I've been posting for the last week at thirdgen.org. Lot's of help and friendly people. There is not much traffic in here so I'll pretty much hang out over there for 3rd gen related issues.

BTW per suggestions over there regarding acquiring parts I ordered new springs, shocks, struts and brakes from Summit. Best prices by far and they paid for 2nd day shipping without passing it on to me. Very good customer service. Got the rear done today. When I took off the original shocks they didn't decompress. Talk about worn. Also bought door hinge pin kits from Hawk's. Going to target new steering components next so it doesn't feel like I'm steering a boat.

 

Heh, I'd second the suggestion to replace struts and shocks and brakes, but instead of springs, I'd suggest you get a front-end rebuild kit from PST. The car will most likely need an pitman arm, centerlink, end links, and two lower ball joints. I had to replace all that stuff at 41,000 and at 100,000 miles. Now I have 140,000 miles on the PST stuff, but it seems to be holding up okay this time.

...as for springs, guess what? Coil springs dont wear out. They sag, take a set, then dont generally sag anymore, so long as they are not corroded or overheated. I still use my factory original WS6 springs, circa June of 1984.

However if you are looking for changing the handling characteristics of your car, then yes, by all means, replace the springs.

 

Didn't realize the springs don't wear out. The rear end was sitting lower than the front end but then the shocks were literally shot although I understand that the springs control height and the shocks control rebound. besides for something like $60 it's not to bad on the pocket book..

I found a front end rebuild kit at Spohn that someone at thirdgen recommended. About $400 for that kit. What is the PST kit? Is PST short for something or is that the vendor name? If I can pick up a front end kit before next weekend I'll just do the suspension, brakes, and front end kit all at the same time. At that point I'mm calling the car good except for regular maintenance.

 

did you say a daily car for her? have you been to the gas pumps?

 

Yeah daily car for her. I tried to warn her that this isn't the most economical of choices but she doesn't care. I tried getting her into a Cobalt and even a newer 3.8 4th gen (previous car was a 3.4 95' Firebird now my DD again), but she wouldn't budge.

Seriously how can I argue. She's 18, and paying for it as it is, but what you have to love is that an 18 year old girl in the year 2008 wants a 3rd gen Camaro, that is Metallic grey, with t-tops, a manual transmission and a throaty V8 rumble. Not a Celica, or a Civic, or a Mustang. I mean come on how do you beat that? Brings joy to my heart and a tear to my eye. The last woman I met that had a thing for American muscle ended up my wife.

 

No argument there. My kids all want third-gens, although they are still 8, 10, and 12 years old, respectively. I'm thinking of putting money away and picking up a couple of them as deals present themselves.

 

You can certainly find some gems out there but you have to be patient and weed out a lot of bad cars. We probably looked at 2 dozen cars in person and even more online and grabbed the best one we found and it was one of the cheaper ones. 3rd gen prices aren't going any lower. I bet we start to see some very slight upward movement over the next few years. I think 3rd gens are overlooked for their place in Camaro history. Yeah they have their problems but they also have a lot of good qualities. Plus the way gas is going now I think we will see a lot more F-bodies hit the market.