raymanism

Scott, thanks for sharing your story about carfax. I think I should tell the guy I'm interested and see where to go from there.

raymanism

Well, I left a note for the guy. The guy leaves his car parked at work for days, god knows when he'll see the note!

Fingers crossed.

raymanism

This waiting game is no fun! The guy leaves the car in the parking lot at work, and leaves it there for weeks! He probably takes the bus to a remote area or something. The car does move. Trust me, it wasn't there during the holiday, and I've been waiting for it to come back!

Sigh... I guess I just need to wait till he's back from where ever he's at!

Btw, I checked this out... It's just that the white paint pealed off. The GFX piece is actually intact, nothing broken.

92GTA

iTrader: (11)

Well cool, best of luck getting the car for a fair price!

Alex

raymanism

Well guys, I'm back after 6 months of absence! The owner of the white '91 Trans Am never contacted me, I guess he isn't interested in selling it.

This week, I test drove a '91 Miata (off topic, I know)... while I was thinking about what offer I should make, I searched the on-line classifides and found a red '91 Trans Am for sale! (bad news for the Miata owner!)

Now this car is definitely in a worse condition compared to the Camaro and Trans Am I saw before. I haven't seen the car in person yet since it's in another city. This car was made for the Saudi market, bought from a local dealer (the speedometer is in Km/h rather than mph).

The car has 91K miles on the clock, and should have a 5.7 L98 engine.

The seller says the car runs great, but recently when he starts the car, he noticed grayish smoke coming out which lasts around 5 minutes, then it goes away. I'm thinking of a full restoration though, with a new engine and transmission.

Anyway, there's also a dent on the driver's side.

The bids have reached $2,400. What do you guys think?

raymanism

More pics

raymanism

Some more..

raymanism

Even more!

raymanism

Last batch!

91phoenix

iTrader: (5)

I have read every post. It is obvious that you want a 3rd gen. I ask one question, Are you letting the desire for one cloud what you may need to fix right away. You indicate that the motor condition is not a big concern because you will swap it out later. What about in the mean time. Remember your wife will be saying 'I told you so' if it breaks down soon after getting it.
Do not let future upgrades influence your overall perception of the car if you will need to drive it on a regular basis before they can be done.
Good Luck in your search.

raymanism

Thanks for taking the time!

I don't really need this car as a daily driver, as I already have the QX. Of course if the 3rd gen I get doesn't require much work it would be a plus... But at what cost? With the current rarety of these cars here, a third gen in a good condition would cost me somewhere between
$6,700-9,300. What ever car I get, it will sooner or later be a project car which will be worked on for years to come. Why start with a car which costs 6-9K when I can get a car for around 3K?

Ideally, I'd like to have third gen Firebird with T-tops and a stick shift. The stick shifts are relatively rare, and would eventually be replaced with a T-56 either way, so it's not a deal breaker... However, this car doesn't come with T-tops... This is probably the most thing I don't like about it. I might be over ambitious, but if I get this car... I plan on turning it into a targa. I'm concerned about finding a shop that's qualified to get this job done properly.

You mean ex-wife

On a seperate note, I just realized... These are formula tail-lights, not Trans Am tail-lights, right? I guess the export third-gens come with different non-standard specs.

raymanism

OK, after more than a week of silence, the red Firebird owner finally started replying again. I almost lost hope... One thing I didn't mention before is that he's selling because he's going abroad for college.

Anyway, I asked him for pictures of the engine, and clearer pictures of the interior. Although he replied, he asked me how much my bid was (latest bid as far as I know is still $2,400). Since this doesn't seem to be a standard Trans Am (judging by the Formula tail-lights), I told him I needed to know what the engine is (through picture verification) for me to decide how much my bid should be.

I'll wait and see what he says. One thing I don't like about this particular 'bird, is the lack of t-tops. Yeah I know, they leak, some have converted hard tops to t-tops etc... I've read many threads about converting to t-tops... I like how one guy put it, he said: "t-tops are so third gen" or something to that effect. To me, the look isn't complete without them.

Initially, I wasn't bothered by getting a non-t-top third gen, because I was thinking of turning what ever I got into a targa. Then I realized that a targa top wouldn't fit in the trunk! I dunno how I didn't think of that... So that idea is out the window. The other option would be to convert it to a t-top... It seems that most people who started doing this, didn't finish what they started, but then there were those teenagers who did the conversion in their garage!

I might be wrong, but the best conversion was done by splicing a t-top from a doner car... First, I have my worries about the integrity of the body after such a conversion. Second, there's the issue of actually finding a doner car. But... There is one potential doner! A workshop near by has a 91-92 Camaro RS... They got it to turn it into a track car. It's been sitting in front of the shop for over half a year, next to two to three undriveable second gen Camaros. The car has no engine, the interior has been gutted (or they found it that way), but it has t-tops! Maybe, just maybe... if I get this red Firebird, I can have the tops swapped?

I'm sure Firebirds with T-tops exist... but third gens are just so hard to find, so looking for one and being picky about the specs/conditions is not a great combination!

There's another available car for sale... an '89 Camaro RS, but I'll tell you about that later!

raymanism

Well I didn't expect this! The red Firebird owner just posted that he had an accident with the car and he's selling it as a wreck!

:|

Looks like it's time for me to tell you about the blue '89 Camaro RS!

The owner claims it has only 55K miles, and that it's in an excellent condition.

5.0 V8, Automatic, power windows, t-tops (a BIG plus!), A/C, stock radio.

Asking price is $6,700. The latest bid was for $4,800 two weeks ago. The owner said he'd sell it for $5,300, but no deal was done. The car is still available, but the owner is on vacation and won't be back for 3 weeks.

I would appreciate some comments!

raymanism

And here's the interior.

raymanism

A few days ago, this could've been mine minus the accident!

Some things are just not meant to be :|

Any point in getting this car as a doner although I don't even have a third gen Firebird yet?

raymanism

Hmmm... I really thought that I'd get more feedback from you guys.

I know there hasn't been much progress. As you can see in the last two posts, the red Trans Am crashed, so it's no longer an option...

The blue 1989 Camaro RS is still available... The owner is currently traveling, and should be returning next week. Hopefully I'll meet up with him and test drive the car.

Now here's a new development... It's the return of the Trans Am! Yes, I don't know if I suddenly became lucky or what, but I found two Firebirds... an '84 with a hardtop which is in bad shape, and a '89 with t-tops...

So forget about the '84... The '89 got an engine swap by the previous owner. It supposedly has an engine out of a 2006 Chevrolet Caprice SS (think Holden Commodore/Pontiac G8). This should be a variation of the Generation IV LS2 with a 6.0L displacement. The version used in the Holden Commodore/Chevrolet Caprice SS should be either an L76 or L98 (or even a plain old LS2).

You can see the engine in the attachment. How can I tell which engine this exactly is?

I also added a photo of the '89 Trans Am... I'm not crazy about the screamin' Chicken decal, but that can be removed...

AmorgetRS

iTrader: (6)

That is an LSx motor for basically 100% sure. Knowing the exact displacement might be a little harder.

raymanism

Thanks AmorgetRS. Isn't there any way to find out exactly which specific LS engine this is though?

raymanism

See that blue Camaro up there? Yeah... It's MINE now! :-D

webeeZ28

iTrader: (2)

Wahoo it's about time!! Enjoy the ride and let us know what if/any changes you make to it.

James

raymanism

Thanks James! This will be my daily driver for now... But it gets better! I'm working on getting the black Firebird as well!

raymanism

She's home!

I had to drive 4 hours to where the car was to test drive it... I bought it the same day, which was this past Thursday. The paperwork was processed on Saturday (weekends here are Thursday and Friday), and I had a tow truck bring it here the same night. This afternoon, the car reached here (Riyadh to Khobar if you're interested).

Here are pictures of the car when I went to pick it up! I'm officially a third gen owner now!

raymanism

More pictures...

raymanism

And one last picture...

Oh, and this car was imported from Japan! According to the guy who I bought it from, it was imported from Japan into Saudi Arabia in 2005. The first owner in Saudi Arabia had it for 5 years, and supposedly drove it for 5,000 Km (read: 3,125 mi). The second owner, who I bought the car from, owned it for just 8 months and didn't drive it much either. Both are foreigners, and the guy who sold it was leaving the country.

I wasn't sure if this car was truly imported from Japan or not, till today.... I put on the radio (original), and the FM frequency wouldn't go past 90.00 MHz (check out this wikipedia article!)

How about that? This car was in Japan!

chevypower91

Hi there,

Congrats on the new ride.

Your Camaro is originally from Canada as the pics of the gauge cluster shows the 240 KMPH speedo.

AmorgetRS

iTrader: (6)

Canada is not the only place in the world that uses Kilometers... it was probably a straight Japanese export.

chevypower91

You're absolutely correct. I did not think of that.

rayyan

Thanks man!

As AmorgetRS mentioned, many countries use Km/h for speed; like Saudi Arabia for example! Apart from the funky FM radio frequency, I noticed two more things which show it came from Japan.. A Japanese-brand alarm system, and a "Yanase" sticker on the rear window. Apparently Yanase is the biggest car importer/exporter in Japan or something....

Today I'm going on a road trip to see the black Trans Am! (I'm on a roll!)

rayyan

Well I couldn't wait till it was day time!

After two days off, a weekend, around 1850 mi driving and $*,***.....

My recently bought '89 RS has someone to keep her company

Yes... I broke the bank