Hey, my man max told me about this site and said most of you guys are local... so basically I picked up a little project in 2000 for a song and dance and it's been in a garage since 1989. I just pulled it out this week to put it on the road just to drive it for the summer because classic insurance is dirt cheap. So I'm wondering if any of you guys are good body guys, I need some help deciding if I should keep it or not. My goal is really to have a 350 and convert to a standard (I wouldn't mind the T-5 5 speed ). Nice paint that will last and nice wheels to cruise on. I'm just wondering if I'm better off selling it and then investing in a z28 that already has the 350 and a stick with a decent body. Right now I have a 6 cyl and I think it's a TH350, so I don't want to do conversions over my head untill the amount invested is ridiculously over the actual value of the car. Here's a quick shot

Hello Hello and welcome!

rrman had a sweet '81 like that one. His was a 4-speed 355(?). He is here occasionally and is likely to be a wealth of knowlege on that gen F-body car.

Forgive me if I've forgotten to mention any other (unbeknownst to me) F-body experts here!

-Trevor

very nice!, and welcome. I don't believe the TH350 was behind a 6. I think it may be a TH200. I could be wrong. So you would be looking at a total drive tran replacement on the car to just get her running. and if you are going to go through all that. you might as well do your standard. and that would be a whole new can of worms

If you just want to cruise. to be honest a standard is the way to go. I have a 86 trans am , 355 <yes Metal> and 700r4 trannie that runs like a bear. it was a 305 convertion so it wasn't a hard changeover. The body on that looks great. you have any more pics??

yeah you got more cars then the junk yard LOL jk

Ahhhh the 81' camaro you still remember that car T? Anyway it's long gone from me.Last i knew it had a bad ass 454 between the rails.Anyway if you want to get some more info,i'm sure i could be of some help.
For starters,the half dozen has got to go.You can keep the TH350, but from the factory all 6cyls w/th350 were lacking 1 clutch and 1 steel in the clutch packs because they weren't needed unless you got the 305 or 350.
I have in the garage, a Muncie 4 speed and driveshaft and in the basement i have the orginal T-10 and driveshaft as well.Sorry no 5 speeds.As far as the body work,Fred who lives next door is the painter/bodywork guy for Elmos at Salsbury Chevy.
If you interested in doing some upgrades PM me I'm sure that we can hook you up.
Latez.....

Thanks for the replys guys. Yeah, I think I'm just going to drive it for the summer and get a z28 with a 350 already setup... Its a tough decision though. But, if a 350 seems to fall into my lap I might be talking to you rrman about the muncie... Thanks for the headsup. So rrman do I have a TH350 in there? Do you think mym straight six will have the same motor mount positions for a SBC?

Kyron you got the 700R4 to work for you? I had a 83 camaro with a 305 and for some stupid reason I wanted a 350. In a few weeks I had built a 350 with all edelbrock parts and dropped it in there. Nice swap. However, the tranny never held. I think it had something to do with the TV cable for the tranny. With the aftermarket carb it must have screwed something up. I blew 3rd and overdrive right away. Had it rebuilt, then it blew in literally a couple days. The shop rebuilt it for free but I just drove it home and put a For Sale sign on it. Wasted way too much money on that piece. That whole incident scared me out of ever wanting an auto tranny again. Weird. What kind of tranny is a T-10? Yeah I'll probably post up a couple more pics, the insurance company wants some too.

I've welded steel plates into my Jeep (5 places) but I'm thinking for a camaro it will be a bit different. I'm going to be driving it around and talking to body guys about it in the mean time.

Thanks again.

The trannie had a mild shift kit in it already. And there are now many aftermarket TV and carb mounts that work great. I ported the whole car over to a 4 wire system. I removed about 80% of the wire harness and the car runs and drives great. powerful little bugger too, the only reason i'm selling it is because I picked up a 69 charger

The 355 in my TA is a 400+ hp motor. the 700r4 hold up great. Dutch had a 91 Forumla with more horsepower with a 700r4 as well. took years for him to kill it

That would be "Super T10" as they were commonly called. I had one hooked up to my 402 engined 69 Chevelle through a Lakewood bellhousing. Stout little unit which never gave me a minutes trouble (although the racing clutch made traffic "painful" to the left leg ).
Cheers, Lee S.

You have a TH350 but it's a 6 cyl TH350.(same as v8 just missing one cluth and i steel).You will need a set of V8 motormounts for a V8(probley about 25-30 bucks at napa)If the body is straight on that car stick with it.Motor and trany swap is so easy and cheep it's not funny.
As far as the T-10 question Lee answered that one pretty well. It is indeede a Super T-10 but it has a steep 1st gear.I had to swap the muncie in when i put the 4:11 rear in because it i couldn't use 1st.........DOH! If you have the original rear end then the T-10 is a stonger tranny then the Muncie(it's a m20 not a m22).
Hope this helps.

Thanks man. I'm actually just going to drive it around with a for sale sign on it. I really don't want to put it back into storage when winter comes around. I'll probably forget about it by springtime. I'll probably regret it someday but oh-well ... if anyone's interested let me know. I have an appointment next wednesday for the the new windshield and I finally had enough time to get her running today. What a champ, dropped some clean gas down the carb and some fresh gas in the tank and she fired right up. Thanks for the help.

Is it difficult to change from an auto a stick? The hardest part to me would seem to be the new pedal assemble and cutting the body for the stick.

what are you planning on selling it for?

and to be honest. if you were to convert it to a Standard. I would highly recommend a donar vehical. It's all th elittle parts that would kill your wallet.

I was running 3:55's in the original 12 bolt posi with my T10. Worked out well.
Cheers, Lee S.

That's the truth. I'm the worst at that because I always go too far and get all stainless bolts, etc. With the new windshield, battery, some other things here and there I have about $1500 into it. So I'd take $1500 to get my money back.

$1500 So noted, i'll spead the word.