95 base 3.4l
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95 base 3.4l
I have owned this stock 95 camaro for 6 years driven 60k miles it came stock mystic teal metallic with a 3.4l t5 world class manual some work needs to be done but i want to restore it like it was from factory. but i would like some input on difficulty since many parts can't be found and i have no connections to the us to get those parts from junkyards.
A little about this car. It came in 95 to iceland got flipped after 1 year but mainly just windows got broken and everything got fixed, in 2006 it survived a jeep grand cheroke crash into the drivers side as a rental car. it got fixed up after that as well then spent many years in a garage getting prepped and fixed for the roads once more. i bought it as orange and incomplete interior, some electrical plugs unplugged, rear windshield heater non working, foglights missing, lower portion of the dash console seems to not fit properly, t-top leaks, former owner decided to do a janky job of welding the diffrential wich got loose and damaged the spines a bit, the rocker panels are damaged from i don't even know how it happened with the former owner but same damage on both sides. it has been my reliable daily for 6 years straight now though never anything that stops it from running and going where i need to. hope i'm not crazy for wanting to restore this car and it is one of 20 left in iceland i believe and only one stock manual that i know off.
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rocker panel damage is usually damage caused by jacking the car up using the wrong location. also if you haven't yet download factory service manual for your year here, click 1995svcman http://www.mediafire.com/?40mfgeoe4ctti
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rocker panel damage is usually damage caused by jacking the car up using the wrong location. also if you haven't yet download factory service manual for your year here, click 1995svcman http://www.mediafire.com/?40mfgeoe4ctti
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You should break down the thread to more defined questions, like one connector at a time. Post pics of the differential issues. Adapting a different rear in a car is not difficult but it you can lucky maybe it can be repaired with some small parts. Some of the parts in the rear are common and part like axles can be repaired. Here in the US they are shops that can make up new axles and drive shafts. It is common for the trucking industry. Not sure how we can help with parts. Because the 3.4 was only in the F bodies mean there was very few made compared to most drive lines. There is very little parts support in the US unless the parts are also used on other cars. The 3.4 should not be confused with the supper common 3400.
As a mechanic we are told to look at the overall condition of the car before making any decisions on putting money in the car. If you hold to that you need to do a heath check on the engine. Since replacement will be very pricey to import and even hard to find here in the States you really want protecting the engine as high priority. You need to make sure the cooling system is working as it should. Verify there are no head gaskets or intake gasket issues. These are primary killers of motors. I assume it is not too bad getting smaller parts shipped to Iceland from the US?
The WC T5 is also used in mustangs but the Bell housing which is what adapts it to the 3.4, They tend to break and sell for a lot more money than you would think on ebay.
One thing you can do is start tracking down local skilled people. There should be electronic guys that can fix modules, Machine shops that can make or repair parts, A good welder, A good mechanic that can follow a repair manual and work around model specific tools. Normally I tell people to get the GM shop manual but, in your case, maybe a Hayes manual would be better as they try to assume you do not have the factory tools.
You can fix anything without parts it is just very expensive. You can see this in very early low volume restoration of rare cars. A simple bracket may have cost $20 from GM may cost $50 to have welded and repaired and may cost $250 if you have to make it from scratch.
As a mechanic we are told to look at the overall condition of the car before making any decisions on putting money in the car. If you hold to that you need to do a heath check on the engine. Since replacement will be very pricey to import and even hard to find here in the States you really want protecting the engine as high priority. You need to make sure the cooling system is working as it should. Verify there are no head gaskets or intake gasket issues. These are primary killers of motors. I assume it is not too bad getting smaller parts shipped to Iceland from the US?
The WC T5 is also used in mustangs but the Bell housing which is what adapts it to the 3.4, They tend to break and sell for a lot more money than you would think on ebay.
One thing you can do is start tracking down local skilled people. There should be electronic guys that can fix modules, Machine shops that can make or repair parts, A good welder, A good mechanic that can follow a repair manual and work around model specific tools. Normally I tell people to get the GM shop manual but, in your case, maybe a Hayes manual would be better as they try to assume you do not have the factory tools.
You can fix anything without parts it is just very expensive. You can see this in very early low volume restoration of rare cars. A simple bracket may have cost $20 from GM may cost $50 to have welded and repaired and may cost $250 if you have to make it from scratch.
Last edited by Gorn; May 10, 2024 at 02:53 PM.
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You should break down the thread to more defined questions, like one connector at a time. Post pics of the differential issues. Adapting a different rear in a car is not difficult but it you can lucky maybe it can be repaired with some small parts. Some of the parts in the rear are common and part like axles can be repaired. Here in the US they are shops that can make up new axles and drive shafts. It is common for the trucking industry. Not sure how we can help with parts. Because the 3.4 was only in the F bodies mean there was very few made compared to most drive lines. There is very little parts support in the US unless the parts are also used on other cars. The 3.4 should not be confused with the supper common 3400.
As a mechanic we are told to look at the overall condition of the car before making any decisions on putting money in the car. If you hold to that you need to do a heath check on the engine. Since replacement will be very pricey to import and even hard to find here in the States you really want protecting the engine as high priority. You need to make sure the cooling system is working as it should. Verify there are no head gaskets or intake gasket issues. These are primary killers of motors. I assume it is not too bad getting smaller parts shipped to Iceland from the US?
The WC T5 is also used in mustangs but the Bell housing which is what adapts it to the 3.4, They tend to break and sell for a lot more money than you would think on ebay.
One thing you can do is start tracking down local skilled people. There should be electronic guys that can fix modules, Machine shops that can make or repair parts, A good welder, A good mechanic that can follow a repair manual and work around model specific tools. Normally I tell people to get the GM shop manual but, in your case, maybe a Hayes manual would be better as they try to assume you do not have the factory tools.
You can fix anything without parts it is just very expensive. You can see this in very early low volume restoration of rare cars. A simple bracket may have cost $20 from GM may cost $50 to have welded and repaired and may cost $250 if you have to make it from scratch.
As a mechanic we are told to look at the overall condition of the car before making any decisions on putting money in the car. If you hold to that you need to do a heath check on the engine. Since replacement will be very pricey to import and even hard to find here in the States you really want protecting the engine as high priority. You need to make sure the cooling system is working as it should. Verify there are no head gaskets or intake gasket issues. These are primary killers of motors. I assume it is not too bad getting smaller parts shipped to Iceland from the US?
The WC T5 is also used in mustangs but the Bell housing which is what adapts it to the 3.4, They tend to break and sell for a lot more money than you would think on ebay.
One thing you can do is start tracking down local skilled people. There should be electronic guys that can fix modules, Machine shops that can make or repair parts, A good welder, A good mechanic that can follow a repair manual and work around model specific tools. Normally I tell people to get the GM shop manual but, in your case, maybe a Hayes manual would be better as they try to assume you do not have the factory tools.
You can fix anything without parts it is just very expensive. You can see this in very early low volume restoration of rare cars. A simple bracket may have cost $20 from GM may cost $50 to have welded and repaired and may cost $250 if you have to make it from scratch.
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I'm working on my 95 as well, @SynWolf , and yes a few parts are getting hard to find. There are a few unique pieces to the 3.4 in F-body vehicles, which I've found mostly to be related to the vacuum lines that run various directions over (and thru) the upper intake plenum, and recently also some of the hard steel water lines.
As mentioned by @Gorn a welding friend is a good thing. My neighbor was able to mend a heater line that runs from the near the water pump outlet, behind the serpentine belt, and bends out to connect to the heater hose. It's a custom piece, and discontinued, but is essentially a bent pipe with some mounting tabs welded on. No trouble at all to fabricate. The other water pipe I had trouble finding, and may not be available new anymore, was a kind of F-shaped piece, which I think goes near the throttle body. BOTH of these rusted out due to many years of less than perfect coolant maintenance, and due to sitting for extended times.
Just mentioning a few other things I've run into in recent years - you probably have a 2-piece driveshaft, with the center bearing. As far as I know it is not serviceable, but starting with the 3.8L v6 motor they began using a 1-piece on V6 Camaros. It is a direct swap. So if and when that time comes you have an option there. You didn't mention having a Bose sound system, which could save you a lot of headache, but if you do and it gives you issues, these systems CAN be repaired. Sometimes the head unit goes bad, sometimes the door & trunk speaker amps do, often times both. There are write-ups on exactly what happens, but a radio repair shop would be able to handle things like replacing capacitors or fixing damaged areas of the circuit boards.
Beyond that, I'm starting to be pleasantly surprised at the aftermarket parts available for restoration work. I've seen carpet, inner fender panels, and other misc parts show up in the Summit catalog and on Rockauto that I figured would only be found in junkyards. To me this is a good time to do restoration, while there are still enough remaining 4th gens to source parts from.
As mentioned by @Gorn a welding friend is a good thing. My neighbor was able to mend a heater line that runs from the near the water pump outlet, behind the serpentine belt, and bends out to connect to the heater hose. It's a custom piece, and discontinued, but is essentially a bent pipe with some mounting tabs welded on. No trouble at all to fabricate. The other water pipe I had trouble finding, and may not be available new anymore, was a kind of F-shaped piece, which I think goes near the throttle body. BOTH of these rusted out due to many years of less than perfect coolant maintenance, and due to sitting for extended times.
Just mentioning a few other things I've run into in recent years - you probably have a 2-piece driveshaft, with the center bearing. As far as I know it is not serviceable, but starting with the 3.8L v6 motor they began using a 1-piece on V6 Camaros. It is a direct swap. So if and when that time comes you have an option there. You didn't mention having a Bose sound system, which could save you a lot of headache, but if you do and it gives you issues, these systems CAN be repaired. Sometimes the head unit goes bad, sometimes the door & trunk speaker amps do, often times both. There are write-ups on exactly what happens, but a radio repair shop would be able to handle things like replacing capacitors or fixing damaged areas of the circuit boards.
Beyond that, I'm starting to be pleasantly surprised at the aftermarket parts available for restoration work. I've seen carpet, inner fender panels, and other misc parts show up in the Summit catalog and on Rockauto that I figured would only be found in junkyards. To me this is a good time to do restoration, while there are still enough remaining 4th gens to source parts from.
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I
Just mentioning a few other things I've run into in recent years - you probably have a 2-piece driveshaft, with the center bearing. As far as I know it is not serviceable, but starting with the 3.8L v6 motor they began using a 1-piece on V6 Camaros. It is a direct swap.
Just mentioning a few other things I've run into in recent years - you probably have a 2-piece driveshaft, with the center bearing. As far as I know it is not serviceable, but starting with the 3.8L v6 motor they began using a 1-piece on V6 Camaros. It is a direct swap.
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