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I haven't been a long time member on here, nor have I been a long time 3rd gen fan. It all started when I got tired of paying so much money in Diesel and tires for my 3/4 Dodge that was lifted. So I was looking for a daily driver so I could park the truck, but didn't want to just get any old commuter. My buddy (I reference him a lot because the guy has helped me with probably 50% of the work I have done) Bubbajones_ya bought his 1991 RS about 6 months before me and I saw the transformation of his into what it is now, and I was impressed. I never really liked the 3rd gen body style before but I was talking to him for awhile, and researched a bit on here and other places and found that a lot of these 3rd gens were getting 20+ MPG. I couldn't believe it but so many people were backing it up I just was amazed. The style slowly started growing on me and the thought of diving into a project excited me. I always wanted to restore something but I just never had the time because I was always deployed or on work ups. I started looking around the beginning of January of this year (2015). I was very particular with what I wanted- 1988-1992 305 TBI T5 Hardtop. Not rare, but everyday more of these things are sent to the junkyard. Here in Phoenix, it was slim pickings at best. The day before Valentines day, I find this craigslist ad that's a month old but it matches what I was looking for. I was feeling like the guy sold it already and was just lazy and didn't remove the ad, but I called anyways. He still had the car so I went and looked at it immediately. I knew as soon as I saw it I was buying it. I didn't want to just buy it under excitement so we agreed on a price and I left. I came back the next morning and paid him $1500 for it. It is a 1988 Base Camaro 305 TBI T5. The car was all dark grey primer with an iroc hood that was badly dented, no louvers, and spare tire wheels on all 4's with some super beefy tires. It was grinding going into 3rd and 4th but it ran awesome. I have probably another $3000 into it after what I paid, and I'm still not done. I was waiting to post this until I painted it. I finally did this weekend and it's (in my opinion) one of the most bada** looking cars I have ever seen. To say it looked terrible throughout the stages of body work I was doing on it, would do an injustice to cars that just look bad. It looked horrible. I almost immediately had the clutch go out after I bought it. When we dropped the transmission, we discovered that the PO filled it with gear oil, and it's a WCT5 so I knew that was wrong, and then I knew that's what was causing my grinding issue. Sure enough, when it went back together, no more grind with the right fluid. The brakes locked up on me a few months later and I rear ended somebody because of it. Not very fast but it smooshed that iroc hood I had on it passed the point of fixing and the front bumper was toast. Nothing mechanical needed to be replaced (at that time). I have replaced the basics like plugs and wires, cap and rotor. I switched to an edelbrock open element filter. I have replaced everything involving the cooling system pretty much except the head gaskets. Intellitronox blue digital gauge cluster, 4th gen camaro seats, used Pioneer double din touchscreen. My car didn't come with AC from factory, but we changed that. We converted it using almost entirely brand new parts except a line from the junkyard and a plug from somebody on eBay. Z28 wheels and new tires. Replaced windshield and had rear glass tint stripped and 're done(couldn't see out of it). Newer door panels that are in mint condition that I pulled from an 88 at a junkyard(not installed yet). New front ground effect. New passenger sidemirror. New driver fender. Installed gas door. New EGR valve. Replaced some of the vacuum lines. New fuel filter. New shift **** from summit racing with shift pattern on it. There might be some other things I'm missing, but that's the bulk of it. Sorry about the boring read, so now, the pictures.
This was the day I bought it.
Engine bay the day I bought it.
This was when my clutch went out.
New hood and front bumper I put on after the incident
When I started the body work a few months ago. Had to sand the door down because PO's kids drew all over it with chaulk.
Engine bay as it sits now, with ac installed.
The painting begins!
After white is laid down for the stripes, we masked it off
Paint used
After the first coat was applied
Finished product.
This thing was flawless. Right as the 2nd cost of clear it started to rain so we had to scramble to push it in the garage. We pulled it back out and sprayed another coat of clear and it hid most of the water marks. The hood is a little noticeable but it got a decent amount of debris on it at that time too. But it still looks amazing. This is the Ultra Blue Metallic paint from a 91 camaro. It looks way better than online. I can't take more pictures because it's been raining all day and is supposed to keep raining tomorrow and part of Wednesday. But I will update with better finished pictures when the sun is out.
Be carful using plastic to cover the windows/etc.
When the paint dry's it can flake off onto the new paint.
Yeah we experienced that with the white paint we laid down first for the stripes. The white paint I bought was either too thick for my buddy's nozzle on his spray gun or something was wrong with the paint so we sprayed some of the white Saturday night. It wouldn't spray much white after the first or 2nd spray. I went back to the place I bought the paint and just got the same paint as the blue 2:1 matrix. Had to do it Sunday and that worked fine. But the white we painted Saturday night was starting to flake off so we taped over it after we brushed as much off as we could and then put plastic over that. It's been sitting in his garage since Sunday night and it's dry now.
This thing was flawless. Right as the 2nd cost of clear it started to rain so we had to scramble to push it in the garage. We pulled it back out and sprayed another coat of clear and it hid most of the water marks. The hood is a little noticeable but it got a decent amount of debris on it at that time too. But it still looks amazing. This is the Ultra Blue Metallic paint from a 91 camaro. It looks way better than online. I can't take more pictures because it's been raining all day and is supposed to keep raining tomorrow and part of Wednesday. But I will update with better finished pictures when the sun is out.
See that car in the back right? Ahh yeah that's the best one.
The hood is a little noticeable but it got a decent amount of debris on it at that time too.
Looks good. I got a lot of gnats that materialized out of nowhere right when I was clear coating my hood. They make little "nub removers" to wack the high points off, then wet sand and buff and it will make most of the debris very unnoticeable. The wetsand will also take down some of the orange peel.
Looks good. I got a lot of gnats that materialized out of nowhere right when I was clear coating my hood. They make little "nub removers" to wack the high points off, then wet sand and buff and it will make most of the debris very unnoticeable. The wetsand will also take down some of the orange peel.
Honestly, I will probably redo the entire clear coat at one point. Compared to how it looked before we painted it, it doesn't bother me too much right now. The doors are where most of the dents are so I will probably replace them with nicer doors and then at that point probably redo the clear coat as well. It's pretty depressing that we had it looking flawless and then the rain started.
Front end after I installed the new clear turn signal lamps I bought off somebody on here, as well as clear side marker lights.
Clear everything up front
It's a little hard to tell, but we clear coated my taillights. My buddy did his too and his looks way better. Mine are pretty messed up and I need new ones, but my buddies looks amazing after the clear coat. I'm definitely going to be clearing all my taillights from now on.
Not really any new information pertaining to this build. But I did start a new build thread for the 87 Iroc I just picked up today. This is another total restoration job I have to look forward to so this car will probably sit on the back burner now. I will still be driving it daily, but all the plans I had for it are probably going to be scrapped now as I will be focusing on the Iroc more. I still have a few things to finish up on this one though like replacing the rear carpet, fix a few wiring issues, install the new weatherstripping kit I bought, and a few things here or there. Then, I will be selling it once I get the Iroc road worthy for a little bit. So if you are interested in it, and can wait a few months, this will more than likely be for sale before summer time.
