cmcz450

Hello all, I recently was looking on Craigslist and found an 87' iroc camaro 5.7 T-tops that unfortunately has a th350 swapped in place of the 700r4 ,but comes with another th350 since the one in place is slipping. It has one rust spot the size of a quarter. I have not had time to check the car out, but he says it has 129k and from the pictures it looks to be really clean on the inside(possibly no broken dash!) Right now it cranks but won't start. He mentioned that the fuel pump isn't ticking so maybe it sounds like the pump isn't priming.... It could use some paint and a good cleaning for the pictures and he wants $1200 for it. My question is, from what I have described, does it sound worthy to look at it for $1200? I'm thinking of picking it up for myself to work on in the future and storing it inside my dads building for a while. I'll try to post some photos to give you a better idea of what i'm looking at(if I can). Sorry this is in the wrong section, I couldn't decide where a good spot would be.
TIA- Corey

scottmoyer

$1200 for a non running car with rust that requires paint and has an incorrect slipping tranny? offer him $400 and walk away.

Worse case scenario, the tranny needs replacement at $1500, a good paint job willl start at $2000, the fuel pump, if you pay someone to do it, will be $600. Now add in the that car probably has mechanical issues that you can't know about until you get it running and who knows what else. Just start with a cleaner car!

Drew

iTrader: (58)

What you've got there is what we call a parts car... And most of those parts probably aren't worth anything either. I think Scott thinks it's worth twice what I think it's worth. $200, because after you sell the tail lights, and the wheels, crush the rest for scrap, that's about how much you'll have back in your pocket.

Instead of spending $1200 on that POS, and then another $4-5k getting it patched back together, spend $6k and get yourself a 75k mile Iroc with good paint and interior, that runs and drives.

cmcz450

alrighty, thanks for the advice guy appreciate it! Also it there an off topic or general talk area on this board?

Drew

iTrader: (58)

Not since about 2000... There was, but it was abused. Since then Thirdgen.org has been tech only.

'87IROCZOWNER69

iTrader: (1)

But who knows what issues could arrise from that 6k car? Pretty much any car that isn't brand new will have issues. The beauty of buying a car for $1200 is being able to take it and make it your own. I'm not saying this is the best car to buy (because like you mentioned who knows what else is wrong with it besides the tranny and the fuel pump) but as long as you find something that is solid and running good you will have a nice starting point. And just because a car doesn't fit that description doesnt mean it should be crushed.

Drew

iTrader: (58)

Who said to crush it? What I said is that a car that doesn't run, with that many problems, is worth it's value in parts, and it's weight in scrap metal. When I've crushed a car in the past, it was between $40-120 depending on the current going rate of scrap metal. With the economy in the bucket, no one has money to spend on anything, much less hobbies and cars. That means you will only sell a small percentage of the parts you remove from a car. That lowers the value by a large margin. It'll cost more then it's worth to restore, and at that price the buyer is already upside down.

Any old car is going to have issues if you try to drive it. But, you get much much much more for your money at the initial buy in. It'll cost exceptionally more to try to piece together a nice car from a wreck. Unless you can do all the labor yourself, which is beyond the scope of most people on this forum. For $6k you can get a REALLY nice thirdgen, with lower miles, nice paint, and one of the better drivetrains, that hasn't been hacked up. I won't even go into how much easier it is to keep one nice then to restore one from nothing.

Eagle223usa

The IROC I'm looking at has a flat tire....

Drew: Sell the tailights and crush it for scrap!

I think Drew is trying to raise the value of his car by getting everyone to part and crush all the rest of them!!!

Eagle223usa

Just messing with you Bro, You don't need a 100 point car to have fun. Mine was stripped for racing, sat 1" off the ground, ran like a race car (wouldn't idle, hard to start) and had a 3" open exhaust and wasted paint. Now it stops traffic whenever it comes out of the garage. If you can afford a 10,000 dollar example, buy one! If you can't, Buy the best one you can and have fun fixing it up! My wife is thrilled that after about 4 years work we are taking mine on a family vacation this spring!

cmcz450

I completely forgot about this thread. Wow. The guy actually posted the car on CL again and I went and looked at it feb 11(yesterday). It was a little rough, but compared to others I have seen in the area it wasn't too bad. Car needed some work, and I am looking for something to gain life experience's from. After talking to him for an hour, the transmission wasn't done in a "buddies garage" and was done in a shop, tailshaft was addressed properly as well.
He seems like a good guy from talking yesterday, so it didn't seem like he was hiding anything, either way, I am at least going to check the VIN out to make sure he wasn't informed wrong 14 years ago.
The wires in the engine didn't look hacked up, and the interior needs a good cleaning plus a gauge cluster. I was not a fan of electrical work, but after wiring up a few things here and there and gaining more experience, I don't mind it as much. He dropped the price to $1000, but he doesn't want to be lowballed and I understand that. When I look at it though, I see fuel pump, cluster, headliner, rust fixture, paint, and a medium amount of interior work. I may make an offer and see if we can come to terms.