so let me start with the boring story that most of you will skip

my knowledge of this car only dates to 2001, it belonged to my wife's Uncle(second owner), he committed suicide in 01' and the Iroc was sold to a family friend, where it sat under a tree until 2006 when my wife's other uncle purchased the Iroc back from the family friend,

i haven't received the full story yet but i know once purchased back the motor had to be worked on/top end replaced? something about a nest in the motor.

the car has been with that owner until today when it showed up at my door, shipped from Florida to Maryland(absolute nightmare until a very nice trucker stepped in to take over the shipment) paid $500 for the car and $520 to have it shipped(never go through a Broker unless you have the time to play the waiting game)

it is an 89' Iroc-z LB9 MM5 car
Posi 3.08
15" wheels

some of you may remember me from when i was new here and an idiot when it came to thirdgens, i swore up and down this was an L98 T5 car, well the badges do say 5.7 Tuned Port Injection in all the right places, it has yet to be fully determined if the motor was replaced with an L98 in 2006(possible but doubtful)

I have no idea who put the badges on or why if its not a 350, but who knows and if it is really still a 305 i will make sure the badges are corrected

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now for the fun part,

this thing is in overall fair condition as far as body panels go,

the paint is 110% shot and looks like crap, it needs a hatch and it needs a new hood(big rust hole near the pass side louver, that louver itself is broken off, half of it is in the back seat, and two big scraping dents near the nose on the hood looks like someone backed a truck up on it but the nose isnt damaged, missing two center cap stickers, but the caps are still in there

with that said every other body panel is straight as day, no dents, and ive only found one spot of rust(not counting hood) on the a pillar but it seems to be surface and ill probably take care of it when i get off work tomorrow

Interior is in overall good condition if you aren't sitting in the drivers seat, everything from the front seats forward needs major attention, the headliner is destroyed, sail panels need freshened up, and almost all plastics need to be replaced, shift ball isnt leather wrapped any more, leather on steering wheel is done for, dash and dash pad are cracked, and overall everything needs a good scrub down

Engine looks complete and in good condition, need to get a battery to turn it over and see if it fires, i was told it needs the clutch replaced so that will also be determined
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i know this thread is worthless without pics, i will work on that tomorrow, and update with each progressive step i make on this car, its gonna be a TON of work, but im sure it will come along nicely

i only agreed to save this car because of it being in my wife's family and how much it really means to them, this is going to be a saved for her family, being a florida car the salt water was not nice at all to it.

 

Well it sounds like you have a major project on your hards, but if you have the time, money and know how then it's worth saveing an IROC. Yeah we need pix

 

Definitely going to be a big overhaul, but im lucky this time with all major body panels being straight, my RS was crazy with all its dings and dents and the giant dent in the door that someone filled with bondo without trying to pull it out first

this iroc seems ok other than being ugly, and interior isnt going to be a huge deal as ive had the interior in and out of my RS too many times to count, just a matter of finding beachwood pieces to replace it with

I will definitely work on the pictures

also

got in touch with my wifes uncle who owned the car from 06'-current, he said the motor only needed a tune up and the Y ducting replaced, a squirrel had built a nest in the engine bay and broke pieces of the original Y ducting off, he said those 5.7 badges have been on the car as long as he can remember but does not know if his brother did anything swapping the motor or if he just put the badges on because he wanted it to be a 350, he said it could all date back to the original owner so who knows, ill be checking numbers on the motor to see if it still is the factory LB9 under the hood

 

pics-

 

Got some pics, will be uploading tonight

 

 

 

 

 

the car has more rust than the pictures lead to believe, obviously the paint is shot to hell and back, the exhaust tips are rusted through, and the dash and pad are cracked badly this car was used and abused for the past 7 years, but it will be brought back to its glory, the underside has yet to be determined on how bad the rust is, but im expecting the worst and hoping for the best, this could turn into a never ending project(and im not even done with my RS)

 

Underside isn't as bad as expected, a lot of surface rust, the core support is rusted but looks like I can sand it to clean metal and seal it, firewall has a hole by the group of relays on the driver side, it's gonna need some attention sooner than I thought, and the cowl area over the blower motor is rusted, I'm gonna grind that to clean metal and seal it up, will update with pics tonight

 

Passenger side cowl area, pretty nasty




Driver side by the bulkhead on the firewall, you can see the light come through this and onto the floorboard inside the car, luckily this was a fair weather driver down in florida(even though it was left outside for the elements to devour, so hopefully not much water came in

 

Before



After




Not great but much better than before,

Car needs a fuel pump, or the wiring back near the tank needs checked(obviously doing that first)

Hooked a battery up and it turns over and starts with starting fluid, but the pump never primes(go figure)

I also was scared by a few random wires that were added inside the car, ran and plugged directly into the fuse block, luckily one runs out of that rust hole in the firewall and powers both fans(will be fixed properly) and the others were for the stereo(will also be wired in properly)

Power pull down doesn't work, so I will be investigating that, luckily I've already been through that problem with the RS and it was an easy fix

Will continue to update as more problems are found and fixes put in place

 

Re-wired the radio properly, luckily my wife's uncle didn't hack up the actual radio wiring, the car was originally set up properly with a pioneer head unit and adapter to plug directly into the stock harness, apparently when the ARC fuse blew the PO did not know the secondary fuse box(Vats and ARC fuses) existed, checked the main fuse box, didn't find any blown fuses, and ran wires from the radio and stuck them in the fuse box(used the fuse to hold the wires in place), the only wire that was cut was the orange and black wire for the radio, easily fixed, popped a new fuse in the ARC slot, and viola, fixed without the extra 4 ft of wiring!

now the only issue is the front driver and rear pass side speakers are very faint, im guessing they are blown so i will be swapping the speakers from one side to the other to see if that remedies the problem(and switches it to the opposite sides)

 

Not bad, Ive seen worse cars come back from the grave, yours is pretty decent looking!

 

Definitely worth saving...red on tan with t-tops & 5-speed = great combo!

 

thanks for the comments and words of encouragement,

i keep telling myself this car looks cosmetically worse than it is, the thing that is freaking me out the most is the hole in the firewall and cowl area, but all my friends keep telling me it wont be that bad to have welded up since its smaller sections and not whole panels

 

They do seem like odd places but it happens & I agree that they won't be very hard to repair. Plus, b/c of their location, although you want it to look good, they won't require the finishing like an exterior panel that everyone will see all the time.

 

somebody just put the 5.7 badges on the car, the console seems to be original for the 5 speed. i looked real close at the speedometer and it has a 115 speedometer from what i can tell. It was originally a 305 or LB9 T5 car. And somebody painted the car at one point and over spray the headlight grids. There suppost to be black and somebody over sprayed them red. Just to confirm though if the 8th digit in the vin number is a F. Its a 305 car.

 

i thought headlight buckets were body colored in 89' i could be very wrong, and if so it will be changed back accordingly

the car was sprayed from the door trim up, everything below the trim was left alone,the car also had a bra on it most of its life(explains the rust on the corners of hood and paint discoloration on rest of car and not nose) the stickers and badge were definitely added no doubt, the vin, RPO and everything else say LB9 so im not doubting that, I just know there is a slim(unlikely) chance that my wifes uncle really did have an L98 swapped in, i found out that her uncle(that originally owned the car) was the second owner, and owned it from 1996-2001, it was sold to his friend from 2001-2006, then the other uncle bought it from 2006- when i got it

its complete and original so im going to assume its still an LB9, but you never know until you check numbers

 

Looks like a great starting point. I've been looking at them on Craig's list and most appear to be POS that they want big money for. Keep us posted on your progress.

 

Headlight buckets are body colored for all years on the lower models such as the Sport Coupe, RS, and Berlinetta.

The buckets are black for all years of Z28's, IROC-Z's and Heritage Edition cars.

 

looking it up now, it only applies to RS's, the sc's and berlinettas got black buckets, one combo had gray as an option, all Z28's got black

looks like they will be painted black as original

 

My confidence is restored, my emotions about this car are a rollercoaster, I've been looking at rust threads all day, and this iroc is definitely going to be easier to save than those cars

I removed and trashed the headliner, it literally fell apart in my hands, I still have my old headliner from when I put the ABS in the RS, so I will eventually recover it and use it in the iroc, of coarse there is rust around the t-tops and under the t-bar, but not terrible, car already needs new weather stripping so ill take care of the rust when I can buy the set, for now I will just silicone the hell out of the weather stripping where it leaks to stop the rear floor from getting soaked(wonder how much rust is under that carpet lol)

Will update with pics tomorrow

 

Forgot to upload pics, will do it tomorrow sometime at work,

Today I tracked down why the ACC fuse would blow every time I was either putting a fuse in or hooking the battery up,

Can anybody guess the problem?.......that's right, the lighter outlet,

Driver side window doesn't roll down, pass side is extreamly slow, may be because the battery needs a charge, but at least I've got them both up lol

 

I did not know that about the SC's and Berlinettas (obviously). Sorry about that.

Still is gonna look great. Are you gonna keep it red or do you have another color in mind?

 

its cool, but now i know where i got the "89' headlight buckets were body colored" because when i read it I only cared about what it said about the RS so my mind omitted the fact that Iroc's still got the black buckets.

color is going to be the factory red, and back to as original as possible, its gonna be a long ride, my RS on the other hand is pretty clean, complete and 95% rust free(surface rust here and there on the underside) that car will be painted black as original but i will do as i please with modding it, maybe one day when im 40 ill have the RS go under a ground up, but its in really good shape as is

plan for the iroc is to maintain its current condition and fix any problems i can, but once my wife and I get into a house with a garage this Iroc will be stripped down and undergo a full restoration, like i said this car is more than just a camaro to my wifes family, otherwise i would have probably passed on the opportunity to buy it

 

worst visible T-top rust



spots like this all around the t-top opening



i can see rust under the t-bar, but i don't have a place to store the car with the weatherstripping out, so its gonna have to wait to see how bad it is, but judging by the top side of the T-Bar, it shouldn't be too bad

(sorry for the jumbo pic's, my work computer doesn't play nice with the attachment feature)

 

following pics are after its first wash down, i took some butter smooth wax(clear) and buffed on the faded spots, made them look a little better, i plan on washing the car with dish soap to strip everything off then going over the whole car with rubbing compound to see how much crap i can get out, then hit it with a good wash and wax, see where that takes the paint(I realize its still going to need paint)

 

Progress has slowed, I've slowly been resolving the no prime issue with the fuel pump(checking every possible thing) money is tight and my grandmother lost her fight with cancer over the weekend

Been trying to help a buddy with his new trans am for a few days now too

Will update as soon as I touch the car again

 

Priorities..Life is full of them. Posting here is a low priority in the general scheme of things. Get back to us when you can. Sorry about your grandmother.

 

well, its been a week since the funeral, small update on the iroc, my buddy bought a parts car that came with a new clutch and pressure plate still in the box, he decided to gift that to me, so that cuts expenses down on actually getting the Iroc to move under its own power, still saving for a fuel pump, and searching for houses that have big garages!

 

Looks like a cool car, well worth saving. Good luck!


BTW, how many miles?

 

Always nice to see another 3rd gen being saved. Especially a late model L98 IROC-Z.



^ What does that white writing say? Is it a cryptic message from the factory workers?

 

.

 

^ What does that white writing say? Is it a cryptic message from the factory workers? [/quote]

Looks like "rip cave" Possibly an homage to his recently passed uncle?

It's on a tool box if you look close not part of the car.

 

That in fact is my cheap mechanic set of Stanley tools, it actually says "April Cave =)"

I wrote "Ronnie Cave" so my wife added her name when we got married, she helps me work on all the cars so I let her mark a tool set lol.

The car actually does/did have a homage to the uncle that owned this car who passed, rear glass has a cross with "R.I.P Dean Beeman" at least it's what it use to say, that Florida sun mixed with the salty air will tear a car up

 

Last time I looked it was somewhere around 79k which matches the Mileage reports recorded over the years of all the documentation I found in the car and online.

 

Good man, Ronnie. Love to see another thirdgen saved.

 

 

still working on this thing, only have maybe 2 hours a week currently to do anything, working 8:30AM-7PM a few days this week at the day job, and work wed's and sunday's as a helper for my wife's nursery at a church,

plan this week is to get the fuel pump ruled down to being the fuel pump(only need to check the connector under the back seat and under the car)

once i can fully count on it being the pump im pulling the trigger so i can get it running,

once it runs ill replace the clutch,

once it drives ill start doing the body work(tbar area mostly)/replace the hood and hatch

i'm going to be attempting a Dash pad repair(temporary until i can buy a replacement) i evaluated and took pics of the current pad, looks like it will either get the speaker grills removed completely or ill end up making the whole thing one flat piece, this is the worst pad i have ever seen in person(will post pics)

keep in mind i also still have to get the RS painted and back on the road lol

i got myself in a whole heap of trouble when i ended up with a 75% finished RS and an Iroc that needs major attention

but now that all my debt is paid off and i only have to worry about monthly bills things should move somewhat lol

 

bad news, pump is shot, although i knew this was the problem i still had hope it would turn out simple.

on a good note i found most of the Iroc's build sheet(always nice to find something that made it through the factory with the car)



the small top pieces was all that was left bolted up under the pass side dash(attached to the floor/firewall area)

the large pieces was under the rear passenger seat, it seems as though this car made it through the assembly line with Two copies of the build sheet, as the top small piece has the same info as the top right of the larger piece i found

also here are the pics of the dash pad i promised, gonna be interesting to see what i decide on doing recover wise

 

I would just keep your eyes open for one in better shape at a junkyard. My buddy and i scored one locally for 20 bucks so they are out there. Covering what you have will not look as good as just having a clean dash.

 

I will definitely be keeping an eye out, hitting some more junk yards again soon, but my plan so far with this one is to cut back all the damage(it's a lot I know) and fill and reshape it kinda like a surf board, then wrap it,

It will still eventually be replaced with a good one from a yard or a new re pop one

 

went to help a co-worker last night, he had a TV that needs some repair, low and behold he had a thirdgen Z torn apart and sitting in his garage

hard top, originally an LG4, and has Leather interior but i don't know if it came stock like that

he's building it up, already has a 350 and tranny for it, and he's looking to upgrade the rear

anyways, as we were standing talking about it, i spotted some hood louvers on the roof of the car, i asked him if he was going to use them, but he had a cowl hood for the car and no intention of buying a stock hood for it, so i asked what he would take for them, and he just handed them over to me

ill post pics of them tonight, they are in great shape considering most are damaged or missing a lot of studs, these are missing maybe 2-3 per side, and need cleaning/painting, but i am extremely excited that the one part i was dreading purchasing ended up in my hands free of charge

 

pics as promised

 

I really like that style wheel but I would prefer it with darker highlights/slats. Also next time the tires are balanced have them only put the weights on the inside.

 

yes sir, i will definitely have the weights put on the inside of the wheels when i have them balanced

 

Is that a factory color combo? I've never seen a Red/Gold IROC-Z.

 

as far as i know, everything RPO wise matches up, bright red with gold accents(even the "camaro" lettering is gold on the grille) and tan interior