hello all, i am new to this site and just browsing around trying to find some info, so far no luck. i am wondering if anyone has converted a firebird to a camaro. i have a 87 iroc z that is getting a little soft in the floor, i have a chance to buy a plane jane firebird/trans am that is mint for a really good price. just wondering if all of the body lines are gonna line up to put my front clip on the firebird, i realize the rear tail light section of the car is different, i am an experienced body man and could cut and weld the tail from one car to another, just seeing if anyone has done this. i realize it would be easier to drive the t/a but i realy love my iroc. and here in canada it is hard to find a solid 3rd gen, or solid anythig for that matter. thanks for the help

 

2 things doesn't make sense; the firebird is mint condition and hard to find a solid one, but you want to chop it up?

Honestly, if just the floor pans are bad in the Camaro just buy need floor pans. If you are a good body person, the floor pans will be easy for you. Even if it's not perfect, the carpet will be covering it.

You will have to swap fenders, hood, bumper, radiator support, headlights, rewire the headlights, tail lights, spoiler, rear bumper, and area around the tail lights. That's a lot of work. Just fixing your Iroc would probably be easier and better for you.

 

I've seen pictures of a firebird with a camaro front clip, its not a pretty sight. doesnt look all that good.

You can't just swap out the rear quarters easily, and the firebird/camaro have different lines back there. If you can tolerate a firebird rear then i suppose you could throw a camaro front end on it and call it a day, but the ground effects wont match up between the camaro/firebird styles from front to back to well.

 

i am really not a fan of the firebird, hate the flip up lights, my iroc is soft in the subframe sections as well, where the trans crossmemeber bolts up has pulled through. i dont want a hybrid between a firebird rear and camaro front i want all camaro. has anyone replaced the tail section as well as the front clip. just want to see some pics. i know the wheel openings will be different but i can change the whole rear quarter. i know its alot of work, but i have alot of time.lol

 

I thought Canada had a rule that prescribes a minimal age for a vehicle to be allowed as potential imported vehicle?

I thought that was something like 15 years?

In case you don't quite like the firebird and do not wish to fix the camaro, sell both and get a good one from across the border.

That prevents you sinking a ton of money in a conversion that chops up 2 potentially good cars and possibly results in a big pile of parts for 1 aborted project.

For the time and money you put in the conversion you shoudl be able to get import tax and fees covered easily.

That's just my 2 cents.

 

Don't do it, if you want a Firebird, buy a Firebird. If you want a Camaro, buy a Camaro.

No sense in Frankensteining the two together, especially at the expense of a nice one. It won't look good when it's done.

 

Don't ruin a perfecty good Trans Am to try and make some frankenstein mobile. I'm sure there's plenty of people who can apperciate the (IMO) far better looks of a mint Trans AM, and would love to buy a it from you. If you love your Iroc so much it seems like you'd want to fix it rather than chopping it up with another fbody.

 

I've heard of several people doing it.

There's an "easy 2-step method" for that; works perfect, every time. Nobody can even tell you did it, unless they saw your garage before and after. It involves a middle state of affairs, that takes care of all the pesky details.


Step 1: Turn Firebird into money


Step 2: Turn money into IROC


AMAZING!!!

That "money" stuff is just incredible. Most powerful stuff in the world. More powerful than a gun, even; people will do stuff or give you stuff if you point a gun at em and tell em you want it, but they'll hate you for it, might even try to kill you back afterwards. OTOH, if you point MONEY at em, they'll not only do it or give it up, they'll LINE UP just to get the chance to be the victim you do it to!!! Purest form of interpersonal power ever invented. I hope the guy that invented it got to keep some for himself. And best of all, it works on cars!!

 

ok then thanks for the replys i have found another iroc rolling chasis that i am goin after this weekend that is about 150 miles away. i dont understand why everyone thinks its such a big deal to merge the 2 cars, for a bunch of self proclaimed car enthusiast it seems that anything more than having to change a set of tires you abort mission and find another car with the right tires, wheres the creativity. if i can rebuild wrote off vehicles and get them re-registered and an engineer to sign off on them saying they are safe and legal why couldnt i cut the back off of one car and put it on another? just saying.

 

You can find iroc bodies cheap enough. Its so much work you can just buy what your planning on buying and be done. Big difference on logical and practical than illogical and crazy. Some of us don't work on our cars and their are some super geniuses on here. But common sense says what is practical.

 

it is very difficult to find a camaro or an iroc around here in good shape, however firebirds seem to be a dime a dozen. i have been lookin for months but anyway, if you guys think this isnt practical or borderline crazy you should see my mud bogger with 62inch tractor tires. that wasnt a day job by any stretch of the imagination so this doesnt scare me. this started off as a 4cyl 4 runner now it has 800 horse and you need a stepladder to get into it.

 

There were 1,517,623 Camaro's and 817,444 Firebirds made between 1982 & 1992. There was almost twice as many Camaros made. I don't see that many Firebirds around, but Camaros I see them a lot more.

Image you found a 69 Firebird, but you actually want a 69 Camaro. Would you turn that Firebird into a Camaro, I know I wouldn't.

Also that is the biggest John Deere Gator I've seen.

 

I don't think many here told you not to do it JUST because of the ammount of work involved. I consider these cars to be classics, and I hate to see one destroyed. By all means put way more work into t 3rd gen than its worth, god knows I have, but I draw the line at buying a nice driveable car just to cut it up.

 

this, a guy i know was going to derby a 3rd gen camaro. i about punched him in the face

 

repair the floor it is quite easy i am fixing my floor in my 87 camaro and im a teenager mmy floor was completely gone in one spot. Dont ruin a prefectly good firebird get some 18 gauge steel, fiberglass, a ball pien hammer and a welder and your set

 

we're talking subframe not just floor. if it was just the floor it would be fixed by now. i understand not cutting up a classic but its just an old plane jane 6 cyl firebird most people who would buy it would drop a big motor in it drill it full of holes for skirts put a spoiler on it and french up the interior weld in subframe connectors taking every bit of this classic and try to make it everything it wasnt anyway. does anybody on the east coast of canada want to trade a firebird for an iroc. let me know

 

thats what happened to all of the camaros around here. they have there own special class at the circletrack.(idiots)

 

oh if its a 6 cyl firebird and your subframe to damaged go ahead i dont see the point in a 6 cyl firebird it just dont think they are worth much because no one wants one they want one with a real engine

 

they are running 3rd gens in a superstock class? the lack of an upper control arm means any wheel contact and you have struts bending..not a good idea...

 

Sorry to change the subject but there was a thread on here about some guy who turned a 3rd gen into a stock car and it was actually a pretty interesting read but I know they had to modify the front suspension somehow

 

To the OP, there is a very large "step" in the quarter panels of a Firebird that the Camaro's don't have. To try and duplicate that.....

Best best is to see what the problem is with the IROC and then put in the appropriate sheet metal (floor pans, quarter panels, etc) and take it from there.

Drivetrain-wise the cars are quite similar, cosmetic-wise, very different.

Hope that helps.

 

I pretty much agree with everyone saying don't ruin two cars for no reason, or even 1 car imo, I'm against the whole parts car thing because theres always at least half a car left that gets thrown away, just buy some new floorpans from classic industries, or I believe some other company has them also, or even get them from a JY, but don't cut up a decent car just because you need some floor pans.........

 

hmm okay. maybe in some special class. I thought in the stock classes you were limited to how you could modify