I'm the first person to hate on the OmGz whatz my 89 RS 350TPI worth?!
But this I'm actually considering..

I had a chance to look at a car, 1987 IROC, 2nd owner, 100,000KM, original paint, black leather interior, 5.7 badges in the right spots, clean as a whistle with T-tops..

Now, I've always been led to believe there was NO IROCs with the 5.7 and t-tops made, could this be one that got through?

 

The "no 350 with t-tops" myth depends entirely on the year, and the model of the car. In 87 on the Camaro it's not unusual.

Here's mine... 61k miles, all original, 350 TPI, ttops, I figure it's worth about $5,000.

 

I am really shocked, I guess I've been misinformed all these years.. Thanks!
The guy is looking for 8000$ CAD, the black leather interior has to make up for the difference.

 

I know for a fact that a 1991-92 Z28 could NOT be ordered with an L98 AND t-tops, but that combination WAS available (and not at all uncommon) on 1987-89 cars. Not sure about 1990.

Now that we're talking about what was and what wasn't available...I don't believe I've ever seen an IROC from ANY year that had factory leather. Then again I don't know Camaros half as well as I know Firebirds. Any info on that? I thought they all had cloth or MAYBE vinyl on an early no-option car.

 

It looked to be original, It's the first local Thirdgen I've seen that hasn't been undercoated, and still looks really good underneath.

 

Isn't Scott's Iroc a factory leather car? At any rate that isn't all that unusual either.
T-tops are heavy. 350's don't quite get the gas mileage of smaller displacement cars. So when GM needed to stick it to the F-body to get it to make CAFE standards, they made heavy options unavailable with the 350.

87-89 on the Camaro, the 350 and T-tops isn't uncommon, at all. 90-92 it wasn't an available option. On Firebirds it's less common or not available in the earlier years, and in the later years the 350 and T-top combo was only offered on the Formula when ordered with the lightweight wheels, etc. I'm sure Okfoz or one of the other long time members can fill you in with specific details, but the long and short of the story is that it only applies to specific models and years. When it was possible to get both it was a popular option, and about the only one that's really all that rare is the 91-92 Formula 350's with T-tops since they're low production cars anyway.

 

Drew,
I know you'll disagree with me, but your car in solid shape is worth significantly more than $5,000. I'll give you more than that right now if you ever decide you want to sell it!

Here is the official/unofficial way t-tops and 350s work:

1987:
Camaro = Yes; Firebird = NO

1988:
Camaro = Yes; Firebird = NO

1989:
Camaro = Yes; Firebird = YES

1990:
Camaro = NO; Firebird = NO

1991:
Camaro = NO; Firebird = YES, for Formulas with "GTA-style" wheels ONLY

1992:
Same as 1991.

 

91 and 92 did offer t tops in the 5.7 I owned 2 and my buddy had one aswell.

 

...only in the Firebird. No Cammies.

 

I didn't say I'd sell it for that... Just that realistically it's not worth much more then that. It's been for sale off and on for several years, the price tag has always been $6,000 and it hasn't sold yet. It looks better in pics, but still they aren't extremely valuable cars.

I'd agree that your list seems to match my experience.

 

The guy wants 8k for this one, but around here it's the only one I know about that has these options, especially the black leather interior.

 

If you ever decide to put it up for sale again someday for $6k, send me a PM...it'd be worth my drive to KS, likely. I love medium blue, and I'd love to have a second IROC one of these days...that's actually one of the reasons I haven't painted my Trans Am yet.

 

Interestingly the information posted up to this point is mostly correct.

In 1987 you could have gotten a GTA with T-tops and a 350 but ONLY as an export.

1987:
Camaro = Yes; Firebird = NO (Except in Canada TA & GTA, NO formula 350/T-top's)

1988:
Camaro = Yes; Firebird = NO

1989:
Camaro = Yes; Firebird = YES

1990:
Camaro = NO; Firebird = NO

1991:
Camaro = NO; Firebird = YES, for Formulas with "GTA-style" wheels ONLY (MID year addition to the Formula )

1992:
Same as 1991.

 

Crazy when that happens, isn't it? Maybe we've been doing something right afterall. LOL

 

One other thing to note, the lack of availability of T-Tops on '90-'92 cars has nothing to do with chassis flex, and everything to do with avoiding the gas guzzler tax; hence why they were only available on the lighter Formulas in the latest years.

 

I've been paying attention!!

 

So what's it worth, my brother is interested in buying it, but we don't know what a fair price is.

 

Whats 100,000km? About 65,000 miles, right? I'd say $7,500-8,500 USD, depending on condition...

 

It's hard to say because it's going to be different in every region and there are still deals to be found if a person searches a while. Condition is really going to determine the value, the mileage is worth a bonus but it's not super low mileage and depending on how the car was maintained and cared for it could still be rough with that mileage.

Assuming it looks nice, paint is shiny, drivetrain, interior and everything is stock/complete, it runs and drives perfect, etc... I'd estimate the value to be somewhere between $4,000-7,000. Subtract from the high end of that range drastically if the paint needs work, pieces are missing, there are any drivability problems, bald tires, etc. Also the higher in that range the longer it's going to take to sell.

 

4 new pirelli tires, comes safetied, ready to license, and all of it's complete, the only blemishes on the paint was the front valance that 90% of third gens have chunks missing, and the rear bumper seemed to have a clearcoat problem. The rest of the body looked like it needed a buffing.

 

Sounds like a $5-6,000 car to me... That's about what I expect to see on a clean, good looking, perfect driving TPI Thirdgen. But from what I understand they're harder to come by in Canada... So maybe a little more.

 

Went and looked at it more than we did the other day..

-Around the tail lights, maybe 1/8 of an inch is what looks to be a seam seal, or weld mark. Not too bad, but It worries me.

-Red leather interior, has the map light and the clicker thing on the roof, pass, and rear seats look new, the drivers has a few small cracks, it's mostly clean.

-Under the hood could use a degreasing, but not a spot of rust, looks pretty good.

-It has been painted, 10 years ago, could use a buffing, and some touch ups.

-Now what kind of scared me was between the t-tops, there was some crusty rust where the glass sits toward the inside of the car, Kind of tells me that whatever is under that metal trim is some kind of monster. All of the rubber seals have to be replaced.

If I had the money in the bank, and wanted another car (My brother was interested) I'd pay between 6000, and 6500 for it. Based on the options, and the amount of work it would need.

 

Would you believe that when I replaced the TTop weatherstripping on my car that I found rust on the center TTop bar. I was surprised as my car has barely seen rain in its entire lifetime and I know it hasn't seen any snow. I had to remove the bar, sand it down and then I used POR 15 on it and repainted the bar. It looks perfect now, but I would think that if mine had rust, that cars exposed to any weather at all might have more. It might be clean under the center bar though, so either a new bar or a cleanup might be all it needs. Then, of course, it will need new weatherstripping!

 

Aluminum would have been a better choice for the center bar section from the get-go... Probably more expensive, thus why they did not do it, but it would have made more sense.

John

 

Its amazing what can be found under t-top weatherstripping. I pulled mine in the RS because I had a little bit of rust on the exposed, painted metal between the headliner and the weatherstripping.

Once the weatherstripping (which wasn't the original, as I later found out) was out, I was shocked by what I found. There was a huge amount of rust all along the windshield header, under the gaskets. It was so bad, the channel that holds the weatherstripping in has significant chunks missing from it! Needless to say, I was glad I took the time to fix all of it...fast forward 20-30 car washes and 3-4 years, and who knows what it would've looked like

 

My brother was after a car he can buy, clean up, fix a few things and flip it.. This seems to be a long term project kinda deal, I can tell he's still interested in it, though.

 

There's seldom if ever enough built in profit potential to make money on fixing up a thirdgen. You'll almost always lose money, assuming you can sell the car at all.

 

I'd almost guarantee that you could get at least double that up here in Canada. Clean, rust free 3rd gens go mint up here. And with our dollar tipping the scales at par or better than the sliding US currency, you'd get your full $5000 grand back (or better) plus a free holdiay. I'd treat to you a great time. An awesome triple A Alberta steak BBQ. Tons or cold Canadian beer. And hey, when the Beaver is one of our national symbols, you know you're gonna have a good fun! Eh?

 

At this point, this is very true...I doubt it will always be this way, but for now it is...

 

Funny you say that, I have made money on EVERY 3rd Gen I ever tried to fix up and sell... The trick is 1) Buy the car right, and 2) not to go crazy with the fix up, but do the minimum to make it look as good as it can with what you have to work with...


Edit: I should add that to simply fix things that are broken... It is amazing how many people have no clue how to fix their car, so they hack it up in a lame attempt to fix it... I bought one car that had a separate switch for the dash lights... It was a $5 part...

John

 

LOL I'm sure that's why there are so many complete cars getting parted in the classifieds because they're worth more as parts.

Maybe it's regional. But my experience has been that even sub-$1,000 cars in relatively good shape can't be mildly reconditioned and sold for much more then about $1,500. Unless you luck into a car with a minor mechanical problem and it needs zero cosmetic work, I don't see flipping Thirdgens to be profitable.

 

I thought that when I was offered a 1991 Formula 305 TPI 5 Speed for $200...
I gave away half the parts, kept the hood, and the rest was so far gone it just ended up in the dumpster..
Getting the 36mm Swaybar, and the bigger rear sway bar made a nice addition to my Firebird, though..

 

Honestly you are probably correct about that. Cars are typically worth more as parts than as a whole. I think it was around 1991 I remember hearing, if you added up all of the parts for a $18,000 Firebird thru the parts catalog it was well over $100,000 And that did not include the paint job... I have the prices, I just do not have the time to go through and see what they would come up as...

John

 

I have found these cars' values vary widely depending on where you are. Down South, and out west, these cars seem to be substantially less expensive. In my opinion 2 things are at play here...the sheer supply of cars available, and cost of living.

Outside of the rust belt, there is likely a significantly larger pool of these cars to choose from...the 3 I have personally witnessed getting sent to the junkyard were all sent because of rust. Secondly, where I am, the entire cost of living is higher, which lends a stronger value to these cars.

There is no such thing as a good, solid $2,000 anythingcar in MA. I would say $3,500 starts to buy an ok car around here.

 

MI is the same way,

I paid $3500 for a 120K MM5/LB9 car for my wife to drive... and I had to fix several things... I thought I got a bargain...

Honestly, there are becoming less and less of the "ok" condition 3rd gens locally. There are several nicer ones, and a lot of rusty ones. Some would tell you that it is class warfare, because there is the rusty's and the not rusty's.

John

 

I felt like I got a huge steal when I got my TA for $3,000...yet it looks pretty bad. But, for the low mileage, and driving like it has low mileage, to me it was worth it. Not having to replace a ton of wearable items has been huge...

But there are $1,500 cars on here that look better!