1996 Chevy Camaro - Rusted Out Fuel Lines

 

People junk their cars because they're either wrecked beyond repair, they need repairs that cost far more than the car is worth, or they find they have no other way to get rid of a car they don't want any more. In the case of our "first" 1996 Chevrolet Camaro, the one on the right, over the last year my wife and I have come close several times to junking it because the estimated cost of repairs pushed the envelope on whether or not repairing and keeping it was worth it. However, the automotive grim reaper ain't dealing with your run of the mill "beater" owner here.

 

First, a year ago last November the head gaskets blew. After I replaced the car  I found this engine and someone willing to put it in for a total cost of roughly a third of what a shop would have charged me. My wife and I both approved that expense since the luxury of having a car for each of our sons last summer was just too alluring. We kept both cars with the idea we'd sell the "older" one and more than recoup the expense of what it cost us to replace the engine. You make plans and God laughs.



Our younger son, bless his heart, then had a couple of parking lot fender benders damaging the right front fender and door. After I replaced both the fender and door, myself, with parts from a red, 1995 Camaro I found on Craigslist near Athens, and in the midst of refinishing the rear bumper cover, during this winter from hell we've had so far, the rusty fuel lines burst. Adding up what it would have run me to have shops fix everything that's gone wrong over the last year or so would have amounted to, approximately, and are you sitting down? $6,500. That includes $1,000 or more to replace the fuel lines. The car might be worth a $1,000. $1,500 tops.



Pre-bent or custom bent fuel lines are not for sale on Amazon and if you do find them, they're expensive. Summit Racing Equipment in Stow gave me a quote of nearly $500 for a set of custom made, steel braded fuel lines that would snap right in as easy as a working with a garden hose. A set of stainless steel lines would run more than $300. And I'd have to wait more than two weeks for them since they have to be made. Most shops will charge $750 and up to replace fuel lines that. They charge about the same to replace brake lines.



Craigslist to the rescue. I was halfway to calling a junkyard to haul the car away when I found this 1995 Camaro down in Medina that the owner was "parting out".  The owner, amazingly, was not only willing to part with the fuel lines off his car, but would pull them out and give them to me for free. He said he had no intention of selling the fuel lines and that I could "just have them". Wow. The people here in North East Ohio are the nicest humans on earth.



I had to force the guy to take at least $20 for them given the time it took him to pull them out. Now, they're far from being in showroom condition by any stretch and that fuel filter is clogged and will need to be replaced but they're solid. Rusty but solid. This is how and why we keep these cars on the road and out of the junkyard.



Compared to the brake line job, removing and replacing the fuel lines was a piece of cake. Toughest thing about the job was getting the old lines out. When I put the new brake lines in I had intertwined the brake lines with the old fuel lines and, well...you know. Who'd have thought I'd soon be replacing the fuel lines too?

The old squeeze clips wouldn't come out either so that meant I had to break the lines and then lovingly remove them from the lines without, hopefully, damaging the flexible lines. Aside from that, this massive project was one of the smoothest and straight forward car projects I'd done in quite a while.

I blew out the lines with a compressed air can, changed the fuel filter, connected everything up, did a test start and the car fired right up with no leaks. Tight as a drum. I then bolted it all down and went for a very, very satisfying test drive.  Total cost of the project was $24. Take that, automotive grim reaper. I still have the cold weather stating problem and a leaking water pump on our "newer" Camaro but for now, all's right in our two Camaro household.