Hi, I'm John from NJ. I just turned 20 and I've been looking for a while to get a car of my own. I make a pretty nice amount per week with my job, so I've been trying to save up. I found the car on craigslist. It's in rough shape, but the body's in great condition. My dad originally thought it had a 283 in it but when we got it home, it's obvious that it's at least a 350 and it's very possible that it could be bigger. We won't know until my dad's good friend, who is also a mechanic, looks at it. It could use paint, the interior needs replacing, and we think it has 144k on it but we aren't sure because there is not enough numbers to go into the 100,000's. It's an rs and from what I've heard it's very hard to find this specific car with the body in such good condition. It's a t top and the glass is in great condition. When idling, the engine slows down to the point that it almost shuts off. We assume it just needs a tun up. Overall, the car needs work and I'm willing to wait a few years untill it's perfect before I drive it. I'll be content with my hand me down Hyundai till then. I was told that in it's condition right now it should be worth at least 1,500. I got it for 750

 

hey sounds cool would love to see some pics of it. im from nj too maybe ill see you around lol

 

I put it up in the projects section here: https://camaroforums.com/forum/proje...project-62594/

I hope this forum is more inviting than the others I posted my car in

 

Welcome home brother!

 

I feel slightly out of place, I have no idea what most things mean that people talk about. I'm just a 20 year old that grew up dreaming of classic muscle cars haha. I took a shop class in high school and don't know anything about performance or any kind of modifications. I've always listened to my dad's stories about racing down the street in his 55' and 57' chevy's and how the only person in town he couldn't be on a regular basis was a guy with a roadrunner. I love the look of older cars, specifically a 70' chevelle, 55'-57' chevy's, just about any vet, 1st-3rd gen camaro's, and my list could go on.
With that said, the most I know after that is somewhat the difference between a 283, 305, 350, and a 427 and there's no fun with having a muscle car (my personal opinion) without it being a stick. So here's a question, is it possible and logical to have my tranny replaced without having to do a lot of work with the engine and anything like the rear end to make it compatible (there's about 144k on it). I'm sure that if my dad were around he'd probably still be able to do do it with ease.
I've been to car shows and I kinda wish I had something from the 50's or 60's, when the only thing that was under the hood was what mattered haha. I get too confused when trying to figure out what will need to be done to my car to get it to the condition I want. The guy that normally looks at anything for us and is a good family friend is on his honeymoon right now, but I'm trying t get a ballpark estimate at what everything would cost me to have it restored to how I want. If you think it wouldn't be too wise financially for me to do it then I can stick to the automatic. I'm not too sure if I should post this somewhere else so sorry if I'm breaking a rule.

 

If I were you, I'd stick with the auto. the reason I say that is, go look at the drag strip, tell me how many manual transmissions you see the big guys using. Shifting gets to be too much work if you're looking to get any kind of horsepower out of it. With that said, I've only had an estimate done on switching to a stick once and it was on a front wheel drive. That was about 1400. This estimate was a while back so i don't know how accurate that is now.

I've been the guy that didn't know much before. if you need any help just let me know and I'll explain it as best I know how.

 

Thanks, I'm not planning on racing it at all unless there's an open time trial or something at my local track. I've also always grown up hearing that driving with a stick is a bit better on gas and the acceleration is better (I don't know if either is true). But the car I drive right now is a stick, so I have to say that I would prefer feeling the power of going through the gears myself instead of having the tranny do it for me.

 

Welcome to the forum.

 

yeah i feel you on that. I'm thinking of switching mine to manual too. Its just more fun to drive that way.