Hello!
Have been checking out the forum for awhile now and decided to sign up.
I bought my 85 SS new in October of 84 when I lived in CT. Was ordering an 84 during the Summer of that year, missed the cutoff, and ended up with one of the first cars in New England.
Moved to AZ 25 years ago and not worrying about rust has helped keep the car in really good condition. I remember the Winter weather, sand and salt on the roads, all the great stuff that was so good for car bodies and frames! lol
A little about the car. It is mostly original. When the car was 8 months old it was hit on the drivers side corner. No frame damage but the fender and nose were replaced. I was sitting at a street light and a guy in an 83 Mustang braked on a patch of icy water and slid. He basically rubbed his passenger side along my front end. I had my eyes closed with both feet on the brake pedal. I opened my eyes expecting a crunched up car. Not even close. His car was like tin foil along that whole side with a bent up car. My nose had a few cuts, scrapes, and the fender that took the major hit was pushed back a few inches. Again only sheet metal damage. If I was driving my beater Chevette I am not sure what would have happened! From then on the SS was my good luck charm. I drove it home and on the way everything seemed fine and knew then it was only cosmetic.
Because of the parts that were replaced I never worried about keeping the car "as a show car" and drove it and enjoyed it. I was lucky to have a second car so the Monte did about 3-4000 miles a year. I have about 108,000 today. Not bad for 32 years old!
I plan to do some "cleanup" of the car someday. Original paint has some issues on the hood from the heat when my original under hood pad was worn out. The usual little door dings here and there. Then again keeping the old paint is a good option because living in the Southwest the problems of pebbles, rock chips, etc are unavoidable. As long as the car runs great, overall looks good, I am happy.
Over 32 years I had a few issues that were common. Transmission was replaced 11 years ago when my driveshaft had a defect I did not know about and something happened that cracked the rear of the transmission. So after the new shaft and transmission was put in the car it was running much smoother. I had a slight vibration I thought was my tires. Found out I was wrong on that one! Yikes!
I had to pull off the ac compressor because it went bad. I plan to replace it someday but I need to replace the heater/ac control panel because something broke behind the dash. The plastic just dried out. Since I only use the car a few times a month just to make sure everything is ok, ac or heat is not really an issue. As a bonus it opened up the engine bay and looks much cleaner.
Had an original rim leak and replaced it. The original ones were never something I really liked and I sprayed them gloss black and with the trim rings they look much better in my opinion. Plus it saved me a few bucks instead of buying all new rims.
Overall the car still runs smooth, looks decent for 32 years old, has old age issues that can be fixed eventually, and I still enjoy driving it as much as I did when I bought it.
I am looking forward to say hi to everyone and hopefully I might be able to few with some problems.
Please note I might not get on the forum much at times. I stopped working so I could stay home and take care of my father. He is 94 and in relatively good health but between my sister and I we are his baby sitters! That is fine with me. So I guess you can say I am semi retired and put my car restoring plans on hold for now. So please understand if I do not respond right away.
Pictures were taken a few months ago when it was only 101 degrees. But it is a dry heat....lol.
Jeff
Have been checking out the forum for awhile now and decided to sign up.
I bought my 85 SS new in October of 84 when I lived in CT. Was ordering an 84 during the Summer of that year, missed the cutoff, and ended up with one of the first cars in New England.
Moved to AZ 25 years ago and not worrying about rust has helped keep the car in really good condition. I remember the Winter weather, sand and salt on the roads, all the great stuff that was so good for car bodies and frames! lol
A little about the car. It is mostly original. When the car was 8 months old it was hit on the drivers side corner. No frame damage but the fender and nose were replaced. I was sitting at a street light and a guy in an 83 Mustang braked on a patch of icy water and slid. He basically rubbed his passenger side along my front end. I had my eyes closed with both feet on the brake pedal. I opened my eyes expecting a crunched up car. Not even close. His car was like tin foil along that whole side with a bent up car. My nose had a few cuts, scrapes, and the fender that took the major hit was pushed back a few inches. Again only sheet metal damage. If I was driving my beater Chevette I am not sure what would have happened! From then on the SS was my good luck charm. I drove it home and on the way everything seemed fine and knew then it was only cosmetic.
Because of the parts that were replaced I never worried about keeping the car "as a show car" and drove it and enjoyed it. I was lucky to have a second car so the Monte did about 3-4000 miles a year. I have about 108,000 today. Not bad for 32 years old!
I plan to do some "cleanup" of the car someday. Original paint has some issues on the hood from the heat when my original under hood pad was worn out. The usual little door dings here and there. Then again keeping the old paint is a good option because living in the Southwest the problems of pebbles, rock chips, etc are unavoidable. As long as the car runs great, overall looks good, I am happy.
Over 32 years I had a few issues that were common. Transmission was replaced 11 years ago when my driveshaft had a defect I did not know about and something happened that cracked the rear of the transmission. So after the new shaft and transmission was put in the car it was running much smoother. I had a slight vibration I thought was my tires. Found out I was wrong on that one! Yikes!
I had to pull off the ac compressor because it went bad. I plan to replace it someday but I need to replace the heater/ac control panel because something broke behind the dash. The plastic just dried out. Since I only use the car a few times a month just to make sure everything is ok, ac or heat is not really an issue. As a bonus it opened up the engine bay and looks much cleaner.
Had an original rim leak and replaced it. The original ones were never something I really liked and I sprayed them gloss black and with the trim rings they look much better in my opinion. Plus it saved me a few bucks instead of buying all new rims.
Overall the car still runs smooth, looks decent for 32 years old, has old age issues that can be fixed eventually, and I still enjoy driving it as much as I did when I bought it.
I am looking forward to say hi to everyone and hopefully I might be able to few with some problems.
Please note I might not get on the forum much at times. I stopped working so I could stay home and take care of my father. He is 94 and in relatively good health but between my sister and I we are his baby sitters! That is fine with me. So I guess you can say I am semi retired and put my car restoring plans on hold for now. So please understand if I do not respond right away.
Pictures were taken a few months ago when it was only 101 degrees. But it is a dry heat....lol.
Jeff
