Well I've got a 2002 z28 that has only 63,000 miles and it's a getting a cam this week. My only issue is I haven't done ANYTHING to this car myself.

All my previous cars have been crap so i just drove em and when they broke my father and I fixed them(back when I lived at home in high school and what not) well now I've got this nice z28 and I want to learn wrenching skills and really get my hands dirty but there are a couple things holding me back from doing it on my z.

1. It's just so nice I don't trust myself not to **** it up...then I'll be mad at myself if I do.
2. I want to learn some body and paint and stuff and I'll be damned if I will strip off that Maroon Metallic paint and take a chance of spraying that car myself.
3. It's my "reliable" vehicle. I don't daily it but if my truck is having problems which it likes to do...I daily it.
4. The 4th gens are really cramped in the engine bay and the electronics and things make it a lot more complicated to work on I think. I need to learn this stuff eventually but I think it would be easier to learn on an older sbc.
5. I really want a cruiser car with a manual. The ls1/stalled auto is fast, but just not as fun as slamming gears. Plus at the end of the day having a car you can just beat on without reservations is a nice thing to have.

So my thoughts are this. I could buy an old 3rd gen camaro(i've always loved 3rd gens) and just wrench on it for fun. If I break stuff o well, if I jack up the body work, who cares, etc etc. It's also cheaper to get parts for, a little easier to maneuver in the engine bay, and doesn't have electronics in the way. If it's not running then it's not stopping me from getting where I need to be, and in the end if I fix it up nice i'll have 2 sweet camaros...I might even let me old lady daily the 3rd gen who knows.

The thing that makes me feel crazy is...in the end i'm spending money on an old beater that could go into my ls1. For the price of the 3rd gen (2k maybe) I could do many things with my ls... Idk I just hate the idea of breaking stuff on the z28 due to my lack of knowledge and in-experience.

Thoughts?
I considered a fox 5.0 as a possible substitute...just a v8 and a manual is the important part.

I am not planning on trying to build a dragster, or a show car, or a track car...just a car that would be run to beat on you know.

Here is the z28:

 

i'm all for buying a cheap POS that you don't have to worry about wrecking to use as an educational tool. just don't spend a lot of money buying something, and don't stick a lot of money into it. i paid $400 for my car, and it would have been the perfect POS for someone to hone their diagnostic, fabrication, and repair skills on..

 

Sounds like a good plan to me... I learned on my Formula... Now that I know what I am doing, I am going through and refixing everything I did when I was younger. Luckily I didn't mess too much up. A thirdgen or a Fox body would be a great platform to learn on...

 

So of the two which do you think is a little more forgiving? I had a 91 RS camaro back in high school and that 3.1 v6 was satan's motor...no matter what we(myself and father who is an old car guy) did that thing would never run right and always broke. I would imagine a v8 car wouldn't be so bad(condition depending)

 

All depends on what you want... A fox will go quick in a straight line with less mods (8.8 rear), but a 3rd gen will destroy a fox in handling anyday... so take your pick! Most foxes are hacked wiring wise... but most thirdgens require port matching/TPI swap at least to match a fox. As said earlier... What do you want?

 

Get the fox. There is a million of beaters out there. And they DESERVE to be POS

 

The Fox and the thirdgen are very similar. My buddy had an '86 GT for about 5 years and I've had (and still have) my Trans Am for almost 3... both cars use modified McPherson setups in the front, though the Fbody has better geometry and a lower center of gravity, both have stout, easy to work on V8's that were available carb or EFI from the factory depending on year, both had T5's, and both flex a lot (Subframe connectors are your friend!). The main differences in the cars are that the Ford 302 generally performs and responds to mods better than the 305 (though a 350 is dirt cheap, easy to swap in and is comparable to the 302 for performance), and the rear ends. The 3rd gen Fbody is virtually identical to the 4th gens in the rear- the 3 link is a great design for handling and is now used in the S197 Mustang due to its effectiveness, but the Fbody axles are notoriously weaker than the 8.8's used in the Mustang. The Mustang has a stupid 4 link with Quad shocks that wheel hops during burnouts and binds in corners which makes for some less impressive handling without some after market control arms.

Both cars are stupidly easy to fix and mod, you can find all the parts you'll need at cjponyparts or hawksthirdgenparts depending on the car, and through jegs and summit for either car. You can damn near take either car apart with a basic Craftsman 118 piece tool set and some parts store rental tools.

For reliability, my buddy's 'Stang had 205,000 on it when he totalled it and it ran fine. I met a guy that autocrossed his thirdgen with around 150,000 on it. As long as you use quality parts it should hold fine. I have an '88 Toyota... the "indestructible truck"... and honestly I'd say for use as a beater a thirdgen or Fox would be some stiff competition for low cost and reliability.

Either car is a great choice and you won't be disappointed, and both have their strong suits and their flaws which are easily fixed with aftermarket parts, so drive both and decide based on which is a better fit for you and looks better to you.

 

Is it just me or do third gen's seem to actually have more character than 4th gens? I mean don't get my wrong I love my 4th gen but it just doesn't seem to have the personality my old shitty 91 v6 did even.

 

older cars in general just seem to have more character than newer vehicles, mostly because they are generally less well built and have a lot more creaks, groans, and rattles in them to go along with the extra wind and road noise that they have learned to eliminate in newer cars.

a few posts up, someone said that the newer Mustangs have a similar suspension to the 3rd and 4th gen F bodies.. this is wrong.. they use a 3 link setup that has a single upper link in place of the 2 upper links the older cars had with a panhard bar to locate the rear end instead of relying on the opposing angles of the upper arms to do it, whereas the F bodies have a torque arm setup that also uses a panhard bar to locate it laterally. one popular upgrade on Fox (79-94)and SN95 (95-04) Mustangs is to eliminate the upper arms and put a torque arm in their place, which makes them have a very similar suspension to the 82-02 F bodies and brings them up to where GM was in suspension design way back in 1975 when the Monza (which was supposed to be the 3rd gen F body...) came out.