New project - 1986 Yellow Gold IROC-Z

[GearheadSS]

Bear with me, this is going to be a long story.

My love for the Iroc(and Camaros in general) started as a kid. I was born in '76 and I was car aware at an early age. I got that from my Dad, who had a yellow '69 Camaro when I was a toddler. Safe to say that his his love for Camaros rubbed off on me.



There was a 16 year old girl in my hometown that got a brand new Yellow Gold Iroc in 1987. As soon as I saw that car, I fell in love with it. When I turned 16 in 1992, I wanted an Iroc more than anything. My parents weren't having it though. For some reason, they didn't trust me with a sports car as a 16 year old, lol. There were a couple guys in my class that had Irocs and I was always jealous.

I decided to make it my goal to buy one after I graduated high school. The summer of 1994, I went to that girl's house(the one I mentioned earlier) and tried to buy her yellow Iroc. It was just sitting in her parents garage not being driven so I thought for sure that she would sell. Not so though. She was still attached to that car so and said she would never consider selling it. I told her to let me know if she ever changed her mind.

I was heartbroken but I still wanted an Iroc so I ended up buying a red '87. I liked the car but never loved it because of the color. Since that red IROC, I've owned 2 handfuls of 2nd, 4th, 5th and 6th gen f-bodies but I've always lusted after a yellow Iroc.

I decided it was time to sell my '69 Chevelle and make the Iroc dream happen before the prices got too out of hand. Naturally, I decided to start my search with the car that started it all, the yellow one from my hometown. Turns out, she did end up selling it, just not to me and about 20 years earlier. No idea where it ended up but from what I heard, it was ROUGH when it was last seen. Ok, time to find another one.

After seeing some cars that I thought were priced too high, I ended up finding this 55k original mile hardtop.







It has had a repaint but it appears mostly original other than that. No rust at all. It's a base LG4 305/automatic which was fine with me because my intentions were to LS swap whatever I got. I started having 2nd thoughts about that because this car is so nice and original and I really don't want to mess with that.

I do appreciate a nice, unmolested car so I decided to put the LS swap on the backburner and just fix all of the little things that were worn out or broken due to age and then drive it as is until I can't take the 155hp any longer.

The car was sold new at Byers Chevrolet in Columbus, Ohio and appeared to stay in Ohio, with the original owner until about 7 years ago. It changed hands a couple of times before I bought it.



I found part of what looks like a broadcast sheet under the carpet in the rear.



I've changed all fluids, replaced old brake lines, hardware, , bushings, broken plastic clips, fuel pump and I had the CCQJ carb rebuilt. It ran well so I was happy......was.

My wife and I were cruising when the oil pressure dropped to almost zero. I pulled over and saw that it had plenty of oil so I thought maybe my gauge is just faulty. Decided to limp it back home and listen for noise. It made it home ok so I drained the oil and I found bearing material. I think what happened is that a bunch of fuel got into the crankcase because of a bad fuel pump. I went through 3 aftermarket fuel pumps because they were flooding the carb. I ended up finding a NOS fuel pump that solved that issue but I didn't even think about the oil getting contaminated with gas.

So, now my LS swap plans are back on the table. If I'm pulling the LG4, I'm just going to replace it. Let the fun begin.

[dykstra]

Way cool! Congrats!

[markinnaples]

Congrats on getting the car you've always wanted. Keep us posted on your LS swap process.

[cruiserofland]

Great story, great photos, great car! Looking forward to following your journey

[BJCHEV396]

Excellent,congrats!!