Which would you rather buy, a neglected but but unmolested 3rd gen or one which has been constantly modded by amatuer previous owners?

 

A neglected car will have all sorts of issues from sitting and just about every system will be failing

A poorly modded car will atleast have been run and most times the screwed up mods can be replaced with junkyard parts

Id take a teenagers toy over a yard ornament any day

 

Typical teenager toy will have more problems than just added parts. Hacked in or improperly installed parts are common. I remember sawing part of the floor away on a '69 Camaro to install a universal Hurst shifter when I was a teen Also, these types of cars tend to be viciously abused, and may have accident histories. With the neglected, at least it's all there for reference. Give me neglected/unmolested.

 

My Camaro sat in my back yard for around 9 years before I started on it. I've had to replaced the entire cooling system, rebuild the alternator, and 2 power steering pumps (the first was old, the second had a leaky hose that I didn't notice until I had to put more fluid in it when my PS suddenly went out) and flush the block a few times, along with a new set of calipers and rubber brake lines, but I'd still rather do that then have to do troubleshooting on a hacked up wiring harness. (which would be easy for you, Pocket )
Plus it has the factory stereo, and thus the factory stereo harness. That alone makes it worth it

 

Neither one. I'd want one that is stock and at least somewhat taken care of.

 

a neglected car and be restored back to original with less pain than one that has been hacked up. just my 2 cents. oaw

 

prefer the neglected one as long as the body isnt screwed. im a mechanic, not a body guy so when i look for 3rdgens, they cant have bad paint or rot holes, but they can have blown engines, trans, wiring proplems, ect. depending on the amaturely modded ones, depends on what mods were on it (expensive parts or something) then i may favor that one

 

Trick question! Most of the hack-job amateur modified cars began as neglected all-originals!

 

Lol. And um, definitely the latter considering I have at least 2 if not 3 grand into my maro and its still not roadworthy, did I mention it was unmolested and sat neglected for 11 years? Wasn't taken care of when it was on the road either if how many things I have had to replace are any indication.
And I am restomodding it, the guy I quoted is rather correct, I mean, if I have to swap a new engine, why get a 2.8, when I can find a complete 3.4 for $250...and why replace my rusting out steel hood with another 80 lb steel hood that will also rust when I can get a fiberglass one for $70....
I wouldn't consider myself an amateur though, I admit, my car doesn't look professionally done atm, but it will when I finish it, just haven't been able to give her much attention lately, between school, lack of money, and sprucing up my dd corsica. Plus a lot of my mods got sidelined by the more pressing issue of not running.

 

Probably an unmolested stock one because I figure it'd be easier restore as compared to sorting through an already hacked up car.

 

My 86 was a neglected original, and I liked the fact it wasn't hacked up by a kid...that's half the reason I bought it.

18 months later, I have no regrets. I will take an original, stock car any day.

 

depends on what you want the car for. I would say no to both. Unless of course, the amateur job was easily reversed.

 

Yeah, the mods can really vary both in severity of botchedness and ease of returning to stock, some mods can never be fully undone, namely the ones that require to drill or cut the body.

 

I say neglected but unmolested because they would most likely make the perfect project car. Having everything original and un tampered with would make some sort of build easier than to have something that's been hacked and pieced together.

 

Yes, definitely neglected unmolested original. I don't mind doing the little bit of "corrections" for age.

On the other hand, the totally hacked up wiring on my '84 T/A makes me think about shovels, holes, honey and ants!!!

 

Ants aren't creepy enough, gotta go scorpions or scarabs, mummy style.

 

Neglected to be honest. I have seen modded by amatures and I would never deal with that. My friend bought a 89 GTA that was modded by idiots. L05 block with 305 TPI Top, Hacked Fuel pump access hole, Driver quarter banged up and front passenger support rail, Paint that has texture the same as a bedliner, Wiring nightmare, and countless other problems.

He basically got a crap car, sure hes fixing it up but in the end it will still be worth atleast half of what he will spend to get it look ok or be a shade of its original form.

A neglected car can always be fixed up, the foundation will be there. Parts from Transmissions to Sensors are available everywhere in yards and people part them like crazy. Hell I would love a neglected 3rd gen right now.

 

Me for the unmolested original. Or in my case, original molested with the required rhd conversion, done well.

What I actually got WAS this... plus a half-assed engine swap - lost the TPI, and the engine wiring hacked. Car look great from every angle, until you opened the bonnet and, ewwww. And it drove even more ewwwwww. When it drove.

Also despite the rhd interior wiring being done fairly well, the cowboys had been in later with the hack hack chop chop. All caused me years of headaches. Then again, made it real cheap up front, and I got to learn lots

 

how about both I like the modded and the original

 

I have a neglected unmolested GTA. It is easier to go to tgo to figure out what is wrong. If its modded by a clueless buffoon it is way too hard to figure out whats been done and if you try to fix the issue you find more things to fix and it will be never done and be reliable

 

I would purchase a neglected but unmolested 3rd gen over a hacked up one ANY DAY!!! Some young guys do the stupidest mods ever!!!! I am in a local camaro club and all of my fellow members cars are hacked up and the mods are irreversible in my eyes. These idiots drill needless holes, paint everything, remove neccessary components, and plus they are dummer than a box of rocks!!! I'd pay them money to stay away from my car cause there cars look like ****!!!

 

Unmolested over a modded piece of crap anyday, just makes the car look stupid imho. engine, brakes, suspension modds o.k if the car is going to see track time, otherwise leave it alone because what did the poor car ever do to you? Usually by the time some jack*** is done messing with it, just makes it look laughable.

 

Maybe i read it wrong but people here are saying theyd take a stocker over some modded car

Fine

It seems like the OP was asking about a kids toy over something thats been sitting in someones backyard for a decade. Ive NEVER seen a neglected car worth much more than scrap

 

Honestly, I don't usually like other people's mods. If I see "many mods" or "built" in an ad, I just skip over it. Why? Because a very small percentage of people will take the time and pay the price to do things properly. In the end, not only do you have a mysteriously executed hack job, but you also have a car which doesn't even perform or look better than it did before all of the Frankensteining.

Frankly, I'd take an unmolested barn find any day over, a "Custom I-ROK". That's just me though.

 

I would take an abused neglected car any day over an amateurishly modded car. My 83 was a combo of both. Much, Much better now, but dealing with the abused neglected components was much less of a hassle than the hacked crap the previous owner thought was cool.

Cheers!

 

There is 2 different types of neglect, one is parked in a field left to rot then pulled to the front yard and a for sale sign put on it. The other is driven hard no maintenance done body was let go interior distroyed but is still being driven. I would never buy the one that sat in the field, I would rather have the cobbled turd that still runs. Its up to the op on what he meant by neglect.

 

Sure about that? I turned this..



Into this...




The car sat outside under a cover for 5 years, and sans cover before that for, well, who knows. A little bit of TLC exceeded every expectation I had.

 

Sometimes you get lucky like that, but not always, my car sat for 11 years, and has needed a LOT more than was initially apparent.

 

The question is about neglect but unmolested, not sitting under a tree for over a decade

Regardless, I understand your point. I wish you luck...anything sitting that long will need some serious work.

 

If sitting for 11 years doesn't count as neglect idk what does, plus many of its issues were from lack of maintenance when it was last on the road.

 

another thing i usualy like about the neglected ones that sat for years upon years, is that it usualy doesnt have many miles on it. obviously you have to take the bad with the good. but low milage part is pretty nice

 

I would like a low mileage car but I can drive my car as much as I want without worrying about putting miles on it.

 

It's frustrating fixing a bunch of problems that Father Time created, but even more frustrating fixing a bunch of problems that some idiot hack needlessly created.

I happily bought a car that was a four season daily driver for 10 years, then spent 10 more years continuing to rot while sitting outside in a gravel driveway... because it was 100% stock.

 

neither, but if it had not had new paint etc that is much easier to fix than poor modifications. E.g. I'm trying to fix the plastic dash panel now that kept sagging. I see now that two of the 3 screw slots are broken off by the previous owner's work on stereo or ?
Or they get smart and take off all the parts on the engine that they don't know what their purpose is, egr etc. That ruins the car's mpg, ability to run smoothly, or pass emissions. It's not like you just connect back up something, the brackets and stuff are all missing and you don't even know how it was supposed to be before.
Most mod'ed cars are not done properly or by a good professional. Then you see them for sale "needs a tune up". Yeah, needs much more than that when they put the timing chain on in the wrong position.

 

Unmolested any day of the week. My current iroc fits that description. Bone stock, but being 25 years old and sitting for several years didn't help the electronics. Spent half the time of my ownership broken so far. But when I finally got all the issues ironed out it paid off so well. Heck it even made the 600 mile drive home rather well throwing esc and egr codes on and off the whole way.

 

Fixing somebody elses crap is always harder than fixing neglected stock stuff, especially when body work is unvolved.

 

Cutting out crappy exhaust systems, peeling ugly stickers off, replacing brightly painted interior parts are alot easier than repairing rust, replacing entire fuel systems, total repaints, seized brake calipers etc

 

I do have to agree on you on that one, Pocket. But most likely if someone is retarded enough to chop their car up they're retarded enough to drive it in the winter.

 

I drive mine in the winter

 

I drove mine in the winter from 03-07.

It depends what you want the car for. Most of the ones I buy are to part out for profit, so the neglected car is gonna be more profitable since the person probably just wants it out of their yard. The kid that modded his car in the most horrible ways is still gonna have the mindset that all those mods make the car valuable, so I usually pass on those ones. It's harder to pick them up cheap.

 

I don't consider crap like exhausts or interior panels to even be an issue. It's when the car winds up having 1/2" thick bondo under the shiny paint, butchered wiring and god knows what kind of half assed repairs that will leave me stranded that I don't like. Stickers I can live with.

 

In North Carolina? That's not real winter, that's just a cold season.

 

Drove it through a pretty nasty Ohio winter too

 

mine was a neglected but unmolested car. tranny mount, tune up, and a few minor repairs and she was back on the road.

then i molested the car and have not looked back.

 

neglected original.

 

I voted niether. I won't buy a car from a kid since it's probably half-a$$ed and beat (unless in the rare case they know thier stuff and I can tell they maintained it well). I also won't buy a lemon thats been sitting and neglected because it's ussually asking for trouble. I've seen too many cases where there were mice eating away at things, rust up the wazoo, mold, etc. Not worth it IMO.

 

me too haha

 

I would only take a modded car only if it were really cheap. Even then, I would be looking in the back for an "escape hatch" cut to the floor for the shadetree style fuel pump changeout. If it has that, it is going to have to be dirt cheap.

 

I think you're right, the "escape hatch" is a great indicator of how the car has been repaired/modified. Those are the ones (in my experience) that are always a PITA to work on because you're always fixing what someone else has done.

 

What troubles me most is that amateur originally meant "for the love of", not "hack, whack and do for the least cost or effort". The question that comes next (after the low cost, hack and whack) is "how much is my car worth and why can't I get the price of an unmolested original?".

The conundrum is that "amateurly modded" also means that the car has probably been driven very hard (as noted in posts above) and done on the cheap. So the problem becomes in dealing with the hard driving on the car itself, plus the mods (and I don't think many have done wiring diagrams or listed mods, settings, etc.) on the "mystery car". So the energy and aggravation level in dealing with these cars is much higher than the purchase price.

For me neglected but unmolested is the main choice as I want originality - but my choice. On the other hand, a well done, tastefully (my words) modded car that adds something to the original platform is definitely something to look at. I think the TTA was probably the ultimate mod to the Firebird.

Oh wait, there was the Firehawk and some other interesting derivatives...................