Mike Kochanski of Inverness, Illinois is like a lot of us; he was born with the automotive “itch.” It’s not uncommon to run across a story like Kochanski’s, and the story of his beautifully-restored, ’69 Camaro Z28. As a matter of fact, Mike Kochanski’s story of the Camaro and how he eventually obtained it is the “storybook” epitome of muscle car owning success. Like every true gearhead, Kochanski fell in love with motoring at a young age. He grew up in the early ’70s, when there were still a lot of muscle cars to spare. Mike explains, “The early ’70s were a truly magical time. There were muscle and performance cars everywhere.”

All image credit: Daily Herald

Almost every car enthusiast has that one car or truck that made them fall in love with cars and trucks as a whole. Mike Kochanski was no exception to this, and the Z28 that he currently owns is the one that almost got away, but luckily for Kochanski didn’t! As a young boy, Kochanski would walk his typical route past Grand Automotive, a place in Des Plaines, Illinois where he would look at and fantasize about the muscle cars that were on display.

His walks past Grand Automotive sparked his desire to one day be the proud owner of real, American muscle. It was his frequent walks past a Union 76 gas station in the area that would soon change Kochanski’s life forever.

Young Mike Kochanski would often lock eyes with a LeMans blue, ’69 Z28 that belonged to the chief mechanic at the 76 station, named Skip. From that point on, owning a First-Gen Camaro became Kochanski’s preoccupation. So much, in fact, that Kochanski bought his current Camaro from a high school friend at the age of 18. According to Kochanski, the Camaro was worn from street racing, but he fell in love with it anyway, “The car had been rode hard, but it didn’t matter one bit. I was simply in cruising heaven.”

The early Camaro became the Inverness local’s “first love,” but it was one that would have to be put on the shelf for a while. Kochanski had a new-and-upcoming career become part of his reality by 1983, and it was then that his beloved, First-Gen Z28 was put away in the garage for what would prove to be a very long nap for the old pony. The car would stay in storage for years, with Kochanski and his wife, Kathy, not having a renewed interest in the car until the summer of 2005, when the couple starting frequenting the area’s local car shows.

Going to these auto venues with wife Kathy inspired Kochanski to bring his old Z28 Camaro back to life, and in the summer of 2008, their restoration project commenced. When the Kochanskis had first pulled their early Camaro out of the garage, it was more of a mess then they had realized, “The building’s roof was leaky and caused even more rust, and mice had built a large nest in the back seat.”

This didn’t deter Mike, however, and he sent the now rustic Camaro to be straightened and cleaned at Precision Paint and Body of Cedarburg, Wisconsin, not before stripping the Camaro down to a mere shell in only 6 weekends. While Precision worked on the Camaro’s shell, Kochanski stayed home and rebuilt the 327/Muncie 4-speed drivetrain that would eventually go into his early Z28. The car, being an actual Z28-optioned piece, came with a 302 small block, but Kochanski would have to settle for his 327 motor since the original was gone by the time he had made the purchase.

Mike Kochanski’s super clean, early Z28 is a muscle car resto project that was some 40 years in the making, going even back to when the car was no more than a twinkle in Kochanski’s gear-loving eye. It was one that got finished, and Mike and his son had the opportunity to drive the Camaro to the Hot Rod Power Tour in 2011.

The next stop on his journey was to Wisconsin, where Kochanski would show off his finished Z28 to his high school buddy who sold him the car many years before. Mike describes the driveability of his Z28, “It’s perfect. Everything works together flawlessly…I’ve owned this car for 31 years, and it’s now a part of me and a dream come true.”