me and my stepfather are both 3rd gen owners he has a 1984 z28 i have a 89 RS. i have grown up with his 84 he has had it since i was a freshman in high school, i am now 25 years old and i purchased my 89 a month ago. i loved riding around in his car when i was a kid, he used to pick me up from school when i stayed after with his car.i thought i was hot **** getting picked up in a z28. i found my baby at an impound lot. N.carolina car no rust straight body, good running 305; 2,200 was a small price for me to pay to own one of these fantasic cars, i dont have much money but i wanted to own one of these great cars before they became rare. my kids when i eventually have kids will get to ride in my car, and get to experiance what i got a taste of when i was growing up. i live in buffalo, NY HOWEVER my car will NEVER taste that awful nasty rotten salt. i will never part with this car and when i eventually get a job that pays well im going to dump a whole lot of my into this car. anyways im having a hard time finding a DASH PAD, T-Top headliner(my stepfather also need this part), he needs clutch pedals(he's doing a T56 swap from a 700R4). seems like local junk yards want nothing to do with camaro parts. they are all about 4x4's. i dont understand america's "thing" with 4x4's and SUV's. they handle like crap, eat gas like it's going out of style, and dont acelerate worth a ****. I guess the question is how much harder is it going to be to get parts for our cars? are the parts ever going to be impossible to get? i promise you guys, i will always have a 3rd gen in my driveway probably my RS. unless i sold it someday ONLY to replace it with an IROC but i know the RS is clean so i prob should just spend money on upgrades.

 

It's a wonderful time to be interested in thirdgen cars: the bone yards are full of them (there's no yard around here that doesn't have several sitting around), GM still stocks some parts, and all automotive stores carry at least the basics. Furthermore, places like Classic Industries and Year One carry parts and may eventually reman OEM parts. Impossible? Probably not.

JamesC

 

Sounds like you have a pretty good relationship with your stepfather - why not try to find a u-pull it JY within a 1 hour drive or so that has some thirdgens and make a day of it!

 

I curently own 3 3rd gen camaros and found out that finding parts is as easy as going to a couple u pull it junkyards.Its mostly hit or miss but if you go often enough you will find the stuff.There were so many of these cars made over the 10 years of this body style that they show up at the jy in regularity.Matter of fact just this past week i got to pick parts off a 1985 z28 and a 1987 Iroc z28 which were new arrivals at my local jyds.

 

Hey, That brings back very vivid memories.. Back in the mid 70's and early 80's, I went through the very same thing when I was out looking for 68 Camero parts for my SS/RS 396 375 HP 4 speed car..!!!!!.... You know,, I only paid $850.00 for this car!!!!!!!!... And it only had 56,000 miles on it...!!!!,,, Farm Out Carl,, Can You dig It ??????????.... Outta State,, Gravy Man!!!!!!.... Every once in awhile there would be a good canidate come into the local junk yards, but back then most everything came from individual's selling cars and parts.... One thing to look for is the small parts, little nuts and bolts and brackets, that the big boyze won' t be reproducing for years to come... Grab all the unusual options parts you can find.. but,, cuss like a sailor,!!!!,,, You know,, I think they made over a million of those third gen cars, so,, I guess, most of these parts are going to be around for a few million years,!!!!!!!!!!........ You know, you know,, I wish that it was all that easy,, We thought the very same thing back then,,,,,, and look now,, little did we know???????....... Don't cha wish you was a freak like me,??????