i just got my very first car and it happened to be a camaro my mom had one and i loved it now its time for me to have my very own camaro to love! any advice would be appreciated i really want to get into cars especially camaros because they look so bad *** its a 1984 z28 iroc v8 305 5 speed tranny. oh and how do i put pictures of it up i cant figure it out?

 

hey man congrats on the car. i would suggest and exhaust first that usuallt what i do. as for the pictures when you rply to a message or create a thread in the "additional options" area below the text bow you typr in click on the manage attachments button. it will be there that you add photos

 

haha wow i thought i was the only one who's mom owned a camaro and it rubbed off on.... my mom owned a 84 Berrlineta (sp) then in '05 i got my first car.. an '86 Sport Coupe.. and now i've got a '92 RS..

i'd also agree.. exhaust would be a good first mod.. that's about all that is done to my '92..

 

you might change your mind on what i should do first when you see the pictures ha

 

more

 

and more

 

more

 

Nice! Cool first car mine was a mustang It looks like a nice Z however its not an iroc cause the first iroc was made in 85 just lettin u know

 

Start with the basics/maintenance....

Oil change, radiator flush (if needed), ball joints, shocks/struts, tires (if you can, upgrade the wheels too to avoid spending $ on something you'll wanna replace in 6 months).

Might as well get better than stock when things need replacing. Like urethane bushings. Cost a little more, but basically they'll never need replacing, and the components can work better.

 

what are some things to improve the gas milage because its killin me

 

Looks like a great start! The only thing about the car that looks like it really needs any work is the front of the hood, but that shouldnt be hard to fix.
As for gas mileage, you want the car to be running its best for good fuel economy. Do a tune up (AC Delco plugs, wires, cap, rotor, fuel filter, pcv, I always recomend Seafoam through the brake booster vacuum line and empty a can of carb cleaner down the carburetor), check for vacuum leaks, change the oil, use good gas, make sure your tires are inflated to spec, and even though its a Camaro and has a good amount of power, try to keep yourself from taking off from every light and racing around every chance you get.... thats gonna make a HUGE difference on how much gas you go through.
Congrats on a sweet first car, my first car that I bought was an 89 Formula in a LOT worse shape, you've got a great car to start out with!

 

also i dont know if you guys can make out the picture but the windsheild has a crack in it someone hit it with somthin or another

 

You gotta have a glass professional change the windshield...

Depending on how rusty the hood is, you might want to sand out the rust, and block it back with a little filler. Then spray the whole thing with a flat black, untill you decide to paint the whole car.

For the gas milage, you basically just should do a good tune-up. Replace the cap / rotor, wires, plugs, fuel filter, PCV, check the EGR (do LG4 have the EGR??) and make sure the carb is tuned good. Check the timing too.

 

thanks alot and i think i need to just buy a whole new hood cause the hood is rusted all the way through and i cant stop my t-tops from leeking

 

the t-tops were designed to leak, they are mostly all the same way

 

as far as gas milage goes, id do a full tune up, trash, or replace the cat convertor and install a msd ignition box..........the more spark you have the more gas you can burn at one time, it being used instead of being spit out the tail pipe..........buy a cowl hood

 

is there anyway to stop the t-tops from leaking

 

Nice car, looks like a solid project. My first car was an 83 firebird, also with poo-poo brown interior and exterior (don't know what people were thinking in the 80s). Mine was definitely in much worse shape than yours is though, and not t-top. You probably need new weatherstripping for the t-tops, or possibly the window seals. Can you tell where exactly it's leaking through? Also, if the hood is rusted that bad, I would just get another one. They're easy enough to find at the junkyard. Also, keep an eye out for a factory fiberglass hood, it looks exactly like yours, only it won't ever rust, and weighs alot less. I'm not sure what years they were available on, but I want to say only 82-84 or something like that.

 

Good score on the Z, man! You're gonna need new weatherstripping to stop the leaky T-Tops, but now that it's spring...who cares!

Click around some of the ads you see on this site--those are companies that carry the thirdgen parts you need. Hawks Thirdgen, TopDownSolutions, ModernDayMuscle...they can all help you out.

Slow90firebird is in the same TBI boat as you, so he'll have MORE than enough ideas to make your car go fast.

Welcome to the family!

 

some ppl say in theory you can spray the rubbber with armor all and it will slow down the water...........im tempted just to silcon mine in cause i nvr use em....500 is ridiculous for weather stripping

 

nice Z man, i wish my first car was a Z... mine was an 85 Sport coupe... V6. So i got rid of it after a year. My current is a 86 Z28. LOVE IT. Body looks great. Id keep it origional other than mabye a cowl hood. Any paint plans for it? Great car tho. keep it up. -Matt

 

i was thinking keep all the lines and stuff gold and just paint the body black but i dont know i might just keep it brown....but i really do like the black idea...can anyone photoshop it maybe lol

 

OK first things first... congrats on your purchase! It looks like a very clean car. I just got my '86 Z28 about a month ago and that was my first car also. My dad had an '88 Z28 for his second car. Your going to like your car, I'm positive of that, but be sure not to let it go to your head on the highways. Those cops scope out Camaros and Mustangs. There's nothing like having great reliablity and speed for a great price.

OK. Second... When I got my car, I was completely focused on getting exhuast first. If you think about it, it makes sense. I mean you can see the worst looking paint job running down the road, but if the sound of the engine is right then you can assume that its a nice runner.

I've been holding off my paint job for quite some time. I took quick looks at your pictures and could see your paint doesn't look too bad for being 24 years old. I have paint peeling in the front. An easy solution could be getting a replacement hood. Save money on the paint job and place the stripes back on there.

As for your leaking T-Tops, mine did the same. I had some slits in the lining of the T-tops along the rubber in the inside. You might notice some overlays of rubber on the sides. I took the easy way out and put a dab of superglue right between the overlay and pushed it up against the side and it hasn't leaked since. When it rains sit inside the car for some time after you park it when your not busy and observe it. See if you can find any leaks to patch.

 

thanks yea i was thinking about getting exhaust first, well after i get a windsheild, but what would be the best exhaust,(looks,and sound)

 

some people will say no, but for what you are doing (daily driver) flowmaster 40s would do just fine........id all so do a cat back

 

nice looking Zee you got there, congrads! my first car was 92 Formula now its my 7th car and im still in Third Gen just recently tried to go and get me something else for a change after selling my 89 GTA but with that money i end up with a 92 Z 25th Anniv. well enjoy ur ride

 

wow someone doesnt understand ignitions or electricity, u dont need a msd ignition box until u raise compression or start running boost or nitrous, your stock hei will do fine, i would change the cap and coil though....remeber electricity will only work as hard as it has to if it takes 2000volts to jump the spark plug gap and u have a 49000 volt dyno whoping coil, its only gonna use 2000volts!! tada pure magic...the only thing the ignition box will do is give you multiple sparks witch may help in such a small way you wont notice.... i just go to school for this stuff but what do i know....

 

thanks guys i really wish i could understand half of what you guys are talking about

 

Congrats on the car!

My dad bought a '85 Z28 in '86 Brand new. When i came along in 1990 they still had the car and held onto it untill i was 8 years old.

When i turned 16, naturally i looked into a camaro, and ended up with a '89 iroc-z.

First things i did to improve fuel milage were:
MSD Cap & Rotor
Taylor Spiral Cored Cables
New Plug's
Fresh oil
New coolant/flush
3" LS1 Aluminum Driveshaft
new Catilyc convertor

Think thats it. Anywho, the milage deal lasted 6 weeks, then i ripped it to peices and put in a cam & heads. Failing to leave good enough alone, i drove the car with the heads & Cam 305 last summer, then trashed the entire driveline in favour of a LS1 setup which im finishing now (im now 17).

Lots of fun. Love these cars, so much factory performance avaliable, its amazing.

 

thanks alot all of this stuff really helps

 

Great 1st car!!! Welcome aboard.

 

congrats on your new car! I would prioritize. List the needs, ie..windshield, leaking T-tops, tuneup etc. Then the wants, i.e. paint, body work etc. Assign an approximate $ amount to each and go from there. Budget your self as I'm sure you will be spending money on your new car monthly, just like a car payment, slowly correcting, then improving. And have fun with it!

 

lol, my first car was a ford probe (the one in my avatar) i poured tons of money into it to make it really fast. then i seen my camaro at a friends car lot and took it for a test drive, sold the probe that day and never looked back, now ive got three of em, and am looking into another. these cars are addictive, make sure if u got a g/f she knows what working on a car means, and that alot of times its more important lol.

 

ha yea she does get kinda adgitated when i work on it alot,, anyways im getting a job soon so ill be posting updates of what i add on here or maybe a new post ))

 

by the way if you wanna see pics of my car close up heres my cardomain not that my camaro is anything speacial.. but is it to me

http://www.cardomain.com/ride/3046843

 

nice car ya got there bro my first car is my rs in the pic, i picked her up for 1000Gs she set for 7 years in a shop had 55k miles bought it off of some grumpy old guy that picked it up when he was 40years of age in 89 ,"i take it he was going through his mid life crisis" anyway and seen it in the paper and told my pops, we got it home replaced the fuel pump changed the plugs oil tranny fluid got a job got it painted black through some cragger ss's on her and a few other mods and here i am now wishing i had a possi rear and a 3fitty and i got ah tell the more i do for my car the more i love it!

 

thats the same i wanna do cant wait tell i start my job its all going in the car, like i said ill post updates on here

 

haha it's funny i just re read this post just now and saw the guy who mentioned girlfriends, just yesterday i spent about an hour outside gapping my sparkplugs and putting new wires and an air filter in there and every 5 min's or so she'd come outside and be like "are you almost done"... i've tried to get her into the camaro's.. i had her drive my '86 and she didn't do bad at all for her 1st time behind the wheel and driving stick.. but shoot, she's into the new mustang's.. idk what's so appealing to them.. but hey that's just my oppinion

the way i see it.. if a car that stoped production in 02.. can beat their compition in 07 still.. i'm sayin it's a great car... CAMARO FTW lol

 

camaro FTW for sure id pick a camaro over a rustang anyday

anyways heres what i did today
redid some plastics in my rear trunk

 

heres the old side plastic in the rear

and the new shifter **** i ordered from gm

 

heres the pictures

 

and heres the hood i redid

 

bump

 

im taking my restoration of my car to a new thread there i will post all the updates of what i do to my car
https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/cama...t-updates.html