A little background on the car: I was 12 and riding down the road with my mom when I spotted a camaro on the lot my mom has gotten her last few cars. Now everybody in my family has owned a f body, my brothers 84 z, my aunts 86 z, my uncles 68, other uncles 72. I even dug up a pic of my moms 84 sc. But anyways, there it was, I didn't really know what I was looking at but it was cool. A red 91 z28, 350tpi, black interior, factory down to the cd player. A few short sentances later we were riding home in it. Still had $4995 written on the windshield. Fast forwards to my 16th birthday, my mom had been daily driving the z since she bought it with 150k miles.

I always washed/waxed and help her maintain it but something would always happen ( original fogs got busted, front lip got busted,ect) and I knew she wasn't getting appreciated the way she should had been. I loved this car and always liked muscle car growing up but this car truely got me into thirdgens. So I begged and begged and begged some more. When you asked me what did I want for my bday or xmas it was always the same thing. The camaro. Well she would never part with it and I eventually bought my own 87 firebird when I got turned down for the z on my 16th bday. It was no l98 but it was a thirdgen. My main concern was my thirdgen for a while, while she continued DDing the 91.

One day I ask to run the z into town for some parts for my fbird. 20 mins into it, the z died, 255k miles. I coasted to a stop and cycled the key a few times. Instantly knew the fuelpump was dead. Towed it home and not wanting to tackle a project I didn't think I was capible of, I told her to let it sit a while and save up to fix it up. The trans had started to slip a little, the rearend would make weird noises during sharp turns. So it sat..for 4 years or so.

I always hated going to visit mom and seeing my favorite car rotting in the yard. So I started begging for it again, knowing if I got it id sell my thirdgen to fix it. (didn't want to sell my first car)

My brother on the other hand is a die hard thirdgen guy too. His project 91 rs turned out to be wayy to rusty to keeping dumping cash into, under all the fresh paint was poorly fixed rust, car had been totaled, 2 different doors. So he sold it.

I had an idea, mom give the 91z28 to my brother, he sell his car to fund fixing it up. Win win, she's gets to see it fixed and running, I get the chance to help fix it, and my brother gets a rustfree 91 that his mom owned. My brother and I made an agreement, he can only sell it to me and noone else. And it gets to be towed to my house so we can start tearing it down.

New fuel pump, filter, gas, oil change, plug change and some seafoam and we had it running in one weekend. She fired right up with a new battery!!! We were so excited, new rotors, calipers, tires, tranny fluid/filter, brake fluids, and she was on the road again finally and I got to drive her!!!!

Then 2 months later the trans started slipping very bad, which we knew was going to go anyways..

Now the car sits, waiting for our decision..

Do we keep it as original as we can or mod it out??
Rebuild the stock numbers matching tranny or buy an upgraded one??

Its a 91z28, hardtop of course, l98 auto, dual cat option, drum brake rear posi, black cloth interior, premium cd player.

What would you guys do? Original moms car? Or badass custom machine?

 

Build it the way you want it. If you want it to look stock, then build it up internally and keep the exterior stock. You can also go full custom if you prefer that look. It's all about the money and your ability to make what you want it to be.

 

With those miles (255k, wow!), it's going to require a substantial amount of money to bring back to mint. Considering you can buy a 1991-92 L98 Z28 with low miles for less than 10 grand, I'd only put the necessary money into it if I was very emotionally attached or wanted a project and could do everything myself.

As to what to do, modded cars are almost always worth less than stock ones. But here, even if you restore it 100% perfect, the mileage is still going to keep its value well below that of one with low original miles. Our cars aren't at the value level yet where full restorations are bringing in the big bucks. Maybe that will change over time but for now, you could get a 50,000 mile example of this car for about 1/2 or even 1/3 what you're going to pay to restore it.

So, since going original isn't going to be profitable for you, I say do what you want if you are going to fix it up.

 

I'm not looking to restore it for profit. Just wanted to make sure if replaced the trans with an aftermarket unit ,am I ruining a desirable car?? It has more emotional value than you can measure. We'll never sell it.

just making sure its not a 1 of x amount of cars and we throw out the original trans & motor..

Either way, 255k or not, custom or stock we're bringing her back to life. The look on my moms face when we pulled up driving it was priceless.

Thanks guys..

 

If you are that worried about it, keep the old trans. If you arent going to sell the car, then it doesn't really matter. No, it's not that rare of a car, and no a 255k mile car is not very desirable.