Beginning in 1987, Chevrolet collaborated with American Sunroof Company (ASC) to reintroduce a convertible Camaro to the muscle car’s lineup. These variants aren’t as common as your regular fixed roof third-gen Camaros, making this 1991 Chevrolet Camaro Z28 Convertible that’s here on eBay quite a neat find.
This pretty red Camaro is available in Brooklyn, New York with a clean title. The seller mentions that a collector who garage-kept the vehicle in a climate-controlled environment previously owned the vehicle and that it is a quality cruiser.
It is important to mention that this example is the range-topping model, due to the discontinuation of the IROC-Z trim before the 1991 model year. The red exterior paint shines brightly and the body of this Camaro is in excellent shape. Meanwhile, the black convertible top is in like-new shape, with no rips or tears present, and it provides a nice contrast to the vivid paint color.
Inside the cabin, you’ll find upgraded grey leather upholstery, which is in fantastic condition. Unfortunately, the seller discloses that the passenger window works intermittently, but otherwise, the immaculate interior appears to be factory-spec, down original GM radio.
This Camaro utilizes a 305 cu.-in. V8 engine, which pairs to a 5-speed manual transmission to drive the rear wheels. The drivetrain has just 67,092 miles on it, and it features various fresh maintenance items, such as a new clutch and a Flowmaster exhaust system. While this is a running and driving example, the seller mentions that it should get a tune-up before seeing regular use.
Even though this is an east coast vehicle, the undercarriage is clean. Additionally, the brake calipers and rotors were recently replaced.
At the time of this article being written, bidding is at $8,100. Is this topless third-gen the right Camaro for you?
I’m really interested to see where this goes, versus the current Hemmings value numbers. I’ve been looking for this exact car in white for a while, but the manual transmission is a must-have for me and makes for a much rarer find. In 1996, I tried to buy a white Z28 at the dealership where dad worked. I drove it Friday night and agreed to buy. Saturday a salesman took it out and wrecked it.
These are flawed vehicles for sure, but they were the cars to have when I was a teen in Jersey. The manual transmission and the overall condition will probably drive it out of my “why not” range. If it stays reasonable, I’ll bid for sure. Stay tuned, I just checked and shipping to FL is about $1000. I could fly in and attempt the drive home for about half.
Hey Jim, educate me on the flaws.
So here’s what I think I know based on my recollection working at the dealer in the 80s, plus looking at several over the past couple years.
From a driving standpoint, they had ample power, but were prone to cowl shake, and even distortion of the frame, which wound up causing ill-fitting and leaky tops. Stands to reason when you cut the roof off a reasonably powered car. The 5.7 litre was discontinued from the convertible because of this. The T-top cars would occasionally crack a top. You should definitely look at panel gaps and top fitment.
The throttle bodies tended to get carbon fouled, and if I recall, the injectors were electronic and prone to failure as well. I think some of them had issues with the fusible link overheating and leaving you stranded. This was back in the 80s.
The exterior isn’t usually an issue, with the exception of the end caps. the bumpers get brittle and crack, and don’t hold the paint as well as the rest of the body.
The interiors tend to really look beat on most of these. It’s like GM cheaped out just enough that they wouldn’t hold up to sun. the plastic cracks and gets brittle, the seat seams split, the door cards and the rugs fall apart. Typical stuff, but relatively expensive to repair.
The ones I’ve been looking at all seem to have electronic gremlins. Window switches, radio, door locks. There’s a common relay that goes bad and you can’t shut the trunk. Also, they are the first generation GM resistor keys, which can be wonky.
Again, this is just my personal knowledge. YMMV and I may be dead wrong. I’ve just been looking at these for a year now – but they are 30 year old vehciles. But I’ve passed up a few that were attractively priced simply because I didn’t want another project. In all my years with the car and motorcycle hobby, I’ve come to the conclusion that you should buy the best one you can afford. Whenever you buy the bargain, you wind up in the car for the same money, plus your free 100s of hours of labor.
They’re definitely a good way to get something unique, reasonably modern and fun to drive at a decent entry price.
Thank you, that was great. I have 2 motorcycles for sale if you’re interested email me at : durant28@yahoo.com ……..out of respect for this site I can’t list them here.
Stripe is correct on this,and as a matter of fact, l believe you could get this on the RS model, because, on mine it had been removed ,as for as the interior, either special order,and or changed with new old stock, possibly left at a dealer parts store.This is a clean car,but you easily could buy a newer model, for about the same, and or less, so l think I would pass on this one.
I still have my IROC-Z convertible. It was one of the hottest cars to own or even just to be seen in at the time. The car up for sale here has an incorrect redone vinyl interior, not leather and the door panels are from an earlier Camaro. Half the interior is black and half is gray which was not stock. I also recall the stripes between the body and the skirts were discontinued with the last IROC-Z for 90. I believe the new for 91 Z28 did not come with any body stripes. Otherwise, beautiful rare collector Camaro that is worth owning.
I have had my 1988 Iroc convert for 26 years. The ragtops in 3rd generation cars are very hard to find with a 5 speed manual. I had heard 90 percent were automatics. Mine is a tpi 5 speed as well. They do move out well for a car from the 1980s and early 1990s.
As stated the strip on this one is incorrect. Still a nice car if it stays around 10 grand.
To on and on. These cars are very hard to work. Little access. Typical GM crap plastic dries snd breaks. To replace a heater core, plan on most of the day. The five speed manual, while scarce, are weak. That is why GM did not offer it with the 5.7 engine. These cars creak and moan. Lousy construction. I own a 73 Corvette so I know about poor build quality, but when I drive it with the t tops out on a nice day who gives a crap.
I agree. The quality of work of cars of the 80s was iffy, at best, hideous at worst. It’s any wonder General Motors is still producing cars.
Lovely looking car. I remember when this generation Camaro was on the market. Other than the occasional upgrades here and there over the years, both the Camaro and the Pontiac Firebird kept its basic shape into the mid to late night 90s.
This gave me chills as I had one identical to this, down to the manual transmission and gray leather interior. My father bought it new and I got it from him.
The pictures on eBay are very nice and, after looking it over, I finally found a few minor differences from mine. Mine did not have the cassette player; it was CD. The interior door panels were not the awkward and odd black with a gray armrest/handle. Ours were all gray matching the seats. Other than that, this is a real throwback from me as a single dad. I’d take my 5 year old son with me and we’d make the 2 hour trip to visit my (then) girlfriend who is now my wife (and his mom) of 22 years. This was a great cruiser car with plenty of power for our weekend drives. I drove my pickup truck on all days that were not great weather weekends, keeping the miles super low.
Still Jim – your right – was the car to have….I was deep into hock on my first house and buying old hot rods that I sadly sold in 1989.
The airbag looks suspect….
I unfortunately purchased this car, sight unseen. The body is in pretty good condition, however it had been repainted from it’s original color of Bright Blue Metallic (not a stellar job I might add). Oh well you can’t win them all. I’m now on to a project with it. Wish me luck!