I have a 1990 Camaro rs that was handed down to me by my late grandmother. She didn’t take the best care of it as it sat outside all of its years with bare minimum maintenance. The car has a 66k miles on the body and trans. The engine got swapped out with a new 305 with only 400 miles on it. It drives, just needs a steering column fix and some new tires to be driven on the road. There are obviously other issues like cosmetics and mechanical that I know may need to be repaired if I want this to become a daily driver. I’m concerned if I should put any money into because of the rust I see under the car. I want to know if the rust I see in the undercarriage and quarters is too far gone/ too expensive to repair?



Driver side floor panel

 

I picked up a car exactly like that a few years back. I did the work to bring it to daily driver status. Brakes, oil change, tires and the other basics. I drove it all last summer every day. It will be getting paint in a few months and I couldn't be happier. If this car means anything to you start with the basics and go from there. Good luck!

 

Its hard to tell from the pics but the rust mainly looks surface... id check it out fully, sand it, prep it and put a rust paint over it or soemthing to slow the rot... leave the quarters if you dont want to spend muchh money and get her going as is minus a fe maintenance repairs. . Drive in memory of grandma

 

Get it safe and running and drive the car. Enjoy it. Lots of people with super nice cars will never enjoy them like you could with this car.

 

I'm with 1989karr. A little hard to tell how much, if any, actual perforation has occurred. But it's it's all surface, nothing wrong with a paint over rust product like a POR-15, KBS Coatings, Bill Hirsch Miracle Paint, or Eastwood Rust Encapsulator. I have used each with good results.

It will keep it from getting worse, and then you can decide over time how much you like the car, and if you want to put more money into better repairs, or just drive and enjoy it as-is.

I would recommend top coating these paint-over-rust products with some rattle can paint as directed, as some are UV sensitive, and will decay over time with exposure to light.

P.S. I'm a little biased, as I still have my Grandmas last car. It lived outside and has some issues too, but it's been in our family since new, and I won't let it go. So I'm probably the wrong person to ask!

 

Nice! I'd say keep it, fix the essential stuff that needs to be fixed to make it a daily driver while you save up and do a body resto on it. Don't do what i did and strip it... haha!

 

What is everyone paying per month (or year, if you have that) for general maintenance costs? What do you find the "true cost" of the camaro to be per month/year, excluding financing?

 

I spent about 10 grand restoring a car that was only worth 5 when I was done, but then daily drove it for the past 15 years, , , , , so I'd say it owes me , , , , nothing.....

PS, just sayin, , ,

if your gonna be countin dollars & cents and trying to cost analyze owning a classic car, , , ANY classic car, you may wanna rethink your choice of ride....

 

I agree with OrangeBird.

Sounds like you should get a late model Corolla instead.