a gift. Trev knows he's gotta earn it. Stay commited to his family. Keep doing his best in school. Keep walking the straight line staying out of trouble and the car's all his when he turns 16. Of course, when it comes to actually building the car, no sittin' around cheering Dad on from the sidelines. Dad's not gonna be the only guy in the family with busted knuckles.

None of that is a problem though. Trevor is a wonderful kid. He loves his family, works very hard at school and gets good grades. He runs with a good group of close friends and stays out of trouble.

AND he has become obsessed with his Camaro. He busted his knuckles alright and had the teardown phase of his car pretty much complete in about a month. Here's a picture of his ride when we got it home to our garage:



Now here's the thing. Trevor immediately got a good case of OCD (obsessive Camaro disorder) upon seeing those Camaros at the Rod Run. And it didn't take me long to get striken as well. I quickly realized the keys would weigh a hundred pounds as I handed them over to Trev on his 16th BDay. So, you guessed it. I found myself a '69 Camaro.

Here she is fresh out of the Mohave desert:



And here she is at BOS just before being sent out for media blasting:



We'd like to say hello again to the Lateral-g gang. Thanks for putting together such an incredible website. Priceless!

The '69 comes back from media blasting tomorrow. Trevor and I are going to BOS and begin doing some work on our cars there tomorrow. I'll be posting a "project update" thread soon and I'm going to prod Trev to create one of his own. He's kinda shy but I'm thinking he'll get over that shortly. He was full of questions for the BOS guys today. Finally came out of his shell.

Thanks again Lateral-g!

[awr68]

Welcome to the site! That's a great story! I spent a lot of time in the garage with my Dad working on cars...good times!

The guys at BOS are great people! You are in good hands with them!

[ProTouring442]

Bravo! My first car was a '66 Chevelle convertible that my father and I built. It was a fast car too, but I think the experience of putting my own labor into it caused be to have much more respect for the power and thus I never wrecked it, nor got a ticket in it.

To help with that urge for speed however, my father also made a deal with me. I could take it to the track whenever I wanted, and if I blew it up or wrecked it at the track, he would pay for all repairs, all I had to do was help in their completion. On the other hand, if I blew it up or wrecked it racing on the street, I had to pay to fix it, I had to do the work, and when I was done, he would keep the car. Needless to say, there was no street racing!

Merry Christmas!
Bill

[Bryan O]

Thanks for the welcome. Me 'n Trev will get the build threads going. We've got a lot of parts that have arrived at BOS. They're going to need a much bigger tree to fit our toys under.

[Mean 69]

Bryan, it was nice to meet you and your son yesterday at BOS (my wife and I met you right as you right as you were cleaning up to head out). You picked a great shop not only to help with the work, but to become friends with. The guys there are really great people and aren't going to steer you in a direction that you don't want to go, as is so often the case in this business.

Welcome, and cheers to yourself and Trevor!

Mark

[68MaroSam]

Welcome to the site. That looks like a great bonding project for you and your son. Enjoy the times, they grow up fast.

[GregWeld]

I like your thinking!


I always told my kids ---- "No B's.... no Keys"


So they had to get B's or better to continue to drive.

[bigtyme1]

I can't wait until my son is old enough to really get interested. I've had him welding a little and sanding so far. He's only seven so I got to keep safety in mind.Spider man tends to get in the way a little.