Hi all- long time follower of the website,while i have restored a 69 pace car and have enjoyed to look at all of the pace cars here on the forum, I've been unable to say that i am an owner of one.... until now! my father and i have been restoring first gen camaros of ours and for a friend or two since i was a lil kid, and now we've been getting into the third generation cars, particularly irocs. i stumbled across this car on craigslist locally, and a couple of conversations and a little bit of cash, I'm on the way to get the car! the previous owner had this car for around ten years, and before he got it, the car was painted, looks like it may have been a cheap paint job, because he said some surface rust started to pop up on the rear deck lid and he decided to put it in his shed ever since. we went to go get the car out of the shed, and of course it's got about 1/8" of dust and pollen from the years of sitting, the seats and dash showing age, but its all there- even the trim tag shows the 26G on the interior code- which i learned here BTW- opened the hood, and although dusty and dirty, everything looked to be intact-well minus the headers and a/c belt for some reason. we brought a battery and 5 gallons of gas, checked the oil, and figured, what the heck- filled it up, put a little in the carburetor- its a LG4 car BTW- and fired right up! got it on the trailer, luckily i figured out it had no brakes before causing any problems ha ha ha- got it home and looked it over- its got the original motor, and while i haven't taken the seat out, the passenger front seat feels like it has a build sheet under the seat covering under the butt of the seat- its still got its original wheels, not the tires though- i haven't counted up all the options but of memory I've counted:

Fiberglass hood- which i don't remember if all pace cars had or if this was an option
LG4 305 c.i. computer command carburetor
automatic transmission
cruise control
tilt column
dome light with reading lights
power windows
power locks
drivers remote mirror
t-top roof
rear cargo locking cover
rear cargo light
rear defrost
posi-traction- figured that out when trying to get the car off the trailer, the right front brake hose decided to collapse locking up the wheel
rear drum brakes

there are probably a couple more options left to be seen, but i will be examining the car more and more as i go- i am assuming the car is not a festival car because of the list of festival vins are around the 122--- to the 128--- vin number range, this car is in the 135--- range. my plans with the car is to restore, but to preserve, if that makes any sense- i want to paint the car, and decal it right, and do as little to the interior and drivetrain as possible, as they say, they're only original once, so I'm going to try to preserve it as best as i possibly can- body wise, unless there are any surprises to be found, the body is pretty solid; the back where the previous owner was worried about is in good shape, mainly because he stopped driving it and kept it out of the rain; its just surface rust, slightly pitted, nothing some good epoxy primer and high build primer and a sanding block can't take care of! right now I'm kinda trying to keep my head slightly above water with projects, but it will be on the road to restoration very soon. I'm just very excited to finally be able to be a pace car owner and thought I'd share the experience- and will share the pictures as well(hopefully they work!) thanks!





Marvin

Welcome aboard! Let us know how we can help, ask questions if we know you'll know.

thanks bill! i do have a couple questions about the car- the paint- I've been looking at the cars on the forum, and it appears to me that the decal set is a two piece-one at the body line in the center of the car, and then at the bottom like a z28 car would have, but i am curious about the blue paint on the lips of the wheel wells- is that painted, and is it to the edge of the lip, or is it just a little bit of the wheel well? also another question is about the exhaust- the previous owner has put headers on the car, but the mufflers are puzzling me- it has two small mufflers, a little smaller than a cereal box, with a pipe connecting both, then tips going out the other side of the muffler- it looks stock to me, but i haven't got to get a good look at it just yet- I'll get a picture of them later on today- here's some more pictures that i was trying to get loaded last night that didn't work - thanks!


the engine bay is mainly dirty, but overall looks great and original- the door panels look fantastic, well besides the faded carpet, also have a question about the manual window hole button- i've seen decals on some cars, is that part of the pace car edition decals or is it just what some people wanted to put on there? also where can i get one of those caps, the drivers side is gone. thanks again!

Good for you... get her sitting tall again. I'm sure these guys will have helpful answers if they arise

thanks tom- i plan to get her back to her old "new" self soon-and will try to keep ya'll updated with pictures of the progress

I have an 82 with about 900 miles.I'get some detailed pictures for you and I'll anwswer the rest of your questions when I get home from work.

sounds great Bill! thanks! *edit* i took a picture of the exhaust that i was talking about- i know that the previous owner done some work to the exhaust, but i am curious if the muffler and tailpipes are factory- if anyone could help me out that would be great.also got the pictures from it being on the trailer, showing how long it's been sitting. thanks

This message has been edited. Last edited by: <Big Block Camaro SS>,

As I see it a car like any pace car should be treated as if it were going to be kept. treat it as one of our own and enjoy what you have. a lot of work can build a lot of self esteem and look at all of the friends you'll have here. We are not going away. So, enough said. go for it!!!!

very well said Robert- i plan to keep this car for a long time- while they may not (who knows though) get to the values of the first gen pace cars, but the more i mess with the third generation cars i like them, i even traded my truck for a 88 iroc convertible, and painted another iroc convertible for my dad that he bought- which when we got looking at the two and the vins, there only 55 cars apart! so they won't be going anywhere either- gonna have to build a bigger garage! here's a picture of those two- but back to the reason of the post- i love camaros and i've always wanted a pace car and i'll put my blood, sweat and possibly tears into this car just as i have with all of my projects! enough with the emotional mess hahaha here's a couple pictures of the convertibles- the black one is mine, the dark red is my dad's

quick question about the fiberglass hoods- i have a pair of hood struts off a 86 iroc, i am wondering if they will work, or will they be too strong for the hood and i would risk ruining the hood with those on the car- also, does anyone know if anybody makes the door sill plates reproduction and if they are any good- mine have a couple of cracks in them and i just was curious, if not, i should be able to fix them or something. thanks!