Have a 1989 Firebird so I can't get it to pass smog. Everything on the car is upgraded: full suspension, engine, and transmission. I know a 1st gen can fit the engine and transmission, but can any of the suspension components fit onto a 1st gen? Trying not to waste money junking such brand new car parts, but I'd also like to legally drive around a hot rod. So my question is what can be swapped over from a 3rd gen to a 1st gen (or 2nd gen if I decide to get one)?

 

Anything can be made to fit, depends on if you have the skill/time/money to accomplish it. I doubt anything would be a "bolt in" from a third gen into an earlier car other than the engine. Even the 700R4 fitment might require some mods/fabrication.

Pull the engine and trans and try to sell the rest of the car as a roller ?

 

Thank you for your input, that makes sense. What a bummer, thousand$ on parts only to not be able to drive it legally.

 

Maybe the car isn't the problem, but rather the state you choose to live in. You know CA is known to cause cancer in lab rats?

 

First of all, if you have a first gen, why would you even want to put third gen parts on it. Engine/trans swap is straight forward but as for the rest of the car, you might as well try putting third gen parts on a mustang.

Front and rear suspension plus the diff is completely different. Third gen is a complete unibody. First and second gens have a bolt on front clip.

I suppose you could swap the seats over, at least the front ones, since GM never really changed how they bolt to the floor.

As already mentioned, it depends on how much time, money and fabrication skills you have.

 

As already mentioned, little more than the engine/trans and maybe some interior parts would retrofit into a 1st/2nd gen Camaro. But if your 3rd gen has already been completely rebuilt, why does it fail smog check? What, specifically, is the issue under the hood, and why didn't whomever rebuild the car not include the emissions system in the overhaul?



Sorry for your plight, but you're living in the most automobile-hostile state in the country. It seems that California's goal is to force residents to get rid of any car more than 3 years old. A far more reasonable approach would be to exempt cars over, say, 20 years old, as in some other smog-conscious states, but that's likely to never happen in California. It just seems totally ridiculous to me that so much government emphasis is placed on legislating against the .000001% of smog producers (how many 3rd gen Camaros could there be in California? ) while the large industrial polluters get a pass.

 

Why can't the third gen be made to be emissions compliant?

Are the parts stamped with a CARB number? Does it fail a visual, or is it failing a sniffer? Required emissions parts missing?

There are plenty of people here on the boards who live in CA and have modified thirdgens.

 

Any family living out of state, use their address, or get a P.O. Box mail forward service in NV, OR or WA, then register and insure the car in that state.. Gotta play by the rules, only they're 50 sets of rules, and always gray area's.. I have FL, CT and MA plates now, had CA, MT, AK, AL, NM, WA ect.. in the past.. Always a way to drive legally. The MA plated car had it's last state inspection in 2003, but it's parked and used out of state, so no inspection needed..