Its about time this car made it to my house. Dang car crusher took 3 months to show up at the j/y. Once all the cars were out of the way I moved her out.

I tottaly striped the exterior, and got rid of most of the int.
As I thought I would, I found lots of rust problems on the passenger side compartment :lala: but it all can be patched :lala: The rear seat area is completely rusted thru, I can fix it with bent sheet metal. The rear pass foot well is pretty rusted thru, I can patch that up as well. And lastly the front pass side under the seat has a couple tiny spots, the area just above the cat is rusted thru, and a little spot on the tranny tunnel. All of that can be patched. The frame is in good condition "as far as I can tell. I need to jack the car up and really look under there.
Now I just need to vaccum out the dirt"theres tons of dirt" and leaves. Then I need to put a steering collum in and get some tires that will hold air on the car. Then I can work on the frame and patching the floorboards. After that I'm going to POR-15 the hoohas out of the underbody.

Thats not all rust, theres just lots and lots of dirt.

 

The yellow is just int rust, thers not underbody rust there.

 

Man, good luck.

You have alot of ambition to be tackling a job like that:hail:

 

and lastly a very crappy pic of the car stripped out, it was getting very dark when I took the pic.
Hmm, I bet a repo notchback would look sweet on there

 

You must've worked pretty hard to find an Arkansas car with that much rust.

You'd probably be better off finding a wrecked F-body and cutting the floor out of it. Once you weld it into your car, no one would be the wiser.

 

It doesnt look bad at all in person. I really need to scrape off the dirt and vaccum the dirt and leaves up.
Those are the only spots that have rusted thru the rest of the car is rust free"somehow" I thought the driver side would have been bad too, but to my suprize theres not a hint of rust.

 

That was the only fixer uper in a half way decent condition worth becoming a targa top. Cant be a 50.00 car.
I was going to cut the floor boards out of this 85 Z but it got crushed before I could do that, oh well I'll just bend sheetmetal to form.

 

Mmmmmm, a targa-ed notchback...two great tastes in one. Much luck on the project, I think there are more than a few of us following this one.

 

Damn, that's a lot of rust....

What's the projected completition date for this project??

 

I'm aming sometime near the end of the year or early next year.
The parts that are circled are rust the rest is just dirt and leaves.

 

Are you sure that car isn't a flood damgage? But its a good car to start with, especially since you will be putting it under the knife. Good luck with it.

 

awesome dude.. Glad to see you got it home.

Status on my 92 Targa TopZ is.........
Int is POR-15ed.
Got new carpet,
grey leather outa the vert is going in it.
cage is going in this weekend
motor hopefully this weekend..
Paint with in the next 3 weeks.

To the Track on Sunday with in 4weeks.

 

Sweet
Have you fabbed up the top yet?

 

I'll have to say those pics make me feel good about my car now

 

Yeah, how bout it? I thought my car was rough til I saw this one. I wish I had that kind of ambition. Wait, no I don't.

 

I feel sorry for the car, 5 years ago she would have been a perfect engine swap car. I found out that the motor blew so the owner sold it to RICK"the J/Y owner"he began parting it out, the tranny went,and the motor. Then most of the int, and the hood,windshield,passenger door. The driver door was left because someone trashed it to get the window glass out. After that she sat like that for 4 1/2 years until I came along looking for a perfect resto project to turn into my Polishing.I.N.C show car.
Out of the 2 t'top camaros I choose that one because of the rear quarter panels and overall body shape, the other one "84" had the driver rear quarter riped to shreds. And the t'top roof was in **** poor shape.
All in all this one appears to be in horrid shape but shes really not to bad off. I spent an hour looking for anymore rust spots and found none I only have those 4-5 spots on the pass side to patch up.

Heres a semi engine compartment shot, No RUST In there

 

if i had a nice cash flow and didnt have to worry about college in the future, id love to tackle a project like that. its once you start rebuilding from the ground up is when the car becomes a part of you good luck to you!

 

Hey that is a hell of a nice project there. I'd go for it no matter how bad anyone thinks it is. Where there's a will, there's a way and it sounds like you have the will, and the way. Two things that are hard to have at the same time usually. I like that car. It's a good base to start a project. Reminds me of a project car I still want to do soon. Best of luck...POR15 is good stuff.
Keep us up to date.

 

Thanks guys. I'm on a very tight budget with it. Right now when I have free time away from my polihsing shop I work with it some. Basically what I have to do are FREE fixes. :hail: Por-15
I'm revamping my cardomain website right now you can see a few pics right now but I'll have tons on there in a few hours.
www.cardomain.com/id/82targaz28

 

hey, youre right front tire is flat
lol
just kidding.
i second the notion about your ambition, it aint lacking!!!
its good to see that youre gonna make her a beauty once again.
rock on!!

 

Don't get me wrong, it sure does look like a good body to start a restoration on. It just feels good to see another car similar to your own looking "not fancy". Good luck and may the car look grand in a year or two!

 

I think I can get this done in less than a year Now that I work full time in my polishing shop, and after that I have the rest of the afternoon to play around with the car, then I should get things moving along pretty well.

I almost have the whole int stripped out, all I have to remove is the emergency brake lever, and shifter unit. Gotta get rid of that anyways, its rusted up pretty bad.
I correctly removed all the body wiring harnesses without cutting any wires. Got all the ac/blower parts removed, and the jute padding on the fire wall.
If theres another sunny day tommorw after noon I'll finish up removing the windshield wiper unit and hardware, and the bits and pieces of bolted on stuff in the engine compartment.

After I get the rest of the car all stripped I need to go to the j/y and get a steering colum and put it in the car so I can move it. And a set of junk tires that will hold air. 3/4 tires have no air making it impossible to push the car around.

 

No I havent starte don the top yet.. I buttoned up the LT1 intake 2nite..media blasting 2morrow and powdercoating it.

cage didnt get welded in 2day as planed. Maybe 2morrow.

I'll deff. keep ya posted on the top.

 

I've been thinking about how i'm gonna fab up the top.
I'm going to use the original t'top hardware for the sides of the top. In the center section in the front part im going to put a flange that keep the center section from bowing up when i'm driving the car. To put the top in you would need to place it diagonally in front first and then lay it onto the rear part of the top to get the front flange to butt up against the windshield pillar. That should also keep the top sealed down pretty good. I may have to put something in the rear part of the top, I havent thought what I'll put there, maybe another flange that can be slid back and fourth and locked into place.
Heres a crudely drawn pic of what i'm thinking about.

 

Your idea is How my old fiero keep the Sun roof in.

You could do the front like That and use a fiero latch in the back.

 

theres a Fiero with a sunroof in the j/y I'll check it all out and probally get the hardware when I go and get a steering collum for the 82.

 

looks very nice man. Glad to see another Arkansas guy (go Hogs!) tackling a project. I've got the totalled 87 out here and am going to take the entire TPI intake off and bring it with me to school next semester. That way instead of having to take it off at your place...I can just bring it in the car.

Glad to hear about your business too. Hope our deal still holds. Finding a front clip for my GTA is going to make me broke

 

good luck man.....u gonna keep it stock w/ the 82 gfx or r u going a diff yr?

 

I'm gonna go with the 91-92 style gfx, their may fav

 

nice......me too.....thats why they are sitting in the garage

 

Did some cutting an hour ago The frame isnt rusted :lala: :lala: But I have determined that GM was on crack in 82 when they designed some stuff. Like the rear control arm"if its called that" has quite some flex when you play with the sides. I'm gonna weld in some bars to stop that from happening. There's a big hole on the pass side now The surrounding rust can be sand basted off and the new patch welded in after I make a frame.

 

#2 as you can see the two raised areas on the control arm will bend when you apply sideways pressure. A couple of bars welded inbetween the Raised areas will stop that.

 

Lastly this is how I may run my frame. The yellow tube will be optional.

 

i'm sure you've been asked this 6 and a half dozen other times but i will ask just because i'm very curious how you are gonna go about the actual top. is there a targa top off of a car that you are gonna try to fab into this or are you just gonna try to take the sides off the t-top and get the glass i guess cut and put in inbetween them or what?

 

I'm going to fab up my own top from scratch. I'll use the stock t'top hardware for the outer edges of the top and on the center section I will make a flange that will butt up against the windshield pillar when I is properly installed. I still have to go to the junkyard and look at the Fiero sun roof to see how they kept the center of the sunroof held down.
I'm going to make the top out of aluminum and I'll polish it up and have my name put on the top edges, like a race car.

 

I would just buy a new floorpan, because it seems like your cutting up most of it.

Nice progress!

 

small targa top note....



if you can find one.... use the seal and locking hardware from a vert for the front...

the seal has a nice water channel in it... its already made for the app...

the latches work great to hold the top down... even at high speed, and they're nice and simple to fab onto a top...

 

Good Luck with the project!

 

MrDude_1 Thats what I originaly planed on doing but there are no verts anywhere close to me in a j/y that I know of Unless I see something on ebay I'll have to stick with my current idea.


TransAm12sec, I've been thinking about doing that since I'm basically replacing the entire passenger side floor pans. It wouldnt be that difficult for for me to buy some sheet metal and start forming it to shape.

 

Hmm are these cars hard to find in your area? There are usually tons for 300-800 bucks around here and you would get somethign alot more complete. Buying all those missing pieces is going to add up big.

 

Unfourtantely the term Dime a Dozen doest apply in souther Arkansas. I've looked in a 75 mile radius of my location and couldnt find any other decent and cheap t'top 3rdgens I dont know whats up with people here but 4 months back I saw this 88 Iroc that was in poor poor shape. I asked the guy how much is he selling it for? 3,000 for a camaro in the same shape my 82 is in. I just gave up trying to find a good body to use and if this one wont work out then I wouldnt have spent but 50.00 for the car and my time put into it.


I think I have finished doing all the cutting. I just got done doing the tranny tunel where the shifter use to be, and I got the footwell of the passegner side all finished up. The rest looks like surface rust. I'll just have to get a sandblaster and start blasing away.
I may have to replace the front seat bracket, mine looks a little to rusted to use. I'll find out when I sand blast.

 

looking at how much you cut out your really better off just buyin 2 new floor pans and welding them in.

 

I hope u have checked to see if you can get the car titled/registered, or atleast ran the vin to make sure it isn't unregistrable for some reason befor u spend alot on it.

 

Yep I can get it Titled and registered.

Does anyone know where I could score a brand new repoduction passenger floorpan? At a cheap price, yearone has one for 216.00. I'm highly debating between fabing up panels or buying a new floorpan.

 

If youre gonna fab anything, best to fab the stuff thats gonna be carpeted over.

 

Thats what I've been thinking, the rear part will be mostly covered by the seat. And making the foot floor pans fit and look stock will be easy. All I have to do is hit the j/y with my sheet metal and start pounding the shape of the floors into them. I'm probally gonna have another tranny tunnel cut and patch it into mine. Thats if I theres a good 3rdgen in the j/y to cut from.

 

What's a targa top? I'm new at this car thing and don't know the lingo yet.

 

like the vettes. Heres a few Pic's to show ya my work in progress


Since this Pic I put my 92 front gfx back on. Put the springs back in and droped a 358 motor with lt1 intake back in the car.

8point cagegets put in , in 2 weeks
Then time for paint then put all the Int. back in

Then I can finally start on the cf top

edit: heres a link fo rmore pic's
http://www.cecoatings.com/images/92Z/Targatop/

 

A targa top is like a t'top car but it only has one removable top instead of 2 and there is no t'bar runing from the roof to the windshield pillar.
I cant wait to be as far along as Chris is

 

Were targa top camaros sold this way or is a custom done thing?