I recently pulled up my carpeting and to my dismay, I found the floorpans have started to rust, nothing is through but it's getting pretty bad. Also, I need pretty much body work and a new paintjob and my rear main seal needs replacing along with a new clutch. I'm trying to decide if I should keep mine and fix ALL the things that are wrong with it or just part it out and buy another 3rd gen which has a good body/ no rust... What do yous all think?

 

Fixing you car will probably be cheaper than buying one that is already fixed and you also know exactly what you have then. thats just my theory and now i'm stuck with a money pit that i cant get to run any more. I would do the same thing over again though.

 

If you were able to find a cherry 6 cyl I would part it. I have seen some real nice 3rd gens with only a 6 in them for pretty cheap.

Just my .02

Brian

 

I'm not going to go through all the hassle of putting an 8 in a 6cyl car. It's just that I see so many 3rd gens for less than 3k$ and fixing it may even cost more than that.

 

I'm the kind of guy that says "fix it" (241,000 miles on my V6 Firebird) no matter what, but here's something to think about, who says that the $3k car you buy won't have other (or worse) problems?

Also, make sure your "rear main leak" isn't a bad distributor seal.

For the floorpans, go to http://www.por-15.com , and buy the Super Starter Kit for $20. Then go treat your floor pans with the full 3-stage por15 system (cleaner, zinc wash, por-15 chemical) to stop the rust.

Bodywork and paint job, you can do that too... if you don't have a spot to paint the car, you can at least do the bodywork, and bring it to Maaco- FULLY prep the car first. Don't trust them to mask/sand/clean ANYTHING. Oh yeah, and don't forget, primer is NOT waterproof. If you do bodywork, don't leave the car outside in primer. One more thing- body filler (aka Bondo) absorbs water. I posted Maaco prep tips in this article: https://www.thirdgen.org/techbb2/sho...hreadid=100797 I also bought a Devilbiss Finishline II HVLP gravity-feed spray gun a few months ago- yep, I'm painting my car myself next year.