rusty vango

i was wondering....how many other members have bought their cars out of long term storage??? i found my 86 IROC in a barn in 09.it had been there since 1991. i had to move 63 round bales of hay to get to it.mice had eaten the wiring ,and it had a hornets nest in the headliner.oh, and two corn snakes, too. BUT it was a one owner car with 29,548 miles.and it had the original tires and battery and everything else including the window sticker. now almost 5 years later it has 38,263 miles and i have spent ,say $8,000 to get it where it is today.(which is to say PARKED!!! because of MAF issues) any way, who else among us is that "mentally challenged" whats the story from other members? chime in.

okfoz

I bought my first Formula in 1997, it had sat since 1995. The First owner had the car from 1987 to 1994, the car went from Indianapolis, to Butler, PA back and forth a few times, then he traded it in at 91,000 miles or 94,000 miles. It received a new transmission (no VIN, so it was a replacement GM one at one point) The car went to a used car lot, to where Chad (the previous owner) traded in his sunbird for the car. He drove the car for about 2 years when it developed rod-knock at 100,243 miles, he had taken off the carb, and the car sat for about 2 years when I purchased it for $1200... Not a long time, but 2 years...

John in RI

iTrader: (167)

The longest "sitting" period for one of my restorations was 10 years. The original owner had put over 300K on his crossfire and then parked it 'cause the motor started giving him grief. It stayed in the same spot for over a decade before I had a flatbed pull it back out of the ground. I've never bought a car with more mice in it.....



This is what was in the Cat converter:



What it looked like when I sold it a little less than 1 year later:




The engine in that car was originaly a 88 TBI roller motor that was got ported 416 heads and an 87 TPI Camshaft.... It was the first time I ever bolted perimeter heads on a roller engine. I learned a LOT while restoring that car !!

gearhead141

I purchased my '85 T/A two years ago. It had 57,xxx miles on it and I thought that it was probably 157,xxx miles because the odometer in the car only goes five places. I suppose GM never thought about a car going more than 99,999 miles. The seller told me the car had sat for ten years when the original owner passed away. The widow wanted to give the car to her son but he wanted nothing to do with it. When I bought it, the tires were from '91 and were cracked pretty bad. The air dam was gone. There was no radio or spare tire. I drove that car 70 miles home on a prayer, and it made it. The one thing I've learned with stored cars is that there is a lot of replacement that needs to be done. I've probably replaced just about every vacuum hose under the hood. The carb on the LG4 has been rebuilt by me. Luckily I didn't have any rodent issues to deal with. The engine is solid and only gives a hint on startup that the valve stem seals are leaking. I'm happily surprised that it gets 20mpg and the 700R4 is smoothe as silk. The car is completely stock and hasn't been molested in any way. This is what I was looking for and it took me a couple years to find it here in SoCal. This board has been invaluable in helping me bring this car back. One of my first projects was replacing the heater core. I couldn't have done it without the help of everybody here.

jez3941

iTrader: (1)

My 84 TA sat for 5 years because the owner spun a bearing on the freeway after installing 4.11 gears and a turbo 350 trans.
this was of course after he put on new quarter panels, fenders and a paint job.
Fortunately he kept the 700r4 so i put that back in at the same time as a new engine
and replaced all the brake lines.

91'firechicken

My 91 trans am was sitting for only 6 years in a hoarders garage. Apparently the owner needed money and such so I took her off his hands. The headliner was completely trashed, seat fabric is worn thin on the butt area and the steering wheel was from a earlier model. Engine bay was clean, clean, clean! But the block was mildly dirty. All the supports are worn, shocks are shot and has some paint issues.

But I found her and took her as mine to fix up.
after 6 years of sitting with an oil change she started right up. (no worries though) after only a week of having her, she got a full tune up and deep cleaning.
Smelled like rotting smelling shoes.

jjcuff1

My 88 Iroc sat for 8 years at least in one spot. Car fired up with starter fluid. Body is straight no damage but paint is shot, interior is musty and tore up from worn rubber and rain coming through, ttops actually dont leak, no major rust. Just little putting around ttop frame and cross over bar in roof. Most rust was from 2 seats bottom rusted out probably from sitting water but looks to have saved the rest of the floor pans.

Engine is dirty with leaves and debris but all stock and unhacked.

okfoz

Turned out Beautiful

86TA355SR

iTrader: (1)

John in RI,
What a transformation, great job!

Rusty Vango,
If I would have saw 2 corn snakes slither out of a car, I would have been on top of the garage screaming like a school girl! Not a fan of snakes.

I stored a GTA for 8 yrs in a pole barn. I was lucky, I didn't have any rodent problems. I would have if it'd been there much longer, mice had built a nest on the top of the intake, hell of a mess. Couldn't believe they didn't get into the wiring.

I spent about $2K in parts and a lot of my time getting it back on the road.

Made me realize how hard it is on vehicles to sit for a long time. The ads I see for low mile cars (like the 5K mile IROC) almost always require a lot of attention since they have sat so much. There are those of us that take care of a car even if we are not driving it, but a lot of others don't. And, I wouldn't think of driving anywhere on those 25+ year old tires....

One thing I recommend to anyone buying or recovering a stored car: Replace front/rear rubber brake hoses. Can you guess how I know?

okfoz

I had this happen to me, The first time I took my car out for a drive after it had sat (the one in my first post), The Left front brake appeared to cease up... and I baked the rotor. The hose appeared to have a hematoma... Apparently there is a tube inside of a tube for the brake hoses. If the inner tube gets a hole, you hit the brakes, and the fluid is forced into the little hole, then fluid gets trapped between the layers and then it closes off the inner tube, and a bulge looking like a hematoma on the outside. The brake does not release because it has been pressurized... What a mess...

Racing Dad 5

I bought my car from a dealership that had parked in the very back of the lot. But previous to it getting there, the owner said it was a father and son team car being set up for restoration. But the father died and the son lost interest in completing the car and it sat in the garage for 6 years! The paint was still good on it. Right before the father passed, he just wanted to see what it looked like after some detailing and buffing. The son never touched it again. The owner of the dealership got it for himself, but got too busy and 6 months later I bought it. 75k miles. The father was the original owner, I was told.

Racing Dad 5

Yeah I learned a hard lesson about that in the past. This car though only needed the the rear brake line replaced, fortunately. And I trailered it home after test driving it and the brakes went to the floor while trying to brake torque it, WHOA!

86TA355SR

iTrader: (1)

I know what you are talking about. Saw that on a friend's car.

I did a detailed inspection of the brakes prior to driving mine. Everything looked good. Said to myself, "I should replace those tomorrow." Took the car around the block and what are the chances? A woman pulled out in front of me at the last second, stood on the binders and the steering wheel ripped out of my hand! It pulled so hard to the right I almost went off the road, thankfully cool heads prevailed and I let off the brake enough to get it under control.

The lesson: You can't always tell if the hoses are good by visual inspection. Mine collapsed under pressure on one side causing it to pull hard in the opposite direction.

92GTA

iTrader: (11)

My 92 was being used and has never sat except for maybe a few months at a time. Now my '56 vette, that sat for 42 years and I still fired her right up haha!

okfoz

My Dad's first car a 1928 Model A sat from 1956 to 1982, put fresh gas in it and drove it around the block... Once again it has sat since 1982... Neat story on that one, wrong board to be posting it tho...

Brock Lee

I bought a 91 Formula TPI car that had sat for 8 years. It was low mileage and clean. The guy had it a couple years, just dumped a pile of cash into new injectors, then the fuel pump died, so he parked it in the garage to deal with "some day" after he got over his frustration. He never did.

The fuel was turning into varnish. Drained it all out, changed the pump, then the injectors and sensors started acting up due to sitting. Changed it all and it runs great. I had to go through the brakes too as the rust was not just surface anymore after all that time. The master cylinder had to be changed shortly after, but it settled in and has been fine since.

Spd-Kilz

When I bought my 83 Z28, I received a previous appraisal report done in 1998 when the car had 19,200 miles on it. Fast forward to 2011 (13 yrs), when I went to see it for the first time, it had a little over 19,500. Body was in perfect shape, but everything underneath was original so I went a little nuts and spent ~$7,000 on replacing as many "consumable" parts as I could (using only AC Delco and/or NOS GM). I will never get the money back I spent restoring the car, but it now has about 21,500 miles on it and I'd argue it starts, stops, and handles better than it did 30 years ago.

erik69&85

iTrader: (1)

My car sat for 6 years.... And I paid for it with having to rebuild the entire fuel system (including injectors) and brake system. You can't just park a car like that!.....


Pics are when I first went to see it and what it looked like last weekend.....

Despite its good looks, most of the work has been mechanical.

Given the 2 years and a few thousand dollars....now when i look at it.....Ready to go!

JC1992rsconvert

I bought my car last year for $1000 after she had been sitting up for 16 years and it was good until i spent $4000 trying to get her road ready so i could have a car to finish out my senior year in high school with. Graduation day came drove her 24 miles that day round trip then took her home didnt drive her at all for three days went out to go out with some friends started her up and BOOM motor gave out so between me and two other owners shes about to be on her third engine still love her but shes been sitting for 4 months waiting on an engine.

sidwyz

My car has a lil history, kid built an engine with his dad then needed a body, drove a flat bed from Ohio to Indiana for the body to find out the guy sold the zo6 wheels off it w/o telling em, of coarse they bought it anyway. It was the sellers body work project that he stripped it down to bare bones to redo....removed the wiring harness with tin snips...smh... so the kid put his engine in it with the help of his uncle and dad. He just had to drive it against his UNC and dads will because they only had the outside lights rewired, so they let him. With no heat, wipers, horn gauges, anything he drove the hell out of it. Around 03 he was replacing his 3rd 700r4 because "the engine was so badass" couldn't have had anything to do with the b&m shifter cable being miss adjusted, I just let him talk. Well while he was doing this his uncle and dad both die in a car accident. So out of grief he parked it at his friends house. BUT his friends house gets foreclosed and the bank tries to take the car so it sits. He finally gets it back but with no where to keep it, he parks it at his girlfriends to put a painless harness in, does the lights again then they break up. Car sits with ALL interior in her basement and he moves it to a field in Minerva where she sat for a few more years when I finally got her in 2011 she was still in great shape from all the metal being replaced. I put all black interior , switched it back to fuel injection with a 355 lt1 and got her back on the road except in Miami now. She's taught 3 different people 3 different aspects of car building and she's improved every step of the way (except Minerva lolz) every since I brought her home she's made me feel like the movie Christine... some times I just grab a beer and sit next to her just admiring her body lines.....safe to say I'll teach my sons to drive in this car....she definitely has spirit
Photos are in my album

MrPackstin

iTrader: (9)

The oil change sticker says to change the oil on 7/23/2006 or at 87,780 miles. It now has 86,989. I suppose it has been sitting a while.

greekknight

My 1982 crossfire trans am sat from 2004 to 2012. It has 92.500 original miles.

((Mike))

iTrader: (1)

My car must not have been driven much over the past decade. I just replaced the tires that had plenty of tread but were hard as hockey pucks! They were made in 1999. I just turned 30,000 miles yesterday. I think it sat for quite a while.

paulo57509

No a very dramatic story:

Saw a listing in the want ads in the San Jose Mercury back in 1989. Car was on the used car lot at Piercey Toyota in San Jose when they were still on 1st St. Asking price was $15,500; 21k miles. Went to go see it after hours, after sundown.

Watched the paper for the next two or three weeks and the price dropped to $13,500. Went during business hours and test drove it. Had one ding and a scratch (stuff like this doesn't bother me unless I put it there). Offered $12,500 out the door. No deal.

Forgot about it for another two weeks then out of curiosity called and asked the salesman if it was still there. It was and they agreed to my offer. Picked it up the next evening.

So I guess it sat for at least a month before I got it. Had 1/4 tank of gas in it. On the way home I filled it up.

Needless to say, the first repair I ever did to it was replace the gas tank (infamous leaky filler neck).

talover111

My 85 sat for about a total of 15 years and counting
My 88 sat from 1998 to 2011 then again for the past year
The 87 I just stripped hasn't been on road since 97

89Formula3

8 yrs but was stashed away in a garage cleaner than my house. Lol

mikey8494

my 92 bird i bought this past aghust sat for 2 years and only took me 3 months and 500 bucks to get her back to road ready ness but still alot to go into her

Topspeed

23 years. Did a full restore on her.

Before




After



Here is the link to the restore: https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/hist...ebird-s-e.html