Hello! I figured I'd stop in here and introduce myself, since I'm sure I'll be pretty active on these forums! My name is Jimmy, I'm a college student and I work for myself fixing computers. So if you guys have any computer questions, send them my way!

Here in NY, our winters are getting less and less cold, so in October I started thinking about picking up a car to tinker with over the winter. I have a '75 Pontiac GrandVille convertible, but it's really only a summer car, so I wanted something relatively cheap, a good amount of power, that's fun and easy to work on. I ended up finding a '79 Z28, and the owner was asking a little more than $2k I believe. It has some body damage on the passenger side, and will definitely need a new door and some repairs to the quarter, but there was no frame damage. The paint is terrible, but the rust is minimal. What attracted me to the car was the engine/trans, which is a professionally built 350 (bored over to 355). I don't have all of the info about it, but it makes 400+ horses. It also has a 3 speed slapstick and a 10 bolt posi with 4:11 gears. I ended up negotiating the owner down to $1600.

Now for the bad part.. like I said, I wasn't looking for a serious project, just something that I could drive and tinker with at the same time. I drove the car half way home, and was having some problems with it stalling, but it was sitting for a year and was only started up once a month or so, so it needed a good tune. I decided to get some gas, just incase the guage was off.. and after filling it up, I noticed that it was leaking gas.. from the tank it looked like I was pretty bummed, because I started realizing that this was going to be more of a project than I had wanted. I had it towed back to my house.

This all happened 2 days before Christmas, so with the holidays, I had little time to work on it. I spent every spare minute I had trying to figure out what was wrong with it.. and then the real winter started, it got really cold, and started to snow. Oh, and I forgot to mention, I don't have a garage right now, because we're doing some construction to the house (which includes adding on a garage), so the current one is full of boxes and things. I decided to let the car sit until the weather got nicer, and at the first sign of Spring last week, I got to work!

That's my story! I have since gotten all of the gasoline out, and then dropped the tank yesterday. I have a good idea where it's leaking from, but it's old and to be safe I'm going to replace it while it's out. I have a question about that, and it'll be over on the 2nd gen board.

Anyway, sorry for the super long post! Long story short: I love camaros, and I can't wait to get mine back on the road.

So based on what I said here, can anyone tell me if I got a decent deal or not? 1600 seemed reasonable to me, but I wasn't sure what this particular camaro should go for, since it's so modified it was hard to guage a reasonable price on the internet.

I look forward to "seeing" you all around here on the forums!

--Jimmy

 

Welcome Jimmy, sounds like a cool car(s)

Have any pics? and well let ya kno, sounds like a pretty good deal tho

post some pics of the 75 as well...

I sense a future post ***** with this intro lol

 

this coming from the "super member" haha

here's some pics (and yes I know it sits way too high up front.. it was set up for a big block before the 350 was put in):




[IMG]local://upfiles/6628/DE00980C685B478CB78884D569E27449.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]local://upfiles/6628/B4526C1B75384E528F0D7E3577B8327D.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]local://upfiles/6628/A6D3890D2B3E4CDEBCAFB0A4347296EF.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]local://upfiles/6628/3855C9C7981B4E5A9B5043705B697F12.jpg[/IMG]

 

anndd here's the other one:



[IMG]local://upfiles/6628/FBC9C5DB849541CDB69C8B8B46A74800.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]local://upfiles/6628/9CA4E6848E9E4E1E995D7053B0266E4B.jpg[/IMG]

 

Nice rides man...diggin the Black Camaro...real nice...the body doesn't look that bad at all...

as for the Grand Ville, not really my style but I can imagine that would be heaven on a sunny summer day!

 

camaro looks sweet

 

thanks! Yeah the body is straight and all, if you get close you can see the paint is peeling.. the trunk is terrible, you can sort of make it out in one of the pics.. and I didn't have a pic of the passenger side which is all smashed in, but when that's replaced it'll look decent all around!

Yeah I have a thing for big cars... I just wish they didn't have such a subs-in-the-back and hydros stigma attached to them hahah.. but yeah it rocks on sunny summer days.. and it's pretty useless on all others!! hahaha

 

Welcome to the forum. Yes for that price you got a great deal,if it didnt run at all it would still be a deal.... Are those tires on the back 275/60/15's. I would like to know. I have a big block and need all the tire i can get.so I'm lookin for someonethat has those to see how much room I'll have to play with.

 

Awesome, I'm glad to hear it! It runs well, too.. the owner claimed it was "knocking" because the engine shook alot when it wasn't idling, but he didn't get around to checking it out.. I'm pretty sure after I tune it a bit it'll pur.. I'm not positive on the tire size, but I will check it out for you tomorrow and let you know. He made extra room for them though, so they wouldn't fit stock.

Man your camaro must be a blast to drive with that 454! Maybe down the line I'll build one for mine.. that or pick up an ls1[sm=devilgrin.gif]!

--Jimmy

PS your sig is hilarious!

 

Thanks, I would go with the LS1, I havnt driven it much yet but it is a terror to drive. It feels like a stampeding elephant pulling a wagon. butI wouldn't have it any other way.