Hey guys

I'm starting this build thread on my old 82 Camaro. I'm new to Third Gen as a member however I have occasionally browsed the site for a few years now. So first off I'd like to give you guys a little bit of a back ground story on the car and then show you a few pics of what I'm working with and so on. So I'm 24 now and this is the first car I ever purchased. I got it when I was 15 from my uncle and this was his baby. I had been bugging him for about a year to let me buy it off of him but he would never part with her. One winter morning I got a call from him saying "If you don't come take this car i'm going to put sand in the engine" So I ended up driving to his house and giving him $500 cash for the car. His frustrations stemmed from the cars inability to start. However after only a little while playing with it I figured out that the ignition wires were in the wrong firing order. I took 10 minutes and switched the order..and bam she fired right up. I spent my high school summers fixing the car up to road worthiness and when I was finally done, boy was I proud. I was the one kid in high school driving a 3rd gen while everyone else was rocking sunfires.


I ran it for about a year and then In my final year of high school I was diagnosed with cancer and had to park it. After making a full recovery (I've been cancer free sense then )I started studying automotive tech in college. So it was finally time to pull the old girl out again. So I ended up bringing it to the college and doing an engine swap and all this stuff and ended up driving it home..again proud. However that same week I blew the motor and had to park the car once again. To make a long story short I ended up getting engaged and buying a house and blah blah so there she sat all this time. So every summer for the last 4 years I've been saying I need to work on that thing..get her up to snuff..but I kept putting it off. I'm sorry for the long drawn out story guys I just had to try to paint the picture for you guys so you know the emotional reasons why I just never had it in me to part with the car this whole time.


Fast forward to present day and my wife is now starting to get annoyed by the old "ugly" (her words not mine) girl. Not only annoyed at the fact that its taking up drive way space but also that I keep saying i'll get around to it but never do. So I cut a deal with her that if by the end of this summer I haven't touched it just like the last 4 years, that i'll tow my first car that made me fall in love with Camaros..to the junk yard. So now its crunch time.


So I want you guys to note that In these pictures a lot of the spots that may look like rust are not. In actuality they are spots where the paint has chipped and exposed the redish/brown primer my uncle used before painting all those years ago. so from a rust stand point the body actually isn't that bad the only real place starting to get it is the drivers door. So my thoughts for this summer is preservation. I don't have to be driving it by the end of the season. I'm going to strip all the paint off and prime and repaint the car while fixing any rust along the way. That's why i posted in the body section. (hope this is the right place). Before I get into dropping another engine in and all that fun stuff I want to make sure the body isnt going to dissolve in the process. Once i get the body resolved I'm going to move to engine / tranny.


I know it seems like a lot of work, but I have the determination and i just can't bare to see this car die. So wish me luck! Here are the picks of how she looks now and i'll up date as i go. Should be starting this weekend! Let me know what you think.

 

More pics

 

and more

 

even more

 

and more again

 

last one fore now

 

Good luck. Check out all the common rust areas out first to determine if it's worth the effort or not before you start. The body looks rough and I'm sure you're going to find a lot of stuff hiding under that paint. There is definite rust around the quarter panel wheel wells - there's supposed to be a nice stamped line and it's all been filled in.

 

Ok, time for me to get attacked by everyone else for posting this: RUSTOLEUM! :-D

No seriously, there was a story I read a while back about a guy whos landlord was bugging him to get rid of his eyesore camaro. I think he threw one coat of tractor paint on it and kept the guy happy.

If your wife is complaining about it being ugly, a weekend worth of quick prep and rolling on some rustoleum may help that situation. Your car is definitely in better shape for a starting point than a lot of others. At the very least, it'll buy you some time to get it running again (I'm assuming it's still blown up since your post didn't mention replacing the 2nd motor).

Good luck! Oh, and btw congrats on kickin cancer's ***!

 

Thanks for the reply's guys! I'll definitely be checking all the common rust spots as I go along. I'm not trying to get it to look show room condition or anything like that. I just want to get it looking half way decent, then get a running motor and tranny in it and finally fix any suspension parts that will need to be replaced a this point. Basically in a nut shell have it road worthy.

I actually thought about a quick rustoleum lol. However after thinking of it a little more I determined that I would like to spend some time with it and make it a "summer project" I know theres lots of work to be had but I kind of want to have that experience.

I thought i'd also share with you guys all the stuff I did to it 4 years ago. I know all of this wont matter now because I'm sure time has taken its toll however on the plus side even though the car sat for 4 years it was sitting on a concrete pad and not on grass or dirt.

 

So here are the tings that I did that I can remember.

Swapped Motor and Tranny
New passenger side mirror
New rearview mirror
3 new sealed beam headlights
New radiator
New brakes all around (rotors,pads, drums, shoes, calibers, etc)
New wiper motor
Steering column, wheel and steering assembly out of a firebird
New tires (poop now)
New exhaust from motor back
New tranny lines
New brake lines front to back
New fuel lines front to back
New fuel pump
Had the floor pans redone front and rear
New shocks, struts and springs

Thats all I can think of for now. Now you guys can shoot me for letting it go to crap after having all that done to it 4 years ago! lol

I'm hoping that theres a sliver of a chance some of that like the lines and floor survived the time spent sitting. I'm sure there's some more stuff I can't think of. So as you can see I do already have some time effort and money invested in it which emotions aside are more reasons that I want to keep and resurrect this beast!

 

She looks rough, but glad you held on to her, hope you can get her going. Also glad you are cancer free, you did not give up, so don't give up on your first car.

 

Thanks man! definitely not giving up on it

 

I thought my car needed some body work! I'd say try and fix it up and don't give up on it. I gotta say though...those louvers make the car look like it should be in the death race movies. I like it

 

Death Race! lol Now that I look at it I can see that for sure haha. I actually have a middle portion for the luvers as well just never put them on the car. Going to put them on when I'm done the body work.