MikeP_82

My dad purchased this car brand new in 1982. It's a v6 Sport Coupe with the 4-spd manual (saginaw unfortunately) and is 100% stock except for the paint (3rd spray) and audio system (did not come with one from the factory). My dad daily drove this between April(ish) and October(ish) each and every year since he bought it. It's was garage stored all year round and has no rust whatsover (a tall feat in Southern Ontario). The only non-original parts on the car is the front drivers seat which wore away and was replaced about 10 years ago. I'd like to find a good condition fabric matching seat one day or recover this to match the passenger and rear seats.

After owning this car for 36 years my father has passed the age where he can enjoy driving it (it's sat untouched in his garage for the last year and a half) and has passed it down to me, his eldest son. While I hope that one day my son (now 8) will drive or own this car, in the mean time he and I plan to work on this together (far too many kids have no idea how to fix things nowadays).

I do have big plans (hopes?) for this car and more power is high on that list. For now I plan to drive it when the mood strikes to gauge what needs to be worked on over the winter.

Here she is on the drive to my place, made the 100km trip without issues.


And in her new home.

dagwood

iTrader: (5)

Congrats on the new ride!

MikeP_82

First "road trip" in the books (picked up the kids from school). And first order of business will be getting that slopppppy steering under control and the very rigid gas pedal (I swear this engine never saw over 4k, lol).

I also found the brakes to be slightly warped during stops while rolling into a stop sign.

None of these issues are show stoppers so they will be winter projects while I "learn" the car, I am after all normally a honda guy.

chazman

iTrader: (4)

Congrats! Cool car!

ktthecarguy

Hi there,
Nice SC. If you want to get the steering to respond better, on top of the steering box loosen the locknut and then using a hex key tighten the bolt until it stops turning. then back it off 1/4 turn, maybe slightly more. That will take all the slop out of the steering box. I did that, and replaced all the linkage in the steering, not it is nice and tight. Now at highway speeds, I can change lanes with a flick of the wrist. Very responsive!

For more info about your V6 engine, check out the V6 section here. They helped me get mine running beautifully!

MikeP_82

Doing swap research and seems like i've got a bigger hill to climb than 83+ cars. Mechanical clutch linkage and possibly an odd transmission cross member location due to the shorter T10?

Many cross members say 82-92, some 83-92, but none "82" only. Anyone have some insight on this issue?

MikeP_82

One of the first things I noticed was that the centre console did not latch closed. It was constantly vibrating and jiggling around. While squeaks and rattles are part of the experience with third gens, a console that isn't secure isn't one of them.

I pulled the console out for one of many reasons, but that's for another post. Upon inspection of the latch it was super loose, no pressure holding it at all:


I remove the lid from the plastic and found the spring inside was completely destroyed.


As this was the only parts of the spring that I had left (honestly not sure where the rest went) I didnt know the exact shape. However, when searching the internet for this part I came across this one for a 2nd gen camaro/firebird so I decided to give it a try.


After a little bit of "massaging" it seemed to fit ok.


Reassembly and voila, seems to work. Not quite as good as new, but definitely better than before.

MikeP_82

Starting it up last Sunday (March 4, 2019)

MikeP_82

Took a trip to the local junk yard yesterday morning with my 6 year old daughter (son didn't want to go, she was pumped to).

To make it a little more fun for her, mom challenged her to find a red car, black car, and a really old car and get photographic evidence. Well, within the first 5 minutes of being there mission accomplished in one shot:


We continued through the yard, and found several potential part donors..

Possible seats:


Possible steering wheel (this one is dark blue, same as most of my interior, but i really wanted a black one):


We passed through the Sierra/Silverado section and the good news (which is not likely a surprise to anyone) is that most of the 5.3's and 4.8's are fully intact. I even found a 6.0 in there, but was missing some parts and likely had water inside.

Eventually, we found the f-body section. We found a 95 camaro v6, 2 82-92 firebirds, a 90-92 RS, and this.....a 1968 firebird (I think, lol)


The 3rd gen's will give up some parts for my build. There's a T5 pedal set, 90-92 cluster, mint tail lights, rear bumper, etc. I ran out of time and my assistant was getting a little tired.

All in all we had a good hour or so to explore, but didn't pick up any parts today, but I will be heading back there with some tools and a wagon to get what I can from the 3rd gen's. The yard is only 5-10 minutes from my house, and the one beside it we haven't explored at all. If anyone in Southern Ontario is looking for something let me know and I'll see if it's any good.

MikeP_82

So yesterday after the junk yard I spent a few minutes in the garage. The weather was somewhat mild (3c) so I started the car. The usual cranking procedure ensued.. two pumps and 10-15 seconds of cranking until it fired. Once started it never stalls though. It's also been shaking really badly when first started. After running 30-60 seconds it smooths out though.

After letting it run for a about 20 minutes i shut it off and began to poke around the bay a bit. I decided to take a look a the PCV valve, as these can cause rough idles right? Well, the valve does click when shook but it's a little slow. Cheap peace of mind to replace it.

Not sure about others, but the PCV valve is not a single connection on my car to the carb/intake. It's also got a vac line running from the evap. I found a huge tear in that line while inspecting the area. Fortunately the line had enough slack I could just slice off the part with the tear and plug it back it.

Today, I started it up while I took out the garbage. The usual two pumps followed by cranking. Only this time it roared to life after 1-2 seconds! Not sure if this vac leak had anything to do with that (I suspect not), but who cares.

Perhaps it started up so quick because it was recently running (24-36hrs ago) while it's usually 1-2 weeks between starts.

Anyways here's the section of vac hose removed.

MikeP_82

I also returned to the yard today to take a closer look at the 3rd gen's I found. The yard next door is a "closed" yard (their words) so I can't walk around and see what's available. Bummer.

Today I took a good look at the tail lights, no cracks or anything so considering picking them up. They want $40 each for these (CDN$). Good price? I also found lying beside the cars what I believe is an aluminum drive shaft. I deduced this is aluminum because its not rusty while lying on the ground. Might pick that up too.

My shopping list from this yard continues to grow, too bad their prices are a little steep (or so I believe).

• 95 Cavalier 2-door seats, $65 each
• 91 tail lights, $80 for the pair
• T5 pedal set
• 91 RS rear bumped w/ GFX
• alum driveshaft (need to confirm its actually a f-body one, lol)
• 700r4 shifter mechanism (in case i go 4l60e instead of std)
• sun visors (L & R)
• ...Im sure there's more.

What are your opinions on the prices they want?

Confuzed1

iTrader: (4)

You can haggle a bit with them. See if you can get a "package deal" on the whole bundle of parts you're buying. I normally go in and ask them beforehand what they want for a certain part I'm looking for before I go through the hassle of removing it. If it's too high, I'll counter offer with what I think is a fair price. And if they won't budge, and I don't "need" the part that badly, I'll say "no thanks" walk out the door and find another boneyard that wants to sell some parts. I can buy retail priced used parts on flea bay delivered to my door anyways.

MikeP_82

Been several months since my last update to this thread. A few weeks ago I picked up a pair of 95-99 2dr Sunfire seats for $10 each. The seats are not in mint condition, but besides a small cigarette hole in the passenger seat bottom there are no rips or tears.

They are pretty clean too, a little dirty in high contact areas but nothing where I think I would need to reupholster or anything. Here they are in all their glory!



I also picked up a 90-94 Cavalier 2dr steering wheel in dark blue with red emblem in the centre. I had two cavaliers from this era (a 94 and 93). They were fairly dependable cars but rusted out badly and both ended up leaking water inside the car down the firewall. I recall steering wheel was my favourite part of the car, so when I saw people installing them into 3rd gen's I knew I had found my new wheel.

MikeP_82

So, here's the back story on the seats.

About 15-20 years ago my dad wanted to replace his front seats because the drivers side had worn badly. We went to a local Camaro parts place in Southern Ontario called Paradise Alley (now closed as far as I know) and bought a matching pair of sport coupe seats in dark blue.

He quickly replaced the drivers seat but left the OE passenger seat in place and put car covers on both to protect. 15+ years later the replacement drivers seat is tearing the upholstery where the seat bottom and back meet and that OE passenger seat remains in place, mostly untouched and in great condition. The OE drivers seat and the replacement passenger seat were both thrown away some time ago

Not having a matching pair of seats was not a huge deal to me, but the replacement drivers being in the condition it was led to the decision to replace. I read countless threads about seats, 4th gen, other Camaro/Firebird seats, aftermarket, etc. I also stumbled across a thread about installing 95-99 Cavalier/Sunfire seats in the 3rd gen Camaro's.

I found a guy locally selling a pair of Sunfire GT seats for $10 each, drove over took a look and took them home.

Today I installed the drivers seat (i swear i will install the passenger seat, not repeating my fathers choices from the past).

Here's a couple of pictures of the existing drivers seat and passenger seat (complete with crappy seat cover)





As my research said the 3rd gen Camaro tracks bolt right up to the 95-99 Cavalier/Sunfire seats without issue. One piece of advise to future installers is to disconnect the spring that assist the seat slider, bolt the sliders to the seat and push them all the way forward to the first notch before installing into the car.

Here is the new drivers seat installed.





Here's a close up of the material pattern of the new seat and the OE seats (using the back seat cushion in frame here)



And lastly, a picture showing the height differences between the seats. The new seat sits slightly lower than the OE



First drive in the new seats, I find them way more comfortable and supportive than the OE Sport Coupe seats.