My 1987 Chevy Camaro

Well my dad surprised me yesterday by making a 1 hour one way trip to boston to pick up this for 800 bucks. Its got a v6 the rims and tires are brand new as well as a custom magnaflow exaust. The hood is going for something a bit smaller, but have made some diagnosis today and what I'm going to do, the hpaint is peeling like crazy so I have to strip it to get it painted as well as remove some of the rust on the rear fenders. I took off the stickers today and some of the other stuff.











I have fulfilled my "musclecar" name even though it is a v6 and automatic. The exaust sounds like a v8 so to the novice eye it would look like a v8.

Looks nice, although the paint makes me a little ill. lol

evil3 wrote:

Looks nice, although the paint makes me a little ill. lol

LMAO hahaha if that makes you ill good thing you didn't see our old jeep you woulda died.... it was pretty bad....

but MC201 that look pretty dang sweet imo, nice find for $800

the lug

Lol yea the paint is well, gonna need to be all stripped off new front fenders and doors and I'll sand and bondo everything and send it to Maaco to have it painted for a few hundred bucks. It's deff not bad for 800 bucks theres a few things that HAve to be fixed but they can wait as I don't get my permit till february.

That's a sweet first set of wheels!

At least you not gonna be asking a cheerleader if she wants a ride home in a Gremlin X - if I recall...the answer was "I think I'll just walk".

Is that a NOS bottle near the glove box!?

You and your Dad will have fun working on that all spring - oh to be young again!

MM

Hey, welcome to the "my first car was a Camaro club."

My first three cars were Camaros and I loved them all, it looks like a great first car and a good summer project. Of course it needs to be painted Hugger Orange with white deck stripes, or Olive green with black deck stripes. Avoid red like the plague, they whole the get ticketed more thing is true...trust me, I found out the hard way.


Mark, I almost had a Gremlin for my first car, it had the 304CI pulled and a 401CI stuffed in (barely), I would have jumped on it in a second but my dad insisted on test driving it...he passed a slower car, and when the thing turned sideways spinning the tires at about 60mph he threw a fit. I still remember him saying if I got that car I'd be "dead within a week." So I convinced him I'd go for the more social responsible Chevy Camaro with the Z28 "touring option."

$300 in 1982 (a whole summers worth of lawn mowing and working on the negibors farm):

MarkM wrote:

That's a sweet first set of wheels!

Is that a NOS bottle near the glove box!?

MM

i do believe it is a small fire extinguster....

thats all i'll say


the lug

I sort of a Mustang freak but the 70 1/2 Camaro body style with the split bumper is one of my all time favorites! I'm always looking at the Z28's on eBay! I bet it was a real sweet heart you lucky dog

Your Dad was spot on about the Gremlin - mine came from the factory with the 304 and a three speed and it WAS a death machine! It had horrible under-steer, especially in gravel and it went thru front brake pads and warped rotors every 6 months.

It also had horrible rear wheel hop; I put traction bars on it and did a burn-out and almost ripped the rear end off it....I'm lucky to have made it past my late teens. Actually I'm lucky to have made past 30 thinking back about some of the motorcycles I had.

Thank God my wife came along and made a decent man of me ;-)

I think she gets box seats in Heaven for that :-)

Hope you have fun with your Camaro lugnut - I'm sure you will!

MarkM wrote:

Hope you have fun with your Camaro lugnut - I'm sure you will!

its not mine, i'd love it if it was but this is MC201's.... i just noticed it was a fire extiguser cuz we have one just like it in our boat.....

the lug

I wish it was NOS but no...its not, its a fire extenguisher. Sorry no hugger orange sidewinder, I pretty much have my heart set on dark metallic blue with silver pinstripes. This should probably be one of the nicest cars at my school, I've seen waht they do, the put a fart can on a honda and they thinkt ehy are cool.

OK, here's where the responsible adult part of me kicks in and makes me say, have fun with the car, but remember be safe...racing is for the track, even if you could completely humiliate the fart canned little ricer morons...er, I mean your fellow classmates.


OK, imature adult taking back over...you should really, really be saving for your first real race car...it is the biggest rush you could ever want, the girls will think your cool, and it makes a lot of noise and goes fast. Just never, never on the street, trust me on this one...bad things can happen very quickly.


Mark, sounds like you have a smart wife. The motorcycle thing made me really reminisce but instead of hijacking this thread when I have time I'll start a what vehicles have you had thread, most of the members here will be a little young to have had much of a list but they could list cool cars and bikes their parents,siblings, or friends have had.

sidewinder wrote:

OK, here's where the responsible adult part of me kicks in and makes me say, have fun with the car, but remember be safe...racing is for the track, even if you could completely humiliate the fart canned little ricer morons...er, I mean your fellow classmates.


OK, imature adult taking back over...you should really, really be saving for your first real race car...it is the biggest rush you could ever want, the girls will think your cool, and it makes a lot of noise and goes fast. Just never, never on the street, trust me on this one...bad things can happen very quickly.


Mark, sounds like you have a smart wife. The motorcycle thing made me really reminisce but instead of hijacking this thread when I have time I'll start a what vehicles have you had thread, most of the members here will be a little young to have had much of a list but they could list cool cars and bikes their parents,siblings, or friends have had.

Well with the new mass laws if your a junior operator and you get a speeding ticket, you have to retaked the 1000 classes and lose your liscence. I don't plan on racing, as the car is all show and no go. I just laugh at them

There is a race track in my town but my parents would never EVER let that slide and I would'nt be able to get it for a while. Although the do race cars over at a speedway near me, just throw in a turbo and maybe I would have a chance.

MMMM rot and rust





No mor ehood or stickers

Looks sweet man, my jelousy nerves are tingling...

Check the rear subframe, clean it up and get some naval jelly to prevent any further rust. The Camaros (all years) have a rust problem when it comes to frames, if you have to you can replace the section pretty easily, but why not prevent it if you can?

Next time I have it on the stands I'll take a look under it and put some kind of lubricant to something up there. I want to get it on stands so I can take a hose to the bottom and clean it up a bit.

Don't worry MTM your time will come.

New Grant Steering wheel



Also found a sweet B&M sifter for my car but for 210 bucks it will have to wait.

With the supports fixed engine pic





Now monday I start with the messy part and stripping the roof down to the rear quarters while my dad fixes the hood.

Has anyone taken off window tinting? I'm going to take mine off because I know the friendlys will pull me over :rant: .

Lookin good man! Ugh... I was having my friends drive me everywhere the past two days, and now these pics just make me want to ignor the sunburn and mow a hundred more lawns to get a car of my own LOL!

Micro-T Master wrote:

Lookin good man! Ugh... I was having my friends drive me everywhere the past two days, and now these pics just make me want to ignor the sunburn and mow a hundred more lawns to get a car of my own LOL!

Just do it! You will have no regrets man, more updates

Body work and lots of it.











More than one way to use my shirts, to keep critters from getting in!

Sanding and priming is hard work but for some reason I kind of miss doing it. I like the Firehawks and Centerline (or American Racing???) wheels. Looking good, what color are you going to go with when you get the bodywork done? ...did I already ask that? I'm too lazy to read back through the thread.

yea it is a PIA but I'm hoping it pays off. I'm picking up and airbrush so I can just paint the door jams myself and have maaco just shoot the body. They are American Racing rims and they barely pass as legal, they are so close to sticking out side of hte fender. Hoping for a darkish blue. I think that would look best IMO.

Once the car is painted I plan on renting a sandblaster for a day and just clean up the engine comparement and rear fender wells.

Your state wont let the wheels stick out? Can you put fender flairs on or a wide body kit? Anyway, Macco sounds like a good choice, those guys do a lot of painting and always get the paint to lay down well. Just do the prep work yourself (which it looks like you are).

sidewinder wrote:

Your state wont let the wheels stick out? Can you put fender flairs on or a wide body kit? Anyway, Macco sounds like a good choice, those guys do a lot of painting and always get the paint to lay down well. Just do the prep work yourself (which it looks like you are).

Nope but I am tempted to find some small flares I can paint black to get it to pass if it fails to pass. They are borderline so lets cross my fingers. No progress till thursday as I have lots of homework and MCAS, yuck.

This thread has me wanting a Camaro of Firebird again; I saw a Trans Am GTA for sale today, 350ci V8, Positraction rear end, Radial TA tires in decent shape. The guy is asking $450, the floorboards and rear frame are rotting out and the interior is total crap, but I'm tempted to buy it and back-half it (maybe some mini tubs too) and then sell it for a quick buck. That would be a lot of cutting and welding though...I probably wont do it, but your bodywork pictures have me wanting to weld and sand something.

Its thursday, any progress?

Sidewinder: The floor boards won't be bad but the rear frame is going to be a big PIA. I would look for something with a little bit better frame, mine is near mint, its just as rusted as my bros 2000 Ranger's frame. The next thing I'm looking foward too is my permit so I can actually drive this thing! Luckily the interior is near mint except for the dash and few cracks in the plastic. The seats and carpet look brand new. Do you know how well the Trans Am runs?

MTM:Not much the weather has been crap so all I've been able to work on is inside the hatch which is a pain to sand in that area, its a killer on the hands. Hopefully this weekend there will be more major progress pics.