I went nutty with the camera today. I took a bunch of pictures of my IROC, which has been sitting since 07. I'm not worried about the mechanical stuff like brakes frozen on me or the fact that the fuel lines have rotted away, it's more is this body worth restoring? I'm gonna post the pictures as how she looks today with nothing done to her and see what you guys think. I'd love to restore her this was my high school car i took my first girl friend to the prom in it and many other memories. Biggest concern is STOPPING THE ROT. I don't really care if this takes me a decade to finish just as long as I do it right. You guys be the judge and see if it is.

 

See if I can Upload more pictures of it... If the link is https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/album.php?albumid=4780
and
https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/memb...-28-page2.html

 

I can get more pics of it if people want to see it.. Most importantly is stopping the body Rot/Rust on the car. If it takes it me forever to get a new motor and trans then so be it.. Just don't want it to rust away.

 

Man that looks pretty bad, If I were you I'd line up a couple of donor cars.

 

I'd say no.

Looks like it needs the "2 easy step restoration" treatment:

1. Sell rust bucket
2. Buy rust-free car

If the parts you can see (errr, NOT see I mean, since they're GONE) just think what the parts that are REALLY exposed to the salt must look like.

As cheeeeep as these cars are and as wasy to come by, no sense in wasting effort on that. Take a trip down I-95 to about Charlotte or points just beyond; whatever that costs you in time and money, will be a TINY TINY FRACTION of what you'll spend trying to build a car from scratch where a pile of rust used to be.

 

Your car is sentimental to you. No offense, but asking people on this website who see your car as just a car if it is worth restoring is comparing apples to oranges. They have no sentimental attachment.

My two cents: First ask yourself if this is going to be a hobby or an investment. If you pick investment, find something else to restore. If you pick hobby, then treat it as a hobby and fix it up over time. I'm doing the exact same thing to my V6 Firebird I had since (almost) high school. I'm taking my time, doing it right, using all NOS parts. I guarantee 99.9% of people on this site would have junked my car if I gave it to them in the condition I began restoring it in. Without the nearly two decades of memories, it means nothing to anyone else. It's not a Trans Am, Formula, etc.

I'm on the 10 year plan too. My car sat undriven since around 2004 until recently. I hope to restore it and have spent $0 out of pocket. I'd like to say money doesn't matter, but it does. Now, I know little mechancially. I won't be able to do my own paint job. What I do is keep an eye on scrap yards (and I'm there anyway for my own vehicle) and pull parts I don't need but I can sell for a good profit. (Today I found a mint passenger seat off a '86 Fiero, and the driver's seat wasn't too bad either. Just got done Bisseling them out in my driveway. Paid $50 and I can probably sell them for around $200+.) My wife calls my online sales my "Firebird Fund." All I hope to have invested when my car is done is time. And, it will be showroom when it is done. Take your time and look at Ebay / Craigslist (great for dash pads) / junk yards and you'll be surprised how many good parts you can find cheap. (I just got a used, but looks like brand new air bag for $60 on Ebay. Mine was coming apart at the horn buttons. I can probably still sell mine for around $30.) Don't think I'm trying to brag. Anyone can do what I'm doing. I do this as a way to get around spending money on a car that, as a car, isn't worth spending money on.

On a sidenote, make sure any floor pan holes are immediately repaired. I paid $700 a couple of years ago to have my holes patched up. If you are going to keep the car, have this done whether or not you are planing on restoring it right away. From what I have been told, if you let your floor pan and joints start decaying, it can severely damage the frame and integrity of the car and cause major problems later on.

Good luck! Just remember, if you let it go you will never get it back.

 

By all means fix it! Doesn't look too bad and just about ANY third gen is worth fixing.

 

This has nothing to do with sentimental. As I look at that car, the interior will be completely redone, the exterior needs everything, and it sounds like the mechanicals are shot. Once you spend thousands of hours and years fixing this up, it won't be the same car anymore anyways, so I say get another one just like what you had or in better shape than what you had in high school and enjoy that. If there was a little bit of work to do to a mostly clean car, then do it. This car looks too far gone to say this was the same car I had in high school when you're finished rebuilding the whole thing.

 

I am out here in California and I recently hit the PNP yards and just about every Camaro I saw the body shells and doors were totally rust free. I wish i could collect all those car bodies and sell them back east in the rust belt!! Too bad they are all going to get crushed

 

id say fix it if you dont care how long it takes and it means that much to you you must restore it if you sell this and buy some random other iroc it wont mean as much to you

 

You could make it look new but I'd expect at least a $50k to $100k rotisserie restoration with a lot of the original sheetmetal patched or replaced from donors in order to make it "new" again.

Or you can find a pristine, low-mile survivor car for $10k to $20k.

 

It will be a ton of work, but anything can be done. I can understand the sentimental value of the car. I would repair my car if it was in that condition (not that it will ever get that bad).

 

It doesn't look that bad up top, hows the frame rails? Anything can be saved. If it was mine I'd save it. Get a place to work on it, buy a sandblaster and a MIG welder and a FSM. Take a course in welding and let the journey begin. Then find yourself a good bodyman who is as optimistic as you are and get her done. This will take years, but you can do it.

 

Thank you everybody for you input, i'm probably gonna end up fixing it since i've seen worse on here and IROCs are getting rare now that time goes on. It's gonna end up being a hobby i'm sure i sure don't have enough money right now paying for school and still need a full time job. But, since i'm learning to become a technician this will be a great practice car. Might take me like twenty years to fix it, but atleast i'll do most of the labor myself. I need to finish pulling out all the interior and see what the rest of the body looks like. Thanks again everybody that posted. Oh, ya somebody wanted to know about the frame it's straight no accidents or i would have gotten rid of it.

 

buy jug of paint thinner and jug of 5/30 engine oil or thinner. mix in windex spray bottle and spray the crap out of the car. at least that will stop any more rust from that day on forever.

up here crown rust and rust check will sell you jugs of the rust proofing special oil. you can buy the spray gun easy for a compressor and do it yourself.
i have 10 cars so i bought all the gear now and do it myself.

 

Hey Paul, on the frame I was asking about rust. The first thing you should do for her is get her out of the weather. Glad your fixing her.

 

I would fix it. There may be cars in better shape to start on. But I say don't add another one to the crusher. Take your time, do it right. In the end you'll be glad you did. And you can take your wife or gf out on a date in it someday.

 

cost vs reward; if it is worth it to you then do it, do a realistic estimate on the cost and see if the reward of spending that money on the car you are attached to is worth it. As far as the condition of the car, there are new, used and aftermarket panels that can be had. Really the sub structure is more of a concern than outer panels.

I just did the same thing to my 88. It didn't have rust issues but I have made a serious investment on the engine, trans and rearend to get the car where I want it instead of buying something better because it is the car I bought because I needed something cheap when we found out my wife was pregnant, I drove it to the hospital when my son was born, now my little boy has sat and played in it, "helped" me work on it and knows it is "Daddy's" Camaro so the sentimental attachment is greater than what it costs to get it where I want it. So I know how you feel.

 

really depends on how much sentimental value it has

its true what scott said by the time youre done 90% of the parts would be replaced but that's WHEN YOU'RE DONE.. the sentimental value is gonna be more of a factor during the 800000000 hours you'll spend laying in the car with a ratchet so I think it does matter a lot

also how bad that rust is depends on what you mean by "restore" (stop the rot and achieve structural integrity - OR - make it look like its late 1985 and just rolled onto the dealer floor to a team of forensic scientists), like when i say "restore" a car i basically mean clean it up and get it to work like a normal used car.. other guys search the country for the original carpet shampoo and window sticker and make out with their firewall.. that car won't achieve the latter

 

EITHER GET A COUPLE PARTS CARS AND DEAL WITH YOUR DRIVEWAY LOOKING LIKE A BONEYARD FOR A WHILE UNTIL YOUR DONE OR BUY A RUST FREE PROJECT THAT NEEDS A MOTOR. I BOUGHT MY 85 WITH 68K ACTUAL MILES AND IT'S RUST FREE FOR 2500 BUCKS SO THERE ARE PLENTY OF OPTIONS

 

Thats a waste of time! Go buy some POR 15 and brush it anywhere you see rust! Thats how you stop the cancer from spreading! You could do the entire car in an hour! That wont repair the damage that is already done but at least the rust wont get worse. Spraying oil onto rust isnt going to do the trick.

Personally, I say buy another car because your IROC needs ALOT of work both in sheetmetal, interior and drivetrain but thats me. You can still find clean cars out there for $4000-$5000 (especially out here on the west coast). I guess it comes down to how much the sentimental value is compared to the actual cost to repair. If you KNEW it would cost you $50,000 and 10 years to properly restore would you still proceed? Only you can answer that question.

Of course, I have no sentimental attachment to your car.

 

My car is a little better off, but I'm still in the same boat in the rust department. If I was to put the spare tire back in it would drag on the ground since there is no floor left.

I'm restoring mine even though it's going to take me five years to do it right.