Okay so sorry if i leave out any pieces of info. i just typed up a long post but IE closed out on me... yay. ANYWAY! Im getting a 1985 Firebird TA with a 305/5.0L V8. it has 103,000 miles on it. been in one minor front end accident. exterior is immaculate(aside from 3 minor surface rust spots). has been sitting for 3-4 years. engine is in good running condition but is verry dirty and will need all fluids changed of course..(nothing a few replaced parts and a power washer wont fix ) BUT the point of me saying this is that i wanted to know of places to look for performance/OEM repl. parts, interior pieces, suggestions on what to do, what to be weary of, things that arent seen very much, ect. I am new to owning an F body/Trans am. I dont know much about third gens so.. but im going to be educating my self quite a bit so im ready to go when i get it. Any help i can get i will be great!-Adam

 

Well you want to make sure you aren't getting a rust bucket. That's no fun. Take it from me. Places to check are the inside of each wheel well. Top of the strut tower on the inside of the car. Rusty battery trays. Rusty battery trays are normal in any climate. So you'll probably need to make an exception for those. The bottom of the radiator support behind the air damn. If it is a t-top car pull the tops out and check around the seals for rust. On the underside of the deck lid where the spoiler mounts, you'll want to check there. Also check on the underside of the car just behind the sub-frame. Approximately where your left foot should rest. (The dead pedal area to the left of the brake pedal.) You'll want to look over the underside of the floor pans carefully as well. If the seller will let you pull up the carpet in the rear cargo area then do so. You want to look for the "Gas tank" hatch. Many idiots cut a door in the trunk pan above the rear axle to access the gas tank in order to replace the fuel pump rather than doing it the right way. If you see the gas tank hatch I'd almost be inclined to say "walk away" from the car. When I see that I normally see a host of other ghetto repairs and what will seem like an endless array of problems with the car. People who think of cutting the floor pan to replace a fuel pump as a proper repair procedure are night the brightest bunch and you'll just be fixing their mistakes in addition to the car's regular issues.

Check the suspension components and make sure that the bushings on your end links and sway bar brackets are good. Check any of your rubber bushings on the front steering linkage. While test driving check the vehicles alignment as best as you can. Make sure there is no slop in the tilt steering column or play at roughly the center of the steering wheel. This indicates issues with the column and possibly the steering box. Look for signs of ghetto wiring under the dash. Look at the fitment of the body panels carefully. Look underneath the car's nose and look at the two frame rails or "frame horns" where they meet with the actual bumper. (Not the bumper cover.) Ensure they aren't bent up. This would indicate a front end collision. Check the radiator support up top and on the bottom of the car for signs of buckling. This would also indicate an accident. Remove the rear cargo area plastics of the car in the spare tire well and opposite if you can. Look for buckling/signs of repair to the inside of the quarter panels. If the seller won't let you do that use a fridge magnet over the outside of the quarters and if they don't stick, the rear end of the car was hit. Do the same for the "B-pillars" as well. You can check the doors and fenders but they are easily replaced if they were repaired using Bondo or something. So I wouldn't let that necessarily stop me from buying a car. Obviously check any and all features of the car such as the turn signals, headlights, power pull down (Don't know if that was available in 1985.) and of course check the trunk release as well.

Now these issues are very common so don't let them deter you on their own but I'd walk away from any car with too many of these issues. That would indicate that it wasn't maintained well during its years of service.

There are also some common problems which seem endemic to almost all of these cars in one form or another. I wouldn't let these deter you from making your purchase as these are all simple fixes. They aren't necessarily cheap to fix, but they are easy to fix.

Common problems:

Sagging doors
Squeaks and rattles
Dry rotted door/window sweeps and general weatherstripping
Lazy power door locks
Slow/broken power window motors
Carpet will almost always need replacement
Air conditioning rarely works in these cars
Radio trim plate is cut up or broken
Busted shifter plate
Splitting center console
Split or broken center console lid
Worn out/ripped map pocket
Faded lettering on window switches and controls

Depending on what you have in mind for the cars future you may wish to look at some other things. The differential, drum vs. disk rear brakes, auto vs. manual transmission, TPI vs. carb, etc.

I'll add more things as I think of them.

 

Thank you very much for the reponse, VERY helpful. i have loked this car over pretty well and its in pretty great condition for what it is. i will be looking into it more of course and taking these suggestions with me. Ill use some of the tips and strategies as well!

Thanks again!!

 

I can back this up 100% my '86 T/A has the trap door mod, and there are tons of other crappy 'fixes' and 'mods' done to the car... I know I would have ran in the oppsite direction if I had known.

Pic of the trap door mod... https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/post...0-post370.html