When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Auto Detailing and AppearanceShare tips and tricks on how to make your Third Gen shine! Get opinions on products or how something tasteful looks on your Chevrolet Camaro or Pontiac Firebird.
We have 3 great third gens for the April 2021 COTM "Open Season" contest... Also quite an overall global set of nominees! Nominee's please post up some great information to help the voters decide the winner! Voting will go through the end of the month.
Re: April 2021 COTM "Open Season" **Voting Thread**
topduarte | 1992 Heritage Edition Z28
Title: "17 Years Gone".
I am the 3rd and 6th owner of this 1992 Heritage Edition Z28.
59k miles. All factory options except CD player and rear louvers.
Brought the Z28 in 2001 with 43k miles and sold it a year later with 49k miles.
Brought it back in August 2019 from 5th owner in Jasper, TX.
How we got it back is wife got an email on December 2018 that they had our old Camaro. I chatted with the 5th owner saying he was going to be in Austin on February 2019 for a car show.
We went to the show and there was the Z28. Wife got emotional.
We invited the owner and his son to our home for dinner that evening. We talked about cars and we then went outside to look at the Z28. I took pics and asked the owner "you know what I am going to ask you" and he said " yeah I know". He said I would have first dibs at buying it back as his wanted a Corvette but it would be a few years and I said that is fine.
Pics from 2-23-2019 after dinner in our culdesac.
Fast forward to June 2019 and I got a text from the owner that he was ready to sell. I asked if I can have about 6 weeks to get the money on the price we agreed to. He said no problem.
Fast forward to 8-19-2019 and my dad, son and I made a trip to Jasper to pick it up.
Pic at lunch break on way home to Pflugerville.
We got lucky in getting the Camaro back.
I have put 1,140 miles in the 19 months since we got it back.
Here is all the original paperwork for the last 20 years including all of the owners.
Plan to go all NOS. Brought original rear wing from 5th owner as 4th owner replaced it with aftermarket one. Also brought 4 NOS wheel center caps and heater hoses.
Debate is whether to paint it or keep it original. Interior is original along with dash and carpet and leather.
These pics are from my moms house in Jarrell, TX and a 11 mile round trip to the old Catholic church in New Corn Hill, Texas.
Enjoy the pics. I also have a lot of videos of the Z28 in action. If you want any of the videos, feel free to pm me here.
Re: April 2021 COTM "Open Season" **Voting Thread**
Thanks again for the nomination!
My firebird has been my childhood dream. Bought it for next to nothing. Got through one major restoration with stock LO3. Sandblasted the whole thing, did a cage and full underbody strengthening. 3 color changes over the years. And now finally made it go as good as it looks to me - swapped for an LQ4, put a cam in and lots of other goodies. Has been with me for over 11 years.
Re: April 2021 COTM "Open Season" **Voting Thread**
Hi guys, thanks a lot for the nominations, very honored to have been included in this month's poll!
I am in Australia and currently on holidays on our mid north coast which has been hit by the worst storms in 40 years so unfortunately I'm not able to up load many photo's but I'll add what I can with a little back story on the car.
I had been a huge knight rider fan as a kid, as well as magnum pi and the Rockford files so I credit these shows with kick starting my love for cars and in particular the first and last for my love of Pontiacs, Rockford broadened my Pontiac horizons but the 3rd gen has always been my favourite, and as I got older I started to appreciate the car more for what it was than an inevitable kitt clone (as much as I'd still like one).
These cars were always very pricey here in Australia due to the fact they're imported and had to undergo rhd conversions so I'd kind of written off the chance of ever getting one at a young age.
Fast forward to my early 30s, (2012+) I was working hard, earning decent money, living with friends and with cheap rent, low cost of living at the time I found myself with an abundance of savings and started scouring local car sales sites. I found what I considered a perfect combo, late model tpi (always planned on a better engine but always wanted a late model for the better power output), factory triple black, low milage, no rust, very good shape and guy was only asking 15k aud (cheap in aus). After pointing out some mechanical issues that would need immediate attention, I got him down to 10k, we shook hands and I had the car I'd wanted since I was 10 years old.
It was a clunker! After a few days I had serious buyers remorse! What had I done! There were so many little things I hadn't noticed! Electronic things didn't work! Things were loose or broken! It rattled when it drove, a lot! It ran hot, very hot! There were mismatched wheel caps, mismatched headlight surrounds! There was one failing cooling system part after another in the coming weeks, but I'd come to terms with the fact it is still an old car, that wasn't particularly well looked after and I'd have forever to fix it up.
That was what I started doing, piece by piece, parts from the US, parts from a good distributor we have here in Sydney, it finally started to take shape. However I never ventured much past general servicing for the engine as I'd always imagined a newer more powerful setup at some point, I stuck to cosmetic fix ups. I even managed to score a basically wrecked 84
which had a t5 and 383 stroker (ended up selling most of the car and recoup what I paid and came out with heaps of spares) and most importantly, a turbo hood and flat rear spoiler. To me the turbo hood is the most iconic part of a 3rd gen and something that stuck in my mind from childhood seeing them on TV and as toy cars so at some point it was going to happen and the wrap around spoiler was gone at the mount spots and split like most do so it was going too, also cause I was never a fan of them. I loved the ground effects package on the 84 models and feel I now have the best of both models.
Fast forward a few years and the car blew out a ton of coolant in a carpark.. I filled it up with water and managed to get home and suspected the worst, blown head gasket or core plug given the location of where the coolant was dripping. Pending an out of state employment opportunity it was put under wraps and basically forgotten about for 5 years.
Two years ago, after coming back home I thought I'd check things out on it. This whole time, the source of the leak was a heater hose that had touched the exhaust manifold and melted a hole in it. Few dollars worth of heater hose and the damn thing was running again. Still didn't have time or money to do anything on it.
Finally last year, with a whole lot of help from all you guys in here, YouTube videos and the full support of my Mrs, I bit the bullet and got stuck in to fixing it up.
All this work paid off and the car runs beautifully now, I've undone all the mechanical neglect this car suffered from its previous owner and it is on its way to becoming a beautifully restored albeit slightly different looking 1988 Trans Am.
Future plans include a full re build of the engine, (I've decided to stick with the 305, the car is what it is and I now want to keep it as original as I can) as is still losing a little oil, through some worn rings I believe, trans rebuild possibly with stage 2 shift, diff rebuild, I have an interior leather kit, reupholster seats in leather but next up is steering and suspension, rebuild steering box, some new bushings all round and some sfc's.. first though is some paint restoration, cut and polish them wax should have it looking like a mirror!
That's it! If you got this far thanks for reading my novel on how I acquired my dream car!
03-21-2021, 11:20 AM
