OK, so a few hours ago this morning I go to work and found that some bastard tried stealing my beloved RS. . .the lights, radio, turn signals were all on and the door was opened. My Camaro was molested. . .

Police came, looked at it and filed a report, it was basically, "Sorry about your car, have a good day." And left me a card for the insurance, which I have to wait until they open to call, see if I can claim the damage. . .

Its gonna need a new steering column as its been destroyed. It'll have to go to a shop for it- that's out of my depth. Instead of going through the ignition, they tried to get it by busting up the turn signal side. . . . and the tumber is screwed up. My keys are stuck in the ignition now. I tried to turn everything off and didn't realize the igntion is jammed all the way forward.

So that brings me to the lock. Is there anyway I can fix it easily myself? I *think* I do it, just worried about the huge *** hole underneath and how to deal with it. Have my chevy manual, just wondering if I need some special tools to make the job easier.

What a crappy day, stuck at home with my trashed RS. . .

The horror below. . .

 

Who ever did that was an amature.I really feel for yah.Man what a mess.It seems you can never catch these guys in the act.

 

Feel for you someone tried to steal mine when I was in college. They luckly they were more profesional in the only damage was to the steering column on my car. No damage to the body.

Thank GM for VATS, and the fact I only drove it on the weekends in college so I took the coil wire off. They riped my radio out cutting the factory wires when they couldn't get it to crank. There was 7 other cars stolen off campus that week all sports cars most worth serveral times what mine was. The cops said they were going after it as a getaway car for future crimes.

I think I freeked the cop out when I stuck the key in for the vats leaned under the dash and finished hotwireing it to drive it home to fix it.

For your door, you will need a welder, I would go to a junkyard and cut that peice out and replace the sheet metal around the key, unfortantly that is going to require you to paint the door.

The column just replace it out of the junkyard, just remember to deal with the vats. You will either have to have a key made for the column with the resistance of your Key or put your old key cylindar into the new column.

Most people don't expect the VATS on the 89 it started on the firebirds then and the camaros in 90, I've even had to argue with the dealership the last time I needed a key made.

 

you can do the column its just a bolt out bolt in replacement unless you have airbags, which your car is a 90 I think you do. If you do a shop may be a better choice.

If it does have airbags I would avoid driving it until you can make sure they didn't mess up the triger for it.

 

Yes, it does indeed have airbags, which was one reason I wasn't going to mess with it. Coudn't drive it if I wanted to, because of the ignition being jammed up. It's like its locked on on the "on" position. And won't budge.

But, some good news, just dropped it off at the shop today so, its getting taken care of. Cost between $350 - $550 tops.

Will probably end up taking it to another place to get the door done. Its more messed up than I thought.

As for VATS, yeah, glad I have it. . . May have saved me from losing her completely. But, I didn't see the "SECURITY" light when I looked at the dash- not sure if its supposed to come on when damage is inflicted though. Both the tow truck driver (who told me he had 2 3rd gens once) and the shop owner said it was one helluva amatuer job. . .

Ugh. Stupid people in this world.

 

This also happened to my car, when it was in the previous owners possession. They got as far as busting the ignition pin and trying to start the car, but to no avail...thanks to VATS system, in which my car is also an 89 camaro with VATS.

Take care and hope this does not happen again.

 

dude, that realllllllllllllllllllly sucks

but the steering column is pretty easy to replace, its like 6 bolts. your door looks pretty messed up

 

Not sure what year they started using vats in f-bodies but both of the 89's camaros, one v6 RS and one IROC, I've owned had vats. My 86 crapvette also has vats, not sure what year they started using it on them. It sure does make it hard for an amature to steal one of these cars tho.

 

one year i had a beautiful 86 camaro - lots of options and cross fire. so i was in a public lot for court and when i came out to go to a different court my black camaro was gone.
well a few days later i got a call and they found my car. i went to pick it up. not one mark on it. who ever took it was a real pro. did not pop the lock did not pop the key inside either.
it was just before a 3 day weekend and they took it out and put about 1500 miles on it - brought it back - had it washed to take all the prints off of it and parked it in the same lot - 3 stall from where it was stolen.
even left my glasses in it.
now that was luck.

 

wow man, just wow. can you buy me a lottery ticket?

 

VATS was standard on firebirds starting in 89. Camaros it was an option in 89 standard in 90 as I under stand it could be wrong on the camaro. I have the firebird sales pamplets and its a new item.

Vetts Was something like 85.

 

This whole VATS thing got me curious. . .Apparently it was standard on all Camaro models in 1989 as well. Read from "Standard Catalog of: Camaro 1967-2002" If that book is considered accurate around here. . .

I've decided to hell with the insurance company and just pay for it all myself. They'll probably just wanna total my car anyway. May sound stupid and/or crazy, but I don't wanna have another headache having to deal with them. The whole situation stresses me out enough. I just want it fixed and over with.

I still can't get the image out of my head from yesterday morning- Finding my RS pried open and trashed. . .lights on and signals flashing.

Feel violated pure and simple.

 

That's funny. Nice of him to wash it for you.

GUY IN A 90 RS - your door looks exactly like mine. Sorry to hear about the column though. Where do you work that you would leave your car there? Whoever broke into mine was just going for my stereo(they even unplugged it instead of cutting), and half my radar detector. If they were trying to steal the car I would have seen them as my pager went off and I ran outside. Unfortunately they did a ****** and run so I didn't even get to see what they were driving.

 

That's where you bust a GM column to start it. There is a lever on the passenger side of the column under the plastic/pot metal that you push forward to start the car. Then you yank the shifter handle to bust the stop and shift gears. It's very simple if he would have been smart enough to have remote start harness when he broke in. It takes less than thirty seconds to steal that car regardless. Gm factory security is and has always been a joke.

 

Wasn't at work- car was parked right in the driveway in front of the house. I was about to got to work when I found it. Couldn't park it in the garage, because my roommate had it filled with stuff.

 

VATS was standard on 89 camaros and up, got one so i know a lil history on that, but ya dude that sucks, worst thing done to mine was my Xs X pulled all my valve cores on my tires, pissed me off, hit my truck too, got up early to get some breakfast, spent the rest of the morning dinkin around with adding air with a portable tank than taking it to work to finish filling them, filed a report with the cops just so it was on file if more stuff was done but still even the kids taking the crome caps on my car all the time pissed me off, i almost superglued them on but didnt want to go through the trouble of rippin the stems when i needed new tires or add air. anybody messin with ur car bugs the hell out me. RRRRRR hope u get it all back together soon.

 

Hear ya about the rommates having stuff in the way and not be able to park in the garage. Last roommate I had decided to put his car almost in the middle of the garage and wait 9 months to install a tranny that he rushed a good friend to hurry up and build. Inbetween those 9 months I kept bugging him asking when he was going to install it, I would lend a hand...eventually I just dropped his car and pushed it out of the way. Was almost temped to push it out of the garage. Would have caused more fighting though. I'll never have roommates again.
How new is the paint on the whole car? If you can hold out in getting that lock fixed(if you have other transportation to work), I would just get the whole car painted at once if it needs a repaint anyway.