I am looking at a 92' RS convertible that is local to me. The price is $2750 obo. I belive I can get it for between $2300 and $2500. The car is in pretty good shape. Most of the work done on the car was done in 04' such as new canvas top, decent paint job, new tires and new crate motor with documentation on all of this. The owner used to be the service manager at one of the local Chevy dealers. The car has been garaged, which shows in the top. The motor runs good (its a 305), the tranny shifts out tight, A/C blows ice cold.

THE BAD: Blown rear wheel cylinders, front spoiler scraped up along edge, seats and carpet need replaced or recovered. Dash top is cracked up. Gauges don't all read correctly, rpm is off, speedo not reading correctly. He mentioned that when the motor was replaced, they put in a longer oil pick up tube. There seems to be about inch and a half too 2 inches of play in the steering. exhaust seems good. obvious gunking around rear diff. but drives straight and true.

So, open to all opinions and comments. Any idea of how much it would cost to get this in shape with some mechanical abilitys (i.e.--have changed a timing belt on a Porsche 928 and that was pushing it) and lastly is it worth the purchasing price.

I have a few pics but don't know how to post them here.

Thanks for any help,

Dave

 

the spoiler and all the interior stuff is easily done. dash pad is 100 bucks, seats and carpet you can pull from the for sale sections here or from the junkyard. Ask him if the rear is different, gauges are easily done as well like 100 bucks for a 145 speedo.

the suspension stuff may just need a rebuild which is not difficult either and is fairly cheap depending on what quality stuff you get. so the rear wheel cylinders would be the only thing i guess...ive never done those so i have no idea.

hope this helps

 

Good information, thanks.

Do you think this would be a good purchase price?


Dave

 

i would say so if theres no rust and needs no other work than what you said...this is provided you don't discover hidden things wrong w/ the car after you buy it haha. also depends on the miles on the motor/tranny/rear too...

 

Sounds good, Thanks again for the advice. I didn't see any rust, but we all know you never know until you really get into it.

Dave

 

As long as the 92 does not have any rust, it's probably not a bad deal. However, if the car has been garage kept, why is the dash cracked and why would you need a new 305 engine? Those are pretty tough motors unless someone has really been beating the p1ss out of it. My 89 motor had over 175K on it when I pulled it and the only problem was valve guide seals, which I fixed.
Perhaps spend a little more on a car in better shape? Or is that where the budget leaves you?

 

Very good points, maybe garage kept since new top. Good question to refer to on the motor, why the replacement? should have been a common sense question, think I was blinded by impulse of wanting it. LOL

Budget is about $3000 for purchase price and initial repairs. I am hoping that I should be able to take care of the interior, rear brakes and possiable troubleshoot the gauges and possaibly repair for this amount.

Thanks for the reply

 

I'd say it's a good deal but don't expect to stop at $3K when the initial spend is over. I got mine for roughly the same price and I had about 3K more on top of that to get it cherry and I'm replacing the top later this month to the tune of another grand! The 305 can end up being a very reliable motor provide the aforementioned abuse wasn't there. The rest sounds cosmetic. I had to redo the paint, all the brakes, transmission service, and other neglected maintenance items before I started on the mods these cars need: wonder bar, SFC's, exhaust.

Take the good with the bad and wiegh out what you should do based on your plans to spend more. My bet is it is still a good deal considering the gradual upturn in value I believe these cars are headed into.

 

Thanks Cadillac, Yea, I am figuring $3000 to be safe over the next 6 months to get it mechanically where I feel comfortable with the reliability. I am not looking at major performance mods for the future, because I hope to keep this as just my funtime car with a little everyday driving. I think my 5yo daughter is my main reason for getting this car, the other day she told me she wanted me to get a car that doesn't have a top. I said a convertiable and she said "Yea, a Conbertable" LOL.

 

Let me first say to all that offered advice and information. I am very happy that I made the purchase for $2300, although I think I paid a little too much and I was a tad bit blinded by the convertible bug and overlooked quite a bit of stuff that I should have found very easy. I have a lot of things to replace or repair and more and more popping up the more I drive it and repair things. But a couple nice days for the top to be down has given me the drive to get her back into shape.

 

Don't beat yourself up too bad. I think you got the car at a pretty good price. I paid close to $10k for mine and then put another $1k into it.

 

Thanks plndtx,

I would be happy to get mine to look half as good as yours does, that is one hot Camaro.