Well folks, after reading most of the stickies and going through some major DMV title transfer headaches I can finally post pictures of my new toy (or should I say my wifes...funny how that works out)! Back in my HS days I had a '91 5.0, but always had a soft spot for the look (and power) of the camaros. While I sadly had to sell the 5.0 many years ago, I am now in a better spot financially and was just minding my own business driving from point A to point B for work.

As I was driving I noticed a damn nice looking Camaro SS convertible on the side of the road but figured ah well, no way I can afford that and kept driving. A couple miles down the road I figure it won't hurt to just go look at it. Much to my surprise the car had an out of state area code for a contact number, and was listed at $5500. So, of course I call the number, find out it has a high number of miles 140k, but otherwise is in good shape and from what the owner said, bone stock other than cd player/amp/alarm/remote start/air filter. Even more to my surprise was when I brought my wife to look at it she loved it, said sure, have it checked out, and if you want buy it! So, I had a performance shop give it a once over in the parking lot, and a regular muffler place give it an inspection look over. After haggling with the guy a bit we agreed on $4700. Finally, after a number of headaches realizing he had never switched it from the California to NY title the car is finally ours. Anyways, here she is, I look forward to learning from you folks and being a part of the community! I really have no clue what I'm doing, but want to learn how to do the work myself, so hopefully there are some friendly enthusiasts around the Rochester, NY area.

As much as I want to make this "go fast" right away, the lesson I learned years ago with the 5.0 was by putting all my money into random bolt ons, the body rusted away, and I was left with a mess. My top priority with this car will be fixing some surface rust around the door frames, having the spoiler re-painted as it is sun faded, and look into getting the seats worked on because they show 140k worth of wear...luckily the guy had the top replaced and custom seat covers installed for the front seats not too long ago.

 

Very nice! Besides general maintenance there's not much to worry about in stock or bolt on form. Just drive and enjoy! Looks like a very clean high mileage car. Do you have any plans for the future performance wise?

 

Of course! As I was reading through all the stickies I had a word doc going cutting and pasting the recommendations and the no-nos. I figure I'll follow the classic path of lid> LT headers>catback>pipe>UD pulley>convertor>gears>heads/cam/etc with some suspension pieces sprinkled in there.

I need to head to the model specific forum and try to figure out what exactly the "performance" exhaust is I noticed on the SLP sticker and how that will impact my plans!

I'm a total noob though with the end-goal of learning to do the work myself so I can do a lot more with the car in the long run. Starting from scratch though, had a friend come over and show me how to change brakepads/rotors...Sure helps that it is not my daily driver, so if I can't get a header bolted on or something I am not SOL.

 

i didnt know how to change pads or rotors either when i got my first LS1 car, and im a huge DIY-er, I just do plenty of research on the TONS of info you can find here beforehand and now im doing all kinds of new and cool things, No i dont have money for anything as far as bolt ons so right now im just trying to keep up maintenance and freshen up anything i can.
LOTS of info on these forums, i still learn stuff every day, and congratulations that is a very sexy car.