*sigh*
Last month I finally was able to buy a car...so I started looking for a third gen...
I'd looked at a few before, but both werent good at all...lots of rust and stuff, V6, hardtop...just werent what I was looking for.
Anywho, I was talking with a guy i know from one of these forums that lives by me, so i asked if he knew of any for sale. Turned out he had one for sale, so I stopped by to look at it that afternoon.
89 Formula, had a carburated 350/automatic...body didnt have any rust on the fenders, just a little on the doors (but theyre easier to replace and crap...)...Interior was fairly nice, no rips in the seats, no big stains, nothing broken...took it for a drive, loved it...none of the gauges worked so I was sorta scared to really let it rev high (used to a german V6, sounds a LOT different than an american V8), but it was fairly quick, and felt powerful enough to keep me happy through the winter...Tranny shifted nice and firm, the suspension and brakes felt nice and tight (Again, my previous car, a Catera, was a LOT smoother, but its a 97 and this was an 89), overall I liked the car.
Got back to the guys house, discussed the price...
he wanted 2500 for it, at the time I was like "Oh, well the gauges wont be hard to fix, and it runs nice and isnt in bad shape, but it IS a little high...", so he said he'd throw in a set of slightly used edelbrock headers, so I said "Okay" and the next weekend I put the deposit down on the car....he was still waiting for the title to come in from the RMV, cause he had bought the car only a few weeks before....Finally they get the titel and I buy the car...As is, no warentee, etc.
So it sat in my driveway for a few weeks, I tried to get the gauges to work with no success.....did the plugs, wires, etc....A friend finally got the gauges to work by using a 20 amp fuse (there was a 10 amp before...dunno why)...anyway, finally got it registerd yesterday and it wouldnt start. let the battery charge for a few minutes and it started up...drove it around the neighborhood, the engine stutterd at WOT a little, but seemed fine.....leave for work, get 5 minutes out of the neighborhood and its BARELY running....pull into a parking lot, wont start back up....Finally after getting my mom to drive over to let me use her car to recharge the battery, I get it started and back home....gauges crapped out, barely made it home...

I know I paid too much for the car....I know I shouldnt have trusted everything the guy said, I know I should have had someone else look at it before I bought it....But I was excited about it, I trusted the guy completly, I thought I was getting a fairly good deal. This was the first car I've ever purchased, and now I look back and I know I should have done everything different. Now I've got a car with a nice body and interior, no gauges, and an engine that runs but needs a little work, and an electrical problem somewhere that i havnt been able to fix. I dont have any other way of getting around, and no real place to work on the car (Doesnt help that its COLD outside)
Nuttin I can do about buying the car now, i've got it and i'm gonna have to deal with it....Should I concider an engine swap? Maybe go back to EFI? I dunno what to do! I've got a little money but I'd planned on getting the car repainted and getting some go-fast goodies....but I do have some money and could borrow a little too...What should I do?

 

Dont take offense at this, but you paid 2500 for a car that has a good body, looks nice, but needs a litle work. The engine doesnt knock or smoke, just needs some help. Quit whining and fix it.

 

Hey, sorry to hear about your troubles. I know how it is to buy a car and have it work one day and not work once it's road-legal.

The good news is that it's probably something relatively simple, such as the alternator or battery. I'd have either of those tested for free at AutoZone since you said you had to recharge the battery to get home. Since it's an old car, there's no telling how long those parts have been in there.

After that, I'd buy a $20 Haynes manual and start doing a tuneup. Even though it obviously doesn't have the engine the car started with anymore (you might want to check the validity of it being a 350 as well, if you are starting to question what the guy told you about the car), most of the stuff that the manual talks about can be applied to any SBC. Of course, you'll have to figure out things like heat range and gapping of spark plugs by yourself but it shouldn't be too hard.

Fix the things that are wrong with the car before putting any real money into it. A badly tuned car with performance parts is still a badly tuned car.

Anyway, good luck with it man. Hope it turns out to be something cheap and simple!

 

It's impossible to buy a poorly maintained muscle car that's 10-20 years old for a couple K and not expect to fix a bunch of stuff. Battery, starter, alternator, belts, fluids shocks, brakes, tires, electrical fixes, possibly fuel fixes, possible mechanical fixes. Heck, just any cheap car someone buys will need that stuff.

This is normal.

Third Gens in great shape go for three or four times higher prices than you paid. You do get what you pay for.

The good news is that instead of spending all that money on a boring cars to drive around, you'll be investing in a car thats actually fun to drive and turns heads 'cause it looks and sounds so good.

If you wanna run the numbers [like my wife does], let's say you pump 6K into making a really cool ride. There's no way you can buy a new car as cool as it will be for only 8K, plus, the factory doesn't make these cars any more, time is on your side for appreciation and value.

 

not to sound like a *****, but you paid 2500 for a car thats 15 years old. the engine runs fine and it has a small electrical problem (alternator)

you got a fairly good deal, can't expect to pay 2500 to have a car run like gold forever

 

Wow, lotsa ****** in this thread.

I think he was more than likely asking for some points of reference to start. I think you guys have been reading too many of Shane's threads. Either that or you're burning up on the boards. If that's the case do what us old bastards do, take a break from the boards. :shrug:

In eaither case, speedingtuxedo, if you are in SE MA, PM me and I'll see if I'll be in your vicinity any time soon. Most of the time when I come across the actual car things seem to present themselves that are not apparent on the boards.

Start by bringing the batt. and alt. to one of the box stores and have them tested. Next you may want to rebuild the carb. If it has sat for any length of time, and depending on the fuel sitting in the tank, you may have a few bugs in there as well. A compression and leakdown test would give you a good point of reference as well.

 

It's been quite a while, but I remember my first car, it was really a wreck and I don't know how I survived it. Guess that's how most of us learned how to work on cars. Sorry we sound like a bunch of meanies, we tend to forget what it's like to start out on cars... You've got a lot of helpful friends here in the ThirdGen community.

 

I'm in Chelmsford, which is Northern MA...

And yeah, the purpose of this thread was a) to let off a little steam about it, and b) to see if anyone had any suggestions/tips on where to start....

I have the car in the garage now up on jackstands (the garage is still under construction, but will be empty for the rest of the weekend so i'll have a few days to stay out of the cold/wet...), i'll take the starter off after i get back from the fam.'s little get-together for turkeyday tomorrow...then i'll get it tested on Friday..
I dunno...on the one hand, yes, i shouldnt be expecting a perfect car for 2500 bucks...but my friend tried to get me to go look at an 88/89 IROC, 350 TPI with a 5 speed (I know, not origional) for 1k...and I flat out said No Way, just because it had the 5 speed and 350...I kinda wish I had at least went and looked at it, but oh well...

 

lol yeah....i dont take offense or anything to any posts on the internet no matter what really, but yeah....
Definatly my experience with third-gen guys and chevy guys in general has been good...everyone i meet whos in to cars (all happen to be GM drivers, LOL) is always happy to talk about cars and even drive over to look at the car, laugh at the water temp gauge sticking outa the hood (it looks soooo stupid now, LOL), and throw in their suggestions/advice....Just cant wait to drive the thing...i've waited sooo long to get a thirdgen, and now that i've got one sitting right there, all i can do is work on it! (Which isnt bad, but i just wish it was something other than electrical work! DOH! )
Ah well, I guess I'll just appreciate the car even more once i've got everything going smoothly....

 

should probably look in the electrical boards, if you havent already... if you have to keep upping the fuse sizes in order to get stuff to work then you got a problem at hand.

 

After reading your thread, seems like it started running badly right after your buddy put a fuse in and got the gages working....

You think something might be drawing the battery down when the car's off?? (In the gage circuit?) Is the starter really bad?

Cars will run strange with a low battery. Might wanna try charging up the battery, disconnect the gage wire again to see if it runs any better or even helps....

Ahhh, another..... "project" ...good luck with it! You'll figure it out.

 

I'm thinking the alternator is putting a drain on the battery and when it starts to die that's when it's just running on the battery...
If you have a volt meter start the car up and let it idle, you should get about 13.5 volts or more when at an idle, and about 14 or so when it's under load(on the gas)