firekip

Hello everyone. I just recently bought a 1982 Z28 off of the original owner. It had been sitting in his driveway for 10 years. After his wife bought a new car they parked it with him intending to start restoring it. He began having health problems after that and finally came to the realization that he'd never be healthy enough to work on the car so he decided to sell it. It's a pretty basic car with no power windows or locks. No cruise control but does have a tilt wheel. 305 4bbl automatic of course. When I got it home I put a battery in it and sprayed some car cleaner down the carb and it fired right up and ran for about 10 seconds.
My intentions are to keep it fairly stock and just have it as a cruiser. I will swap out the 3 speed for an overdrive though. But for now it's just about replacing a lot of parts that need replacing after sitting ten years.
This is my first Camaro of any generation so advice and or tips welcome.

firekip

RKeats

Nice car and welcome to TGO! It looks like a pretty solid base to start with. Sounds like it won't take much to get it to driver quality

NTXCAMARO

Good looking Car. I recently acquired a 1982 Z28 very similar to yours. It sat in the garage of my friends house since 1995. I have had it for about eight or nine months doing what i can when i can. So far, I've; swapped out the Computer controlled Carb for a non Comp Carb, removed all the smog, installed new HEI distributor wires and plugs, new radiator and hose, new gas tank, and installed a reproduction driver side fender on the driver side. It made its first trip around the neighborhood about 2 -3 months ago but no real road time yet. Hope to get some time under the hood this weekend with the good weather forecast. I'm in Plano TX so if you are nearby we could help each other out if needed. I'm no mechanic, but i do enjoy tinkering with the car.

Saxondale

iTrader: (2)

I think the maroon '82s are great looking cars. Would love to have one, with maroon trimmed Conteur bucket seat.

dagwood

iTrader: (5)

Awesome! Congrats on the purchase! I also have an 82 Z28. The biggest improvement I found to do was to advance the timing (a lot). I had my carb rebuilt too, and it runs like a totally different car. We must have advanced the timing around 19 degrees. It definitely woke it up! Have fun with it and post up more pics!

irvan

iTrader: (1)

Nice find, i like the early Z28s.

firekip

firekip

firekip

dmccain

iTrader: (2)

Nice car and I see it has the original engine because I had an 82 with the blue engine also. A lot of that mess you refer to can go or be put together inside looms to clean it up. You will get there, again great car I love the early ones.

vinny R

One thing can go is those air tubes going into the exhaust manifold and those check valve pipes they attach to. Someone removed the air pump so you might as well ditch the rest.

firekip

I removed the smog pump and everything else you see missing on there. It's all coming off and staying off.

dagwood

iTrader: (5)

Well that looks familiar! That is a 1 year only Maroon interior.....and NOBODY makes maroon replacement parts. My car has it, too...

firekip

Thought I'd give a little update on my car. I discovered it has either a blown headgasket or cracked head. It runs really rough and brand new coolant will be black within minutes. Also the coolants will bubble frequently and the system will over pressurize. So with that I stepped away for quite a while with the thought that I'd just get a new 350 and swap it in. Well after browsing the FB marketplace I came across a local fellow who was selling the 305 and 700r4 out of his 92 for cheap. I went over to his house and listened to it run so was satisfied and bought it. It's the same engine that's in my 90 Caprice Classic. Basically I just want the car up to a running condition and then will decide what to do with it then.
I know I'll need a different intake for the 92 engine since I'll be keeping it carb'd. What sucks is I had bought a reman'd computer carb for it. I'll probably stick a non computer quadrajet on it and change to an HEI distributor to clean up the engine bay area of all those broke *** wires.
I'll be running a low psi inline fuel pump for it also.
He included the transmission crossmember and driveshaft. Now it's a non cable driven speedo so will need to sort that out.
Any advice or suggestion?