Hi folks... Need some knowledgeable advice...

I bought an all original 87 IROC with the 5.7 Liter TPI numbers matching motor for $600 about 4 months ago. (VIN has an '8' in the eighth digit). Car has posi rear, disc brakes at all 4 wheels, T-tops, 16" rims...Interior is all there, needs a cleaning and a new headliner...

The engine/tranny are very solid with no leaks and no smoke. Car drives and has neck snapping acceleration...

Here's the issue:
The car has rust. It needs new front fenders and some holes patched in the rear quarters. It has a few holes in the floorboard near the passenger side firewall. It also has a hole in the rear trunk area where the spare tire is. The bottom of the car is rusty and parts of the inner rockers have limited rot.

Would you restore this car or part it out? Thanks, JD

 

if you got the money do it and can do it yourself as you'll spend the cars value in a week of a body shop working on it. if not keep it as a parts car and find a v6 sports coupe as a doner body.

 

do it...if everything is good beside the body. Fenders, patching the quarters, and the truck are easy if you can do it yourself. The rockers would be the only thing I'd be worried about...but if you mean limited as in little holes, get the rust out, weld them up, and rust proof and you should have a solid car.

 

You know there really is not an unlimited supply of these. I'd look into saving it. How many miles, hows the interior? Post pics if poss. I hate to see these cars cut up.

 

restore it. Dont let one be destroyed unless its completely trashed

 

Id say restore it.

If you want to make that car original it should not cost alot if you do all the work youreself it may just take some time.

 

well u could always pick up a rolling chassis and switch every thing over

 

depending on how bad rust is on quarters, and rockers I would say restore it, but if its to bad just part it out or transfer everything over to a really nice donor

 

Third gens are so cheap that unless the car is really rare, it will always be worth your while to scrap it and find another rust free car to start out with. I can't see doing body sheet metal repair on one of these cars like you would a classic car.

 

this is exactly what people said about the first camaros and birds of the 60's

I garantee that these cars will be worth alot of money in the near future. If you are watching the values are going up as we speak. Maybe not in KBB but intrest is growing

do what you have to to make the car right. no rush

 

Yeah but they made millions and millions of third gens and there are still millions of them around in good shape, that's the difference.

 

If it were mine I'd save it.

 

Tally up all the areas in need of repair
Next tally up a list of replacement part costs
Now add in labor cost
And a paint job

See how this got expensive that fast?

This isnt counting general tune up/repair nor the interior overhaul

Scrap it and find a better car
Having some desirable options you should have no trouble making your money back plus some

 

See everybody "shoulda woulda coulda" chimes in and "they would save it" but put your money where your mouth is. You can find a rust free 3rd gen in the $1000-1500 range, easy. You could spend $5k doing rust repair on a car very quickly. There are just way too many of these cars still around, and there will be for a lot of years to come

 

you want my money where my mouth is?

I payed $10,000 for my 1984 WS6 T.A and i found heaps of rust in it (in the firewall/wiperwell area), i plan on making a mean weekend / strip car (ZZ383 / TH400 / Ford 9" and so on) and i have bugeted $40/45,000AUD into this build (including buying the car).

RHD 3rd gens over here go for around $16/$25K+

Sofare i have removed all of the firewall and 60% of the drain/wiperwell and already welded a fue new sections in just havent updated my sight yet. The rust was so bad when i was removing the body filler (used to make the firewall look clean after the RHD conversion) i found a hole that i could fit my hand through into the wiperwell from the cab!

 

Keep it. Trash it, if you like the car and want to do what you want to the car then do it. If you trash it then there is one less that will be around when the cars start to go up in valve. Giving that will be a few years from now. But when they are and people are looking back and saying I wish I wouldnt have set that car to the crusher then the car will win.

 

here is a nice little shot of what i found

 

LOL

 

good ay? yeah i looked kinda like this when i found it.

 

Thank you for all the valuable replies so far. Here is a pic of the car...

I will take a few pics this weekend so I can show you what level of rust I am dealing with.

Thanks
JD

 

Since it is a L98 IROC I would save it or atleast sell it to somebody interested in saving the car. Those models will be worth big bucks in 5-10 years. Prices for a "decent" third gen are already rising pretty high here in Ma. 1500 will get you a thirdgen thats "looks" ok but really is a can of worms just waiting to be opened. A true mint condition third gen, not even a IROC or WS6 but atleast a Z or a Formula will run you 10-15k around here.

 

If that were true id have a car hauler loaded with cheap southern 3rd gens up there right now

Truth is they are still stupidly cheap and with the use of the internet people are traveling across the country to find the "right" car

From the description, Id scrap it
It is not and will not be worth much of anything in the next decade

 

If you decide not to fix it Id buy it. You'd just have to send it to California and I would have it shipped over here. I would love another IROC for a daily driver but they are way to expensive over here and you can't trust a lot of the RHD conversions.

 

What part of the country are you located in, Didomen? 327 tpi's right, get rid of it, I'll give ya $700 us dollars for it.

 

I would definitely save it besides a little rust never hurt anyone/

 

If I could find something like that around here for $600, i'd totally jump on it.

 

You know, I have gone each way in this situation before. Here's how it works:

Can you do the rust repairs yourself? If you have a mig welder and you can do it yourself, you will make money on this car. If you would have to pay someone to fix quarter panels and floorboards, then you will lose money on this car. This goes for all third gens except Turbo Trans Ams and Firehawks.

I have fixed cars like yours and sold them and made money. I have also shelled out cars like yours and made money. My last one was an 86 T/A that was loaded but piled in the rear. I got a mint 85 4 cylinder bird for nothing and transfered everything from the T/A to it. I even welded on the gfx supports under the rocker panels. It came out great and I made money on that deal, too.

So? Can you weld? If not, then talk to Pocket and get yourself a rust free Camaro and start transfering everything.

Good luck!

Oh, and one more thing. If you do a transfer, then strip EVERYHTING from the L98 car. Don't let the wonder bar or steering box or anything go to the scrap pile! Sell all the parts here! People do buy them...

 

I have quite recently gotten into the same position. I bought an 89 firebird for 650 with a 3.8, t tops, runs great, but the body leaves a LOT to be desired. I've also been trying to decide whether it is worth it to restore it or not. Mine also has a lot of homemade electrical issues that I don't even know where to begin fixing, but I think I've decided to restore it. I kind of like it, and if everything else is good on it, it could be a really great car. Yours, however is MUCH nicer than mine; I'd try to fix it. Good luck.

 

3.8? As in turbo Trans Am? or 2.8 V6?

 

I meant 2.8. Typo.

 

I'm amazed at how easily people give up on the 3rd gen cars. From the number of part-outs I see on this site, these cars seem to be disappearing at an alarming rate.
As the owner of a 1st gen Camaro, I'm used to seeing rusted out shells go for more money than complete 3rd gen's. It may not seem like it now, but the value of these cars WILL go up over time. They're not making any more of these, please don't take another one out of circulation.

 

Restore! I wish I woulda kept my 89 350 TPI Iroc and now its long gone

 

People part these cars out because they are still common and dirt cheap
The parts are worth more than the car

In 20-30 years when these cars are difficult to find they will be worth something like your 1st gen
But, there are still hundreds of thousands of these cars still moving around
The sheer number of good platforms that owners are trying to sell cheaply far exceeds the number of rust bucket repair bills actually paid

If youre dead set on saving it then buy if from him

 

Well, good luck finding all these cheap third gens. down here. At least not in Florida. Maybe Georgia or Tennessee or something, but around here third gens hold their value at about $1500 and higher WITH issues like rust and blown engines/trannys, etc. A decent running daily driver that doesn't have costly issues holds around $2500-$4000. That is on Craigslist, autotrader, local paper, etc. There are a few on craigslist for under $2000, but they are the same thing you would be getting up there. They usually came from up north in that case. Just my two cents.

 

boy they saw u comming. wait. i just noticed,dude thats because u live in fvkin Austrailia,and they still saw u comming.

its not like that in the USA. there is litarally millions of these things here.

this not like a 63 impala 409 ss,where ur lucky if there's 500 of them still around.
i am all about saving a car. this comes down to U. if u like it save it. u never buy a car as an investment. look at Barrat Jackson. when a 67 shelby gt500 goes for 150k they always say when they go for that price,that it was a good buy b/c u couldn't restore it for that. hell,the steering wheel for that shelby is 5000. i know i looked it up.
so if ur buying this to restore and flip it. don't bother. find a better one.
its ur money do what u have to. but deffantly know what ur getting into. if u have 25k to throw at it,cool. u allready have ur answer.

 

I was able to take a few easy pics. It's 9 degrees here in Western Mass. I'll get more pics of the bottom of the car when and if it warms a bit later today. I already own much of the tools needed to do the rust repair and repaint (HF fluxcore welder, HVLP gravity feed gun, primer gun, 30 gallon compressor, more...), but I've never attempted this level of repair before.

I'm one of those have to own every tool guy but not totally sure how to use them.

Based on the replies, I am inclined to restore (I use that word loosely) this car while learning some metal working. Thanks for all the responses...

 

That doesn't look so bad. Your car looks better than the 86Z I'm doing now. Think of it as an opportunity to learn welding and painting and put those new tools to use.

 

I'd fix the car that if thats all the rust your worried about. I don't know if the Camaro has the aftermarket support of that of the Fox Mustang. I seems there was another thread on weather to save or scrap on this site. Always interesting to read.
Based on the Fox Mustang it appears that they are going up in value, so I would like to think the Camaro would eventually go up in value too. Is there a National Camaro club, like the MCA?

 

I say fix it. Looks like a good car, especially if there's nothing wrong with the drivetrain.

 

Those are mild

Show the rest of the rust

 

hey didoman
On a personnal level ill tell you keep it..

If i listened to all of my buddies to get rid of it or pull the engine and put it in an s10 id be really upset and alot more broke and not happy.I feel i love with the idea of it beeing an iroc nothing more. My iroc now has no doors,fenders,gfx bumpers and soon no interior....call me crazy but i believe this car will be worth something beacuse of my idea. That being said if you love the iroc idea dont let rust get in the way.

 

Well if you price it all up say a $5,000USD car in AUD is around $5,521AUD then doubble that to get it over here ($11,042AUD) then + import taxes (prob about $1,200AUD duno exact but it is alot) then to get it road worthy it must be converted to RHD (around $8 to 10,000AUD) then you have a $22,242AUD bill for a $5,000USD car. Then + $8 to $10,000 modding it (my modds will be GM-ZZ383, B&M TH400, Ford 9" w/3.70's and thats about $12,500 just for the drivetrain).

 

damn. i feel ur pain man. that sucks.did u do all that with the right side drive thing?
do u have any interior pics. i would love to see them. that must look awesome.
and yes i still say restore it. but if u live where VenumX lives, burn that fvkin b!tch.

no seriously Venum,i'm glad that u care enough about these 3rd gens to go through all that expense. God bless u,seriously.
Jay.

 

The conversion was done back in 87 (I think) when it was imported, All the rust is because of the dodgy conversion (unsealed welds in places the water was sitting) but I was told the conversion cost around $9,000AUD and that was back then.

I have pictures of what it useto look like on my home page in my sig.
( www.84transam.blogspot.com ).

Sry don't mean to hijack but to "Didomen" that dose not look to be too bad from thoes shots but if you take youre time and fix the rust properly and get it all clean again you will have more pride in the car (and youreself) because you took the time and effort to bring it back from the point where some people would have scraped it.

 

Here's a few more pics...I'm most concerned with the front frame rail where the sway bar mounts...

 

umm thats a little worse than i first thought, Anything is fixable but that will take a lot of cutting and welding to repear.

 

Save it just to deny the Chinese the steel to make more of those darned little rip off cheapo four wheelers and other knock off junk. Or even better, use the time & effort the body repairs would take to instead make the car stupid fast & go have fun.

Oh, & then park really close to any nice/ expensive cars you see.

 

The rad support rust is pretty nasty but not really structural

The other rust posted was mostly surface

Since I dont see any undercoating and the rad support is that bad Id bet the areas are the trans crossmember, rear fenderwells, floorboard corners, trunk, and rear subframe are pretty nasty

Looks pretty bleak

 

Based on those responses perhaps I will re-think my ability to restore this car. Is there anyone interested in purchasing this car to restore?

 

It almost looks like the bottom 1" of the car was in salt water for a fue years.