I bought a 1992 Camaro recently that needs a decent amount of work. As I did more into the cars history, I find more and more interesting things and more problems to deal with. The car has the 305 TBI with a 5 speed manual. It was originally painted Dark Green-Grey Metallic, one of 2,659 painted like that. However sometime ago the previous owner put a big purple stripe down the side of it. The paint is old and peeling and faded and the car will have to be repainted in the near future. The engine has 134,xxx miles on it and is wearing out and burning oil. The transmission is also on its way out and often has trouble going into reverse. My family and friends all tell me that I should restore the car and keep it so I can sell it later as an asset. I don't think it would be worth the thousands I will have to put into restoring it when I could easily resto-mod it and build it the way I want. It has high miles, needs new paint and even if I paint it DGGM, it still isn't the original paint job, and the engine and transmission will need major work in the future. I personally want to swap a 383 stroker and restomod it to build something I would enjoy more but that wouldn't go over very well with some people. I am unsure how to proceed with this car and I read through the "should I restore my car" thread amd am leaning towards restomodding it but I still cannot decide. What should I do?

I doubt it will ever be a high dollar car, so I would say “do it the way you want”.

That is really bad investment advice.

From the sounds of it, it's a 5-speed RS with the TBI that lived a hard life. Yes, cool and somewhat rare color and can be fun with the 5-speed, but even in mint condition the RS cars are a hard sell. To get the car to "investment grade" quality, you'll put more money into this car than you'll ever see back. I say do whatever you want with it, but expect to make zero dollars when you sell it and add up all the receipts.

Agreed. I like a clean RS, but they don’t bring much money on resale. Either a restoration or restomod will cost significantly more than you would ever be able to get for the car. Build it how you want it, don’t worry about originality.

Unfortunately any Base v8 (LG4/L03) or V6 (non turbo) and the I4 really will not be an "Investment." If you want to invest into something, try real estate, or the stock market, you will have better luck there.

Without a performance engine, even though they were not that much different than a TPI, or HO, They are in the "just a car" bracket right now. They have been stuck there for about 20 years...

John

You should do what will bring you enjoyment.

If it was a well-optioned, all-original Z28, that would make a strong case for restoring it as original. A base-V8 RS, however, just won't have collector value regardless of how much $$$ you might pour into it. The general public seems to have the idea that any car that is "old" has great value to "collectors," but the history of the collector car market always proves that that is not true.

It's not a performance model (toilet bowl injection), it's got high mileage, and it's in relatively poor condition. This is not a car that will ever be worth significant money as a collectible. The market has PLENTY of low mileage, good condition Z28's, IROC's, Formula's, and Trans Am's. Sorry but no one dreams about a toilet bowl injected 170 HP 305 car. It's just not on anyone's radar and never will be. Your friends and family are off their rocker if they think that piece should be "restored" - no one would want it and the cost would far outweigh the value (ever).

Build the car into whatever you want. I took a clapped 86 Trans Am and turned it into what *I* wanted because it was never going to be a collectible with 150k on it and needing total restoration.

GD

You are actually in a good position. Your car, like mine is a pretty base option car so modifying it to your liking wont hurt a thing. If I had a 5spd TPI GTA or Iroc I would leave it alone. Sky is the limit to what you can do with these cars and they make a decent platform to build.

rebuild engine and transmission ~$4k, interior back to like new ~$3k (assuming good bones but carpet, seats recovered, headliner, new dash pad), paint assuming no rust $3k--- so I mean you could bring it back to almost like new for 10k and still have a $4-6k car.

Buy cars cause you enjoy it, they are not investments unless you get lucky. Heck even the high dollar investments such as say a 69 dodge charger, if you took the cost of a new one in 69 and put it in a good investment portfolio you would be sitting on more money now than a mint 69 charger... but stocks are not as much fun as smoking the tires.

Don’t bother with it. You can get a near mint RS 5 speed for 7 to 8k. Even less sometimes. A lot nicer cars to start a build with then a clapped out RS.