Hello all, any advice is appreciated.

I just purchased a 1994 Camaro Z28 one owner car with 29,500 miles for $4,500.00 thinking it needed tires, brakes, some misc small things and maybe a paint job. The car had been sitting for a while, miles are verified by CarFax and service records. Engine is stock except for K&N intake. No rust anywhere including the underside.

When I took it in for brakes and tires I found out it also needed rotors (old were rusted out from car just sitting), ball joints, struts and some other misc things. So all in for the repairs, brakes, tires, oil change, and tune up I spent another $3,000.00

So I am into it for $7,500.00 right off jump street (but have a 100% mechanically and structurally perfect low mileage car).

I still need drivers side window motor, passenger side door switches, sagging headliner repair, dashboard crack repair or replace, and possibly a paint job (its got a few dings and scratches, not sure if it needs full paint job or just some areas).

My question becomes, is this car worth what I am putting into it? I am guessing the small things run around $500.00 so that puts me at $8,000.00 before any paint / body work, is it crazy to invest this much? Note that interior needs a good detailing but is in pretty good shape.

I am not looking to flip or profit from this, it will be my hobby car, but it would be nice to know its at least worth what I am putting into it.

 

The best thing you can do for yourself is buy a haynes manual for your car and dyi the small simple things. You couldve saved a lot of money by changing your own pads, rotors, air filters oil change. Its not that hard. Research the project at hand and ask plenty questions on here. The car car is only worth what you say its worth.

 

Appreciate the advice, but I am simply not capable of doing any of the work myself so I am stuck there.

Also appreciate the zen wisdom but my question is in the real world is my car worth what I am putting into it as in would someone pay $7500 or close for it right now?

 

Sounds like you paid too much on the initial purchase not knowing about the necessary repairs. Balljoints at 29k miles? Why?

You are now upside down in the car but that's okay if you plan to keep it. You can get transportation value out of it or just plain enjoyment. If the car is maintained (hopefully garaged) it'l last for a long, long time.

I was in a somewhat similar situation when I bought a V6 94 a few years back. I put way, way, way too much money in it (engine overhaul was the $$$ item) and I did all the work except machining engine parts myself. From a financial point it made no sense at all but I've driven the car trouble free for three years and over 10k miles.

Driving any old car is an expensive proposition if you can't do a lot of the work yourself.

IMO the low miles are in your favor but getting $8k for a 94 will be tough. There are too many cheaper, newer, better performing Camaros out there.

 

Ball joints from uneven tire wear? The original owner changed one tire at a time so it had one basically bald and the other three in different states of wear. I just figured heck with it get everything fixed right and if I fix it up and take good care of it I will still have a good low mileage car in 5 or 10 years.

No intention of selling it, just worried I'm spending too much on it...sounds like its too late for that now though so I guess its fix it all or bust

 

I don't understand how a show charged 3k. Most of that stuff isn't all that bad to change and shouldn't have taken them to long.

Just so you know, you won't get the value of what you have in your car right now back unless the buyer absolutely wants it and even then, the value of these cars have only decreased with time so far.

 

It was a lot of stuff they fixed, took 1 1/2 days to fix.

Appreciate the info I'm in for the long haul I guess

Really thought I was doing the right thing getting the low mileage car vs one with 100,000 plus.

 

Well you did the right thing from a mileage standpoint and that will help the value down the road. There will be less wear and tear on *all* the parts including the interior.

What colors? Stick or automatic? Loaded or basic equipment. My 94 has everything but the V8 which helped me to make decisions about fixing it. so many of the junkyard cars I've seen are strippers and they've thrashed to boot.

There's really not much that will wreck balljoints at such low mileage and you were probably taken on that aspect of the repairs. Then again, I didn't see it so who knows. My 94 had 130k on the odometer and I only replaced the balljoints because the boots were torn and I was in there anyway.

I had the LCAs blasted and painted. Pressing in those BJs was a *major* PITA and GM doesn't even sell the part or recommend it. In retrospect I should have bought new LCAs which have BJs and bushings already installed. Would have been a lot less stress but I was so freaked about the engine overhaul cost that I had to make some financial decisions.

Keep it, garage it, drive it, enjoy it.

 

Its the Z28 with hardtop, automatic transmission, tape player (no cd), power windows and doors, A/C, rear defrosters, cloth seats not powered.

All I keep thinking is every little cosmetic thing wrong with it can be fixed, but I would never be able to get the miles back on one that was 100,000 plus.

 

Something’s are not adding up, "Owner replaced tires one at a time" and the replacement tires are bald? How many tires can you go through in 29K worth of miles. Heck it should still have the original tires on it unless they dry rotted and they replacements should be like new.

Ball joints should be 100K+ repair. Tire will have no effect on ball joints. Hitting a curb would. In fact my 200K 96 still has all 4 original ball joints and I just had to do the tie rod end this month and if was aligned last week (that means the ball joints have no play). Window motors and switch problems are all normal around 100K. Misc dents and dings? Could use paint? Sure sounds like a high miles car with a low miles odometer.

You would have a real tuff time getting any of your 3K back. The parts you replaced are routine maintenance not upgrades. When you check Blue book on a car it assumes all that is done. $4500 was not a bad price. You may be able to get 5K for it now. If you are not doing the work yourself you should either have to forget about what the car is worth or sell it and take the hit now. When you get the quote for the windows and the paint job you are going to be very deep in a hole. Just wait till the Opti goes. That will be another 1,200.

FYI you should get the coolant system check pressure check and verify no staining around the weep hole. If the water pump goes out it will take the Opti with it.