Hi,

I am very new to third generation Camaros and know next to nothing about them. I just purchased a 1992 Camaro RS to work on with my 16 year old son. From what I can tell it has a 305 TBI with a 700R4 transmission. The dash has a 25th Anniversary logo on it but there are no other distinct markings on the outside of the car. Should there be? The dash appears to be original as the dash pad is in very poor condition. I just can't see somone swapping in a new dash with the pad being in that poor of shape. I am sure this will be the first of many stupid questions. Thanks for the help.

 

All 1992 Camaro's had the 25th badge on the dash. If it had the Heritage package it would have the external badging/racing stripes.

 

A picture would help. But as for the dash pad, its very common to deteriorate/ crack everywhere in our third gen. One thing I would like to share is that is not to get frustrated with common negative things such as doors and etc and just keep in mind you can restore it and its an old car.

 

the upper dash pad can be replaced/repaired/covered seperate from the dash it self . first make sure all saftey items are in good shape , brakes/tires/lights etc. . MAKE SAFE TO DRIVE . full tune-up , and keep looking over this forum . STUPID QUESTION ? the only stupid/dumb question is the one that is not asked . welcome and good luck .

 

The exterior on 92 camaros were pretty plain looking. Same with 91. About the only thing you will see are tunnel holes on the side of the front ground effect and also the side ground effects. RS emblems will be on the side ground effects and rear bumper. Unless you have a heritage which will have stripes and a hatch emblem which AmorgetRS already said. I guess gm decieded to stop putting lower body stripes and other decals on camaros after 90. 91 and 92's got(in my opinion)cool hood blisters on the z28's.

 

Thanks. No exterior badges or stripes so I guess it is a base RS is there is such a thing. I did take it for a short drive. The trans. is slipping badly and no reverse. The prior owner tried to install a shift kit and botched the job somehow. I have another 700R4 to put into it. Should I hold onto the original trans.? Is numbers matching a big deal with this kind of car. I got the car very cheap so I planned on having to work on it. That was part of the plan to get my son involved. First priority is to get it safe to drive and then start to work on the exterior and get it looking good. Mechanicals should not be a problem. Another quick question...if I ever decide to ditch the 305 TBI and move up to a carburated 350 or 383 are there any concerns with computer issues? This will be a while before I do that. I don't want to give him too much power too quickly.

 

Unfortunately it is THE base model. There is nothing below the RS although you could get them with a lot of options. Future value is most likely never going to be very good. Even if it were, there's not much value in the stock drivetrain unless it's kept VERY stock and very low miles, and at this point I think that car's chance at greatness in its factory-delivered state are most likely gone.

I wouldn't worry at all about hurting the value.

The only thing I do know is that since 92 was the last year of the production run, they got all of the little upgrades over the years. There's a lot of modifications they made to these cars from 82-92 and although the RS is the base model, it still got all the little improvements. They got stronger spindles, better sound deadening material, better rust prevention, better axles (the physical axles themselves on each side of the carrier, they're 28-spline instead of 26, the rear end as a whole isnt going to be much worth discussing, though, probably an open differential 2.73 highway gear), etc etc.

You'll find in a lot of cases if you ever dig deep into the car to upgrade it that you have the best case scenario as a starting point with the 92 car. None of the changes were huge, but a lot of upgrades you may want to make are simplified.

And really this is why I responded, one example are the later 700r4's (like yours), they were slightly better than the early ones. Nothing huge that's worth seeking one out if you already have one, but just small things here and there inside the transmission have been tweaked and revised and improved over the long production run these things had. So if you had a 1983 700r4 and a 1992 700r4 and both need rebuilds, the 92 version is going to be better to use.

 

Its supposed to have 3 RS emblems on the exterior. Each side ground effect and the rear bumper. that should be it. if you do go to a 350 or a 383 you can still use the throttle body injection and it will run good. you will need bigger injectors and such, there is a thread I will link to you as far as swapping a 305 to a 350 goes. ill go find it and post it up for you for future plans

ok heres the link: https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/tbi/...-350-swap.html

 

Thanks. That's a lot of information.