Spending your formative younger years around performance cars can leave a pretty big mark on an individual, and cause that person to crave the car life. Terry Ruble from Greensburg, Indiana, did just that, and those weekend nights spent around the classic muscle cars left him with the desire to always have a bad ass car.
His current 1969 Camaro SS creation is the culmination of years of hot rodding, automotive love, and he did just about everything on this car himself without caring about what anybody else thought.
Growing up in the muscle car era as a kid, Ruble got to see some of the most iconic performance cars to roll out of Detroit cruise around and do battle on the street. Ruble reminisces about his high octane upbringing, “I grew up street racing as a kid, kind of living American Graffiti, and a lot like Street Outlaws. We did what we could to get our cars as fast as possible, got together on weekend and raced.“
“I’ve always been into cars my whole life. When I was a kid we went to the track and watched a lot, funny cars, top fuel and everything else at Indy,” Ruble said. Getting married in his early 20’s, he started a family, got divorced, and then got back into cars. The list of cars Ruble has owned is almost as impressive as his current monster; they include a 1969 SS 396 4-speed Camaro, a 1970 ‘Cuda, and a 1965 Chevelle just to name a few.
The journey began with a “for sale” ad in a local paper, and grew from there. Ruble says, “I purchased the car out of Indy, it was listed in the paper. All the parts were there but boy was it rough around the edges being covered in primer and all. It needed a lot of attention, rust here and there, but there was potential. Thought it was pretty expensive at $3,000 back in 1997 for all the work it needed.”
Ruble spent the next few years tearing the classic Camaro apart and making it exactly what he wanted. The final product was a killer street cruiser that was pretty close to stock with a nasty mean streak, but then the speed obsession from Ruble’s past came calling in a big way.
“About two years ago I got tired of what it was, especially after I started to watch more drag racing, and thought I can build something pretty nice. I really got into wanting more power for the car and after doing research I decided I wanted a bunch. Back in my day it was unheard to make 600 horsepower on the street, now a days you can, so I figured out how do it,” says Ruble about his dreams for the car.
With a vision in mind Ruble was ready to get to work, but he is not the kind of guy who just cuts checks for someone else to do his car work. This car was designed, engineered, and pretty much built in his own garage.
“I did pretty much all the work myself, outside of the transmission and some of the motor where the machine shop put the bottom end together and flowed the heads. If I did not know, I asked questions to figure it out and get what I needed,” he said about the process of the build.
One of the first things that was spec’d out on the build by Ruble is the nasty, naturally aspirated bow tie power under the hood. Starting with the standard 350 ci small-block Chevy, Ruble had Zimmerman Brothers Motorsports punch it out .060 over to up the cubic inches to a healthy 388. Resting inside the rowdy small block is an Eagle crank, rods, and pistons that helps drive up the compression to a stout 13:1.
To help this bad motor breathe, Ruble outfitted it with a set of Edelbrock Victor Junior heads that he ported himself and matched them to an Edelbrock intake. A massive Holley 950 carburetor rests on top of the intake to help feed the engine air, and it is fed fuel from an Aeromotive fuel system. Ruble added a colossal Comp Cams hydraulic roller camshaft to the engine and paired it with a top shelf Comp Cams valve train to help the mighty mill make power.
A Melling oil pump and deep Moroso oil pan help keep everything lubricated under the hood. Ruble decided on Hooker 1-5/8 headers that flow into his own three-inch exhaust and Dynomax race mufflers to dump all the exhaust out of the engine while making some sweet noise.
To keep fire in the pipes Ruble relies on MSD ignition parts and a Powermaster chrome alternator to keep the Optima red top battery charged. Billet Specialties pulleys, valve covers, and an air cleaner help to add some nice billet flair under the hood.
Behind the built mill is a race prepped TH350 transmission from Zimmerman that is filled with all the best goodies and a CSR transmission shield. Ruble added a Coan Racing 4500 stall torque converter that helps send power to the chrome plated stock 1969 drive shaft and a 9-inch filled with all the Moser Engineering goodies and 4.56 gears.
Not wanting to leave anything stock Ruble went with full chrome plating on all of the aftermarket suspension parts. To help the Camaro ride extra smooth, QA1 coil over shocks are implemented upfront. In the rear, Ruble used a Competition Engineering 4-link ladder bar suspension and used QA1 shocks to help keep the power planted.
If all that detail and effort was not enough Ruble really put some work into the bodywork and chassis of the Camaro. “The car was on jack stands in my garage, I cut the floor out to put more frame in for the 4-link, then put it on the rotisserie to finish. I made templates out of cardboard before I did the floors and welded them in along with the rest of the back-half work,” explains Ruble.
When it comes to the body modifications Ruble did away with the vents in cowl, deleted the wipers, smoothed the firewall, removed the astro vent in the door area, filled in the dash where hvac was, and cut and stretched the rear quarter four inches.
When all the metal work and block work was complete, Ruble went to town getting the painting done. A nice and healthy three coats of silver base, five coats of Cobalt Blue Kandy color, and eight total coats of clear were laid down on the body to give it the stunning finish Ruble was looking for.
For the interior, Ruble had Dennis Auto lay down vinyl to look period correct, but just a little more modern. For seats Procar Evolution were bolted up with carbon fiber inlays with RJS cam lock five-point harnesses to hold Ruble in place. The dash cluster and close out panel are from Detroit Speed but was modified by Ruble to fit as he wanted.
The Competition Engineering ten point roll cage was chosen to be used inside the cabin, but it was not that easy. “I had to modify roll cage to fit how I wanted, out of the way and clean. I borrowed a pipe bender and hid the down tubes better so they would clear,” says Ruble.
With all of that show, don’t forget, this car was meant to go making over 600 hp and 600 lb-ft of torque on all motor. Ruble plans on taking the car to the track and getting some testing in to see just how quick the Camaro is. “It drives and handles really well, is very responsive, rides nice for all the modification, and the car is very streetable,” he said.
When you look at the Camaro that Ruble has built, it really is easy to see why it gets so much attention at each show it goes to. By putting his years of hot rodding experience to work Ruble designed and built his dream car in a way only he could. Ruble’s Pro Street pavement pounder is truly a one of a kind that should be turning heads for years to come.