Well i'm in the market for my first car and i've been looking at tons of muscle cars between like 85-95. Well i've been running into alot of maros that are perfectly cherry and pretty cheap. But they are autos, and well i want to go fast and take this baby to the strip now and then so i'll be looking to convert it to stickshift. So my question for you guys is, how hard and expensive is it to convert an auto maro to stick?

 

Not too hard, in theory . . . more of a pain in the ***, than anything. Not worth the trouble. If you are still in the market, keep looking. Wait and find exactly what you want; it'll save you a ton of time and money in the long run.

Would you be doing the work yourself? If not, I'd guess somewhere around four or five thousand dollars, total. And you could easily buy ANOTHER Camaro for that much.

Bottom line? Keep looking for a manual car.

 

I have to agree with turtle. If you have to ask if it's hard, then you most likely don't know how to do it, and won't be doing the work yourself (or shouldn't, if you have to ask). but if you have a friend that can help, or know how, and have a lift (this'll save a lot of work). it's not too bad. It's definitely tedious, and requires modification to your current car. I believe www.thirdgen.orghas a tech article on how to make the switch. But, it'd probably be cheaper and easier to just get a manual.
edit: here it is http://www.thirdgen.org/manualswap

 

http://www.fbodymotorsports.com/thirdgen5spdconversion

 

http://www.skulte.com/T56.html
piece o cake

 

if you dont know what your doing its not easy, if you do, its just alot of work. personally i think it would be easier to find a stock car with a 5spd in it and rip out the 305 and 5spd, and throw in a 350 and a manual of your choice, than it would be to cut floor pans and collect the peices to turn it into a stick car. that would probably be a cheaper solution as well

 

So, I'll have to cut the floorpan to swap in a manual transmission? That sucks. I guess I better get reaquainted with the plasma cutter[&o]

 

not to fit the transmission, just for the shifter to go thru the floor pans, so its not a huge hole but not hard to mess us, and if you dont fix it up right a easy place for rust to form afterwards.

 

These link's will help me also. Camarodreaming, I agree and disagreewith them, it is a bit of work but the manual is almost step by step and if you run into problems, call a mechanic for a solution or if it gets totally F'd up, tow it in to the mechanic.

 

its only hard if you dont know what your doing, otherwise its just time consuming.