Good luck ThreeOhFive, I admire your fortitude!

Yea, keep up the good work. I bought mine for $4k and I still have a lot of work, paint, interior, upgrades, and other stuff. Right now its just sitting in the driveway till I find a garage to do the work in.

Good to know you have a lot of heart and desire to finish this car and you will be happy in the end and enjoy it a lot more then if you buy a new car of any brand. This is how I feel about mine and its not even done lol.

Hey, Charlie...haven't seen you around here in awhile? Anything new with the crossfire?

Hope all is well with you...happy holidays!

Thanks Jason. Happy holidays to you as well. The Crossfire is sleeping for the winter, but I did get my tranny issues worked out afew months - thanks to the help I got on TGO.

Any welders near Janesville, Wisconsin?

Never thought how bad it is in the inside. The car looks so awesome in the outside. Well, good luck to your endeavor!!!!

Where did you find these seats? I have been looking for a set myself

Head to your local yards. The black/grey seats are everywhere at yards here. Can be found for dirt cheap too.


I am still looking for a set of beige 92 front seats. Never seen any ever.

I saw a craigslist ad for a 91 Z28 skeleton in your area, are you throwing in the towel?

It's definitely his car in the ad.

Why are ya giving up? It mentions in the ads that you had the floorpans... That's a huge step, just get 'em welded in!

I'm not sure what the market bears up in your area, but I paid $1500 for my '91 Z28 (305tpi/auto) and it needed no where near the work that this one does. I remember you saying you paid $1300-$1500 IIRC, but....

ah, lame

Yeah, its his car for sure A few of us tried to talk him out of it because of the rust...maybe he finally caved?

Sorry to see it...good luck with the sale. Hopefully someone else will take up the task with the car...

He posted back in late November about a relationship going bad and health problems getting in the way. Maybe one or both finally got the better of him. I give the guy all the respect in the world for trying to save the car, but having just looked over the pictures again and seeing all that rust everywhere just makes me cringe. My dad and I fixed up my first car, which was a '78 Z, in similar condition (maybe worse) in Illinois back in the mid to late 80s and it seemed like the rust problem just never went away. My dad was a body man and the work we did was done right. We put in floors, fenders, lower doors skins, paint -- all of it. For all my money and effort, the 78 still ended up in the crusher less than 6 or 7 years after we did the work because the rust just kept eating the car away. As I understand it, the car was ultimately salvaged because the rear spring mounts finally punched through trunk due to rust.

Thats too bad about his Camaro but theres alot of great parts on it for someone else to use. I am hoping that threeohfive is doing ok healthwise. God bless him as he is in my prayers

Agreed...hope he posts on here about what's going on with him.

Hey everyone, thanks for your prayers! Luckily, the new year has brought better health! I have been out of the hospital for awhile now. I'm very glad that I had a 0 deductible insurance plan or this car would never happen lol. I ended up having two separate surgeries on my back due to a spinal tap gone terribly wrong. I got extremely sick over summer, sold my RS and bought the Z. I'm still having back problems, but I have been able to work on the car, in fact, I've spent the last week, every night, slaving away on it. That IS the car for sale, I had a convertible lined up and wanted to know what kind of interest I could get at $1,500 but ultimately, I am keeping the car. With my tax returns this year, I should be able to get this car at least halfway finished in the next few months. I found a local body shop who is taking on the task of putting the new floors in it, and doing the inner quarters and wheel wells. They've done work on some family members cars and they are awesome. Meticulous. I got a great quote $800 for the floors, $150 per side to redo the wheel wells and the inner quarters and inner fender rails will bring it in under $1,500. I've begun work sanding everything down to bare metal for them to save them time and me money. These are crappy cell pics, I brought my digital camera down tonight but forgot the memory card. Better pics tomorrow!

Well the body shop thing fell through today. I am very frustrated... I've called so many bodyshops, and they all quote me at $3,000 plus or give me a great price, and then back out and price me higher. I called the shop up today after they didn't return my email, and they said "nobody remembers giving you that quote". And then they said it'd be $3,000 to put in the floors alone. Yeah, right, like I'd pay that when I could have a Thirdgen with nothing wrong with it for that amount of money. Got another independent guy who wants to come and see it tomorrow. I'll try my luck without a bodyshop. If that fails, this car is getting crushed. I'm SO frustrated!

buy a cheap fluxcore/mig welder and do it up bro, get a book on how to do proper welds and practice. Its not hard to pick up, just hard to master. Anyone can make J welds. You can pick up a welder for cheap.

http://www.harborfreight.com/120-amp...der-97503.html

Yeah it actually really is easy, just do as many practice welds as you can first. It's always good to be able to rely on yourself and not on other people because other people will always let you down, screw you over, or do both.

LOL! I'm finding some inspiration by looking at some other people's threads on cars that have floors worse than mine!!!

is that possible????

man i want to see this thing get done. Don't crush it. Hell i would drive back up there and do it for 1500. does your shop have outlets? all i need is a welder, air compressor and most importantly a heater if that's the case.

I feel your pain I have a 91 z with rust like yours.I just can't get rid of it I love driving that car I want to fix mine to.also read in here 91 z r rare is that true cause mine is a 5 speed tpi on top of it.

Don't quit now Bro. You've done a great job up till now. Stick to you guns and gert it done. Don't let a little thing like these shops stop your progress now. Your third gen is worth saving, and when you've finally gotten it finished you will have your dream car, it will look good, be the envy of many, and you will feel a great sense of satisfaction pride and a sense of accomplishment knowing that you brought it back with your own labor, sweat, tears and commitment. You'll also have fabrication skills that you've learned along the way, more confidence in handling body issues with youir car, and the knowledge of what went into the restoration process of your car.

The work you've done so far has been an inspiration to a lot of us here in TGO. I too have a project that I want get started on and mine involves doing the drivers side floor as well. It seems that the previous ( of the car that I'm buying: a White 1987 Iroc-Z ), repaired the floor by using screws on it ), so I want to do it right. I've never welded myself, but my brother in law does, so I'll be getting his help on my build once I get everything lined up. I'll be starting a thread on it here at that point.

All in all I just wanted to commend you on the work that you are doing and to encourage you to continue on the build that you've started. It's looking good, you've got the determination, you;ve got the drive, the desire, the idea, some of the parts you need, and you also have the dream of the finished product. Don't let that die.

My Prayers go out to you on a speedy recovery, and for continued good health as you persue your dreams. Best wishes for you in all of your endeavors, and Keep On Trucking Brother. Remeber the race is not always given unto the swift, but to he who endures until the end.

And, in the words of Stan Lee, Excelsior, ( Onward ). *S*

Camaro-454

A few pics of my future build.

I just got done welding in a passenger side pan that we had to make.
A lot of work and you have to be careful. A preformed pan would've been great.

Just read this thread I am getting ready to do something similar and I have to say good job man keep it up you are an inspiration.

Hey everyone! I want to stop and thank everyone for such kind words! You guys are a great family to have on here! I'm doing pretty well, I've changed diets, I have been at the gym a lot, and have been eating MUCH healthier. It's crazy I'm only turning 20 and I've already encountered such serious health problems because of the way I was living. My woman is gone thank god. I am much better off without the drama and immense amounts of stress! Lol. And I was shocked at how much more money I've had for my car since I've been single! Lol. I've been very hard at work on the car, it's been quite cold around here lately, so I have shifted focus on more interior work. I have almost completed my restoration of the seats I bought last fall, among many other things. Here is a picture of the seats. Many more pictures to come later today, hopefully with my digital camera.

Once again, you guys are awesome people. Thirdgenners are the best kind of car enthusiasts!!! Thank you so much for you support, your pictures of your projects, and your words of encouragement. I won't let you guys or this beautiful car that was neglected for too long, down.

Anyways, here's the seats! I'll get more pics later. I am going to be refilling the boulsters on the sides of the seats, they are a little worn, but I've done some work on the accents, and I have redone some of the black piping. I even redyed the main black area's, and the backs of the seats. They came out AWESOME. They look almost new! Check 'em out!

So I take it your woman was the one that did the laundry? Just teasing you

The seats do look good though!

Lol thanks. I've put some hours in them! Nah, she didn't even cook lol. I was just gathering laundry the day I snapped the shot

Yea you are better off without her. Sure at 20 they all look good but man after marriage when they let them selves go and even the thought of sex turns your stomach you are going to really be glad you got a woman who can cook.

LOL

Lol especially when she sits around drinking vodka and getting high all day. Dealing with an addict is just draining! She never visited me once in the hospital, either. I'm really looking forward to getting my Z28 done though, my Mazda Protege isn't exactly a chick magnet lol!

Looks good! Almost a sister to my car. You scratching your head yet and asking "What have I done??"

Glad to hear you got your personal life in order. Having those kind of issues at such at your age isn't worth it - period. Sounds like you're channeling your new found energy into the car. Those seats look great.

Keep taking care of yourself and keep posting updates.

Hey, your car is a twin to my car. My Z28 looks (or looked before I started working on it) exactly the same. I even had the same seats like yours but I sold them for the 4th gen ones. It's so weird to see identical car on the other side of the world with exactly the same problems My car also had two horn "things" for the alarm system on the right hand side of the engine bay, exactly like yours... I always thought that they were aftermarket...
Have a look at my restoration thread. Keep yours going man.

I apologize in advance for such low res pics tonight, it was dark and all I had was my phone again.

More pics for you guys! Long night on the Z28! It was beautiful out here, the stars were out, it was warm... perfect night to work on the car! I turned up the radio, nothing like listening to some old 80's power ballads while working on a Thirdgen lol.

It was a good night for the Z, however, I will probably need a driver door if I wanted to be really picky... I started sanding the paint off the driver door and found A LOT of Bondo. Not sure what happened to this door, but I may just fix the Bondo, or just get a new door... I'm leaning towards a new door, since I am already spending so much on it, why drive around a Bondomobile?

Found a bit more Bondo near the top of the roof, but that is no big deal, it had a few dents up there and I probably would have done the same thing. Overall, it looks like it was done pretty well by the previous owner.

Here's the start of sanding the trunk rust. All solid metal... thank God! I did a quick 80 grit sand over it, but there is some adhesive from the carpet that is pretty nasty and hard to get off. I'll bring something tomorrow to get it off.

Inner fender area, all sanded down, ready to be primed and rust proofed.

Spent a little more time sanding all the rust down off the inner quarters, they are starting to look pretty good! All down to solid metal, they will need some metal work, but it's not too shabby.

Here's a pic of how cluttered the garage is getting lol! It was pretty dark in there, I only had one light on because all the other work lights were blinding me after a few hours of working!

Looking good, although I'd work on the floors first because leaving a body sanded like that for a while will just require you to sand the flash rust off of it when painting time comes, causing another headache. I doubt you want to prime or paint it while you still have those rotted floors in the car.

Hoping to have it in to have the floors done this Friday. I wanted to have it done awhile ago, but the car wasn't ready to tow yet. It'll have the floors in it and all the rust work and sandblasting done by next month, fingers crossed. It's almost ready to go! Got the truck and trailer waiting, just a matter of finishing some small things first.

I just read the entire thread. I have a 92 Z28 & I may have to do the same thing to mine. I have not pulled up the carpet yet so I don't know how bad it is or if it's bad at all, but there is some rust under the undercarriage. I love my car & I don't want to get rid of it especially since the 91's & 92's are not common, especially in Michigan. This thread gives me inspiration to restore my car instead of selling it for another car. Keep up the good work!

subscribing.

Good to hear, and I forgot to mention that you should remove the plastic/rubber bumper trim you have on the doors and that little piece of the quarter panels. If you're putting so much effort into making this car nice that will definitely help since the new paint won't crack around it or anything. That and I personally think it looks a little better with that trim gone all together... cleans up the exterior a bit. They're just attached with some double sided tape.

Long time since I updated... new pics, she's put back together, kind of lol. The doors are on, hatch, one of the fenders, even though it's coming off, it's junk. Just playing around putting stuff on so it can be towed easier. I've had multiple more people come look at it, to see if I could get a cheaper estimate to put the floors in and take care of the rest of the rust work. I'm not willing to spend $2,000 on putting the floors in alone when I can buy a decent Thirdgen for $3,000 lol. I got an estimate for $1,200, I'll probably go with him. Here she is, looking like a Z28 again!



I do have a question about the rear axle, either this was not like this last year, or I'm seeing things... but the rear axle seems way out of alignment. The passenger side rear wheel looks perfect... the driver side looks way off... check this out... any idea's as to why this could be? How to fix it? I got underneath the car and nothing seems wrong, nothing was broken, etc.

About your rear wheels, do you mean the fender gap is much more on one than the other? They look perfectly aligned to me but one side is obviously just sitting way higher than the other. Did you take a spare tire out recently? Is your car missing any seats? Small tihngs make a big difference on the rear spring ride height since they are not very stiff springs due to not much of the weight being in the rear of the car.

That is a really nice looking car I gotta say id be tricked into buying it myself ... I picked my bird up for 600 bucks no surface rust anywhere and drove it home but it looks nowhere as good as the exterior on yours

i think you sir, are crazy. none the less, ill support you all the way

i admire your commitment to your car i had an 83 z28 4 years ago i swear it had the exact same floor rot and tire well rot as yours what i did to save some time was i used this stuff called naval jelly i bought at my local bennys its amazing you just spray it on and walk away within an hour the rot is completely gone and it wont damage the metal underneath i highly recommend it before you get to the welding

http://www.amazon.com/Permatex-81756.../dp/B0007TQW5G