Bounty Hunter

iTrader: (2)

So like I've mentioned a few times I'm on the hunt for an IROC... And I cam accross this one on Craigslist... was looking to see what you guys thought about it.

I've been thinking back and forth on it for a few days now after having given it a test drive.

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/cto/3082896338.html

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Its a 1990 IROC, which makes it a rather rare car to be honest, and it has several mods mentioned in the ad, that make it a rather powerful car actually.

But there are several things about it that kept me from droppipng the money on it when I drove it earlier this week.

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The previous owner put 3.73 gears on it, making both the speedometer and the odometer have false readings. The current owner doesnt know when this was done, so the car is showing just over 200k miles but actual milage on the car itself, the engine, and the tranny are all unknown.

The car has no cat, its simply straight pipes which went back to quad tips, and as you can see in one of the pictures... half of those tips are missing. Current owner doesnt know when, or why they came off... but now on the passenger side it simply has the turn down pipe as if it were stock.

The pain is faded and peeling, and it has a few dings through-out. A complete new paint job is required. Interior is decent, but nothing amazing its about a 6.5 out of 10. No tears or rips, but typical stuff, crack center console etc.

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So... do you guys think it would be something worth grabbing...or just bide my time and wait till something else comes around.

I have a daily driver already, and I'm in no rush to get a project car. But at the same time if I did get it, I could go straight to work on it, pull the engine out, fix the exhaust etc... and not have to worry about needed the car for tranportation.


Any thoughts or comments are appreciated.

UnderCover89TBI

iTrader: (25)

dang i think it looks pretty damn good in the pics. deffinate candidate there IMO. I like it a lot. of course i like driving cars to see if they feel solid. If they are asking 4, you can maybe get it for 3300-3500

Bounty Hunter

iTrader: (2)

The pics do it a little more justice than seeing it in person, the paint is faded and peeling in quite a few spots.

I just really dont like that I dont know when any of the mods were done, or how many actual miles are on the car and motor... but at the same time part of me is like "well, you dont need to drive it right away, tear it all down and rebuild it"

Scorpner

iTrader: (4)

I guess with over 200 on the clock I wouldn't worry as much about the exact amount vs. how well it was maintained and/or how it might check out having a mechanic look it over. (Condition of fluids, compression etc.)

The paint might bother me because of the investment involved along with the potential of rebuilding the tranny and engine. If you rebuilt everything, then at least you would know the quality of the build etc. The 350 is a definite plus IMO. I guess I would try to buy it at a price that you could easily resell it and drive it around for a while and then decide if you want to take the plunge.

Bounty Hunter

iTrader: (2)

Yeah, I'm specially on the prowl for a car with the 350, even though I know that means an automatic for the most part. But I can live with that.


How much is a good paint job going for these days? I'd be repainting it to the same color, and putting the IROC decals back on it. But I've never had a car painted in Cali, and I assume since its california that they're gonna be a little more expensive than what I've paid in the past.


And the engine / tranny rebuild is whats really weighing on my mind. One side of me doesnt want to till with something thats been driven hard for that long... but on the other side, I've been wanting to actually have a project car that I could tear down and build back up rather than simply fixing or adding to my daily driver as issues arise.

I already have the RS the drive around and get me where I need to go, so I could literally start an overhaul on the IROC from day one. But I'm just trying to crunch numbers and see how much timees gonna be involved.

Lets say ... 3500 for the car , plus paint, plus engine and tranny rebuilt, plus ripping the exhaust on it off and starting from scratch adding Cat and Muffler, plust some minor interior and electrical work...

But at the tail end I have a nice looking, powerful, hard to find, IROC that I put the blood sweat and tears into.

Copchaser

iTrader: (2)

Project = time, money & blood. The end result is much more gratifying than buying someone else work and flaunting the sh*t out of it.

I can appreciate the crunching of numbers, but look at this particular car.... Pretty straight body, with minor dings. Pretty Damn nice for a 22 yr old sports car. A relatively decent interior, especially considering the mileage on the body. Motor and trans are a job yes, but eventually u are gonna tear into it anyway. The paint may bother u, but at least it is the original color throughout. I would seriously consider jumping on this ride. U can't really lose here. Also, u don't have a time limit (so to speak), because u have the RS to bomb around town in and get things done. Ur car may spend two years on jack stands while u set it up the way u like it. Big deal, thats what projects are about. My vote is for u to ****** this up while u.still.can

UnderCover89TBI

iTrader: (25)

and if it has 200k on the odometer but has had 3.73's installed. it racked up more miles than it actually has the odometer is going to be reading faster while driving. so it has less miles than stated by the odometer in actuallity

Bounty Hunter

iTrader: (2)

Right, the dash is showing just over 200k, but since current owner doesnt know when the 373 was put in it, I dont know how far below the dash the car could be. So to be on the "safe" side I'm just keeping the 200 as a rounded 'worst case' number.

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But also, on that note, does anyone know how much time and effort it would take to swamp the parts and make the dash read correctly with the gears installed?

UnderCover89TBI

iTrader: (25)

just a matter of finding what drive and driven gear you need. the actual job isnt too bad to do but figuring out what gears you need takes a little legwork.

Scorpner

iTrader: (4)

Painting is an important factor IMO because of the cost. Much of that is in prep though and if the body is in decent shape and you can work a deal and maybe do some of the prep you'll be ahead of the game. Suggesting an amount is really difficult as it can vary quite a bit depending on the quality. Your best bet is to actually call around locally and get some estimates to get a general idea.

If you're already committed with the idea of rebuilding then previous wear shouldn't be an issue unless it was catastrophic or something. If you do build the tranny keep in mind to have the original rebuilt instead of exchanging it since some of the previous years have internal differences.

Do some research on correcting the speedometer. When I was looking into doing it I think it was around $100 because the housing was different.

Bounty Hunter

iTrader: (2)

UnderCover89TBI

iTrader: (25)

he'll go lower!

yaj15

iTrader: (3)

The car looks like it's solid. It depends on what you want to do to the car and how much do you want to spend.

With the most recent of our cars now being 20 years old many of us have had to go through replacing or rebuilding drivetrain components. That sounds like that was something you already had in mind so thats good.

Does he have the original rear end gears and speedometer gears?
Stock, the '90-'92 L98's had 10 bolt rears, with 28 spline axles, and 3.23 gears with a posi.

Does he have the orginal wheels? In the pics the car has the '85-'87 style single stripe IROC wheels. The '88-'90 IROC wheels have the double stripe.

Does he still have the fog lights for the car? In the front pic, it looked like they weren't there. Some people like the no fog light look and others don't.

What about the interior? Most of our cars are now old enough to where the interior could use some attention as well.

Those are somethings besides the paint /body work that you could use to get the owner to push the price lower.

Bounty Hunter

iTrader: (2)

He appears to have bought it and been completely content with the car as is "because its powerful" the only real thing he's done to it since he got it was put the Alpine deck and sub in... and he didnt really have any answers when it came to when any of the work was done on it. He just kept falling back on "Its a pretty rare car, and its a monster" and when I'd comment on something that was wrong he'd swap to "well, its a 20 year old car its gonna have quirks".

I've done as much research as possible before looking at each car I've gone to see, not only this time, but in previous years. One of the sites being THIS spotters guide.

Before I even went to see the car I was checking things like the IROC decal being in the right spot, the rims, the fog lights, and the IROC badges were correct. A friend of mine went with me simply to see what he would say when I mentioned the rims being from an 85-87...because he thought it'd be hilarious to watch.

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But no, I dont get any extras really, just the car as you see it in the pic.... the only real extra I get is he owns a body shop and would knock a decent amount of the paint job.

I'm using as many argue points as I can to get him to budge on the price, tallying up estimated costs on things that need to be done... even the little minute things that I actually dont care about.

As far as the interior, its nothing special, but at the same time its not torn up. No real stains from what I see, and no tears, no cracks in dash ... center console is cracked but I've seen that in every camaro I've owned. Interior would be something I completely replace long run, but money go longer distances elsewhere off the bat.

Bounty Hunter

iTrader: (2)

Also, I cant thank everyone who's posted here enough. Really appreciate the input you guys have.

I like to go into situations as educated as possible, and while I know quite a few things about the car from owning others in the past, the 'theorycrafting' from this thread has really helped.

UnderCover89TBI

iTrader: (25)

I don't think it's too bad. and over 20 years old, it is going to have some small stuff, could be missing stuff.

IMO opinion thirdgen's have been going up in value the past few years and will continue to do so. the odds of finding a perfectly painted IROC for around that price that doesnt need major mechanical work is pretty slim IMO.

yaj15

iTrader: (3)

Thats good. You are doing your home work. I wish I would have did a little more of that when I bought my car but I lived through it and learned.

That car is still solid. He is right a '90 IROC with the L98 is rare and should be saved if you can. At the same time I know you don't want to be taken for a ride and get in to something that would be a serious problem in the long run.

Hopefully you will be able to get the price range in to something thats a little lower.

I wonder why he put 3.73's in the car. TPI dosen't need a whole lot of help in the torque multiplication department, especially with the low first gear in the 700r4. I wonder what rpm's that car is turning on the highway.

Has anybody here installed 3.73's on their car, dosen't have to be TPI. I would be curious to see what kind of rpms you guys are at on the highway and what your fuel economy is. I know our cars aren't going to get the same fuel economy as a 4-cylinder Honda. At the same time though gas isn't exactly cheap these days either.

UnderCover89TBI

iTrader: (25)

I have heard in the past that 3.73's w/ automatic on a tpi car actually hurt 1/4 mile time because takes the engine out of the powerband. I have read they really like the 3.27/3.23 gear set's.

but 3.73's with a 700r4 at 70 mph i'd imagine would be about 2600 rpms or so.

Bounty Hunter

iTrader: (2)

Bounty Hunter

iTrader: (2)

And so it begins...

Time to get dirty, spend money, bust a few knuckles, and mutter many a obscenity...

Duane's 91 Z/28

iTrader: (1)

Awesome ride Bounty Hunter!! Glad you were able to get it and drive it home. Looks good next to your RS!!

t-top havoc

iTrader: (3)

Congrats!!

Nice find!!

UnderCover89TBI

iTrader: (25)

blue and white look really good together! congrats

Scorpner

iTrader: (4)

Congrats! I'm pretty sure any time, effort and money you put into it will be well worth it in the long run.

It's a beautiful IROC.

Bounty Hunter

iTrader: (2)

Now you guys have to help me think of witty custom plates.

I've uploaded the first 30 or so pictures I took today [HERE].

They highlight some of the issues that I need to fix, the dings and paint being the big one but probably the last on my list to fix. The dash gauges all being off being the other big thing. Then just a bunch of minor things that I'm going to get to fixing asap...

-Overhead light is missing its cover
-Need to order a set of fog lights,
-The high beams work but when you pull the level towards you it doesnt always click and turn them on
-The tint needs to be scraped out of the back, no rush on putting new tint in but its on the list.
-Passenger side hood ornament is sticking up on one corner
-Coolant resivoir is missing a cap.

And no biggie but I'm going to swap the rims back to the 89-90 IROC rims at some point. Theres a set on craigslist, but I think I'm going to put money in more important places first.

I'll be taking pictures and updating as the work comes along.

UnderCover89TBI

iTrader: (25)

nice thing about the rims you can resell your rims to get some or all of your money back after you get the right ones.

90IROC1

iTrader: (4)

Congrats on the IROC! Bright blue met is my favorite color. I was looking at this same car for a second adition to my collection, but the guy wasn't very up front with me after seeing your pictures. Keep the picks coming and good luck with the project!

Bounty Hunter

iTrader: (2)

Aye, I love the color and will be repainting it the same color when I get to that stage of the project.

He wasnt the most ... informative... about the car, but now thats done and gone, I dont have to worry about him anymore its just me and the IROC. Haha.

Maybe by the time the next Cruise rolls around the IROC will be ready to come out and play.

Copchaser

iTrader: (2)

Congrats dude.... So if u don't.mind my asking... What was the final purchase price?3

90IROC1

iTrader: (4)

That would be cool, i'd like to check it out! I had a weird issue with mine stalling out at stop lights, so I haven't come to any events yet. It turns out it was the back plug on the coil, the clip broke and it was popping off and setteling back in when I re started it. LOL... I fixed the plug and it hasn't died since.

yaj15

iTrader: (3)

Congrats! You will have a lot of fun making your new car how you want it to be.

Bounty Hunter

iTrader: (2)

Took it out and washed it, vaccuumed everything, then spend a good hour under the hood scrubbing things and picking out debris... I even found part of a Dorrito (cool ranch I believe).

Amazingly there was a 5.7 engine under all the grime in the engine bay.

Waxed the hood and front, and the front, will have to finish up the rest of the car after work tomorrow but I have some stuff to take care off.

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I'm going to let this thread go inactive though, and will start a true 'build' thread once I've done some things worth updating. So far everything is mostly cosmetic things.

Key an eye out for it.

norcalz28

iTrader: (13)

Are you bringing it to the cruise? I've seen that one on CL before, but wondered about a few things like the wheels not correct for the year, badging seemed off. Love to see it!

Bounty Hunter

iTrader: (2)

I thought about it, but I havent decided yet.
On one hand I could let all you guys pick it over and give me advice and tips... on the other hand I'll have had it a week and will basically driving "someone elses car" instead of the RS I've worked pretty hard on cleaning up. -shrug-

What about the badges seemed off?

UnderCover89TBI

iTrader: (25)

I dont think it is a good idea to bring a car your not as familiar with on the cruise. you wanna have confidence in your car. ya know. although it would be a good test for it.

Bounty Hunter

iTrader: (2)

Aye.

I drove it around all day saturday and sunday while parts hunting for both cars and doing errands and stuff... but I was just gonna stick to the RS for the cruise.

UnderCover89TBI

iTrader: (25)

I'm just trying to get as many TBI cars on the cruise as I can haha

92rs!

nice car, seen it in person. BountyHunter even did a little burnout lol