
If you have previously read my posts about my First LEGO set, the Mustang pictured above, and my second set, the LEGO Jazz Club, then you know that as a senior citizen, I have recently gotten hooked on LEGOs.

So, it was with delight as I scoured the online LEGO store for the next kits to take to our grandkids, that I discovered in addition to the 1967 Mustang, LEGO also released a 1969 Z28 Camaro. Just like the Mustang, this is another iconic "Pony" car I would have loved to have owned had I been of age in the mid-1960s. It did not take much effort for me to push the purchase button for this kit.

When it arrived in the mail and I opened the shipping box, I was not surprised by the size of the box given it includes almost 1,500 pieces. At the time, I was working on another doll house so into the closet my LEGOs went until I was almost finished with the doll house. Then on Father's Day, I decided to give myself a treat and open it up.
As with the Mustang kit, it came with a large 200+ page instruction manual and multiple bags of parts, this time numbered 1 through 8.

Opening the manual, I came across this page which broke down the assembly into three main steps. And unlike the Mustang, this model could be built as either a hardtop coupe or a convertible. How cool is that? I knew immediately which version I would build, and I suspect many of you know which I would pick also.

Using the technique taught to me by my grandsons in Seattle, I sorted all the parts emptied from bag #1 by color to aid in locating them when needed. The two plastic containers at the right hold the very small pieces that were bagged separately inside the large bag. I do not sort these by color as they are all so small, they could accidently get lost.
I jumped right in with the assembly and in no time, had the first bag done.

Working through bag #2, my only problem I encountered was I accidently flipped over two pages at the same time without knowing it so several steps later, I did not have the pieces already attached to the model to connect the newest pieces to. Flipping back, I discovered where I had made my mistake and easily corrected it.

As I started on bag #3, I was once again amazed at how ingenious the designer of this kit was. Sometimes I was attaching pieces that I had no idea what it was needed for. And at other times, I would begin a multi-step subassembly using a variety of shapes that only once I got to the final step, would I recognize what it was before adding it to its proper location on the model.
When I was on the last step of bag #3, I went to attach the last subassembly, but it would not fit. Comparing my model to the picture in the manual, I could see that the two center bricks were off by one row of lugs. Getting them off was a challenge that the little orange tool did not help with and so I had to get a sharp knife to pry the pieces apart. But once removed, it was easy to relocate them to their proper location and attach the last subassembly. Lesson to self, pay better attention to the drawings.

Moving on to bag #4, I could see by the preview photo that I would be adding the doors with the pieces from this bag. I remembered when building the doors for the Mustang being confused at this point and even making a few mistakes along the way. But having had the previous experience and understanding what each piece was for made the door assembly a breeze.

With this bag finished, I had working doors on the model.
Before I could start bag #5, I saw I had a minor problem. The instruction manual jumped from step #185 to #205, with the next 16 pages upside down.
The remedy was to flip the book over and work through the pages backwards.

With bag #5, my only problem I encountered was I again skipped a step. I discovered it when I was almost finished with that bag and did not have the pieces in place to attach the next pieces to. I think what I did was stop at a step on the left side of the page to take a break and then when I returned, I started with the step on the right side of the page. It was a bit of a challenge to remove the pieces in the engine bay since the little orange tool would not fit. Eventually, I had to pry the errant pieces apart with a sharp knife to add the missing pieces.

A couple of weeks went by before I could return to my Camaro and start with bag #6. This bag laid the foundation for later steps and was going fine until towards the end of the bag when I needed four black angled pieces but what I had left was two black and two dark grey ones. Sometimes in the instructions, the two colors are hard to discern being different.

Looking back, I discovered that when building the taillight assemblies, I had accidentally used black angle pieces on one side when I should have used dark grey (you have to look closely on the right taillight assembly to see the black peeking out between the yellow and light grey pieces whereas on the left, dark grey is peeking out). Fortunately, this was an easy fix.

But then it happened again when I needed all dark grey pieces and had left one dark grey and one light grey clamp piece. Wondering if it really mattered, I discovered these steps were building the front grill and one piece being a different color would definitely look out of place. Again, looking back, I found the errant piece underneath the car (removed and seen to the left in the photo above).

The last step in this bag I needed to decide which color racing stripes I would want. The kit came with the options of white, dark grey, or maroon. In the finished piece to the right, you can see which option I chose.

Bag #7 went off without a hitch and when I started with bag #8, the decision had to be made if the car would be a hardtop coupe or convertible.

But of course, I had already decided on the convertible and so with much fewer parts required, I finished it in no time.

And as with the LEGO Mustang, I decided to get some shots of the finished car outside by our pool.

I hope you enjoyed riding along with me on this LEGO car adventure.

Having now completed three large LEGO kits, I am definitely hooked. You may recall from my LEGO Jazz Club that I already purchased my next kit. So stay tuned for a future post about that LEGO adventure to the Boutique Hotel!
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