Welcome to the ThirdGenRestoration site. ThirdGen of course refers to the third generation of Chevrolet's Camaro, built between the years 1982 and 1992. This is the often maligned generation, having developed a (well deserved) reputation for poor build quality and low performance.

But there are some nice qualities about these cars. They handle well, are pretty comfortable, and are cheap and plentiful these days. I know this because there are now 3 of them sitting in the driveway. Cheap is the factor that compelled us to build one here. The plan, and the purpose of this site, is to document the building of a third generation Camaro on a small budget. We'll be starting from a basic shell, with virtually nothing on it. In the end we hope to have a finished, running car. Every expense will be documented with the goal of showing that it really is possible to build a nice car on a low budget.

The 1986 Z28

Our journey into the third generation world began with the purchase of a 1986 Z28. It has a carbureted LG4 305 engine with a 5-speed transmission. It also has t-tops and a lot of power options. The car is (well, was) complete and mostly original. Although it hadn't been run in a couple of years, we were able to drive it home without incident. At some point it had hit something in the front and the nose, grill and lip spoiler had been replaced with parts from a 92 RS. Other than that, the car is basically original. The RPO sheet in the console lid confirms that it's as advertised. For this car we spent $1000. At the time it seemed like a pretty good deal, but then we didn't know what to look for. Ultimately it turned out to be infested with rust, to the point of making it impractical to safely repair.

The 1985 Z28

At some point about a year later, It seemed like a good idea to get a parts car, as the 86 needed so much sheetmetal work. So we brought home this 1985 Z28. It has the LB9 305 TPI engine and an automatic transmission. The interior is in great shape and is the same as the one in the 86, only with a power driver seat. It has a perfect dash pad and a new nose. Trouble is, the body turns out to be much too good to cut up and donate parts to the 86, although we will probably take some other parts from it. It's also a complete, running car that has the highest output motor available in 1985 and it only set us back $600. Hmm, what to do...

The 1988 IROC

Problem solved! We just added to the collection with a shell from an 88 IROC. And we do mean a shell. There's not much to it, but it's amazingly rust-free. This was originally a L98 350 TPI with an automatic. Most everything is long gone from the car, but what remains is just what we need to replace the rotted hulk of the 86. And for the $300 it cost, it will be way more cost effective than trying to repair the 86 body. We'll be putting everything that was taken out of the now stripped 86 and putting it into this car. The result will be a sort of Frankenstein, with parts from many cars, and little that is original.