I paid $500 for a 1985 Camaro back in October of 2013. It's a sport coupe with the 2.8L MPFI in it. I Literally drug it out of a swamp and brought it home as my project car. The lady said she had parked it there 15 years ago and hasn't touched it since.

When I brought it home the engine turned over, (with the battery I stole from our motor home), but wouldn't start. The front bumper bracket is cracked on the passenger side, tires didn't hold air, and the rear swing arm on the drivers side was rusted out, and not attached to the body.

After a long and brutally cold winter here in Michigan, I was finally able to work on it. Long story short, one new fuel pump, some patch work on the fuel lines, and a three day Memorial Day weekend later, the rusty chevrolet jumped to life and ran.

Although the cars running she still has a long ways to go until being drivable. I have found this site EXTREMLY helpfully in trying to figure exactly what the heck I'm doing, so I decided to make a thread on the progress of the car. Feel free to comment or leave tips and tricks because they will be much appreciated.

 

Welcome and congrats on getting it up and running. I hear ya, it was no fun here in the mitten this winter. Throw up a pic or two of it, is it manual or auto?

 

Automatic.

 

Interior is out..... lots of mouse poop.

 

mouse poop is bad. cross your fingers that they didn't chew any wires! while you have things torn out you might wanna check the heater core if you're in Michigan. but that's probably far down on your list. Im sure you just wanna get her running. either way good luck!

 

Thanks for the advice, I haven't found any chewed up wires yet, And checking the heating core just got knocked down a couple spots on my list.
When the carpet came out the floor came with it... literally.
The pictures say a lot, but essentially, the floor on the drivers side is rotten/gone from the firewall to the rear wheel well. :/

 

ouch. im not trying to be a downer here but how much are you looking to put into the car?
I don't know about the thirdgen market in Michigan but here in cali they are plentiful and can pick up a decent running car for under 2k. most parts for our cars are cheap but then again there are those harder to come by parts. are you doing most of the work yourself?

 

Well, when I first bought the car I didn't think it was horrible, I assumed that there would be the usual rust and such. essentially it was my $500 excuse to have a Camaro to drive around, not necessarily pretty by any means. But a car with wheels. But now that the floor is gone it changes the whole deal.
How much money I want to put in it, and how much money I HAVE to put in it are two different things unfortunately. I have like $18 in my wallet right now and after I put gas in my truck (my dads truck actually) to get home from school tomorrow...... well lets just say I'm 16 and i have a job cleaning a horse stall.....

 

in that case I would probably pull what you could sell out of the car and sell the rest as scrap to get as much of your money back. honestly that's where it will most likely end up.. by the time you get the floors patched up you would already have spent more than the car is worth. I know what its like wanting a Camaro so bad that you buy the first one you can afford! but there are others out there!

best case you can find a solid body at the scrap yard and between both cars you can build one. but even that will cost you.