Hey Guys,

So I normally lurk and read here, and this is one of my first actual threads.

Here's my situation. I own a dealer and repair / performance shop in Hamilton NJ with my brother. He handles most of the service stuff and I do the sales.

Well I've always loved 3rd gens, I had an 87 z28 as my first car. My brother has a 92 z28 350 tpi car that he converted to a t5. In my later years I got much more involved in the euro car scene but I've always had a soft spot for 3rd gens.

So I was watching the dealer auctions online - I had a hit list of cars I was trying to buy, and all of a sudden what rolls into the lane but a 92 Camaro RS convertible. I had no info on the car and no one I could get in touch with to go over the car, but it was a convertible, and the same colors as my first car so I took a shot in the dark, figuring I wasn't risking that much $$ anyway.

So I end up winning the car. I got the car delivered to my shop and got a chance to go over it this weekend and now I'm torn as to what I should do with it.

It's a 92 RS convertible Black / Grey int, 103k miles. 305 TBI / 700R4.

The good:

Runs / drives / shifts / stops fine. - has new brake lines and calipers installed.

Front seats are nice, rears are nice except for some small cracking at the very top of the seat.

Power windows work

Black soft tops looks virtually brand new, and folds up / down latches fine.

The expected:

Typical 3rd gen door sag esp on drivers door.

Power trunk pulldown is inop

Power locks do not work

Tach is way high

Floors have actually been already patched and it's a decent job.

Trans has a slight leak from the pan

The unexpected but not the end of the world stuff:

Both sunvisors missing

Alpine Radio with missing trim ring and crackling speakers

Small crack in the corner of the front ground effect

One side of the tonneau will not release electrically, have to pull the cable - also, there is a section on the edge of the tonneau where it looks like the vnyil caught the top and its loose / folded back.

The potential deal breakers:

The passenger side quarter panel is full of bondo. From the door jam to past the wheel well arch. Wheel well arch is mis-shapen a bit. It takes a good eye to notice it, but its flat at the top.

Paint is driver quality, and looks good from 20ft away. - except over said quarter where there are visible sand scratches etc. The rest could be probably cut and bufffed to acceptability.

The rear wing on the trunk is a bit loose, and the third brake light doesn't work, actually it feels hollow behind the lens.

At best this car will need a quarter cut out and replaced to be right.

My plans were to restomod it into a nice cruiser - decent stereo, an lq9 6.0 out of an escalade or 2500 - do all the little cosmetic stuff.

Now my brother was like forget it it's not worth it. You need to start with a nicer body. We can do all the mechanical stuff. That's nothing. It's the body / paint that gonna kill you. We can cut the quarter out and redo it, but he's like by the time we do all that and you get the car right, you could have bought a nicer one, and not have dealt with the hassle. He also thinks with the current state of the market I'd be better off starting with a z28 v/s an RS.

So Here are my options:

1) Part the car out
2) Fix a few things to get it right and try to sell it off as is
3) Do the body work / etc and use this as the basis for my project

Here are a few pics of the car.









Any ideas would be appreciated.

Thanks,

George

 

How much you want for it? My husband and I restore these cars- and I think this one is too nice for a part out.

 

sounds to nice to part out. sell it as it is if you think its to much for your project. Just my

 

92 verts are getting harder and harder to find. Drive it as is. Put a LQ9 in it and get the body work done when time and $$ permits. Being in the business Im sure you guys know a few body shop buddies you can exchange work with, etc....

 

I shot you a quick PM.

As far as parting it v/s keeping it and building it v/s selling it as is.

I bought the car with the intentions of having a project over the winter. I have no interest in driving the car as is. I have 8 other cars, everything from a Range Rover HSE, Jaguar S-Type R, to a 96 Impala SS with a built LT1 3:73 posi and a 150 shot. Plus the convertible season is almost over in the northeast.

At this point it's about what makes the most economic sense. I've found far cleaner ones for what it would prob cost to cut the quarter out of this one, and do the body right then do an all over repaint on this one when you factor in the cost of this car. The floors have been patched but a rust - free body is better to begin with. If I can get my $$ back out of it I'm more than willing to let it go, and wait for or seek out a better example, because if nothing else, picking up this car gave me the bug again.

Yeah I have friends in the body shop biz, but most of them don't own the shops they work at, so they can only do so much on the side... The EPA has made owning / running a body shop a costly nightmare these days.

With enough time, money, and patience anything can be fixed. The thing is it's its all about return on investment both in terms of $$ and time... yes they are rare but they aren't impossible to find.

I'd like to break even on it or come close handing the title and the keys to someone. It would be nice to see the car returned to it's former glory. If that's not feasible, I guess I'm left with the option of parting it out.

Take care,

George

 

George, I responded.
My husband is a body tech by trade, and we have the place to restore it. Then he can use the paint booth at work when it comes time to paint.

 

In that case he's the perfect person to pick this car up. What would be a $3500-4000 repair / refinish will cost him less than $1000. Makes all the difference in the world. Just like the mechanical work is nothing for us this is just another day at work for him.

Take care,

George

 

If it just needs one quarter panel and the floors and trunk and the rest of the car is pretty good then fix it. I have a 92 Z vert (looks just like yours) with no rust and I am looking into an LS change also. You have the prefect car for a resto mod. If you like third gens then you know you don't see a lot of them anymore especially verts. They made 1254 of them in 92 I think so the numbers are good for a keeper. And you own a shop that can fix it as well. The last thing I would do is part it out and kill another one that certainly deserves to be saved. When I put new carpet in mine I 3M rubberized the complete floor in mine so it would never rust. My car had zero rust so I made sure it would stay that way. While your fixing it spray everything with some type of rust prevention and have peace of mind. You have a great car and it is the best color; BLACK. I would change the interior to black also since it is going to be a resto mod car. I almost forgot, your car should not have a power trunk pulldown and you can oil the power toneau release and get it to work properly or thats what I had to do.

 

Sounds like you dont want it Goodluck selling, it looks really nice from 20ft.

It would be much easier to swap in a RamJet 350 engine. MUCH less wiring, no LSX swap parts needed, etc..

 

It's not that i don't WANT it, it's I'm disappointed in it, and don't have the resources to get the body work done cheaply, so I'm at the crossroads of do I do this one, or do I find a better one to start with? You're right It looks great from 20ft away. But I also own a shop, and "our" vehicles are a reflection of that shop. This car looks good from far, but far from good.

As far as the power trunk, in that case the trunk lock is broken bc the trunk never locks... You can close it all the way and then reopen without the key.

I have a complete 95 T/A too here in the "parts" corral. That could easily donate it's lt1 drivetrain / 4l60e (although that's a backup for my lt1 impala ss), As well as a 5.3 tahoe complete and an spare 5.3. A drivetrain swap including the wiring is no big deal.

Take care,

George


All of the swap stuff is no biggie. We can do the mechanical work with our eyes closed.

 

Tough decision, if you dont decide to keep it im sure someone wouldnt mind taking it off your hands as a whole

 

I'm working on that as we speak. I think I found the car I want to start with but you can only tell so much from pictures and phone convos. I have yet to have anyone say yeah, my car is a piece of crap or a rust bucket, but yet I've seen plenty....

 

If it's just an economic decision, you've already made it. You have to love the car to put more into it than it's worth, because then "she's worth it," the same as my wife, which is what I tell her when she asks why I'm wasting time and money. And it always makes sense to shop around to find the best body and model that you can BEFORE you start. But this car is a looker; not to be parted out by one who cares for cars, even if the best economic answer. Sell it to one who will love it.

 

I'm not seeking to squeeze every dollar I can out of it. If I were, I wouldn't have posted a "Help me decide what to do thread" I would have posted an " I'm parting a 92 RS Convertible" thread.

But on the same note as you said it makes the most sense to shop around to find the best body / model before I embark on my project. This car was a complete shot in the dark. A sight unseen impulse purchase where I had 30 seconds to decided what to do. I own this car relatively cheaply, and to be honest I could probably make more parting it out, especially with all the convertible specific stuff it has. I would love to sell it to someone who will love it, and I'm sure that someone is out there. At this point I just want to get my $$ back out of it, and go on to a cleaner body - body work is expensive and time consuming. I own a shop, and I have access to wholesale parts across the board, and we are very familiar with these cars. I think we could even gut the car, cut out the quarter, and weld in the new one in house. I know we can do the rest of the body work - filling in the little dings and blocking the car out. But we don't have the facility or ability to paint, plus my employees don't work for free.

But at the same time, compare it to a wife. Given a choice would you start with the mediocre looking one, that you were unhappy with. with the intent to invest in plastic surgery to get her to where you want her to be, or would you go for the beautiful one even though it requires a greater initial investment, but the same expenditure over the long run? I agree it's a shame... and I honestly don't understand what someone was thinking, in filling the quarter full of bondo, and leaving the wheel well misshapen, and then giving the car a driver quality paint job. How much MORE could it have cost to do the car right (before the paint went on??).

Any third gen I get into will ultimately have more $$ sunk into it than it's practically worth, at least in the near term future. But we can add it to our collection, enjoy it, and see what the future holds.

I'm no stranger to builds and projects.

We have an 80 z28 with a nasty small block in it, a 92 z28 heritage pkg hardtop with 60k that we've owned since new, it was originally a 350/700r4 car, but we converted it to a t5. A mint redone 1990 454ss pickup with 72k miles, a 96 Impala SS with a built lt1, a 150 shot, 3:73 Auburn posi, an 01 Suburban with an LS based 408 stroker with a 76mm Precision Turbo that puts about 850hp to the wheels and scares the daylights out of you when it's not blowing up rear ends.

One of our guys has an 84 RS that started life as a 305 carb car, and is coming together now with a 600hp or so small block.

Take care,

George

 

If you don't want the car then you should sell it. You will probably not do the car justice. You never get the money back out of them anyway.

 

So I still have this car. Lot of interest but no actual bites.

I finally found my keeper.

92 z28 convertible...

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/show...6&goto=newpost

So I MAY just keep this one as spare parts. We'll see. Shame to just let it sit though.

If anyone is interested let me know.

Thanks,

George