When you know you've found a good thing, you hold on to it. This is the mindset that led Michael Argandona, of Huntington Beach, California, to keep this 1989 Pontiac Firebird Formula for three decades. He has lovingly maintained it, keeping its smooth black paint and sleek sheetmetal in immaculate condition. The result is a car that's just as cool today as it was back in '89.

Here at the Classic Industries Retail Showroom, we see countless beautiful restored cars and trucks, as well as quite a few resto-modded vehicles. The latter category covers builds ranging from a few modern modifications to complete tear-downs and rebuilds with aggressive motor swaps.

The 1982 Camaro Z28 seen here definitely falls on the more extreme end of the spectrum. In fact, it's one of the most eye-catching third-gen Camaro builds we've seen to date.

Here at Classic Industries, we love providing restoration parts for vintage Chevy cars and trucks, but we also recognize that those vehicles aren't just designed to sit in a garage collecting dust. They're designed to be driven, and in many cases, driven fast.

It’s every car enthusiast’s dream to participate in a barnfind. We fantasize about discovering a rare, original, and highly sought-after classic car that had been stowed away in a barn, garage, or yard for decades, preserved like a time capsule from the past. Unfortunately, the reality is that these barnfinds are still old cars. They've been sitting in the same spot without use or maintenance, often for decades. So, if you come across one of these vehicles, how should you examine, repair, and restore it?

When starting a new classic car project, there are a number of choices to make. Some owners choose to restore every nut and bolt to factory spec, ending up with a vehicle that looks like it just rolled off the showroom floor. Jeromey Campbell, of Huntington Beach, California, was looking for something more distinctive when he started work on this 1991 Camaro Z28 convertible.

Unsurprisingly, many members of our staff here at Classic Industries are serious car enthusiasts. By day, we help customers with their project vehicles, and by night, we go home to work on our own. So, when a customer rolls up to our showroom in a nice car, we always try to go check it out. You'll often find our employees peering out the windows to see what just rolled into The Parking Lot.

We've always been fans of the third-gen Camaro, so it's nice to see the increased attention it's getting lately. Much like the second-gen cars were unappreciated for years, and then suddenly became popular again, we're seeing a resurgence in interest in the third-gen F-body vehicles. This is especially true of the IROC-Z, one of the most iconic American cars of the 1980s.

We're always glad to see the third-gen F-body cars getting the appreciation they deserve. Ten or fifteen years ago, few people would have considered the 1982-92 Firebirds and Trans Ams candidates for restoration, but now that these cars are becoming more collectible, the prices for clean examples are on the rise. This white 1986 Trans Am is one of the cleanest we've seen, and shows how much these cars stand out in 2015.

For a car enthusiast, there's no worse feeling than having your car stolen. In an instant, the vehicle you put so much time and effort into is gone, and you're left empty-handed. This is exactly what happened to Ismael Castillo, the owner of this 1991 Camaro Z28, on New Year's Eve last year. After spending the evening with his friends celebrating, he went outside to find his Camaro was missing. It was recovered by police a few days later, but by then it had been stripped of many of its parts and abandoned. Fortunately, Ismael refused to give up on his project, so he began rebuilding it.

Have you ever heard of a car going 500,000 miles before? How about doing it on the original engine and transmission? If you have, it's likely that it was a boring 4-cylinder economy car. That's all well and good, but we think if you're going to choose a car to drive half a million miles in, it might as well be one with a V8 and some style. David Mayans, of Corona, California, agrees with this sentiment, and that's why his '87 Camaro IROC-Z currently has a staggering 416,000 original miles on the clock. That's nearly the distance to the moon and back! Plus, by the time you're reading this, the car's odometer will read even higher. David daily-drives the IROC, so its mileage grows closer to the 500,000 mark with each passing day.