Calderone

i read this comment on the topic "why don't you like your thirdgen"
im from chile southamerica and i want to know
what does it really mean !
its a poor mans car ?
please explain

Mcdamit

very few third gens are still in good shape.... most are driven by well hicks, and or dirty people... muscle cars held the same status in the 80's

Calderone

hmm ...its like a law
I think thirdgens are not classic yet
you can't see them as classic cars they are from the 80s
i reade that they are like bastard sons,not a classic car,not modern car
that's why they are holdin this status ...sad
maybe 20 years from here they will be considered classic
what you think ?

urbanhunter44

iTrader: (3)

It's just what americans largely associate them with because most of them are junked out. There are some clean, nice and fast ones though.

IBTL, FWIW.

82 Iron Duke

iTrader: (21)

I have to agree, most third gens I see on the road are held together with screws and duct tape.

Rage789

Give it time they will be classics eventually
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Ditto on the screws and duct tape cars. Seems like they're everywhere.

FireBirdKnight

third gens were made in the dog years of GM... poor powered , heavy , poor optioned powertrain , leaky and noisy , poor paint problems as well but ill always love and care for my 3rd gen

urbanhunter44

iTrader: (3)

Don't forget the zip ties!

casebaseball205

i think its just that alot are built on budgets, and are fairly cheap to mofidy.

Johns1989irocz

i believe any car that is 15 or 20 years old, may be registered as a classic, my fathers 1984 elcamino has been registered as a classic vehicle for the last 3 years, also a car that is out of production can be regiseted as classic, i don't know what will happen to 3rd gens that are from 1992 when the new camaro's are built, or if it will cause problems for any other 3rd gen's that are registered as classic because of the stopped production of the camaro line.

please correct me if i am wrong, but the is my fathers understanding of that issue from the AACA...Antique Automoblie Club of America
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i believe my 350 tpi is not poor powered, it is rated at approx. 245 hp, 345 ft/lb torque, no leaks and its still all original, except the heads have been shaved

Azrael91966669

speaking zip ties i bought my red car with a zip tie holding the left side of front ground effect on lol

Stevo

iTrader: (45)

i get called a ******* by my own family and friends just because i like to work on cars and enjoy camaros. It just comes with the hobby. No one is trying to actually put me down by it, but its all jokes and fun.

Like said the majority of our third gens are in poor shape and owned by poor people because they cant afford to fix it or buy a nicer car. Its all stereotypes these days so you just gotta take what you get...i dont care at all ill still enjoy my third gen and i hope my car is a good example of what they can become when cared for.

I will always love camaros no matter whats said...

Raiderfan

No zip ties or duct tape here...........

urbanhunter44

iTrader: (3)

There were some duct tape and zip ties on my '85 when I sold it. **** that stuff works good

There are zip ties on my '97, but they're holding the 02 extensions out of the way for the lengthened 02 sensors used to reach the 3" primary collectors on my long tubes, so they're allowed

82 Iron Duke

iTrader: (21)

If you can't DUCT IT FUCT IT

plndtx

When I think back to who drove thirdgens back in the 80's in my hometown deep in rural Mississippi, I see lots of tatoos, cigarettes and missing teeth. And for the men, I see ******s, STP stickers, and trailer homes. They call them mobile estates.

Also, people from that era would buy third gen's as family cars instead of a caprice or a LTD or something. So, you would see lots of kids hanging out of them.

Seriously, my wife hates my car. One reason is the association of thirdgen with 'white trash'. The other is because I spend a lot of time with it instead of her.

NOTE: It looks like my post has been auto edited. The word referred to a hair style made popular by 'Joe Dirt'.

Trah84Z

iTrader: (1)

business in the front party in the back

rwdtech

so even having a nice brand new fully optioned IROC with a 350 wasn't a status symbol in any way?

and whats the deal with Italians and IROCs? i heard Eddie Murphy mention that in one of his stand up comedy shows...

Cumstang02

BAN!!! Hes being stereotypical and i'm offened!!!

Firebat

iTrader: (7)

Its a stereotype. There is the good, bad, and ugly of thirdgens.

IROCZZ3

If it's any consolation I'm seeing a lot of 4th gen LT1 F bodies heading in the same direction...faded paint, cracked nose covers, stupid body kits, etc. Gotta remember the oldest LT1s are like 13 years old now. I think these things go in cycles. When the LS1s came out, the LT1 was like the L98 when the LT1 first came out. But I really believe more people are starting to look for clean 3rd gens now.

Firebat

iTrader: (7)

Kind of except the 4th gens never even make it to the junkyards here. Someone always gets them first. Its hick country here though.

LT1FUN

Around here, the overwhelming majority of 3rd gen Fbody's you see on the road, all look as if they're falling apart. Half the body panels are rusted out. The front spoiler is always cracked, the paint is faded and they generally look as if they're about to collapse into a giant heap of scrap metal at any moment

One of the things that's really annoying (to me anyways) is the owners of these bad examples of 3rd gens almost always do the same "mods" to these cars, which only serves to heighten the perception of 3rd gen's being considered "white trash" by the average car enthuist.

For starters, guy's always seem to ditch the factory wheels (the best looking wheels in my opinion) for cheesy looking Crager or American Racing wheels they picked out of the latest Summit catalog. Worse yet, these wheels are ALWAYS the wrong offset which means they're sticking out 2-3" outside the fendor wells. These wheels are usally mounted to a set of tires with tread blocks so thick, they look like an SUV snow-tire.

Third gen owners also seem to have some sort of morbid fascination with gutting their cat's and running Flowmaster "American Thunder" or cheap-@ss "cherry-bomb" exhaust systems.

I'm sorry, I realise that everybody has their own opinion and personal preference. But I just have to set the record straight. Their's good taste. There's bad taste. And then there's no taste.

The exhaust tone on either of these two set-ups, is so annoyingly loud and raspy, the only reason it attracts people's stares/attention is because they want to see where this hideous, abnoxious, offensive noise is coming from, so they can get as far away from it as possible.

And since we're on the topic of the exhaust, why do guy's insist on putting on those gaudy 3-3.5" chrome straight pipes out back? They don't flow with the lines of these cars (especially the Camaro's) and worse yet, they're never installed straight. Usually you'll have one pipe hanging lower than the other or they're not centered properly and are either too much to the left, or too much to the right of where they should be.

Come on guy's. It's not that difficult to line up an exhaust properly. There's no excuse for that. Have a little self respect and hang your exhaust properly so people don't laugh at you.

Inside these cars, you usually see the cheapest bargain basement Walmart brand sound systems you're ever liklely to see in any car. They usually consist of some no-name brand head-unit with lots of flashing (and useless) lights and equilizers. Very badly done half @ss speaker instalations in the doors, followed by the ever so common, "bazooka" sub woofers out back.

These guy's usually like to drive with the windows rolled down in the summer with their bass cranked so high, the entire vehicle and all it's panels rattle to the point where it looks/sounds as if somethings going to fall of the car at any moment. At the very least, invest is a quality sound dampner so that your car doesn't rattle like a tin can on the outside when you've got "Twisted Sister" cranking on your "Sonny" brand tape deck. Sorry, we're not gonna take it .....anymore.

They usually have interiors that are falling apart just as bad as the outside, though many try and liven things up with the brightly coloured "NOS" rubber floor mats they picked up at Pep-Boys. Or the matching coloured rubber steering wheel cover and furry seat covers to go along with it. Very classy.

Some like to throw in that huge 5 inch, 10,000rpm tach autometer makes. Jesus, do you really need a tach that big sitting 12" away from your head? What are you blind?

And lets not forget the headliners in most of these cars, which are always drooping down on you like a giant falling cloud and aftermarket race shifters which have no place being inside any of these cars.

When it comes to performance, these cars are almost always slow, due to the fact people have no idea how to modd them properly or take advantage of all the torque they put out.

All that noise from the exhaust and nothing to back it up besides a crusty, smelly, interior and body panels with rust holes big enough to slide a pop-can through.

I could go on and on, but but I'm sure many of you would have the same "pet-peeves" about what guy's do to these cars. I'll leave it at that.



You may think I just don't like third gen's with this post, but you couldn't be further from the truth. I love third gens. I grew up in the 80's and back then, their were basically only 3 cars to have. An IROC. A GTA. Or a 5L Mustang. (The vette's were kinda cool too )

The Iroc was the car that got me into cars in the beginning. Sure, when I was younger, I had the classic "Red Lamborgini" poster in my room along with Magnum PI's Ferrari along side it, but it wasen't until I saw an IROC for the first time when I was little, taking the family's usual summer vacation to "Ocean City" that I became a car-nut. I remember seeing that IROC pull up along side us,. It was maroon coloured with the factory gold painted wheels and I was like... "wow" what kind of car is that?

That's what started it all for me.

I'm now the very proud owner of a fully loaded '88 IROC-Z with the L98, I purchased last summer to keep me entertained until I finish buildin up my 4th gen Firebid sitting in my garage.

I can't stand the image that 3rd gen's have been given throughout the years but unfortunatley, it's very much deserved. Their are just too many crappy looking/crappy performing 3rd gen's out there. It's very difficult to find one that's even respectable, much less awesome and that's such a shame since these are easily some of the coolest looking cars to ever come off GM's assembly line..

I'll be doing my part to restore the image of the 3rd gen's as best I can with my IROC.

That means, no cheesy body kits. Keeping the stock (awesome-looking) wheels, no oversized tail-pipes coming out back (I prefer to not see any pipes at all on these cars) a kick @ss high-end sound system. Restoring the factory interior to it's origional appearance. Upgrading the entire suspension for a car that handles like it's on rails and last, but certaily not least, to run 12's on this L98 with mear bolt-ons. It's going to be a perfect example of what a 3rd gen should be... TPI and all.

Azrael91966669

i agree with almost everything you said.
but my car still has the factory catback system and has the pipes that you dont see not only dose the exhaust not blow out the back of the car it just sits in the bumper area

like when its cold and you start it the steam comes from from under the car and out the wheel wells if and the sound is crappy sounds like a astro van under full throttle i have heard many differant types of exhaust tones and i think the flowmasters sound good
borlas are far over priced and the quad tips look horrid
the slp loud mouths dont sound correctly from a gen 1 engine

i personaly think 2 3" tail pipes look good on these and they also get the exhaust out from under the car and shoot it out back

but in my oppinon its the firebirds that the tail pipes dont look correct on

and most of the time the crooked tail pipe comes from cheap muffler shops that just weld the pipes on and dont care if they get it strait

i know this from my black car turns out its the tail pipe they bent to far and not a welding fault but i bought the car like that and im not going to pay for a full new exhaust just to have even tail pipes "like i mentioned welded"

also what do you expect with rust these cars are old and where built cheap only way to avoid rust is to buy one for far more then its really worth or get a southern car

and with the worth of these cars just replaceing a 1/4 panel is totaling them my cars 1/4 was backed into and when i called the inshurance they just wanted to total out the car not only would i have had to and a 91 with 90k miles blue book is only 2200 minus my 500 deductible and i only would have got what i paid for the car i would have lost money and the damage only effects its looks not proformance

but lets face it most people on these boards sell these cars for far morth then there worth but really there a cheap old car and most are gonna be beat up and once a car becomes cheap they become cars that most just get to beat on so they done care how they look

and also the front spoiler hell im not gonna spend 300 every time i decide to go up a drive way these cars are far to long in the front and the ground effect gets ground up or cracked as a result

and with the cost of paint jobs from most Good shops being more then what these cars are worth yes your going to see faded paint not to mention that was a problem these cars had from the factory fadeing and then pelling
my dad has an iroc the paint started fadeing and pelling at 13k miles and the dealer told him its his problem

also being that gm blessed these cars with cheaply made interiors the seats tend to rip and the cheap plastic will crack

now mind you i also love these cars but there is a differance between an old third gen that is used as a driver and one that is so beat that the full car shows signs of abuse

example my black car it is an driver when i got it was left to rot in a back yard it had been repainted by macco at one time from factory red to black the interior was beat but a cleaning and 2 new seats and it looks very nice inside
the car had been bondoed all to hell and one of the tail pipe was off set i tried my best but as a young man in collage i cant go spending 5000 in repaires on a 1200 car but it gets me everywhere i want to go and quickly
my upgrades have been monsoon factory system and handeling mods along with iroc hood and spoiler and black 16" z28 rims

i got my red car because i wanted a car to be proud of yes the top paint is faded down to primer but its from the texas sun but the under side of the car looks new yes the front ground effect was cracked and one side held on with a zip tie but i got a new one for it

most of the cars in my area that are third gens tend to be pos with bodys half rotted and a lack of a muffler or any exhaust and the interior is destroyed why because its ohio and not everyone can have a 2nd car just so they can store one for half the year and lets face it if you really think about these cars to most people are not worth storeing as there value is low and there a dime a dozen

i do hate seeing sound systems that dont fit the car or the rims like you said i also hate the body kits

but then again it seems that every modded 3rd gen needs a huge cowl hood that looks horrid as they dont even fit the factory lines huge rear tires that dont fit the car and stock size up front

from the outsides both my cars look stock other then my red one in need of having some horrid stripes removed but that will come when i repaint it

sorry for the long post but there are some reasons that you looked past for what you discribed as all being white trash cars and just because there is a guy with there 1st fbody and he didnt have much money dosnt mean you should make fun of him there is a differance with trashy cars and a 1st beater

but in the end i love my cars

82 Iron Duke

iTrader: (21)

I love my 21 year old rust bucket
[IMG][/IMG]

srdynamics1

iTrader: (10)

I bet in chile the camaro is baller ride. No?