Hi all, I'm new to the Camaro scene. I'm originally from Northeastern Pennsylvania (or as some would call it, Pennsyltucky).

I decided to join this forum because I'm looking to buy this car:







It's a 1998 3.8L V6 base catfish. They look more to me like a snake than a catfish, haha. If I get this car it would be a summer daily driver to work. About 28 miles one way (in two months it'll become about 50 miles one way) so it'll get a nice little warmup twice a day, five days a week.

I will, with some luck, be test driving it next Monday and hopefully the owner of the car will be there so I can talk to him. It is currently at a garage where he has it out front for sale. The garage was started and owned by my dad's family for many years, and now it is owned by a family friend, so the owner of the garage is the one in charge of handling prospective buyers until someone wants to make a purchase and title transfer etc, so I've been going through him until now. My father was able to test drive it two weekends ago and he says it runs very well. He actually likes the way it drives better than his '99 Z28, haha. Dad has been a mechanic/in the automotive and racing industry for many years so I trust his judgement on that. He and I work on cars together all the time, so this is also something fun for him and I to do together and not just a car for me.

Some of the interior:






I have some ideas in mind for what I'd like to do with the car after I buy it, but I don't want to get ahead of myself before the title is in my hands. The garage owner just sent me the VIN number so I can get a history report run on it. The owner had the car inspected in October in Harrisburg, PA, which requires emissions testing as well (in my county it is not required). It has Konig wheels, they have brake dust on them but otherwise seem in good shape. And they left what looks to be some pieces of the original spoiler on the sides of the car...lol. It also has some fake carbon fiber on the shifter and the e-brake that's peeling off. That headliner has to come down, but since the car has t-tops, there isn't much to replace. I was also thinking of getting a dash cover for the crack in the dash; replacing the entire thing would be much more expensive and only cosmetic. I've looked at replacement door trim for where the driver's side one is cracked/the control panel seems to have been glued back in and it's about $40, so not so bad.

The asking price originally was $2,500 but right now it's at $1,700. I've looked at KBB and the average private party range, in good condition, is $2,083 for the '98 V6. That's about all I know as far as the worth of this car. I'd say $1,700 is pretty okay for any used car that runs well. It's a little ugly inside, but a long-lasting, good-running vehicle is most important to me.

I talked to the garage owner and he says that the car is mechanically sound, from what he has seen. There is an exhaust rattle and he told me if/when I buy the car he'll take a look at it for me. He recently installed a new exhaust on dad's Z28 so I'm pretty sure he knows what he's doing, haha. He also has 3 other Camaros (is it Camaros or Camaroes?), all 4th gens, at the garage that are used for parts. So maybe I can get that dash and door trim without having to wait or pay retail for them, haha.

Any advice is greatly appreciated! I plan on going up in the morning to try and get a cold start (I would imagine it'll be in the 40's or lower on Monday morning) and see if it fires up.

If anyone was wondering my name is from a very old cartoon called Captain Harlock, from the same people that made Speed Racer. If I get this car, that might be its (his?) name.

Just for kicks, this is my current car, a 1999 Honda Accord LX sedan. Her name is Selene and I love her. She's been through a battle with her past three owners, but she's been a good car to me even with the dents and scratches.

 

looks ok, fair price. the hardest fix i see is the tear. window switch bezel, dash pad Dash Pads, 6LE Designs LLC and headliner 93-02 Chevy Camaro Headliner, T-Top 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002 probly add up to around 400 bucks if you use new. i would not go with used headliner or dash pad.

 

I looked at that very same headliner on that website! Those molded dash pads are neat, probably a lot easier than installing a whole new dash, but the cracks in this car go past where that would cover.

For the cracks in the dash, I was going to either see if they could pull one from another Camaro at the garage and/or get a fabric dash pad which go for about $30-40 new that covers the entire dash (the whole nine yards of it - that windshield is loooooong). And I was planning on doing the headliner myself by removing the headliner, taking off the fabric, cutting a new piece of fabric with the old one as a pattern and recovering it. Or just removing the fabric and foam, cleaning it off and painting it.

 

my headliner backing was cardboard so reusing was not a good option. i looked into recovering and figured with the time i would have to invest it would be better to get new. im sure the t top ones are harder to recover. the dash pad is the plastic piece under the windshield. you might try a vinyl repair kit for the dash. i seem to remember seeing them somewhere.

 

I see. Yes, if it's cardboard that'll have to come out and get replaced with something more...solid. The sun visors are cardboard and they need recovered too, but I might just make new ones. I'm all for replacing with quality parts but $100+ for a set of sun visors is a little much, lol. Headliner though, I'd be fine with just replacing it.

 

lol my visors are not to happy either but are holding out ok so far. yep most parts now are aftermarket and if its limited like visors or headliner the price is up there for new. some parts cannot be found new at all. too bad cause theres a bit of plastic in these cars and if out in the sun it goes bad. 98 driver side window switch bezel is not easy to find new but can be,,, found one for 120 bucks on ebabe,,, lol, yep,,, so i would be looking at wrecking yards in the area to see if you can find a match. seems its a 97-99 part.

 

Got the CaaaaarFaaaax...


Should I start running in the opposite direction now?

 

umm i would look around a little more and see what you find. its not a bad deal. the price for 4th gens just went down and the reason is unknown.

 

I'm going to talk to the owner of the car, if he can make it up there on Monday, and try to see what he knows about all of that. Then I will present the info I found and see if he'll go lower on the price at all. If he had no idea about the accident or the number of owners, which I wouldn't be surprised to hear, I can't imagine it would be too hard for him to lower the price a bit. Driving away with the car and title and leaving him with $1,100-1,400 in cash would be a comfortable transaction for me.

I don't think I'd be comfortable paying $1,700 for a vehicle that was in an accident, has no background maintenance info (unless the current owner has some but that's still 16 years and 5 months of unknown history), rough interior that's gonna cost some money to restore and has been sitting for half a year.

My Honda (Selene) has had four owners including myself and is 16 years old, but she's got maintenance records dating all the way back from the day the first owner bought it new. The previous owner drove it like he stole it and did not take care of it, but I've cleaned it up and it's a nice little car now. I'd have readily paid good money for the car I have. Lucky for me though, it was gifted to me as a birthday present, so I got to spend that money I had saved up for a car on making her look nice(ish) and run well.

I also stopped into a little auto repair shop yesterday on my way home from work and asked about a black Z28 (early 4th gen) that has been sitting there for a few weeks. Found out it wasn't for sale but I got to have a nice conversation with the owner of the shop.

My search continues...

My father is going to let me drive his Z while I have my Honda in for some routine maintenance next week, so at least that'll be fun. I'll probably surprise him and detail it for him while I have it. If I end up buying this silver guy, it'll stay at that shop and get some work done on it that dad and I can't do ourselves at his garage. Exhaust rattle needs looked at for sure, needs new tires/brakes/rotors, oil/trans/brake fluid change, the works, anything it needs to be in tip top shape. I can handle the cosmetic stuff.

Dad's also been thinking about swapping out his black leather seats for cloth ones (he's getting older and he likes the feel of the cloth ones better, and they don't get as hot/cold), so maybe if I get the silver, I can get him to trade me seats. The upper portion of his back seat is torn too badly to fix though, so I'd have to come up with a solution to that.

Edit:

So here's the apparent deal with why the current owner is selling it. He bought the car in September '15 because he wanted a "toy", but he hated the ride and ended up deciding it wasn't the "toy" that he wanted. Apparently he's also like 275lbs so getting in and out of it was not fun. Garage owner told me this, and has no stakes in the selling of the car. He's also my dad's buddy so I can't imagine he's trying to "sell" me on this car.

On a sorta related note, the garage owner is going to check his stock when he gets a moment to see if he has some factory wheels for on the car. I did notice that the center caps were missing from the Konig wheels that are on the car. Upon doing some research I found that they are discontinued and that a set of center caps for those wheels are $100+, so if I kept the wheels they'd be going without caps. But I was planning on liquid wrapping the car and wheels, so it wouldn't look so obvious if the wheels were black.

 

Welp, I pulled the trigger today and let the guy know I want to buy the car. Arrangements have been made, and if all goes well I'll have the car in my name by 1PM tomorrow. Then the fun begins...now I need a name, too...