Posted on 06/07/2005 6:22:14 PM PDT by Chi-townChief
As some of you know from other car threads, I have a '91 Pontiac Firebird and I also have a '91 Chevy Camaro; both have the Chevy small block V-8, one of the best production engines ever IMHO. I bought the Firebird new in June of 1990 and it has 175,000 miles on it, I drive it everyday, and is really taking a beating but still gets me where I'm going. We bought the Camaro used in the spring of '92 and unloaded our old ’75 LeSabre (Mr. Buick, as we knew it) - it's a convertible and now has about 80,000 miles on it and I've kept it in good shape.
Friday afternoon, my wife called me at work and said that the Camaro, parked in the street by our house, was just hit and hit real hard. I left as soon as I could and got home in about 45 minutes. The scene was pretty spectacular in a bad way. Our house is on an intersection and a kid going east in a Lexus blew the yield sign and clobbered my neighbor from up the street who was southbound in his Chevy Tahoe. The impact was enough to turn him on to the street where our Camaro was parked facing east. He plowed into it and pushed it about 10’ up onto the parkway so the left back end of the car is pretty much creamed. All three cars were very badly damaged but, fortunately, no one was hurt.
I talked to the people at the body shop who said the Camaro still may be repairable and I’ll know in a day or two; they have to get a good look at the frame and talk to the insurance adjuster. So I’m pretty unhappy about possibly losing this car and the financial crunch of buying one to replace it but am very glad that things didn’t go nearly as bad as they could have.
Yeah, I don't expect a hell of a lot. I just talked to the body shop guy and he's having trouble finding good replacement parts since that body-style Camaro was produced from '82 - '92, quite some time ago. I'm already looking at possible '98 - '02 models for replacement.
There was something about the old iron. I bought mine from a lady across the street for $200 because it wouldn't run right. Took it to my house, took off the kludged on 2bbl and put in the right 4bbl, and it ran like a top. Car had been in Nevada all it's "life," so no rust, only a couple dents. Had to have the tranny redone, and the transmission shop threw a kit in it, and replaced the motor mounts, and did it for cost (because I was a GI). Their only request was that I "step into hard" as I left the shop. It lit up the tires in first, barked sideways as I hit second, and chirped them as I hit third.
Dodge dealership offered me $4,000 on any car in the lot - wouldn't take it - no how, no way. Even had a cop offer to race me in his Crown Vic - which I politely declined. But the car, as big and heavy as it was - was a runner.
After driving for about 80 years anyway.
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