NickGTA

Hello members, just joined this evening and am glad I was able to find this forum and its company. Finally purchased a 1988 GTA with a hardtop, 350 and a digital dash. Red on tan with 76k on her. Service engine light is coming on and off, she is running a little rough and was in need of a quality shop to straighten her out. I am located in NY and willing to travel to the right place. Appreciate any recommendations and looking forward to some gatherings and events. Thanks, Nick.

trafficlightguy

What part on ny are u from

NickGTA

Westchester County.

trafficlightguy

Check NYTHIRDGEN.COM there from all over news york

NickGTA

I will do that, appreciate the quick response. Thanks!

sofakingdom

iTrader: (1)

I'd STRONGLY suggest equipping yourself and learning to do as much work as possible to it yourself.

Your car is, quite literally, an ANTIQUE. As far as I know, in NY cars are OFFICIALLY eligible for antique plates at 25 yrs; your car is now 27.

Finding a "shop" that will work on antique cars, has all the right equipment manuals knowledge etc., is not a high-probability thing; and will likely bankrupt you if you intend to use the car very much, given that virtually every organic (rubber, plastic, paper, etc.) part on the car is about halfway crumbled to dust already and might fail at any time, necessitating yet another trip to the "mechanic"; and every metal part is also corroded and sticky and binding or even frozen, producing the same result. A car like that will nickel-and-dime you to death as each individual part out of the million or whatever, reaches the end of its life.

Go to any car show where people have antique cars. Ask around how many of those people have their work done by "mechanics" and "shops". Then find out how much THEY have tied up in their cars, compared to the cars right next to them whose owners do their own work. Then find out how much they DRIVE those cars. I think you'll figure out right away that (1) it will be EXPENSIVE to have somebody else take care of your car for you; (2) your car will FOREVER be at least one repair short of "perfect", i.e. you'll be forever complaining about "gotta take it to the mechanic and have em look at {fill in the blank} this week"; and (3) if you drive the car much, it will fall apart faster than you can possibly keep taking to some "shop".

With the knowledge and guidance available on this forum, you can do this. Don't be one of those people that make up a whole string of excuses to support their plausible deniability of being able to stand on their own 2 feet and then blame their "mechanic" for "screwing them over" because of the inevitable situation that WILL arise, as described above. Plus, you'll enable yourself to enjoy the personal pride and satisfaction of your car being in tip-top shape because YOU make it that way, not because you merely open your wallet like the Vette guys and hand over cubic $$$$ to somebody else to do it for you.

Stauf

iTrader: (2)

Totally agree with Sofa. Before I got my first 3rd gen, I knew almost nothing about the mechanics of cars. But after taking it to the shop, and realizing that the car was older then the kids working on it, and that they knew about as much as me about these cars, I decided to take the problems on myself. So, in that short time I have learned to READ THE POSTS ON THIS FORUM to gain any knowledge of your car. I have gone from barely being able to change my own oil, to pretty much ripping a car down to a mountain of pieces, diagnosing whats wrong, fixing it and putting it back together. Yes it may take longer to do this yourself, but in the long run, you will be better off with a fatter wallet.