jstanfi1

iTrader: (2)

Looking for some advice/thoughts on a survivor from the best community on the web (I belong to a LOT, seriously, this one is a lot better than most). I know this crowd knows that my car is pretty rare, albeit not necessarily all that valuable. And the odds are in my favor for both, I guess: They're not making T/As anymore, but they're still making trees and teenagers, so...

I have a 92 T/A convertible that's in really exceptional condition for the age and mileage (about 137k). It had a superb paint job/body restoration before I got it, and I recently acquired a set of original tail lights with the painted lettering still in tact and free of any delamination or scratches (in unrelated news, my kids can't go to college now.) The car is bone stock save for a cat-back flowmaster system installed by the previous owner, and a set of 4th gen seats that I had some custom embroidery done on, but I still have the original cloth ones. Oh, and I replaced the stereo with the proper 1992 pontiac CD player. My dad works for an AC Delco distributor so anything I've put on the car the past 10 years has been OE or Delco if available. It's gotten about 6k miles on it in the 10 years I've had it...not a trailer queen, but a garage queen for sure.

So my wife won't drive the car...doesn't care for the massive front end, the nonexistent space between her butt and the road, etc. And I want her to enjoy the toy in the garage, and being a teacher she has more summer time to enjoy it than I do. So on a wild hare on a warm April day after getting some bad health news, I bought a 6th gen Camaro SS convertible. The wife drives it. A lot. So does everyone else it seems. Very fun car. My plan was that I would sell the T/A.

Turns out I'm far too emotionally attached to it and am planning a viking funeral with it, if I can get a sufficient pontoon boat to drive the car onto first. So I bought a 4 post lift and the car is now up in the air at our other place, and when we're there, I drive it. Or at least that's the plan. My guess is it will be driven no more than 250 miles per year so long as I keep it.

So here's the rub...the car is free of any rust anywhere, other than on the rear end, and as such I purchased a rebuilt 3.23 rear end, had it disassembled and professionally powder-coated, and had planned to install it in the car. I really don't mind the relative low power of the 305 tpi, but was hoping the 3.23 would give me a little more push from a dead stop. I also had planned to upgrade to rear disc brakes in the process. These were of course driver-upgrades I planned before buying the Camaro that we are actually driving.

My question to the community is: Do I keep the car as bone stock as possible, given I won't hardly be driving it anyhow, and keep the 2.73 rear end installed (in the newly powder-coated carrier of course) and stick with the cast iron drum brakes, or do I install the 3.23 and the appropriate driven speedometer gear, and upgrade to disc brakes? Or maybe split the difference and do the 3.23 and get some nicer aluminum drums? If I do the 3.23 swap, I plan to keep the 2.73 gear set for the next owner (the bottom of the lake, if I have my say) and could even keep the original housing I guess. I'm asking for three purposes: 1) What's the "ethical" thing to do to this car? She deserves the best. 2) If I were to show the car on occasion, do these choices matter in any of your eyes? and 3) If I change my mind and decide my girls deserve education past the 12th grade, do these choices affect the value?

Bonus question would be the post everyone loathes...what's this car worth anyhow? I kind of feel like $12k would be my bottom dollar in the current market? Would be curious what others think.

LeonardS

If you find a buyer for $12,000+ and the car has 137,000 miles…..take it! Otherwise, do whatever makes you happy and enjoy the car. Good luck with your decision.

Reddragon88gta

First I really like this post, you have a nice writing style which gave me a few good laughs.

1) IMO I would make the change to the rear diff, the car will feel more powerful and maybe give it a new fun factor. Switching the brakes to disk might be more trouble than its worth but that's up to you. While the car is in immaculate shape it still has been driven and enjoyed (as it should be) with over 100k plus miles so making a few tasteful mods like you have and are considering would be negligible to the value and might make the car more desirable to another buyer( I would view a rear gear upgrade as something I wouldn't have to do). Now if this car had like 20k original miles and was in this condition and never modified I would hesitate to make changes as the car is then a time capsule contender.

2) These choices do not matter in my eyes if you were to show the car, I would likely marvel at how well its kept with that kind of mileage on the odometer and think the mods are tasteful and easily reversible if a prospective buyer wanted to change back.

3) The mods and choices you've made will not affect the value in a big way IMO and I like your value of around $12k bottom but pictures would really help us put a figure on it...there are not many 92's period let alone convertibles so in this wild market who knows...$15k?

I was in a similar spot with my GTA, when I found it with 78k miles with original everything but needing paint and some real maintenance so basically I was going to keep it bone stock to keep value up as original cars command more $$$ but I slowly started making a few mods to enjoy the car more and improve it and that's where I am today as you can see in my signature. Its modified a bit but I kept almost all the original parts etc. just in case but I realized the car was not a museum piece with 15k miles on it and mint factory paint so I decided to enjoy it as it was, a good looking driver that will look really great once its fully painted in a few years.

LAFireboyd

iTrader: (3)

Funny, when you ended your first sentence with "trees and teenagers," I thought we were in for a crash story lol.

Build and upgrade it. Davey Jones won't have any use for it, whether it's factory original(which is already isn't) or modified. And value-wise, the fickle buyers/flippers are looking for garage queens with 20,000 miles or less, so at 137,000, its future will be as a driver to whomever owns it next, not for a garage, nor a submarine either. So if you can make it better--for YOU--now, then do it, and ENJOY IT.

jstanfi1

iTrader: (2)

Yeah, I originally thought the same about $12k being a bit "pie in the sky," but when I was toying with selling it I had a local car dealer offer me $11k, so he clearly knew he could get more for it than $12k...crazy times. Thanks!

jstanfi1

iTrader: (2)

Thanks for the writing compliment...I'm an academic and don't get to do a lot of freeform writing, so I take the chance when it comes. I am reasonably confident I am the only accounting professor in the world who owns a third gen T/A convertible. She does look a little out of place next to the Lexus and BMW cars my colleagues often drive.

I love every bit of what you said and it all reaffirms my thinking really well. I think the mileage prevents it from ever being worth crazy money and I gave $6k for it 10 years ago and really haven't put that much in it, maybe $2k, so it doesn't owe many anything. I don't think it's likely to depreciate, and has a decent chance of being a better investment than holding cash at least, so I feel like its only costing me a few hundred bucks in insurance, plates, and maintenance to keep it.

I have only shown the car one time, circa 2013, and it was 100 degrees out so I left it to sit and hung out in the sports bar across the street. I was surprised to find that on a web page dedicated to the car show, several people had commented then about how rare it was to see a third gen Firebird convertible, let alone in great shape. That was 8 years ago, and they certainly haven't gotten any more common. There's a small town about 10 miles away from a lake we frequent and they do monthly car shows in the town square (county seat, nice downtown) and it might be fun to see people ask "what's that?" a couple times a year.

Oh, and I forgot that I had actually listed it here back when I was planning to sell it, these pics are with no cleanup and before I installed the nearly-new taillights.

(IN) 1992 Trans Am Convertible Beautiful Car $14,000 - Third Generation F-Body Message Boards

jstanfi1

iTrader: (2)

Love it. Thanks for giving me confidence that I'm not molesting the poor thing with a gear swap and maybe some nice brakes. As an alternative to the viking funeral, I'm asked some former students to take it from my wife and put it out on the side of the highway with a sign that says "Stan's dead...Firebird for sale" (a Jimmy Buffett song reference). I don't want my wife's second husband set up *too* well.

Reddragon88gta

That car is a beauty, very nice shape in the pics. My wife also threatens to send me off in a Viking funeral in the river behind our house lol

JT

iTrader: (1)

Showing the car, no one is going to know that you've got the 3.23 gears or that you converted to disc brakes. You can't look at the car, without the code or getting underneath, and know the gear ratio. Disc brakes were optional on the ThirdGen (but not the 1991/1992 T/A Convertibles) and so few would likely know you've changed that.

However, the 4th gen seats that you've got stick out. Those not too familiar with the ThirdGens may not notice, but the seats are right there in front of a person and are far more noticeable to anyone that knows.

I've got the same car as you (1992 T/A Convertible in red) but I've got the factory 5-speed and at 80K. Tell your dealer that I'd sell it for 12K.

LiquidBlue

I feel a bro! I'd say with the mileage and the re-paint and the seats you can't hurt the car by putting other factory parts from the same era on it. Especially if you keep the factory originals that can be sold with the car should the day come. If this baby had low miles and it looked like it just came off the assembly line then don't touch it!

dmccain

iTrader: (2)

Car is gorgeous. I have aluminum rear drum brakes and they work fine IMO. I also went from 2.73s to 3.73s when my car was a 305 and it was a big upgrade and Im sure the 3.23s will be also. I also slipped an S10 torque converter in there to give it around 2200-2300 stall and that helped it a lot. You can do these things and appear totally stock it wont hurt a thing. Again..beautiful car IMO worth every bit your asking price on it but Im sure you would hate you sold it as soon as it left your garage.

kimnach

Viking Funeral. Now that's funny. I have told my boys that they will never drive my car and I plan to be buried in it:-)

Stock is fine, but "it's your car" as has been sad numerous times down through the ages. When I pulled my 305 to rebuild it, I thought of a 427 (there's a mystic allure of that in my grey matter). In the end, I decided to keep it number's matching. It's still as fun to drive when I bring it out of storage as it was 33 years ago.

F-body-fan

When you said 4th gen seats, I cringed until looking at your pics. Those seats blend in so much better than I was imagining. other than the headrests, they look a bit like GTA seats at first glance. I agree with the others, if this was a 37K mile car I would not touch it, But if you don't permanently modify anything & you keep all the original parts, I really don't think your going to hurt the value. I would continue on with what you enjoy doing. Make the changes & keep on driving it. I am a nut about originality, but in this case I think you have a very nice car that you can do what you want & nobody with think bad about it. The gearing should really wake up the bottom end, but after driving your LS its still going to feel like golf cart acceleration after 4500 rpms. Post more pics on your (this) thread when you have time.

jstanfi1

iTrader: (2)

I know location and marketing matter a great deal with these cars, but I'd think $12k for that car, assuming the paint is near perfect, would be a no-brainer. Underside condition obviously matters a lot too. But I just shot him a message to see if the buyer he was trying to help is still looking and can drive a stick.

And yeah the seats are something of a compromise....I have a set of really nice year-correct Ultima leather seats that just need recovered, but so long as I have kids at home that still fit in the back seat for family "red car rides," I hate to put them in the car because the back plastics will undoubtedly get tore up. I've also got a set of the gray cloth seats that would have come with the car. When I bought the car, it had a set of 4th gen cloth seats, the charcoal gray color that had some purple undertones....they looked terrible, in my opinion. I decided to put these in, have the custom embroidery put on the headrests, put in the matching floormats, and covered the fabric on the door panels with matching Hampton vinyl. "Mild custom interior" I'll call it, lol.

jstanfi1

iTrader: (2)

Thanks! The seats did stick out pretty bad at first with the light gray fabric on the door panels, but I covered those with matching Hampton vinyl, added the gray embroidered floor mats, then had the headrests custom embroidered. Anyone that knows these cars would know in a flash they're not the right seats, but they still look really, really good for now. I do want to swap out those seat belts for dark gray or charcoal one of these days.

The Camaro has the 6.2L putting out 455hp and 455 ft-lbs of torque, and it's an easy 0-60 in around 4 seconds...not even in the same ballpark. Still, I was pleasantly surprised that after driving it, I'm still pretty happy to be driving the T/A. I had a 1990 coupe for a bit in high school, and it was the car I was driving when I met my wife. I sold it to get something bigger and more fuel efficient for work and commuting two hours to her university, but always said if I could ever have a "toy" in the garage, it'd be a T/A convertible. So she's special to me.

And yeah, the car is at the shop getting the rear end installed, so when I get it back and cleaned up I plan to have a photographer friend shoot some pics for me. I'll post them then!