im really happy after taking care of it for 3 years its finally mine! my mom gave me her 1986 firebird. its a 2.8l V6, silver with 67000 Original kms. Id like some advice from you guys on what i should do to the car, its 100% stock so theirs alot to go aroundAnything from paint... rims... bodykit, sound system.. you name it! the only thing i dont want to change for now is the engine, its still a virgin

Here are some pics of the car, tooken at night so i dont know if their clear enough... and i cant take any more pics cuz the car is in the garage for the winter!

there are three pics:

http://s1140.photobucket.com/albums/...t%3Dimage3.jpg

In my opinion,if it's still all stock i would keep it that way. A Stock thirdgen is beautiful, I really wouldnt do anything except A stereo upgrade. Thatd be it for me

thanks for thr advice, very true but the paint is dull and rough so i really dont know what to do!

Save up and get the car repainted the factory color. trust me a mint stock looking third gen in very nice shape is what catches my eye. I get turned off looking at body kits on beautiful cars. but thats just me, if it was me, i would just do stereo change (if stock) and put different wheels on it and thats it. id leave the body bone stock looking.

I Agree with Formula kid. You should just do whatever you want, But personally i would try to keep it as stock as possible

67,000 km is fairly low mileage, so even though it's a 2.8, I'd keep it stock and enjoy it for what it is. Give it the paint job it deserves (not saying it needs to be a $10k job but for the love of God let a body shop do it, don't do it yourself in your garage if you've no clue what you're doing, given the low miles and presumably virgin sheet metal it deserves a decent paint job and a qualified body shop will get it right the first time), clean it up and fix any small issues it has, and enjoy it for what it is.

Would like to see better pictures, but it looks like a clean car.

The problem with just throwing a paint job at it, is that a good paint job (good enough to look better then the current weathered paint) is going to cost more then the car is worth. A cheap ($2000-3000) paint job is going to increase the car's value about a thousand dollars. If you love the car, go for it, but keep in mind that if you decide to sell the car you're never going to get more then the cost of a paint job out of it. V6 thirdgens just aren't in demand, they're actually really really really hard to get rid of.

I'd probably just drive it and enjoy it. If and when you want a better paint job, go for it.

Very nice looking ride! Until your able to do a paint job, get it buffed and waxed polished and shined. You will be surprised what a good wax,buff and polish will do for old paint. Keep it that way. Hey the V6 is a sweet little motor, take car of it and it will get you where your going. Yeah the faster TPI are hot, but there is always a faster car. Enjoy, congrats on your nice ride

Drive it for what it is. If you want more power get a L98 thirdgen to start with.

Keep it, take care of it, enjoy it, paint it...just don't hack it up. Put a sweeter-sounding exhaust on it, tint the windows, and just drive. You don't see many like that anymore. You can get a really good paint job for $3,000 if the metal is straight and you look around.

I also agree with the paint job. The rest I wouldn't even touch. Most I would do to it is a complete tune up, change all fluids, put some nice new tires on, and swap the stereo so you can listen to some nice tunes in a nice clean looking thirdgen.

2.8L + aftermarket exhaust = rip my ears off. Keep a stock exhaust, or stock replacement. Performance mufflers sound awful on a V6.

I actually like those old Pontiac rally wheels, my sister's old '86 had the same ones. They're fairly rare.

If it doesn't have white letter tires, I would add those.

I say keep it stock not many around (STOCK IS COOL)

Keep it stock, don't rice it out.

Don't touch the exhaust either.

You could always build a half camaro / half firebird:
https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/fabr...nd-camaro.html

Sorta like the El Camino of F Bodies. The car of indecision, for those who can not decide which they like best. The best of both worlds.

Awww c'mon...2.8s sound great with, say, a used Borla cat-back off Fleabay

You mean a Cambird what ever

The proper nomenclature is "Trans-Maro".

Yeah all I know is that I've never heard a 2.8 or 3.1 with an aftermarket muffler that sounded remotely good. My 2.3 sounds like a tractor (with turbo whistle) and it still sounds a million times better then my V6 thirdgens. For whatever reason the 60* V6 always sounds like farting on a snare drum. The only hope is to make the exhaust quiet so it's not so obnoxious. Or build a stereo, so you can drown out the exhaust with tunes.

Either way is a nota

For some reason the 2.8/3.1 sounds like crap in a RWD vehicle, but it sounds okay in a FWD (Lumina, Beretta, Grand Prix, etc).

That's a matter of opinion, but in the interest of not debating it for the next week... ehhhhhh... maybe... Idk.

Indeed it has the white letters on the tires, stock tires too... But I need to change them as there is a leak in the rim and the tires are balding, I want another pair but don't know where to find them, I live in Montreal, Canada

I think the only exhaust I'd out on it would be flowmasters... Just love the sound they give!

Ya it is, the blue interior is immaculate, there are no rust spots on the car atall but the front bumpers paint is chipped because of my idiot to a neighbor hit the car while he was backing up

Have you heard what a Flowmaster sounds like on a 2.8/3.1/3.4?

Nah man, I'm not a mad scientist or something LOL the cars keeping all its firebird parts

Well on YouTube yes.... Not in real life, have you?

Yeah, a few of my friends were really into Fieros for several years, and a few of them ran Flowmasters. Also had the displeasure of working on a 94-ish Firebird 3.4 with a Flowmaster muffler. The hollow Flowmaster tone makes the idle louder, but they're REALLY raspy off idle. I don't mean in a good way either, more like "I wish I could rip my ears off so I didn't have to listen to this thing anymore". Whatever you do don't gut the cat converter, it'll make it 100% worse.

Alright, I'll keep that in mind! But I need to change my headers as their rusted and I have a hole in my exhaust that annoys the hell out of me

The stock manifolds are cast iron, short of cracks they'll last forever. Individual exhaust pipes are available at most parts stores, assuming the assembly isn't welded together or clamped/rusted too badly, you can replace just the bad piece.

Dynomax used to sell a catback exhaust for V6 cars. Their Super Turbo mufflers are quiet, but slightly louder then stock. I'd either go that direction, or get the individual pieces from the local parts store. It's not like a high performance muffler is going to uncork 15hp from a V6. Truth told a quiet Dynomax muffler probably flows better then a chambered Flowmaster.

Thanks for the advice, what is the price range of the muffler or can you send me a link if possible?

I'm really thankful I stumbled upon this website, it's full of information and nice people

Click this link...

http://www.summitracing.com/search/?...20camaro&dds=1

and

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/WLK-17739/

I agree with drew on this one. the only f body v6 that sounds remotely decent to me was my buddies 2000 camaro 3.8 with the magnaflow catback with cat still in place. It sounded good at idle and decent while driving but it had that god awful drone inside the car and made the center console raddle like crazy from the drone. The sound got really old while driving for a period of time because of how loud it was. the magnaflow system was actually the loudest out of all the catbacks he put on the car before he sold it.

Resurrecting this thread !

hows everyone doing?

i just need some tips from you guys

car has been sitting in the garage for over 15-20 years and hasn't been started in over a year

id like to know what should i do to make sure she drives smooth?
i was thinking flushing the oil, prestone, and putting brand new fluids

should i buy anything for the gas? i mean theirs probably still some gas from 1991 in there

any help is appreciated!

Depending how much you have in the tank, I'd siphon as much as you can out. It's a pain in the rear (literally), but dropping the rear and get the tank out to dump to rest is another option but not essential if you get the bulk of it out. It may run rough for a tank or two if it fires. Old evaporated gas will gum up injectors

the gas is at 3/4..

It would be a good idea to change the fuel filter too.

ya i was planning on changing that too

just a quick question.. roughly.. how much do you think it will cost for me to change all 4 brakes?

if you do it yourself, i did mine for under $150, includes rear wheel cylinders, springs, shoes, front rotors, calipers, brake hoses, and the pads. all parts from autozone, and not the cheapest ones.

id honestly love to do it myself, but i dont have much mechanic experience and im only 18. what am i looking at if i bring to to a garage?

Probably $300, thats what i was quoted on my 91 RS, and i'm 18 aswell its really not hard.

i just called a local garage and they estimated between 500-800