From Texas, Jared Guynes spent two years secretly restoring his father’s dream car: a 1967 Marina Blue Chevrolet Camaro. His father, Earl Guynes, had given up his beloved Camaro 41 years ago to raise his young children.
When Jared revealed this “giant surprise” to his father on his 65th birthday, Earl was ecstatic.
“This is one of the best moments of my life,” Jared wrote in a Facebook post about the surprise, which quickly went viral online.
Since he was a teenager, Jared had dreamed of reclaiming the car for his father after learning about the sacrifices his father had made when he was young. He told The Epoch Times that he had no idea his father had once owned a cool muscle car until he was 13.
“But when I grew up enough to understand, he told me the story of the old car he used to have,” Jared said.
The 1967 automatic dual-exhaust Camaro in a special shade of blue with white stripes and a 350 V8 engine was Earl’s most talked-about. In 1983, when Earl found out his young wife was pregnant with their first son, he decided to sell the car.
“The story he told me when I was a child was that he sold that car for diaper money,” Jared said, “It was a joke because he didn’t need diapers. But what he intended to tell me was that he did sell the car to support the family and ensure he prioritized what needed to be prioritized.”
For 30 years, Jared had a dream – he started gathering information about his father’s precious car: the wheels, color, and all the specific details. This wish became a reality in October 2022, after a year of searching, a perfect Camaro appeared.
“Having a very good financial year in 2021,” Jared said, “I decided to finally start doing this, hoping to return the car to my father.”
Jared knew finding the original car was impossible – his father’s Camaro was pieced together from parts of other Camaros, and he had no receipts, vehicle identification number (VIN), or any other documents. After he made up his mind, he searched all the public merchandise information he could think of to find the perfect replica.
“There was no car like this in the entire United States,” he said.
But finally, about 10 months later, a message appeared on his computer: a 1967 Camaro with white stripes was for sale on the border of Texas, just 70 miles north of his home. Jared was thrilled, but the price was too high. However, after inspecting the car and negotiating with the owner, he made a “fantastic deal.”
Jared said it was his reason for wanting the car that made a difference.
“They were moved by this story and what I wanted to do,” he said, “I explained very honestly to them why I wanted this car, so they were very honest with me, and this car actually had a lot of problems.”
“Headlights were broken, brakes were broken, sometimes the engine would stall, fluid would leak from the bottom of the car – this was actually very, very, very dangerous. They tried and tried to solve the problems to get it running correctly, but they couldn’t fix it, so they gave up.”
To ensure his father could safely drive the car, Jared spent the next two years “repairing, repairing, repairing, replacing, or upgrading.”
“I didn’t want him in a dangerous situation where he could get hurt or have an accident in his beloved car,” Jared said, “So I really wanted to ensure his safety. When I handed the car over to him, everything worked fine, everything was safe, everything was tested, everything was set up correctly, and it really took me two years to do that.”
Keeping the surprise secret from his father was a huge challenge for Jared. No one, including his mother, sister, aunt, uncle, cousins, or his father’s friends, knew what he was planning. Jared only told his wife and his daughter (who is now 9 years old).
“She thinks it’s the coolest thing,” he said.
His 5-year-old son was too young to understand at the time, but Jared still carefully avoided using the word “Camaro” around him just in case.
When the car wasn’t being repaired at various auto shops, it was hidden in a storage unit. Jared even drove the Camaro only at night to avoid being seen by anyone. To address many of the vehicle’s issues, including numerous electrical problems, often meant long journeys to find experts. The car had stalled on the road more than once.
“We had to find towing trucks and clearance trucks,” Jared said, “I spent a lot of money towing, moving, and test driving the car… It would stall on the road, I would be stuck there, I couldn’t call my dad for help, and I couldn’t call anyone I knew for help because I needed to keep this secret at all costs.”
When asked if he ever considered giving up, the father of two had no hesitation.
“No. I never thought about giving up. My dad is worth it. My dad completely deserves it,” he said.
Finally, on Earl’s 65th birthday on October 20, the whole family gathered at a restaurant in their hometown of Rockwall for dinner. During the meal, Jared snuck outside and drove the Camaro from its hiding place to the front of the restaurant.
What happened next was unforgettable.
Jared’s friend, professional magician Diamond Jim Tyler, performed a surprising magic trick at their table. He had Earl pick two cards – one was a six, and the other was a seven – along with six random words from Wikipedia and a random number, then led him outside. Earl immediately noticed the shiny car.
“When my dad saw it, he immediately said, ‘That’s like my car, that car looks just like it.’ But he didn’t know it was his – he just thought it looked like his car,” Jared said.
“In my life, every time we saw a Camaro from the 1960s with the three-stripe blue, he would say, ‘Oh, that’s like my car, that’s what my car looked like, my car was almost that.’ He had been looking for cars like that, pointing them out, because seeing these vintage Camaros excited him a lot.”
The magician continued the trick.
“So he saw the car, but he didn’t think anything of it, then his attention was back on the magician,” Jared said, “The magician said, ‘Well, you picked two cards: you picked a 6 and a 7, which is 67.'”
“He said, ‘Then you picked six words, you picked any six words you wanted, but you also picked the number 4. Now let’s circle the fourth letter of each of these six words. As you circle each letter, it spells c-a-m-a-r-o – Camaro. So he said, ‘Well, you picked 67, you picked Camaro, and here is a 1967 Camaro.'”
“My dad is thinking, ‘Wow! This is a magical trick, he made the car appear!'”
When Jared saw his father still didn’t get it, he said, “That’s your Camaro, Dad! Thanks for the diaper money!”
When Earl realized all that his son had done for him, he immediately started crying.
“It was very moving for me because before that, I had only seen my dad cry twice,” Jared said, “He would do anything for his family, and that’s the example he set before I was born. When I think back on every little thing my father and I did over the past 40 years, I just remember that he was always willing to do anything he could to help us, take care of us to the best of his ability.”
“My dad never said, ‘Oh, one day I’ll find my old Camaro, one day I want to make one that looks like the Camaro I used to have, or my ultimate dream is to get my Camaro back.’ He just said he loved that car, it was the coolest car he had ever owned – his favorite car.”
For Jared, his actions were not just about the car: “It’s symbolic. It’s important that it’s that Camaro because I wanted him to understand that in my life, I listened to what he said. When he told me these stories, I was actually taking notes, especially when he talked about things that were meaningful to him.”
For Earl, he looks forward to driving his precious Camaro on some new adventures – including taking Jared’s mother on a special date.
“He told me he wants to take her out, have hamburgers in the car together. They used to go to a restaurant and get hamburgers often, an old car-themed restaurant that is still open, so he wants to take her back there,” Jared said.