[HotRodKush]

Thanks again for the posts guys. After some deliberation on and off the forum, I decided to follow the general opinion and go with a second gen. I took a look at two cars today, and after driving them I'm sold on them rather than another third gen.

The first car was a '79 Z28 - had a strong 383 and TH-350 trans, but had some decent rust. More importantly, it had no title or current registration, and I'm not willing to go through the hassle with the DMV again to get a title in my name (I did it once already, never again).

The second car was an '80 Z28, a numbers matching car with a muncie 4 speed. Had some minor rust but the subframes and floors were solid. The motor was the stock 350, in fact it looked like the entire car is 100% original and stock. The clutch was replaced recently and was VERY heavy and engaged almost at the top of the pedal travel, leading me to believe that it was either installed incorrectly or with the wrong parts. The suspension is shot all around, the front A-arms are sitting on the bump stops and the rear is riding on the springs only (a non-issue since I'll be replacing everything anyway). The windshield is cracked and will need to be replaced. I'm less concerned with all of that than with rust, and overall it's a very solid car - the asking price is very fair given that this is a numbers matching, complete Z28. It needs some work but it's a car that I can almost immediately start building up, rather than dealing with structural damage or major rust in the beginning - and it's a car I can drive as I'm working on it if I choose to.

I'm going to call the guy tomorrow and if it's still there I'll likely be going back to complete the sale. If that happens, I'll probably start a build thread here to keep everything documented.