I got me one!

[treadhead 1952]

Hi All,

I'm a confirmed Chevy Guy and when my trusty old "75 4X4 decided not to pass smog, I had to do something. After hitting the computer and getting a few ideas I hit the road on the old 18 speed bike. I located an '88 LXi hatchback at the local Child Haven Car Lot. It had been hit on the driver's side front and that wrinkled up the front fender ripped the corner off the bumper cover and tweaked the front down a little. There was a diagonal crack across the windshield but for the princely sum of $595 it was mine after a test drive.

I was mostly impressed, the little car has a performance level I have not seen since Camaro days back home. It is a 5 speed and runs like a house on fire! The mileage is excellent, I have yet to fill the tank a second time and it have over 180 miles on the first fill up. It is solid white with the exception of the trim and the interior is pretty good. Oh yeah, it has 230,000+ miles and no smoke, no problems passing the smog test.

Today, I had a malfunction. I dumped the clutch and killed it. Boy did I kill it. There was no juice, like, no lights, no nothing! After futzing around for a half hour on Flamingo Blvd and Las Vegas, Blvd, A very busy place at 4 PM I wound up pushing it across and all the way home, about a mile. Once home and chilled out a little I went out and since I had to get the windows up I figured to jump the motors with a cable just ot get power to them and run them up. When I put the clamps on I got a little spark and the headlights popped up, bright as all get out. After cleaning the negative cable end and battery post I hooked it back up and now it starts and does it's thing. I guess I will need to invest in a new battery cable and end.

The primary point of the posting is to sort of introduce myself and to thank the gentleman who posted the factory manual and supplements. I am sure that they will come in handy. I have located a salvage yard who will sell me a good fender, windsheild and bumper cover for $250 so I suppose I will have to fix this little hummer up. You guys have some pretty nice looking little rides out there.

Oh yeah, I got the buckage for the purchase when I went and cashed my paycheck at the Gold Coast and wound up hitting a minor jackpot for $750 on one of their machines, so you might say the little asphalt eater came to me as a freebie

Jay treadhead 1952
Las Vegas, NV

['A20A3']

Nice find man!

I'm glad to hear that you're enjoying your 3G and I hope that you get as much possible information you can out of this site cause we definetly have ALOT.

[Klue]

welcome, dont spend it all in one place

[nswst8]

I believe the highest milage that we know of is over 700,000 we have a couple on here with 400,000 with the typical maintainance items that are needed it is a very reliable ride.

Keep her around for she won't quite on you in a pinch with the proper TLC.
I personally have 200,000 and would drive to Alaska and back if I had to today.

[treadhead 1952]

Thanks for the welcome. I am wondering about the front end damage and how to go about straigtening it up. I am considering finding the specs in the manuals and doing a little measuring and up close observation to see what is actually damaged and causing it to be down about 2 inches on the driver's side front corner. The wheels and tires don't appear to be racked out of alignment too badly.

I am considering offering a body shop with a frame rack a Hundred dollar bill to see if the will jack it back up. If they try to stick me for more, I'm off to Harbor Freight. For $106 I can buy a 10 Ton Porta Power with all the attatchments and I will chain that puppy down and tweak it myself. Any one got any ideas on the subject?