I think its why we all still have our cars. No one will ever give us the money we put into them, but it is a labor of love. They are fun, beautiful, project cars, but, given the current and future price of fuel, they will continue to be expensive to operate. A 2012 V-6 Camaro can run circles around a stock 80's LG-4, all while getting 34 mpg!

 

You just necro'd a post from 2005... and this wasn't the first time it happened in the thread. Haha.

 

I would venture to say that even though this thread started in July 2005, seven years later the answers will be the same. Yes they are worth it.

Just think how fewer 3rd gens there are today than in 2005. If you own a good one, well then...

 

If money and the cost of gas is making you wonder, switch to go carts. Nothing wrong with that. The autocross events I attend allow go carts. As new engines are created the option will be available to swap them in to our engine bays, that's the nature of the aftermarket.

 

Wow....this thread is a blast from the past! No wonder I couldn't remember my earlier post in this thread...it was in '05 !!

Does the person that started this thread still own their 3rd Gen?!? - Still have mine...

 

owned a 57 in 90 and sold it in 99. happy to have my GTA now. no regrets

 

What I like about "hot rodding", is that all of us can, and do, change our cars to fit "our" style, whatever that happens to be for you. I, would like to see someone with a V6 car, retrofit one of the new V6's from a 2010 Camaro, complete with ECM and all the controls to pull 300 hp and 30 mpg.

I have a carbed car, it's fully emissions legal, and even if I pull the AIR tubes off it, I'll keep the cat. For some reason, I'd feel really guilty if I don't. hehe

 

This is why my 67 Camaro is in a garage rusting out. I can't bear to part with it even though it needs A LOT of work. hehe

 

The answers are still the same.

Is it worth it? Subjective.

Will I get all the money I sunk in back out? Probably not.

 

Are our cars worth sinking money into? Will we get the money back out of it? I dont even know why I bother with a thread this old but since it's been necro'd...

No. Never. Not even if we wait a 100 years. Those 60's Camaros that sell for $30k in today's money, they were bought for $3,000 in 1967 money.

$3000 in 1967 is 20,000 in today's money. Imagine if you had that in a savings account earning interest.

Do you really think the other $10,000 couldnt be earned in the stock market? You put $3k into the stock market in 1967 and I guarantee you you'd have WAAAAY more money than you would from an old car.

Then consider that the old cars that are actually worth money these days are either low mileage, 99 percent + stock survivors, or they are completely restored. Maybe even resto-modded, but either way the first option requires you to never ever mod or enjoy your car, just let it sit in an air conditioned garage. The second option means a $30-$100k investment. Then add in that they need to be desirable cars to begin with. People dont spend big bucks on Inline 6 first gen camaros with powerglides.

THEN... consider, all these people that pay all this money for classic camaros, they tend to be baby boomers. People who grew up with those cars but were poor then. They went to college, worked for a living at a time when the US economy was much better, made their money in savings/stock market/investments and only the last 20 years or so have money to play with. What do they DO with this money? They buy the cars that THEY grew up with. Given the declining state of hte economy, the impending drain the baby boomers going into retirement will have on it, I dont think any car built after 1975 will EVER enjoy the huge appreciation in value (accounting for inflation, only about 30 percent, and thats for the cream of the crop) that the baby boomer cars got.

I dont think our IROCs and Trans Ams will EVER reach that kind of value, and it's just because of the era they were born into. Furthermore, no onei s going to care about an LG4 Z28 or a 305 RS. The only cars that will mean anything are the crossfire, L69, and TPI cars. And then only if they've been left 99 percent stock.

Cars are awful investments. Period.

Also, the first cars were often run on kerosene or alcohol. For us kerosene's very low octane rating is prohibitive, but ethanol is a very practical solution. You can actually build your own still and make your own ethanol. In fact, that's why it was such a common fuel in the early days of the automobile. You didnt have vast gasoline retail networks. You had your farm and you threw all your organic refuse into your still and made alcohol out of it, and put it into your car.

Ethanol means a little less power, but you can significantly increase the compression ratio. It wont be a huge difference at that point, and making our cars run efficiently on ethanol is actually pretty easy. You just have to adjust the air fuel ratio a bit, adjust the spark tables, and get a little stronger fuel pump to cope with the increased flow necessary, and you're set. Ethanol's corrosive properties have been grossly overhyped. Ethanol is not methanol.

The natural gas advocates are pushing methanol instead of ethanol, I think. Im not 100 percent positive, but Im fairly certain that methanol is made from natural gas today, and that's what all the natural gas vehicles actually run on. You want to talk about a nasty, nasty fuel.... methanol is that. If ethanol didnt have that little bit of gasoline added to it, you could drink it out of the pump.

 

exactly! I bought my '89 IROC for 2,000. it has the stock 350 tuned port and i get 26-27 MPG highway and somewhere around 18 City. I've looked up what its MPG was off the line and somehow I'm getting more? (25 HWY and 17 City) but hey...im not complaining! It looks good, and gets better mileage then all those rust buckets out there and everyone who feels as thought they need a truck when they don't. lol

 

Two choices. I can dump the cash into the car after a hard days labor or I hand it over to the wife and kids. For them it never seems like enough. Id rather have a cherry ride and its no surprise it takes me an hour and 15 minutes plus 1/2 tank gas to get a gallon of milk............PRICELESS!!!!!

 

You'd be hard pressed to find a better value for the initial buy in when it comes to domestic project car potential. These cars turn, launch, accept SBC, BBC, LSx engines, have great aftermarket support, and compared to todays sauropods, are lightweight.

If you never think of them as an investment and instead as a "project", the platform has tremendous capability compared to any 60's chassis. Yes they are worth fooling with, not as a moneymaker, but as a personal adventure into performance.

 

Our cars are terrible investments if you want ANY kind of financial return. But I agree completely, if you want a capable, versatile street rod they are VERY hard to beat.

 

I never spent one dollar on my car expecting to get it back. I also never built it expecting to sell it. I built it as my toy, my project car. IF, and I mean IF, I ever had to sell it, I know I will loose a ton of money.

 

basically my response to the op question is no. not worth sinking more money into. if you have a nice survivor keep it. if you have one that is not do with it as you wish but dont expect return on it. if your goal is for a fun rod then fine.. build it