Have you ever gone to the movies and seen a car on screen that you just fell in love with? A car that became the yardstick by which you judged every car that came after? If you have, you might understand how Randy "Doc" Martin felt when he laid eyes on the '68 Camaro that starred in the movie "Aloha Bobby & Rose".
As Randy tells it: "It all started in the summer of '75. A bunch of guys going to the movie theater to see 'something.' "
They chose a show called "Aloha Bobby & Rose." It had a car in it; that's all that mattered to them.
"We were young teenagers and didn't
want to see a 'girly' movie. Well, little did I know, but I would get hooked
by the Camaro bug when I saw the car in the movie. A 1968 Camaro, red with
a black hood and black taillight section, big tires all around, on Ansen
Sprint wheels!
"My first car was a '67 Camaro, six cylinder,
with a two-speed slip-and-slide transmission. I had the time of my life
with that car. I sold it to get my '68, which never came to be the car I
really wanted because I never had the time or money to do it the way I wanted
to.
"30 years, and 6 to 8 Camaros later,
I got the bug to finally do my "Aloha Bobby & Rose" Camaro.
After trying to find a car to work on and coming up with no cars except
number matching ones, a friend, John Reed, suggested calling Randy at Hot
Rods & Custom Stuff. John had his Pontiac 'Mint Julep' refurbished there.
I put it off for a little while, but folded under his continued barrages
of 'Did you call yet?' (Thanks John).
"I called Randy and explained what I
was looking for and what I would like to do. Randy (as he told me), can't
say no to anything. He said, 'SURE we can find one and do the project!'
"I thought, 'Okay, I probably won't hear
from him for quite awhile...'
"WRONG!! 2-3 weeks later Randy calls and says, 'I think we found your
car.' Sight unseen, just going by what Randy said, I sent the money to purchase
the car.
"The rest is in the pictures and the
whole story is too long for the website, I think. So, enjoy the pictures
and if you are looking for someone to make your childhood dreams come true,
I can not say enough about Randy Clark and his WHOLE staff at Hot Rods &
Custom Stuff!"
Since Randy Martin wanted a car that looked just like the one in the movie, we had to get good pictures of that car--especially if we were going to duplicate the body modifications. That proved to be more difficult than it sounds. Except for a few fuzzy photos downloaded off the internet and the movie poster, were not able to find what we needed. We especially needed good close-up shots of the fenders to determine how far to flare them and at what angles.
The lead fabricator on the Camaro project, Scott, was able to run down lots of history about the car while surfing the internet after hours. Eventualy (after we had begun work using the fuzzy photos we had), Randy Martin himself came up with some old e-bay photos from one of the more recent owners of car. We had already started building the fender flares, and it turned out that we had been pretty much on the money with our "guestimates". The pics allowed us to make a few corrections and refine some details we hadn't noticed previously. These pictures are the origianl "Aloha Bobby & Rose" 1968 Camaro.
For those that don't remember the movie, it was billed as a modern-day Bonnie & Clyde flick. Paul LeMat plays Bobby, an auto mechanic, while Diane Hull is Rose, a car-wash jockey. While out on a date one night, Bobby "fakes" holding up a convenience store. The prank goes horribly wrong, resulting in the death of a young shop keeper. Bobby and Rose are forced to take it on the lam. Never mind the title -- the couple heads to Mexico, not Hawaii as they both dreamed. Their getaway car is Bobby's souped-up Camaro.
