I have never posted before here, although I have been a member for over a year, and figured I might introduce my story to those of you with a little time to spare. I got a job on my 16th birthday working as a waiter, and saved up every penny for a car, driving a '95 escort to and from. Finally a year and a half later, found this on craigslist and had to have it: a 1990 Iroc-Z with a 350. Driving to work

Then 3 months later, as luck would have it I was driving down I-35, and just happened to be in the wrong lane at the wrong time. The car directly in front of me slams into the car in front of him for unknown reasons and stop right in front of me. I floor the breaks and manage to slow from about 60 to about 10 before I hit, and the woman behind me wasn't paying attention and hit her brakes at the last second, resulting in:

This is the part when most people tow it to a yard, and buy a new one. Not going to fly with me, I loved this car too much and it has a certain value to me. Now for the fun part. My Dad has owned more than 15 Camaro's in his lifetime, so he knows his way around them. I had little automotive experience, although most was simple enough to figure out. We disassembled the front end, and used a chain tied to a suburban to bend the radiator support off the engine

We cut out and welded in one from a thirdgen firebird found at some salvage yard.

Found a guy selling parts locally, and picked up some necessities.

We then took the car to a local body shop to have the frame stretched back out and realigned.

Reassembled the front, and started the sanding process

A coat of primer over the new

Sanding the rest of the nice red paint off...


Trailered 3 hours away to my uncle's friend who let us borrow a paint shop

Fresh Paint

Final assembly, drove it for about a month, purchased a new set of Iroc rims, spent a couple days more with some stripper, a buffer and polishing compound, and polished the rims up. This is what it looks like now:



All-in-all It took a total of 3 months and around $2200 to fix. I now have my baby back.
Yet one more thirdgen that narrowly avoided the grave.

Cheers!

First of all let me say your IROC looked perfect (nice find--I can see why you love it). Second, nice job on saving the car and the outstanding pics on rebuilding her. Im really suprised someones insurance in the entire mess didnt cover fixing your car.

Thanks! It was inside and out, and I got it for a mere $5000

We did file a claim, and the ladies company said that my car was considered "totaled" upon impact with the car in front, and that when her car hit me from behind it lowered my "totaled value" and they would pay the difference: $300.

that's a bunch of BS on her insurance company but anyway you have a beautiful car there and I'm glad you saved it is there any signs of the accident by the way it drives or anything

Looked damn good when you got it... How many miles on it? Still looks damn good.

Also, in the pictures, it looks like the rear 1/4 panel was creased by the sail panel? Was it, or did it just look like that from reflection?

Any plans of putting the Iroc Decals back on and the stripes? Plans to paint the Headlight buckets black again?

Thats a bunch of crap! I would have sued her insurance company--seriously! If you walked into court with pictures of your car before the accident there is no way on earth that a judge would allow the insurance company to get away with a $300 payout!

It had 132k when i bought it...but it was from the best friend of the origional owner and it has been very well maintained.

Yea it buckled the rear a bit, pushed the whole 1/4 about an inch or so foward, and creased, and the hatch would no longer fit down...thats why i took it to the body shop...they got it straightened out nicely you cannot tell anything ever happened back there...everything lines up.

And yea I plan on the stripes and decals, but I have a couple other projects im working on atm.

wow thats sick,howcome you went with the older iroc rims? i had the same style you have now on my 85 trans am and polished and painted them the same way...it takes alot of work to polish them right as you know. good job

Awesome job, you did right by her... (glad to see you came out of the crash too)

great car.
good decision. looks like u guys know what youre doing.

iroc decal and black headlight buckets and your back on the road.

Great job the car looks good! Many people would have let it go to auto heaven! Another third gen saved!

2 thumbs way up man... Happy to see you didn't let her go... Gotta hate when idiots are behind the wheel...

great job on bringing that car back from the dead imho it needs black headlight buckets, but otherwise looks great

Dude slick ride, wish my first cruiser was that bad A