sseville

New to the board and looking to get my feet wet with a third gen, but need advice on what to look for when buying these cars. A long time friend has owned a 88 trans am for about 10 years as the second owner - and is looking to sell the car.

It has 115k on it, is the two tone light blue on light grey, grey interior, digital gauges, t tops, and the 5.0 TPI automatic. The car has nothing aftermarket except american racing wheels. The car was involved in an accident where the drivers door was replaced and repainted, but this does not show on carfax. Has a good amount of new and newer parts such as starter, water pump, headlight motors, brakes, etc. Also comes with extra parts like t top rubbers and engine gasket kit. There are a good amount of service records.

As for things wrong with the car the coolant gauge does not show a reading at all and is blank. I remember my friend saying the thermostat and fans were worked on in the past, could it be possible that the sender wire/unit just isn't connected from the block to the gauge? Where does that sit on the engine?

The power hatch does not pull the hatch down. It was closed, and when we pressed the button to open it it did power the hatch up, but does not such it down when latched. Could there be some sort of sensor no longer getting a reading?

The driver's door lock does not work with the key, could that be because the lock is not from the original door, or maybe it's frozen? For what it's worth the original door is thrown in, I'm assuming because of the lock in it to be swapped possibly?

The car has a/c but it's not blowing cold. Don't really care to much about this as would have the t tops off on nice days. But assuming the compressor and other major components are ok, is there a high cost to converting r12 refrigerant to r134? Any cheap ways to get this working again?

The paint work on the car is pretty good for the year, a little bit faded in spots and or not matching quite so well from panel to panel. The interior seems to be in great shape except for a crack on each of the door panels, the dash is not cracked. There is no rust on the car anywhere, even the underside is surprisingly clean.

He wants $2800 firm for the car, is this a fair price considering the small fixes that need to be done? Is there anything in particular I should look for in detail when looking over/driving the car?

Thanks for your time!

2007xl50

First off if the car is not rusty then I feel that is not a bad price for it. The hatch issue I bet is the latch motor-from what I read they do go bad, the door look issue could be the fact it was not re-keyed when replaced, or the lock CYL is bad, Not sure on the temp gauge as, but it could be a sender? I am new to the 3rd gens myself and am learing fast as it seems. The AC would be R12 back then and you would have to convert it to R134A if you want to fix it. My car has AC and I don't know if it works as I never have the tops on, I store it in the garage under a cover with the tops off.

Look under the car real well, the floor pans like to rust on them as well as the bottom of the doors.

Jason E

Sounds to me like overall the car is pretty solid. The price is in line with the condition. I think the biggest thing to ask yourself is, are you looking for a driver? Something to show? The options listing sounds nice. As the previous owner of an 88, I know they're great cars. I think the biggest thing is to figure out what your goal with the car is. If you want a show-ready car, you could buy one for less than what it will cost to make this one flawless (start pricing paint jobs...you will see what I mean!)

Welcome to the board!

sseville

thanks for the replies...took it for a drive today and it drove quite straight and smooth. One question, is it normal to have to let off for the car to shift from second to third when wide open? It shifted perfectly at just about anything but wide open, for what that's worth.

The paint is better than I thought at first as well, I think a good buffing/polishing should bring a lot of the luster back. Interior looks incredible for how old the car is, there isn't even any wear on the driver's bolster.

Definitely just looking for a driver for the summer, was thinking of trying to resell it in the fall after I take care of a few things and make the car really shine.

Could this car be worth more than $3k once it's cleaned up a bit? I've been trying to find similar examples to see what they've been selling for but I haven't seen anything similar enough to give me a better idea.