Ok, so I had two camaros... an 88 with a six cylinder as my daily driver, and a 79 z-28 with a four-speed manual tranny and a 454 big block as my play car.

Well, the 88's transmission went out on me, so I had to park it and was driving the 79 until I had the chance to get the transmission rebuilt... but the other morning I went out to crank it, and the engine turned over twice and locked up. I checked, and it is neither a locked up starter nor hydrolock... so that's bad news bears.

So now I either have to take a loss and try to sell the 79, or dip deep into my savings to rebuild the 454 (REEEAAAALLLY deep if I want to do it right). The problem is, I have almost nine grand in that car... and no idea what it would sell for. It needs a paint job, a windshield, and a motor at this point... but it has a brand new radiator, electric cooling fan, MSD ignition, MSD distributor, rebuild holley carb with the choke horn cut off, four speed manual tranny professionally rebuilt last spring, fairly new clutch, an almost like new black leather interior (there are a few blemishes on the center console and the back speaker deck, and a very very tiny spot on the side of the driver's seat from a bit of cigarette ash), a full set of aftermarket gauges, etc. And I also have a brand new still-in-the-box Hotchkis suspension system for it (springs for front and back, poly body bushings, full suspension poly bushings, front and rear sway bars, etc... plus new shocks - but those aren't Hotchkis) that I never had time to install... that was more than two grand just for the suspension system I'd yet to install.

So... now I'm stuck with riding the bus until I do something about my car situation... and I have no idea what to do with either vehicle. The 88 needs a transmission and seems to be in good shape other than that... but I don't want to wind up with another money pit, so I was thinking of selling it for whatever I can get (I only have a bit less than a thousand dollars in the 88)

But I don't know what to do about the 79... I have a lot of money tied up in it, and now the motor has gone to pot... what's it worth right now? What do you guys think I should do with it?

- Jacqualine Cooper

If it were me I would find a used trans for the 88 which should be fairly cheap and get it running until you can start on the 79 and do it the way you want.

I agree, fix the '88 with a used trans, yea, I know you're buying another's headache and the risk involved, then save & fix the '79 later or sell something to collect funds & fix.

Fix the lesser of two evils.

Very tough economy now as everyone knows. Even if you found someone interested in your '79, the money offered would probably come up short. Get the '88 back on the road and put the '79 back together another day. JMHO of course..... Good luck....