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Hi everyone, newbie here, to the site and to Camaro ownership . I traded a 67 Chevrolet C10 project that I was never going to finish for this car. I was glad to get rid of the truck and he was glad to have it. I wasn't that thrilled about the car but it appeared to be pretty nice and it was running so it seemed like a no brainer to me. The more I've learned about it on this site and the more I fix and drive it, the more excited I am about keeping it and restoring it. Anyways my current plans for it are to just get it all functioning correctly and reliable. I plan to slowly modify and update it as time and money allow. I definitely don't want to repeat the mistake I made on the truck and get it into a long term state of being un-driveable. So far I have repaired the oil pressure gauge (replaced the sender), repaired the temperature gauge (the needle was stuck up) replaced the front shocks, and fixed numerous vacuum leaks. Then just cleaned it up a lot. Replaced some light bulbs, general tlc. Currently almost everything functions, but there's still much to do. Anyways I look forward to sharing progress on it with the board, and being educated and inspired by all of you.
Jason
All stock as far as I can tell. I installed a new fram air filter. The clutch for the a/c doesn't engage, so I need to try and see where to start for that.
The back seats and passenger seat are in pretty good condition, the drivers seat is pretty ragged out. The power seat all functions but the switch housing is just dangling.
I got the stock steering wheel included, so I may try to learn how to restore it someday. The radio functions but the display is nearly impossible to read. Took me a while to figure out how to get the stations programed...lol!
Wow. It's a car worth bringing back at your convenience and funding. Custom L/S Conteur interior, TTop. Red. It will always garner attention, and those features will get more comments than the optional L69 motor ever will.
If the horsepower of the LG4 is not enough, a 350 will fit nicely in its place and no one will be the wiser but you. Don't let anyone on here say your car is great except for the motor. It's a great car as it stands. And quite presentable. I wouldn't rush into fixing everything, because it is already of interest in the current condition and configuration.
Nice find.
I'm currently obsessed with bringing back my '84, so if you have questions please feel free to PM me any time.
edit: I see you said modify it, so performance upgrades are probably in your plan. Great car stock OR properly modified. Also, I used the word worth in my rant above. Worth would not be correct, as these early 82-84 cars seem to sit forever on craigslist around here. They don't get the love of the later cars. I'll never deny I'm way biased toward the early cars!
Last edited by Saxondale; Jul 24, 2016 at 10:22 PM.
Picked up some new rear shocks today on my way home from work. They were a pain to install because the upper mounts are under the carpet. But i got them in. Car rides pretty nice now. I also received a Rick's Camaro catalog in the mail today. Yay!
I like on these early cars how the options where mix and match, chosen primarily by individual selections on dealer order forms.
Does it have dual horns? Overhead console? Quiet sound group? Delayed wipers?
A build sheet is likely under the passenger seat, stuck up above the springs with at least one corner stuck beneath the foam and seat structure. Even if you can get it from the springs you'll likely lose a large corner beneath the foam/structure. I recommend taking the seat out, if the sheet is present. Will include dealer information, all options, and probably an assembly line date.
go slowly on those seat bolt nuts. mine came off hard, like a lock nut. tended to heat up each bolt. go slowly. keep things cool. preserve the threads. use lubricant, while trying to keep it off the carpeting! maybe grease after the initial dose of corrosion buster.
Perhaps this is common knowledge and common sense. I just never pulled a seat from one of these cars before.
Will definitely do that. I'll probably try and get an inspection mirror under there first to see if there's anything there. I did find this labled in the armrest lid. Some of them I've identified, some in haven't.
Today I was talking to another forum member Henryd3, and I told him that passenger seat belt was not retracting. He referred me to another article on how to fix it, and within 10 minutes i had the belt retractable! Awesome, this place rocks! While I was in there, I took some pictures of the headliner and other interior stuff that needs fixed and or replaced. Pics to follow...
I wonder if the seals have been replaced before? I know they need replaced again, but it seems like to me there is so much deterioration of the headliner, I expected the seals to be in much worse shape.
BTW, I see it is a Norwood car, and it is possible they did not put the build sheets beneath the Lear Siegler passenger seat. I've seen two sets of orange LS seats with it there. Mine was for sure Van Nuys. The other unknown because car was gone and sheet was in bad condition. But it mostly likely was a Van Nuys car if a MN or WI sold car.
This is a loaded car. Even has posi-traction. Will be really nice once you have the chance to go through it.
Yeah. To me a posi 4 wheel disk LG4 is equally or even more interesting than an L69 without either. Plus all those other added options definitely move it into the great car category.
Though there are many among us saying "You've got to be kidding!" Ha.
What's That Above The Vent My Car Doesn't Have That.
It's a body brace, believe it or not. TTops cars disintegrate quicker without 'em. Keeps the tops of the doors from twisting into the rear quarter panel on TTop cars. OK, perhaps extreme exaggeration! But I've always been amazed that's what was needed for TTops.
GT, I had basically the same car back in the 80's with the LG4 and '82 style LS interior. We replaced the LG4/3 speed auto with a rebuilt long block 350/700r4 around 1988 when the LG4 finally let go, not a big deal to do. BTW I really dig your car.
I have a wanted post in the classified section looking for someone who might have what I need to get this fixed. [/QUOTE]
Check out KnightRider, he is member on this site and junks third gens. I have bought a couple of those type parts from him and he is great to deal with.
welcome to the site, I know this place has been "priceless" to me between the wealth of knowledge and being able to find parts!
Once again, thank you all for the encouraging words and complimentary posts. The more I've learned about this car the happier I am having the chance to own it. What's really nice is it stay in contact with the guy who traded it to me for my truck and he's just as happy to see that it's going to be taken care of. I am excited to see what he does with the truck as well. Anyways, today was a good mail day! I got some goodies to keep me up at night for the next year! Lol!
I think I have one on order....I am not very impressed with the Ricks Camaro catalogue that I got....seems to skip over a lot of the 3rd gen years. IDK
Nice car! I love the early Camaros in red and silver. Also it being an LG4 it would be an easy swap over to a 350
thanks! I am still on the fence about changing the engine. on one hand it seems to have enough power to go down the highway just fine. but on the other hand, it's never enough power when you want it... i'm currently trying to to come up with a plan that cleans up the engine bay...( remove a lot of the emissions stuff since they don't test it here) and will make the power go up some. But, I don't want to do anything that isn't easily reversible. I plan on saving all of the parts so that if I need or want to some day I can put it all back together stock. I'm thinking change out the exhaust, the intake manifold, carb, cam, maybe put a fresh set of pistons in it and get the compression bumped up to around 10:1 . seems like I heard that the crank is weak in this engine so i'm not sure if it would need to be strengthened or how. I have no idea if it's a 2 bolt or 4 bolt mains. I need t research it a little and see exactly what the difference is between the 305 and a 350. just the bore? IDK. anyways, i'm a ways out from that as I want to get the rest of the car up to snuff first.
As others have said a 350 would be very easy to swap in. It's up to you if you want to keep the original engine in it or not. You can always keep the original motor in your garage. Even a mild 350 would be a welcome improvement in the performance department compared to the LG4. You can also hope up the LG4, just won't have as much as a gain as if you started with a 350. In your state hopefully you don't have to deal with emissions like we do in California. If you don't have to pass tailpipe emissions test you really have a lot of freedom and ease of maintenance with a carbed 350.
Ultimately it's your car and you can do with it as you wish. Your car is like my dads car was except his was brown on tan. Had most of the options you could get in 1984 even that console in the t-top. He didn't have disk brakes but he had posi.
Car looks awesome. If mine had been in that good of shape I'd be a lot farther along in my own build. Nice score for you, definitely. As far as the engine goes, if you're concerned about keeping all the original parts for number matching and originality later down the road, I would probably just swap in a 350. It's a lot harder to misplace an entire engine than it is say a camshaft wrapped up in rags. In terms of cost it's about the same buying parts for a 305 or a 350, and the 350 is going to have more grunt to start with. Also, with a complete replacement block the world is your oyster. You can do whatever you want to it without having to worry about maintaining the originality.
Ricks Camaros... I don't know. Their website drives me nuts with it's crappy design, but they are on the list of places that I check when I'm buying parts. A lot of the other places I check:
Hawks' Motorsports (Sometimes skeevy with shipping prices, but good part selection)
Camaro Central
Thirdgen Ranch
Amazon
Ebay
Summit (Engine Parts)
Jegs
Eastwood (Paint, tools, supplies)
It's not an exhaustive list, I'm sure other members can give you a dozen other places that they use, and it takes a while to cross check the parts across everywhere, but it can save you a few bucks if you're diligent.
Best of luck with whatever direction you decide to go. I'm sure you'll enjoy the car either way.
thanks Raving and Yaj....I like the idea of just switching out the entire engine. So, I looked at my Jegs catalogue that I got today in the mail and looked over their engine selection. they have a nice selection , so I was leaning towards something like a blueprint 355. seems like a nice combo to me, not too much power, but decent. and the cost isn't outrageous. but, I have other stuff to get done first, so it'll be a while. I am enjoying driving the car as is for now for sure.
Tonight I changed the fluid in the rear end. I was a little nervous about what it might look like when I popped the cover off, but I was surprised that the fluid looked pretty good. It took me a few minutes to find the fill plug. It was buried under some greasy dirt. Anyways got it all changed and me and my dog test drove it.
There wasn't a gasket, just a bunch of sealant. I cleaned it up and when I reinstalled the cover i installed a felpro gasket
Last edited by 84Z28dude; Jul 30, 2016 at 03:52 AM.
Reason: Spelling errors
