My 96 and the wrecked 97 and 95 camaro that came with it.

 

Been a while. I'll bet there are more cars to share about since last update.

 

Great thread!

 

My story is mostly told in my revival thread, but it starts with the car at my house, so I can tell the story of snatching it from its grave here.

It was a cold day in late January and I had already pretty much made up my mind to buy the car before seeing it, only structural rust damage could have really deterred me. I don't have a tow rig (I'm working on it! A cadaver for another time.) so I convinced my buddy with his Suburban to drive us down to pick it up. Neither of us have trailers so I rented a u-haul unit closest to our destination. It starts slushy rain-snowing on our way deeper into the woods.

We arrive and the car is up on four tall jackstands. The owner guy was a heavy duty diesel mechanic, recently retired, but he bought the car for his daughter to drive. She parked it 11 years ago. He said he started it once in a while until it wouldn't turn over. He replaced the starter and that didn't do it, it seemed like wrenching was getting harder for the guy so it was time for the car to go. The interior was sopping wet, mold everywhere. A heat lamp had been clamped to the rear view mirror to dry it out. But it was an L98 car, and it was stock and almost complete. So I agree to buy it for almost full price but I bartered my gas and trailer money out of the deal. I took this photo about this time, it's my avatar picture:



He let us use his shop however we wanted to get the car on the trailer. His equipment was gigantic by my standards, there were some sockets on the floor I could put my fist into, I think his 1/2" drive stuff was the smallest he had. And of course, we immediately needed it, because the front brakes were absolutely seized.

I solved this problem in probably the dumbest way, by repeatedly hitting the wrong side of the caliper with a hammer until it kinda sorta vibrated some clearance between the pad and solid rust rotors. The jack I used to get the car off the stands was some monstrous thing for lifting semis, could hardly feel the car on it. We had to back the car 90 degrees, and then we had one shot to roll it down a hill onto the trailer. It's still raining and sorta snowing.

It takes us two full hours absolutely heaving on this car to battle the brakes. We wanted the friction available for the end, when we needed to stop it after it carries enough momentum to get on the trailer. It was pretty miserable. I hop in the car for the first time, squishing down my already wet to the underwear pants into the moist seat. My buddy heaves us off, and I'm guiding it onto the trailer. It ends up losing momentum shortly after the rear tires get fully up, and we still need to ratchet strap it the remaining few feet.

The drive home was mostly unremarkable. We couldn't find a gas station with a working air pump to pump up the air shocks, our safety chains fell loose once and we pulled over to put them back on. The car had re-seized itself when I hit the brakes on the trailer, we ended up shoving it off the trailer until the rear tires were on the ground, then dragging the trailer out from underneath it. Didn't get the trailer back to the dropoff location until after dark, it was a whole-day affair.

 

1984 Trans AM full restomod with 350 swap, manual conversion and sniper EFI change over

 

I saved this one from the grave 20 years ago. 1987 with 2.8 and 700R4. Bought it from a used car dealer who just had it sitting on his property. Rear hatch glass was broken out and car filling with water and leaves. Engine was blown. Rust all over. Definitely a basket case one step away from the crusher. Got it home and fixed it up pretty nice. Rebuilt the engine, put in new upholstery and headliner, new hatch and fenders and hood, new paint, fixed a/c system. Turned out pretty good. Drove it for about 6 years and put about 50k on it. Not a bad car and pretty dependable. Sold it when I was ready to start on my Z28 (also saved from the grave).

 

In 2012 I got a 1985 Z28 that was sitting for 10 years stripped down and on jack stands. No motor, interior was ripped apart. Floor pans rusted out badly.

It went from this:







To this:







After 4 years I sold it and regretted it ever since. I tried to buy it back on a few occasions but the new owner is kinda a dud. One of those people who says its for sale for the right price, then when I pony up the cash he backs out.