Hi,

I’m trying to decide whether I should restore my 1988 Camaro or buy a better condition one.

The advantage of my current car is the mileage and lack of body damage. It needs a new paint job/ground effects. The current color of the car is Burgundy with gold trim. The interior needs to be replaced and it is also gold. The car has 200,000 km’s on it now.

This is a list of what I would like to do to it:

Paint job (orange with grey stripes)
New Ground effects (grey)
New interior color (seats, carpets, doors)
New Dash Pad (mines cracking)
New Rims
New Steering Wheel
New Exhaust (hole in tailpipe)
New weather striping

I paid $800.00 for the car, so I’m uneasy about putting a lot of money into it. All the work I want to put into it is well over $5000.00. This car is the base model 1988 Camaro, so with this work, is it worth it in your opinion?

 

Hey there

If it were my car, rust would be one of the larger deciding factors. I've got a base 88 firebird that has rust bad on the doors and a bit around the wheel wells, but after taking a closer inspection underneath I figure it would eventually have some problems. If there is very little rust, I would say go for it. Eventually rust free cars of this era will be rare.

Do you winter drive it? Been a while since I've driven in vancouver, not sure if they salt the roads.

 

There is very little rust on the body, but underneath seems to have rust on the frame. I don't know how much of the frame it has effected though. I also have only had the car for one winter.

 

you can try sanding the rust off. use a wire wheel with a drill or a sander and see how it is. If its good, you can undercoat the whole underbody after the rust is off to prevent it from happening again.

 

Restore it. Sounds like you got a good base to work on.