Picked it up today. Needs a few things and a BIG detailing. Nothing drives like a low miles IROC-Z. This one has 17,950 miles on it. The previous owner had mentioned that the top was always a pain to put up. He wasn't kidding! It took 3 of us over an hour to put the top up. I had to loosen the top's 4 frame bolts to get it to latch. I believe the top has been doen for most of it's 30 years.

The LG4 is not what you would call fast, but it's torquey and smooth and not unpleasant to drive. I've already done a mod. I've flipped over the air cleaner. Hey, it's a carb'd motor, right? Probably no more power, but sounds cool..

 

That depends. How many can you enjoy? Frequently I think I'd be better off with one thirdgen. Looks like a nice car. If you've got the room, time, and money to afford it, why not?

 

Well, that's the question! How many can you enjoy?

I had told all my friends that I'm done looking for anything. I need to finish off the little projects from the cars I have.

And then....someone contacted me about this car. The owners were ready to let it go after 30 years. And....it was literally walking distance from my house. And I thought I had inventoried all the 3rd gens in my area. I had never seen this car. It was almost like I was obligated by the universe to buy it.

We'll see what happens. The fun part for me is finding a nice car like this with some needs and then taking it to the next level. After that I sort of get bored.

 

I have been buying, driving & then selling cars since I was 16. When I was 30 I had another place I could store cars & then I started collecting & keeping, rather than parting ways. I think as long as you have a safe place to keep them & you enjoy getting them out once & while I don't that you can have too many. I recently purchased a car for nostalgic reasons that I haven't even driven & I am ok with that. I'm just detailing & cleaning it & I enjoy that just as much. There are times now where I like looking at them as much as driving them.

The only burden with having too many cars is insuring them all. Even discounted collector car insurance gets pretty expensive when your fleet grows. I had been thinking about seeing if there are any other options for vehicles that are driven only a few miles per year.
My 87 Iroc, has sadly not even been moved in 4 years. Need to change that this summer....

 

By the way, I love those under chassis shots. I know I am a broken record with that topic, but in a standard photo of a car, a 200K mile camaro with a fresh paint job can look pretty good. Original under chassis pictures are not only difficult, but in many cases (like your exhaust picture) almost impossible to duplicate.

I can never get enough of those pictures.....

 

It's well on it's way to being enjoyed again Charlie!

Looking forward to the ride!

 

Other than being dirty and full of spiderwebs, the undercarriage is mint. Although few people will see it, those that do will appreciate it. BTW, the owner told me that this car has never seen rain. And I believe them.

 

Yeah Chris, I'm planning on putting a few miles on it.


Also, this is my first Norwood car.

 

Great addition! Congrats.

 

Thanks, Tootie!

 

Speaking of mufflers, notice how the 2.25" exhaust steps up into the the 2.5" factory muffler? The high horsepower 2.75" exhaust steps down into the same muffler.

 

Gotta get those IROC-Z decals ordered this week. 4 lug nuts are are the way.

 

Naaw, 4 is not too many.. But I think 7 is.

 

I was wondering what the band was on the pipe. Looked sorta like a sticker or something was there. Mine has nothing on that pipe, but its a TPI, so your saying its a different pipe? I am guessing that mark before the muffler is the edge of a sleeve then? I love the cobwebs too BTW

 

Congrats on your purchase. Looking forward to seeing you clean it up.

 

Nice car! You have a great fleet Charlie.

 

Yeah, that's weird how it left that band pattern. Correct, they are different sized pipes.

 

Tell that to my wife!

 

Thanks, guys!

 

IROC-Z decals ordered!

 

Here's a couple:






Hey, what's up with Photobucket? People's pics are disappearing all over the internet!

 

Hey Charlie, can you send me the VIN in a PM? I'd like to add this car to my registry. Thanks

 

Will do, Scott.

 

BTW, I measured the factory decal on my yellow '85 and it was right at 7" from the door edge, so it seems the factory had about half an inch or so of wiggle room.

 

Nice car you picked up.. Never to many if you have the room to store them. 3rd gen value are on the rise and low mile clean iroc's are never gonna go down in value. First convert? I know what you mean finding a car, working on it getting it clean and then kind of get bored with it. I enjoy building and tinkering more then driving my collection of cars.

As I said to you before, the amx would of been mine If I had room.

 

Any idea if any work was ever started on my old AMX?

 

I just added the measurements on your other thread.

 

Thanks! For less confusion I'll put your pics here.







Is one for the driver's door and the other for the passenger door?

 

Sorry, both L&R decals had the same part number, & each of them have the angled cut at each end so it can be applied on either side. IIRC the angled cuts should match the angled edge of the doors. I should have clarified that.

They really are all at the 8ths of an inch. They are not even a 32nd rounded up or down.

 

Interesting that the Z is closer to the door edge than the I. Thanks!

 

I think it has something to do with the angle of the door & then the opposing angle of the letters.

 

Very nice! I hope I put a part on that at Norwood! Enjoy!

 

Thanks! It's birthday is 4/87.


Been cleaning and fiddling with it all night.

 

Makes sense.

 

"The fun part for me is finding a nice car like this with some needs and then taking it to the next level. After that I sort of get bored"

I noticed this pattern with you. You seem to enjoy the "thrill of the hunt" and then the extreme detailing of the car process. I think it may be time to let the 85 go. This way you always have space for the next find. The car you should never get rid of is your 89 black 5-speed since you are the original owner but view the others as part of your hobby of finding, cleaning up and enjoying for a short time and then selling.

You may make a little money or lose a little on some of these cars but that's all irrelevant. It's the whole process that is fun. Some people like going on a lot of trips you like finding unique Thirdgen's and extreme detailing them

 

You know me well, Brian!


Or.....just find more storage space........

 

I'll bet if the Phoenix decals come with a similar backing as the GM's, the PO of your convertible dropped the alignment edge down to the ground effects edge on the door.
putting it so close to the stripes. What is on there for stripes? do they repop those now?

As far as parting with "classic" cars, I think if space allows that gets harder to do with age. At least for me it does. I am very nostalgic about most cars built in the 80's & earlier. But they have to mean something to me in some way. Usually it's a car from my past. I find myself always looking at the cars that either a friend had, or one I saw that made an impression on me in the day. But collecting really started with my 87 Iroc. It was the first car I put away into storage when it was not a collector car yet, but was old enough where the market was getting soft & everyone was after the LT1 4th gens. 3rd gens were old news. I put it away & never looked back. OR should I say I started looking back even more? That was 22 years ago already & at that time the car was only 8 years old. That's hard for me to believe when I really think about it.

Used to drive me crazy to put a car away for just the winter months, & now I put them away for years on end...

 

Yes they do - I put one of their complete sets on this car two years ago.

 

I bet you we see Charlie on that A & E show "Hoarders". It turns out he never sold that 83 crossfire z28 and it's actually in his kitchen. That 92 purple haze convertible he supposedly sold is actually in his bedroom and he actually sleeps in it. The living room is full of used buffing pads, half open bottles of meiguars detailing products, and NOS mufflers. They interview his wife and she is so distraught and crying she tries to remember the days before he owned his first thirdgen and they still had a couch they could sit on that wasn't a reupholstered bucket seat from an 85 Iroc.

The show then attempts an intervention with 10 year thirdgen.org members at his house to try and break his hoarding of Thirdgen's. But we all confess we may have contributed his hoarding of Thirdgen's addiction.

 

I was totally done with the '83 and was glad it found a new owner. The purple '92 was fun, I drove it 2,000 miles in one summer. It was high miles, ~127,000 miles, so I wasn't afraid to drive it, park it, or -OMG- get rained on. The new owner told me he was going to LS swap it as he was pulling out of my driveway. Good thing I spent top dollar to use ONLY NOS GM replacement parts when I had it. LOL!

As far as the A&E show, sounds like fun! I could be the 3rd gen Wayne Carini, except I'd also find 2nd gens, turbo Buicks, 5.0 Mustangs and oddballs like X-11s.

Hey, I'd watch that show!

 

I won't bore you guys with a bunch of pictures of me cleaning, but here's some I wanted to share:


As I said, I'm pretty sure this car has spent the past three decades with the top down. The sun has done a number on the interior. Other than this area, the carpet is pretty mint and just needs cleaning. Contemplating how to repair this without replacing the whole carpet.





Pretty sure I've got a seatbelt buckle recall kit somewhere to fix this.






The front leather seats are currently marinating in Leatherique. Will probably need several applications. BTW the seatbelt buckle button was pink. I used Megs Black Plastic Restorer and voila, red!






Look at this. This was a grease pencil note on the filler panel. Most of it came off as I was trying to clean the dirt/dust off. It's an oil change reminder. It's hard to see, but it says: 8-19-92 13,724. So in the past 25 years, the car has only been driven 4,200 miles.







Overspray! Honestly, I was a bit turned off when the owner told me that he had the nose and hood repainted because of stone chips. But, it is nice not to have several dozen to several hundred stone chips to touch up. But I have this overspray on the cowl. I'll decide if it's better to simply repaint it black or try to remove the overspray.

 

So is the carpet actually worn down or is that dirt? The seat belt material also looks really sun faded. Actually the carpet as a whole looks faded. Maybe replacement is the best option.

Maybe it's just the saddle color is lighter then I am used to seeing.

 

It's worn. That dark stuff is the backing. But that area is very faded.

 

Do the coupes & convertibles use the same carpet? Short of a repop, I would consider watching for a good deal on a hardtop car with the same carpet. Swap rugs & re-sell it.
Might not cost you anything but your time if you buy the car at a fair price. Just a thought.

Only other way you would find a nice GM one would be be a wrecked one & those don;t come around much anymore. Parts cars now days are usually at the end of their rope.

I think there was another member here that was doing that with an interior. bought a car just for the seats & swapped interiors & re-sold it.

The good thing is if the donor car had floor mats & a driver that didn't live in their car, there should be some nice carpets out there in higher mileage cars.

 

It's funny how parts for these cars have dried up. I get it, they are 30 years old now. But, I used to build wrecked cars in the early 90's. I bought a lot of 3rd gens that had blown engines, theft recovery, or wrecked in an accident. Used to go to the salvage yards & pretty much buy whatever I wanted & the parts were so nice. Then go the the GM dealer & order the other parts. Everything GM & so easy. Those memories are still so fresh in my mind & I still don't think of an Iroc as a classic muscle car in the same way I used to think of a 69 camaro in High school. Those were really old cars back then.....

But, in reality the 69 camaro was only 17 years old back then. I could't have even imagined a 17 year old car looking as good as so many of these 30 year old cars do today.
A lot has changed & I can't quite put my finger on it. But two big things I guess are the cars of the 80's were built better that the 60's & there are a lot more people preserving them. well, that an internet exposure makes use fell like these cars are still at every stop light, when in reality they are not. I have not seen an iroc on the road yet this summer...

anyway, just rambling while sucking down my coffee this morning.......

 

Welp, anyone can change the carpet. I'd like to see if I can repair and restore this area, as the rest of the carpet is in good shape.

 

"I bet you we see Charlie on that A & E show "Hoarders"

I've watched that show and also "American Pickers." Some of those people are neck deep in "stuff" that is EVERYWHERE! I shake my head and look at my wife and say......"Honey, at least my hobby is cars...and they all move under their own power!" If you have the space and funds to support the car hobby, go for it...you only live once!

 

Yup, that's key. They must run!

 

I thought you said it was pretty faded out though. Going to be hard to match, don't you think?

 

Just that area is faded. I'm considering my options.

Maybe.......I'll trim some pile from under the seat, glue it to the thread bare spots and then dye that area.

We'll see. I'll remove the rear cushions tonight and see what's what.


I also have a LIKE NEW shifter plate with perfect AUTOMATIC OVERDRIVE letters I've been saving. Maybe this car gets it?