Nice...thats good to know. My tie rod broke on my last Camaro so that is a good idea to check.

So would a 78 or 80 pass a state inspection being original? or are there modifications that need to be made to pass inspections?

 

Wiggling the front tires can be worn ball joints or tie rod ends, but then again if you're not having someone wiggle while you look, it could be as simple as a poorly adjusted wheel bearing, or worn wheel bearing.
Forget the rag joint. Even if it's bad it's simple and cheap to fix. Rust is the worst thing to find, and most common, and unfortunately hardest to spot! Make sure to take a floor jack with you and if the seller wont let you jack it up and check for floor pans rusting out, then don't buy it.
The one in the picture looks like it could be a decent buy, but you wont know until you get under it and poke around with a screwdriver to see if it goes through the floor. If it's not too badly rusted I'd grab it at that price, especially with a decent engine and trans.

 

What do you guys think about this one?

1978 CHEVY CAMARO!!

I offered him $2,000 and he said he would take $2,400...is that a good price?

I havent seen the car but he said there is no rust, everything is original, but it needs rod bearings.....? HE said you can drive it but when your heavy on the gas you can hear the bearings knocking....what do you think?

 

So thats as easy as poking around the bottom of the car right? Thats what you mean by use a screw driver? If it goes thru the floor thats not a good sign right....

 

Yep, don't push it really hard, or the seller might get pissed. But if it goes through with a firm push it's rusted out.
As for the other car at $2400, it's a good looking car, but no way to know without seeing it good. You'll have to decide if it's solid. I'm surprised the seller would even consider an offer over the phone without you even looking at it. Sounds like he's desperate.

 

+1, My car has all the interior except one of the rear c-pillar panels but the whole interior basically needs to be redone and I have looked at the prices for all the parts and its expensive. Most of the plastic pieces are degrading and the seats are torn pretty bad as well as I think the seat frame for the driverside is broken. But I am up for the challenge + I have a buddy that does custom interior so that helps. Anyway that is a reason why you would really want a sound interior and exterior to start with. Mine will run around 4k for all the new interior parts.

 

Are Rod Bearings hard to change? Is that a issue i should stay away from?

 

If you have to ask, then it's probably going to be a hard job for you. The engine needs to come out of the car to change rod bearings, but if it needs rod bearings then it also needs main bearings, and there's no sense in stopping there. Once you've torn into the bottom end of an engine you should totally rebuild it, which will run several hundred dollars in parts, and probably $600 in machine shop charges, and then you need to know how to assemble it correctly yourself, or pay a shop to do it all at around $1200-$1300 for an average build.

 

wow yea that to big of a job for me. I am just getting started so i probabaly want to stay away from that car. Ill keep looking!