Chevy RS/SS Camaros from Barn Find Hunter get restored | Barn Find Hunter - Ep. 105 - Hagerty Media

Way back when, during the first season of Barn Find Hunter—several years and more than 90 episodes ago—Tom Cotter peeked through the windows of a shuttered car dealership/repair shop in Arizona and spied a handful of classic cars that he just had to see up close. After calling the building’s leasing agent, Tom not only got to look around, he spoke over the phone with Cliff, the owner of two nearly identical big-block 1968 Chevrolet Camaros.

Shortly after that episode went live, Greg Garson, of Alberta, Canada, asked to be connected with Cliff, and the two eventually struck a deal for both Camaros. In this episode of Barn Find Hunter, recorded earlier this year via Zoom when travel was restricted due to the pandemic, Tom catches up with Greg and learns what he has done with the cars.

Tom begins by asking, since Cliff owned one of the Camaros from new, did it seem difficult for him to let them go? No, Greg says, because “he knew I was going to restore them and get them back on the road.”

One of the Camaros, now painted red, is barely recognizable from the original BFH episode, and Greg has done almost all of the restoration work himself, “other than the radiator … I don’t do that. And the machine work …I can’t do that.”

Greg describes himself as a “heavy duty mechanic, so the mechanical part is simple for me; it’s second nature. My brother was an auto-body mechanic, so he taught me how to do body work.”

Greg finished the red Camaro this summer, after he and Tom spoke. It’s his third restoration project; he also restored a 1946 GMC cabover and a 1939 pickup truck. Next in line is the blue ’68 Camaro. Greg won’t hazard a guess as to how long that one might take; he just wants to go slow and “do it right.”

Tom is just happy that he and the Barn Find Hunter crew were able to bring the cars to light so they could find a new home and get back on the road.

As Tom always says, happy hunting.

— Jeff Peek