Im not sure about the placement of this post but oh well. I was hopeing someone who knows more about third gens than me could help me out. Ive always loved the 82-92's and finally in the last month decided to buy one. I have been looking everywhere around me for a while now for a third gen, V8, manual, T-top. Preferably a 87-92. Since this is just a toy for the weekends and to learn more about maintance on, I will not settle for anything less than what I mentioned. Which doesnt seem like Im asking to much but these cars are rediculously hard to find so far. They are all mostly automatics. In 300 miles of me I have found only 2 that have everything Im looking for. One is a kids car so Im not to happy about that but the other seems to be a little on the junkie side. Thats what I need help with. I want to know if the condition of this car is normal or not.

-First off the car is a 87 Z28. It had the 305 replaced by a 350. The mileage shows 55K.
- The car needs a new alternator (I think). The battery is not powerful enough to start the car after it has been turned off.
-The steering is really loose. While driveing it will drift and I was constantly correcting the direction of travel. I was told this is just a gear box and is easy, and not to expensive to fix.
-The belt makes some gasket or seal rattle like crazy on the AC or alternator (dont remember which) pully.
-The exterior window weather seals are gone on both sides. He said they looked bad so he took them off.
-Needs headliner.
-Dash is cracked but interior is all pritty good.
-T-tops leak a little.
-Paint job is decent but he had "camaro" underlayed in the two tone paint scheme that looks hidious. I will have to cover that up, even if only temporary because it makes the car look like it has a high school paint job.
-front bumper is warped, looks crappy and need to be replaced.

All and all the car is in ok shape. I want a car I need to put a little work into but this has more than I origionally wanted. It is fairly inexpensive. he wants 3K. Does this sound like a ok deal assumeing these are the only problems? Thanks for any help.

 

Way to much IMHO,at least around here it is,don't know where you're located but I'd wait and shop around.
It can be tough to find a nice gen III Z28 and especially so a stick shift.
You gotta remember these cars are getting old for one and they did tend to get beat on for another,again especially the stick shift cars.
I was looking at gen III cars when I bought mine because I only had about $2500 to work with,ended up with this gen IV Z28 A4 instead for $2000.
I drove it home but had to do a trans seal,radiator & heater core,tires and a battery to make it a good daily driver but the rest of the car was pretty nice.
It did need a set of fog lights and a passenger side window switch,I got some on ebay,later I had new plugs and wires installed after it developed a miss but now everything works including the AC and cruise.
Anyway my point is shop around and bide your time till the right deal comes along,I love my car and I'm only in it about $4200 total at this point after getting her home for only $2K.

 

Thanks for the opinion man. I have been looking all over for a car and its really more difficult than I thought. I cant believe the amount of autos Ive found vs. Manuals. There are some beautiful autos all over, I just dont want to settle for even one thing I dont want, because I know I will want what I dont have eventually. But thanks again for the input.

 

I would not touch that car, too many unknowns with a young driver. Also that mileage could be 155,000 not 55,000. Reason 87 models had a five digit odometer and it rolled over.

Just turned over 7000 miles today on my 87 IROC-Z

 

I would have to agree with a previous poster. That is too much. But, you are painting yourself into a corner with the manual deal. They just didn't make that many, and the t-5 is a pretty crappy trans. Stick is fun, but I can't understand why you wouldn't want an otherwise great car just because of the trans....

 

T5 sucked? Why? I know nothing about it.

 

Mostly it's just not very strong,it can hold up to the 305 engines that it came with but that's about it,swap in a built 350 and you're on thin ice with a T-5.

 

Thats good info. Im gonna try and find some more info on that. Is that why for the most part these cars seem to be mostly auto's? They last longer?

 

I think there are more simply because like any other car of that vintage they made a lot more autos than manuals.
That said, the stick shift cars probably did meet their demise at a higher rate than the automatic cars.
I think it's safe to say that hot rodders prefer to bang gears with a manual trans and therefore like stick shifts better so those cars often took a beating by comparison to the cars with autos.

 

IMHO find a nice auto and swap in a T56.