Long, long overdue, but I finally got the 84 Camaro properly re-registered, insured and back on the road legally for the first time since 2008. There's an SS thread I'll update eventually, but the short version is that this little 2.8L Camaro was the first and only car my dad ever bought brand new....He's OCD about cars, so it's probably the best documented 3rd gen Camaro in history with every piece of literature, key tags, service reciept, etc right from the day it rolled out of the lot. He loved it, but drove it, everywhere. It was his daily driver from March 84 to April 2005, and then mine until September 2007. After that, university, a career, a family and a long list of other project cars, kept me away from this one.
Thanks to a little help from Covid though, I am actually the closest to being caught up on car repairs/projects as I've ever been, so I figured it was time. I have been running it around the neighborhood where it's stored at my grandma's annually, but it hasn't seen a highway since 2008. This morning; opened her up, checked the fluids, fired up and hit the highway back to my place, and then another good ride on the backroads. What a time warp.
It's far from perfect with over 320K Toronto/GTA kms on it, original paint and no real repairs other than wear items and basic maintenance (probably more maintenance than any sane person would), but I love it. Every scar has a story, and with this car I have the unique knowledge of each of those stories.
Today I swapped the factory 14" rally's for a set of 15" Z28 wheels I had....A strong part of me prefers the factory white rally's now, but at 15 I hated them. Tires on the rally's are really bad, and the tires on the Z28's are near new so they're the obvious choice for now. I refinished the Z28's when I was 15 (and learned a lot of how to restore rims in the process), and they were beautiful, but unfortunately the clear coat I used on them (Duplicolor....oddly, I remember that) has yellowed, so they've got a dirty looking yellow tint to them. I've probably re-do them this winter, but for now I want to put some miles on it.
I also pulled the rear drums off to clean up the rear brakes, lots of rust/dust from sitting around, and flushed the brake fluid. I'd like to put a new fuel filter in it tomorrow, but I am having some trouble finding one locally....some of the gas in this tank is 15 years old! Not that a carb'd 2.8L is picky, it seems to be running fine....I've also gotta fix up a few pieces of lower pin-stripe that peeled off (you'll see in the photos), luckily I was able to find an exact match at CT tonight.
Factory Rallys
Z28's
