Whitejacket
 

I found this car (87' Iroc) on craigslist almost 7 hrs away from my then home. My oldest son was around 5 years old and really wanted me to buy a "Bumblebee" edition Camaro but I couldn't afford it and was looking to get into a 3rd Gen as that was the first car I ever bought (84 Z/28). I missed the feel and look of the 3rd gen. Love these cars!

When I bought the car, its paint job was still original and would best be described as a "10 foot car" which means it looked great from 10 feet away. Up close it had chips and scratches that you would expect from a car that old. Other than that the car looked amazing. I am the 5th owner? I believe it was the previous owner that took the original 305 tpi out and replaced it with the now 350 tpi that had been in a 91' Corvette. He had a "truck cam" in it which was a lot of super low end torque. The wheels were original but it had some aftermarket mufflers and lower control arms.

I had some 1.6 rockers installed, dart heads, shorty headers which were a huge pain! I bought the largest slotted and drilled disc brakes that would fit up front and back with my aftermarket wheels. The car has Willwood brakes in the back and Baer up front. I was determined to have the largest brakes possible, matching brands or not! Some spintech mufflers went on (drool), I had the 4 speed auto completely built all the way through and had a yank 3200 tq stall/converter put in. 32 spline axles, 3.73 gears I believe concluded the first big upgrade haul.

Divorce came! Whitejacket sat in my parents pasture for about 2 years. The paint fell apart completely and concern that this car would take a nose dive into obscurity started to settle. I ended up remarrying and moved but the car stayed there. I decided I better drive it the 85 miles to my new home and start tackling all the little issues it had and hopefully get it painted one day. Slowly but surely the car sat in my drive way with huge pieces of paint coming off. Rust!!! Over time I got the exhaust leak fixed. I had issues with my headers too not fitting just right. Put a new battery in it.

Round #2 of mods. I had a bunch of stuff sitting in my shed that never went into the car. I decided I would get them installed no matter the cost. It was a cam, stealth ram intake, fuel rails, and throttle body. Finally a neighbor set me up with a friend of his that was willing to do all of this work.... for $500. It gets better though. As he tore the car apart he found lots of issues that he suggested I fix, if I bought the parts, he would do the work and remain at $500 for everything. So I did just that. New AC condenser, the heads needed some machine work, I thought the list of things needed would never end. After about 5 weeks, I paid and drove the car home. Runs great sounds amazing!

Almost 3 weeks ago, I dropped the car off for a complete paint job. As it's been in the shop, I've been buying parts to put on the exterior. The car should look great. I will look for pics and try to post them in order on how the car progressed from when I first owned it, its downfalls and new pics (as it comes)

This is one of the early pictures with its first set of "new wheels" This was taken in 2012 I believe. I had the car for a few months at the time

These were probably taken in 2012/2013

2014

Takes me back. I graduated high school in '88. This and the Trans Am were my dream cars. All these years later, my dream came true.

Things are about to go down hill. These were taken in the summer of 2014

2018/2019

August of 2019

Painted a few months ago

Looking clean!

Hopefully this will work.

https://youtu.be/87JB9pzVDtE

Thanks for sharing the story. Too many cars like that sit until they are hauled to the salvage yard. I never owned this vintage but always liked that generation. It looks great now.

Always nice to see a survivor!!

Thanks guys.

Btw if you watch the video I posted make sure you catch the last 10 or so seconds when I move the camera around. I think it sounds better at those angles.