Trio of 1969 Chevy Camaros Saved From Rotting in a Field
These Camaros were not found in a barn, but they're still an epic find.
We all love our barn finds, but barn found cars are the lucky ones. After all, the name implies that they are at least under some sort of cover. More tragic are the field-found cars that have been out languishing in the weather. Now, in a sunny, dry place like Arizona, that's not as bad, but other areas of the country are a lot harder on these forgotten muscle cars. This story is about three 1969 Chevy Camaros that were recently saved from a scrapyard in Lovely, Kentucky.
Hundreds of cars were slowly dissolving in this yard. Sadly, the owner had passed away, so it was left to his widow to clear it all out. Cody Belcher was looking for some projects, specifically Camaros, so he was the proverbial right guy at the right place at the right time.
As Belcher told us, "We moved 14 cars to get the convertible out and another six cars to get the other two '69s out to trucks." The place was full of cars, trucks, vans, and all sorts of stuff, much of it stacked three high.
As he continued, "The convertible and orange hardtop are both RS cars, and the blue Camaro is a base model. We plan on restoring the orange [RS] for my father as a surprise birthday gift, and we're currently undecided on the other two cars. Both Rally Sports were originally orange with white interiors. All three Camaro[s] are rough but still buildable." As a bonus, they even got some free shrubbery.
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Belcher was focused on the Camaros, but he told us there was a bunch of Mopar stuff including 'Cudas, Roadrunners, and Darts on the lot. Sadly, many looked too far gone to be saved.
If you look closely, you can see a few really cool cars in these images. There were even some super cool vans that caught our attention and a pretty uncommon AMC Eagle SX/4!
We're pretty happy that these three Camaro barn finds will be saved, and we're hopeful that other gearheads will scoop up anything else there that can be saved, too.
I was born and raised in Southern California and have always been into classic cars. My first car was a 1964.5 Mustang that I remember tossing Centerline wheels on and giving a midnight blue paint job to. It was a straight six, which most likely kept me alive. After high school I picked up a 1967 Camaro and spent all my money at Super Shops fixing it up. It rolled on 16-inch IROC wheels, which in the 1980s was pretty cutting edge. I'm old enough that Big Daddy Ed Roth pinstriped my car in his driveway. In 2004 I was hired on as Technical Editor for Popular Hot Rodding and later I did the same gig at Camaro Performers where we built a 1968 Camaro called Bad Penny (Google it). Later I was editor for Vette and Super Chevy Magazines before ending up here at HOT ROD as a Senior Tech Editor.
I've had the pleasure of building and being involved with quite a few cars from the above-mentioned Bad Penny Camaro to a 1968 Camaro called Track Rat and a 1,000 horsepower 1971 Wagon rolling on a Roadster Shop chassis. I've owned a few ZL1/1LE Camaros, a couple of Porsche GT4s and currently I'm working over a sweet 1972 LS-swapped Chevelle wagon to see if we can make this 4,000 beast handle on track. I live in SoCal with my partner April where I still spend way too much time thinking about the next big project.
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