Back in the '70's, almost no one upgraded new Camaros!

[77rs]

We were lucky enough to have enough to pay the car insurance! I don't remember anyone adding to their new Camaros. My insurance in the '70's was over $1000. per year- 1/5th the price of a new Camaro with a few options! Biggest things were speakers, floormats, rear window louvers and mudguards- no-one could put chrome Cragar SS'S on a new car! $45.00 each! ouch.

[jkemp16]

Well I think the reason for the modding being done nowadays is the MASS production of most cars. So to stand out from the crowd you have to make modifications to make it look/sound/feel different from every other Camaro...

[shrinkdoc]

Originally Posted by 77rs

We were lucky enough to have enough to pay the car insurance! I don't remember anyone adding to their new Camaros. My insurance in the '70's was over $1000. per year- 1/5th the price of a new Camaro with a few options! Biggest things were speakers, floormats, rear window louvers and mudguards- no-one could put chrome Cragar SS'S on a new car! $45.00 each! ouch.

Maybe not in your town. In my area in the lates 60s to around 1980 everyone was modding with wheels, headers, bigger carbs, cams dual point distributers etc. some did minor mods, some went all out.

[77rs]

The guys with the '67 chevelles, '55-'57 chevs and early camaros were the ones that were really set up around here.

[oldfriend]

Originally Posted by 77rs

We were lucky enough to have enough to pay the car insurance! I don't remember anyone adding to their new Camaros. My insurance in the '70's was over $1000. per year- 1/5th the price of a new Camaro with a few options! Biggest things were speakers, floormats, rear window louvers and mudguards- no-one could put chrome Cragar SS'S on a new car! $45.00 each! ouch.

Then , when did all changed ?

[90503]

Easiest mod was to just take off the hub-caps!...lol...and add an STP decal, of course....lol

[MikeSVX]

Originally Posted by 77rs

We were lucky enough to have enough to pay the car insurance! I don't remember anyone adding to their new Camaros. My insurance in the '70's was over $1000. per year- 1/5th the price of a new Camaro with a few options! Biggest things were speakers, floormats, rear window louvers and mudguards- no-one could put chrome Cragar SS'S on a new car! $45.00 each! ouch.

Your kidding me right? Maybe not cosmetic modds, but definitely performance. My father had a '67 Camaro SS/RS convertible with a 350ci and auto tranny. He had the engine pushing over 450hp. The thing had so much power, it he jumped on the gas even once, it would nuke the tranny. He had the engine build like that, because on Friday, him and my grandparents would pull the engine to drop it into a stock car. He race dirt ovals. Sunday they would rebuild it, if they happened to mess it up and drop it back into the Camaro to goto work. They eventually ended up cracking the block and he sold the shell to my uncle who has now restored it.

My aunt paid her food and rent street racing a modified Impala, while she was going through nursing school. And another friend of the family use to beat on both mustangs and Camaros with a 64 big block Pontiac Bonneville that he tweaked.


What year did insurance become required?

[camarozzzz]

Cosmetic mods IMO only started picking up in the 80s.

[rberns]

Originally Posted by 77rs

We were lucky enough to have enough to pay the car insurance! I don't remember anyone adding to their new Camaros. My insurance in the '70's was over $1000. per year- 1/5th the price of a new Camaro with a few options! Biggest things were speakers, floormats, rear window louvers and mudguards- no-one could put chrome Cragar SS'S on a new car! $45.00 each! ouch.

Trying to figure out if you are complaining. Don't worry about what everyone else does to their cars.

[clg_98ta]

Originally Posted by 77rs

We were lucky enough to have enough to pay the car insurance! I don't remember anyone adding to their new Camaros. My insurance in the '70's was over $1000. per year- 1/5th the price of a new Camaro with a few options! Biggest things were speakers, floormats, rear window louvers and mudguards- no-one could put chrome Cragar SS'S on a new car! $45.00 each! ouch.

You were getting reamed on insurance... mine was closer to $250/yr.

[dianeokie]

Everyone was modding their cars from what I remember. Wheels. Stereos, exterior stripes. Etc

[bluebox]

By the time I was able to afford any car (~'80-'81), new Camaro performance stunk and gas was still "expensive". Since no-one wanted the gas guzzling first-gens then (imagine that), I got a cheap 327 and "modded" the hell out of it, but modding back then meant putting factory-look items on it, i.e. chin spoiler, rally nose stripe (painted, of course), etc.

Frankly, folks today are doing some neat things to their cars, way beyond what most of us could afford "back in the day". (Seriously don't feel old enough to say that phrase!)

[sprtplt]

I was buying new Camaros in the 70's, insurance was more like $250 a year. My new '78 was $6200.

And we were modding like crazy, first things to go was always the smog pump and piping.
Then new intakes and carbs, followed by exhaust. Then wheels and tires.

[rhunley14]

The reason that you thought people weren't modding is because there wasn't the net to get on brag about what someone had done. Just like people always talking about the didn't hear about certain illness. It was there just not access to information like today..