Project American Heroes Two 1969 Chevy Camaro Build - The 118-Day Warrior

The last week of the build is always the hardest

By Arvid Svendsen

Photography by Arvid Svendsen

CLICK ON THE LINKS BELOW TO SEE ALL OF THE STORIES IN THE PROJECT AMERICAN HEROES II BUILD ON THE WEB

Project American Heroes II Unveiling at the Joliet Super Chevy Show

PART I

PART II

PART III

PART IV

PART V

PART VI

PART VII

PART VIII

PART IX

The starting point of Project American Heroes 2 consisted of a solid '69 Camaro SS roller shell from the left coast with a clear title, and not much else. Bill Jelinek and his team at Route 66 Motorsports in New Lenox, Illinois, had been assigned the task of building the car. To put it mildly, they came through in a big way. All the bigshots had agreed with Jelinek to unveil the Project American Heroes 2 Camaro at the O'Reilly Auto Parts Super Chevy Show at Route 66 Raceway in Joliet on August 8. With less than a week before the Joliet debut, the Camaro was nearly completed. However, there was still work to be done. The work described on the pages before you took place the last week of the build.

A quick refresher list of...

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Maybe it had to do with this car being the second Project American Heroes vehicle built, but there is no getting around how quickly this car came together. At the Joliet Super Chevy debut, renowned Source Interlink Media publisher Ed Zinke announced to all those gathered that the car had come together in 118 days. Considering the fact that those 118 days included not only the construction of the car but also the majority of the hunting down and coordination of donated parts from the aftermarket suppliers, it is truly a remarkable accomplishment.

My occasional flare-up of cynicism led me to expect basic mediocre parts from companies that desired to attach their name to the Project American Heroes Camaro without having to dig too deep into the marketing funds. Said flare-up should have been extinguished immediately. As the parts arrived at Route 66 Motorsports, it became evident that manufacturers were not sending leftovers from two years ago that never sold, and they were not sending us their economy line. Rather, every participating supplier sent us its best stuff. It's as if the vendors were saying, "We're sending nothing but the very best for our military men and women."

The PAH2 Camaro turned out to be the recipient of some of the most advanced aftermarket products available. The car is nothing short of an upper echelon, high-performance street machine that does everything very well. It all came together in 118 days...in less than 118 days from now, if you are the winning bidder at Barrett-Jackson, it can come home with you to stay.