hi thirdgen, i was wondering what kinda of major or minor issues i would or should expect from a 92 v6 5speed manual firebird that has been sitting for 5 years since it has last been moved in 2006. was running great before it was parked and stashed away, has about 10-30k original miles, been sitting in a lot full of firebirds and camaros, an oasis of thirdgens. please give me some feedback on what parts may or maynot need to be changed and or cleaned out

 

Fluids should be changed. Brake fluid and oil are the main ones IMO. They can draw in moisture as they sit. Verify you have non-murky (good) looking coolant.

Obviously when a car sits for awhile it's prone to get rodents in places. The cabin should be cleaned very well. Also check things such as the intake, air filter, throttle body, and etc.

Heater cores are fairly common to go bad. Don't be too surprised when you crank it over to the heater if the passenger side fills up with antifreeze from a hole in the core. That was a great experience for me in my first week of owning the car.

Be sure to check the tires too. Look for dry rotting/cracks. You don't want to be on the road at 55 MPH and have one blow out.

Are you buying this car or was it just yours and in storage?

 

i may plan to buy this car, but have not seen it yet. going today. i got an offer from a guy i know who wants to clean his lot out, he wants 500$, from the brief phone call, i understood, he before he stored it, he just painted it drove it home a couple days, then stored it, last time he drove it. he says it ran good. no problems, where is this heater core? im not to fond of it. and what should i look for? what is the sign of murky coolant? whats bad things does that indicate? i know right away this is going to be a project , but i hope its pretty quick n simple so i can get it on the road asap and get it as my daily driver.

 

Core is under dash pass side.

Dirty coolant means it may have oil leak. If it has chunks it may be owner put stop leak in it, meaning it was loosing coolant. Either way check the radiator and overflow tank.

 

take pictures.

 

just got back from look at the car. it was nice i liked it, had a dark blue paint job, gta rims and bodykit, was body was clean, no dents nothing. under the hood, no signs of rat **** just a little bits of spider webs, oil was pretty damn clean from what me and my friend saw. the coolant was clear no mulky stuff.the engine just a little dusty. heres the twist lol, the story behind this pretty bird is that back who knows when. this car was stolen and striped of its interior, seats, dash panel, i mean every thing even the gauges. so the car was issued as totaled. so the guy i know picked it up and was gonna fix it, but got caught doing other jobs, so far he shampooed the interior which looks clean as a baby ***. he got all if not the majority of the interior in the car which just need to be put together and its missing the passenger seat. he replaced the gauge which indicated the mileage, says 56k, but he has documents stating the car had 12k miles when he got it. i think he said he got it in 92. so must have been a new car. so i assume its been sitting for more than 5 years now. a good 10? 15? idk. motor oil seems clean, radiator coolant was too. its just a matter of putting back and firing it up. my friend says jump on it and give it a try. for 500$ and some TLC. i may have found a good deal. and yea i forgot to take pictures sry. i will when i go next time.

 

get it!!!!!

 

Sounds like it would be a pretty good car to fix up but if it has been issued as totaled I'm not sure if it would be easy to register for street use... either way if it's got a lot of good parts its well worth the 500 bucks. You could even swap everything over to a body with a clear title if that ever turned into an issue.

 

hmmm good thing you mentioned that, i noticed that the bird did not have any license plate, i think i heard somewhere in the conversation with the guy is that he is a known car dealer, and that he got this car from another dealer. possibly stolen from the another professional dealer and sold it to this guy. idk if it would make any sense, but my buddy said if i buy the car he most likely will deal with the dmv and say he sold it to me off his lot." it was old sitting there and i sold it" and possibly put a low number on the actual cost of the car saying how much he sold it to me, so when it comes to registering it, it wont make a hole in my wallet =P

also that swap sounds like a good idea seeing as i have another 92 as my daily driver. but its a beater lol. point a to point b, which i want to get rid of. so i can fix this bad boy up.im getting really into the firebirds, im hooked

but wouldn't i also have take into consideration of what the shape the other body is in to see if it would be worth it and safe? if i end up doing this. might as well do it right. strip it down to the frame ans clean it n what not. but the motor swap would be tough for me, seeing as i dont have a good resource for the engine swap =(, but we'll see heh. thanks

 

pictures??/

 

My car pretty much did the same. My grandfather could no longer drive it due to arthritis because it sits so low, he couldn't get in and out of it. So it just sat, and he just put parts on it for about 4 years. I've drove it for about 6 months, and after leaking for a long time, the front pump seal or whatever has went out. So definitely check tranny, and any other seals that may dry out from sitting so long.

Also, Sorry to be OT, but how is the heat up there evilemokid94? I'm from Muncie, but live down here in KY as of a few years ago. Heard the heat has been pretty rough. Haha

 

ah man its killer, and its just gonna get hotter as it goes. i about killed myself washing the car yesterday. i still need to vacum it out and clean my interior but i cant find the moditation when i get in the heat.

 

I hear ya. We have been under a heat advisory up until a couple of days ago. And working on the car, within a couple of minutes it seemed like I just walked out of the shower. Haha. Also, good luck with the car OP.