Hola forum!

First off I've gotta say many of the posts/threads/comments here have been a tremendous help over the past 16 months, and I have come to appreciate the time, advice and helpfulness I've seen on this site. (Ok, done with the brown nosing, here's my story! XD)

In June 2019 I had this 94 convertible practically fall into my lap. It belonged to a friend of my mother's best friend, who was getting ready to rent a house from us. One day mom n I are talking about what other repairs I needed to do before we rent out the house to her and she casually mentioned this car, and that this lady was most likely looking for a buyer. I have been a die hard Ford guy practically all my life, but I was none the less intrigued. So i go to check it out.

Now this Camaro had been sitting out in her driveway (out in the country down a gravel road) and she said it was running when she parked it there about a year and a half before. As most of y'all with these convertibles probably know the back glass had fallen out at some point, a tarp was thrown over and hoped for the best. Upon first glance it didn't seem to be in too bad a shape so negotiations began. After a quick trip in town to Interstate for a battery, a bit of fuel, and a can of starting fluid, I returned to see if it would even crank. I put a few gallons in the tank and installed the new battery, and hoped for a miracle. While it didn't stay running, the engine had no problem turning over, it actually would fire up for a few seconds with enough starting fluid, and there was no tell-tale whine from the fuel pump signaling fuel being brought to the engine, a clear sign it was possibly frozen up.

Negotiations ended with me handing her $500 cash and a promise to help her move some furniture and a storage building when the time came. I enlisted the help of a friend and hooked up to my trailer and was off. I got out to her place, handed the $500 over, and got a title and a car I knew practically nothing about. I winched it on up, and brought my prize home.

I get it home, and bribe my neighbor with an 18 pack to help with installing a new fuel pump! Fired right up!!

Now it is worth mentioning that my neighbor is what I call a "master shade tree mechanic" and having his expertise at my disposal was definitely a factor in my decision to buy, and he has been a tremendous help in bringing it back to life. He has taken on a few of the more difficult fixes, but has encouraged me to learn and undertake many on my own as well.

Since then it's been one heck of a learning experience, filled with busted knuckles, a sizable stack of O'Reilly's and Autozone receipts, many hours spent on the forum, google, and YouTube figuring out what was wrong, and how to fix it, and how to make it run better.

The list of what I've done so far includes new top, radiator n all hoses, throttle body cleaned and coolant loop delete (could NOT find replacement OEM tube that it connects to) A/C delete, alternator, plugs, wires, coil packs, MAP & Intake temp sensors, IAC valve, Seafoam treatment, valve cover gaskets (done a bit after Seafoam treatment, and made me a believer upon inspecting the valves that Seafoam works!), ball joints, adjustable gas coil over struts, cat delete, low temp thermostat, and cold air intake, among others that slip my mind at the moment, plus a whole bunch of TLC on asthetics and preventative measures along the way!

With about 135k on the odo it looks and runs better than it has in many years!

I'll try to include pics here for y'all, and if you actually ended up reading this whole thing..... know it's appreciated and I hope it was mildly entertaining and worthy of being a decent first post!!!


Contemplating the purchase....


Looks kinda rough, huh?


Got me my first Chevrolet!!


Valves pretty darn clean already, courtesy of Seafoam


She's a bit rough round the edges, but cleaned up real nice after some polish n wax!


Spent countless hours up in here!


Kenwood speakers with aftermarket covers to replace originals, and modified this 10" sealed box from Amazon to ride the hump between the back seats and downfire the JL Audio subwoofer. Made the bass clearer and no annoying trunk rattle!


Decided to rewrap the headliner while shopping walmart one day, walked out with a can of contact cement and some yellow fabric. Results as shown!


Semi custom covers from DesignCovers found on Ebay. They're American made, decent quality, and at about $150 with shipping for front and back seats definitely worth it!


Shot of interior


Another shot of the inside. Found an entire set of LEDS for all interior lights on Ebay for under $15! Definitely worth it


One more view from inside


Went with some aftermarket foglights that produce more of a beam of light and have yellow lenses, and i painted the foglight brackets yellow for a custom touch there as well.


2nd shot of the fogs


And the stack of receipts from the past 16 months.... I haven't added them up, and at this point do i really want to know??? Lol


When a diehard Ford guy falls for a Chevrolet! XD

 

Welcome to Camaro Forums, and good for you for coming over from the (Ford) dark side! She looks good and cleaned up pretty well, looks like you did alright.

 

Welcome aboard from a fellow 4th gen driver.

 

Thanks guys, I'm glad to be here! Finally took her out on a decent road trip today, roughly 250 miles up here to the texas hill country, and she ran like a champ, no issues whatsoever. Small update, I did install a flowmaster muffler and dual echo tip using the stock exhaust pipe up to original muffler and everything new from muffler back a few nights ago. Sounds pretty good.

Spent a total of about $150 at Advance Auto Parts, plus $7 on welding rods