I plan on undercoating once I get the subframe connectors taken care of and some other stuff... the fuel and brake lines aren't all new but hey, no leaks. I've got faith in the existing lines. I've run them through some paces and they hold up.

 

I love to see a car that's loved enough to be restored...

hope to see pics of the car in full bloom soon...

I've never seen a floor pan rusted so badly... I wonder what made it rust through like that...

I have a couple holes I need to patch on my camaro too, but d*mn...

 

your floor board looked exactly like mine. all i did was cut out 1/8 stainless steel material (my dad stole it from his truck yard.) and pop rivited in. the couck it with window couck. of course after i had cleaned all the rust up. mine turn out to be 16x20 inches. but hey its hard as a rock now and doesnt leak.

so my total fix cost 3.79 plus tax. but with the steel it would have cost around 10 bucks. and only took me about 2 hours.

 

yea, i have it held down w/ pop rivets right now. i'm going to weld it in though. can't complain about the pop rivets.

 

be prepared for hell when u weld it in.i dont know what the hell gm used for steel in these things but it absolutly sucks to weld to.

 

I'm starting to wonder if I have the right exhaust manifold to y-pipe donut seals. when I took the original engine out I only found these ceramic things that won't seal. I put in a different seal made of a kind of composite material with a steel inner ring but I'm still not convinced its working. the car is still kinda loud. I wonder if I should put them both on but that doesn't really make sense to me. why should I use 2?

 

got 1 new exhaust seal, i gotta pick up the other one tomorrow, even though they said it'd be in. I got the older S10 style with the metal ring that sits inside the manifold and its all metal. got it from carquest about $10 a piece.

a bolt on my water pump is leaking. its the one all the way toward the passenger side, i think its a drain bolt or something like it. anyway, do i need to use threadlocker on it or what?

 

got the exhaust seals in and now it sounds a little quieter. still pretty loud though

I've got a bit of a problem though. I was driving today in the rain, about a half mile, just taking it easy, and when I got to the end of the road and stopped (car in neutral) it sputtered and died. started right back up and i noticed the tach wasn't working for a little bit. it eventually started working after a couple of erratic readings. could this be a bad connection to the icm? I remember the wires on the dizzy had a little bare spot on each wire (the wires under the cap that hook to the icm) my guess is the moisture could have shorted me out. any ideas on this? I was thinking a jy distributer, I had the icm tested last year and it worked fine.

 

going to the jy today. if i find a cheap dizzy in good condition i think I'll take it. I've got about $70 so maybe i can find something good. who knows, even a fender would be good. my passenger side looks kinda crappy. I got a new tire to replace the one tire that was too big (previous owners, uggh) and now the car looks a lot better. pics later.

 

i say keep it, fix it. its obviously not your daily driver, so why not take your time and finish it off??

 

duh - i finally read to the bottem of the thread, looks like you did keep it - good move

 

stunt double-looks like your a new member, welcome to tgo. feel free to ask questions.
haha, yea sorry about that, the title is a bit misleading. I did decide to fix it up and now i'm trying to refine it into its daily driver form because I'll start driving it every day starting in April. its very exiting. daily driving a car will really help find some problems that would otherwise go unnoticed. I'm really impressed with the progress I've made.
btw, either everyone has a slower v6 than mine or these engines are really underrated because this thing can really move.

update-decided to find a factory floor pan, my friend says he knows a place to get them for about $60. I seen hawks had them for around $200 and I can't do that, but $60 is a big hell yea. I'm still using sheet metal on other parts of the car, its the drivers side floorpan I'm talking about getting.

 

thanks for the warm welcome. and i'm one of those guys with the slower car. the last owner went to great lengths to disguise it as an iroc - decals, even the hood, but its only a 2.8!!! i took the decals off right away, but i'm stuck with the hood for now. at least i like the rims he put on it!!! lol

 

i say keep the hood. i got mine off an iroc and it looks awesome. the iroc decals are a bit much though. got any plans for your car?

 

trust me, the decals are looong gone. i've had the car almost a year, and the first year i did nothing but put a battery in it. i just wanted to see if it would last the summer, you'd die if you know what i paid for it - practically nothing. but this year i'm gonna give her all the basics i've been reading up on here on the boards. plugs, wires, fuel filter, ect. i want to see if that all wakes her up a bit. i also got some other little stuff on the list. audio problems, and i think the cat is bashed in.
other than that, my only plan is to drive the hell outta it!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Stunt Double, welcome to TGO. with time, im sure u will come up with ideas that u wanna turn into projects. it happens to everyone.

 

oh man, that is so true...

I came here all hopped up on firebird v8 looking for camaro v6 help...

now the firebird has been sitting for a few months (granted thats due to winter) and I'm buying go fast parts for the v6.... go figure...

I blame thirdgen, in a good way though...

in response to above:
v6's really do have decent power, especially compared to v8's of the same body car... but tell one of your LS1 buddies to let you drive one day (if he/she lets you)... you'll notice a difference...

 

this is the above I was referring to

 

i dunno if u have the same idea as me, but the ratios on gears and posi end play a big roll on these cars. correct me if im wrong

 

wow - thanks guys - looks like this forum has some decent folk on it, thats for sure. i really do love this car, thats why i was excited to find this group. my car kinda came to me outta the blue, so its tough to say what i'll end up doing to it in the end. right now i kinda like it looking a little beat-up - it has character!!! haha.

 

absolutely... gearing especially, but posi helps take off.... not handling though, imho

I have a 2.73 posi in my firebird right now, and the 3.23 open in the camaro, and to be honest I'm happy with the cruiseability of both of the cars...

this summer though the firebird will be getting a 3.42 posi for sure, I haven't decided if it's worth swapping the 2.73 into the v6 and lose all that gearing....

unfortunately it is very clear to me that 250 hp is NOT ENOUGH... 350 in trq is ok... but I just want more... new heads and cam is a certain with the new rear... and I'm dancing around the idea of a t-5 or t-56 swap...

then comes the point in rebuilding where I choose flat-top or dome style... hmmmm

 

that is the EXACT reason my camaro is still in primer black... it just looks cooler that way... plain and simple....

it adds a certain charm imo...

 

I got to ride in my cousin's LS1 WS6 trans am w/ SLP loudmouth exhaust. holy ****, thats my future car.
I've got no audio system at all, therefore, no problem.

they're right you know. you'll start thinking "that wouldn't be too hard" and "I think I'll do that" and pretty soon you've dropped 3 or 4 or even 5 digits of dollars into your car.

 

t-5 or t-56 swap? in ur firebird which has an 5.7L right? T56 for sure. t5 will be a one year tranny..

 

2.73 in a v6 wouldn't be good at all. i've read you'll never get up to speed.
don't do the T5 swap, go for the T56. the T5 was rated for what? 300 hp. you'll need the extra strength.

 

I got the hots for those LS1's.... that's my future goal for the firebird... but they are a little too out of my pocket change range at this point

 

actually I was thinking cost... but your absolutely right. I like the t-56 more anyways

 

who doesn't want an LS1? I'd go for a fourth gen like my cousin though. thats waaaaaaay down the road though. i still want to get some sort of after high school education.

 

go for an LT1... direct motor mount and kinda close to the LS1. sorry guys, i know this is a v6 treat

 

lol, funny. I admit a V6 is no race engine, just my cheapest option. seriously, this engine was FREE with 50k miles. you can't beat that pricing. and if you can, please inform us.

 

you can find these v6's for all kinds of prices, and sometimes free....

I've also gotten a non running 305 for free before...

luck is what delivers great deals...

and a v6 can be a race engine, just ask project89

 

chevyracingrox is the best in low budget projects.. i know V6 wont be enough for me, so im just going for a V8. v6 for free is something sweet!

 

project has one hell of a car. no doubt about it. I'm pretty good about getting things 1/2 off or free so I just work with what I can get cheap. MFaust89, keep me informed about that camaro. cheap works, its not the car, its how you drive it.

 

The gears can help a lot, especially the seat-of-the-pants feel on takeoff. If you can find a 3.73 gear rear end, that would help you on the lower end. The problem is that the 3.73 is not only the lowest gear available in a 3rd gen from the factory, it is also fairly rare...

Some L69 305 H.O. cars in 1984-1986 had them, mostly ones with a factory 5 speed. I hear that SOME of the L69 engined cars with automatics had the 3.73 gear. A lot of those rears had the posi unit, some even had disc brakes.

Also, manual transmission 4 cylinder cars had them, although they would all be drum brake and open differential. A 3.42 would be your next best option.

I swapped out my rear, although I didn't get any gear advantage. I now have the borg-warner 9 bolt with posi and disc brakes. It came out of an 88 GTA.

Cheapest and easiest HP on these engines will always be Nitrous. I used a 75 HP shot on my car for years. Really had fun with it.

 

new pictures, finally.

 

pontiacguy1, thanks a lot for that info. i will keep that in mind chevyracingrox, see if u can go online. got 2 deals

 

did you have any mechanical problems as a result of the nitrous?

what type of setup did you use?

 

you got a good lookin camaro

needs a bath though...

 

bath? no way. it needs LOVE! Dont use NOS unless u have a rebuild engine or a low milage one. usually u get problems on valves or the rings around the pistons(from what i know). but im sure there are many.

 

i'm afraid to wash it, the clearcoat is pretty much gone so it'll probably take the paint off if I try to wash it. all i really do to wash it is hose it down, but I don't wipe it. I'll be painting it sometime. its really dirty now because our driveway needs gravel and when everything warmed up and the snow melted, you can imagine the soup our driveway was. passenger side corner is the bad part of the car though, looks like the last owners hit the curb when parking.

 

It was a dry flow system from NOS. It has an injector that you mount right in front of the throttle plate which sprays the nitrous. The system puts pressure on your fuel pressure regulator to add more fuel to the engine while you are spraying. I set it up for 75 HP at 850 PSI on the bottle. That is about 75 degrees temp.

I NEVER had any mechanical problems using the nitrous. My engine now has 210K miles on it. I finally blew a head gasket, but I don't attribute that to the nitrous, either. I haven't used the nitrous in about 5 years, and just blew the head gasket a few months ago. I have probably put 70K miles on the car since the last time I used it.

As long as you set it up a little bit rich, and don't try to get too much HP out of it, you will be fine. I really enjoyed the system that I had. It was a lot of fun taking on 5.0 mustangs and Impala SS cars with my little ol' V6.

 

i tried washing mine ONCE at the local diy carwash, and almost blew the molding off. now its only a garden hose for me

 

lol, which molding piece?

 

the strip on the driver side door is loose, one of the "blisters" on the hood is coming up, and i'm missing some clips on my louvers. but this stuff is still pretty low on my list. i'm paying for the new plates for it (hopefully wed this week??) and then i want to do some tune-up stuff to it before i worry about cosmetics. oh, and of course the entire headliner is coming undone around the t-tops - right now i got black duct tape holding that all in place.

 

damn headliner gets annoying. I gotta fix mine too.

 

ok i have a 92 camaro were should i look for rust

 

transmission tunnel, locations where the batteries and air filter are, rear trunk area, fenderwells, floor pans...

my suggestion is to put it on a lift and look for yourself...check front to back

wasn't there a rust resistant undercoating option on these third gens?

I know for a fact that my firebird sat for 3-5 years stuck in the mud... and aside from a few holes in the body, the car is rust free... I have since patched those body holes...

the camaro on the other hand has been driven daily for the same amount of time the firebird was sitting... and it's riddled with rust holes, I've got my work cut out for me this summer...

 

a good way is to take out all of your carpet completely. you can also jack up your car and poke around the floorboards. the firewall can be pretty bad, usually the drivers side is the worst. look in the rear corners of the car too, where the spare tire is and the opposite side. check out my link in my signature page 2 has pictures of my fight with rust.

 

put new rear shocks in today. had one hell of a time on the pass side. the bolt simply wouldn't come off. took some grinding and it finally came off, the other side took about 2 minutes and didn't put up a fight. the old shocks were pretty much worthless, I compressed them by hand, and they're still compressed hours later, so I'm gonna go ahead and say those things are bad. I'll take pics and post them up later. didn't really take it for a ride, but when I backed it out of the shop, it was much smoother. oh yea, and the shocks I put in where Gabriel Ultras, about 25 bucks a piece. gonna get the matching front ones sometime too.

 

pictures!!! my rear seems like it sits higher. i think the shocks are twin tube gas shocks. so probably.
so our stock exhaust diameter is 2"? the only one I can find is over $50 and is cable operated. not what I'm looking for at all. I want the wing nut style and much cheaper. anyone know where to find one? i wanna get an exhaust cut out and put it where the catalytic converter originally was.