I need some help

My girlfriend drives her mom's old 87 Caprice Classic. I drive a Ford Contour. The engines are completey oppisite. lol But hers is having one heck of a time starting. It will getting going and when It should be idleing it just dies. You need to keep on the gas. Could someone give me a clue on at least what to check? I think it is definately something with the idle. Once the car is running it goes fine. It just getting it to start, and then not stall when you stop that is the tricky part.

If the car is having a hard time starting and it dies when you stop, you are having carb issues. On the side carb there is an idle adjustment screw. It looks just like an actual screw. Anyway when your car starts, that screw determines the amount of gas your car gets while it is idling. If the screw is too far up, the car will not stay started. If you are driving and come to a stop the car will die out. It does this because the screw isn't allowing enough gas to go into the engine to keep it running. If the screw is too far down, the car is going to sound like it is ready to take off into space. This means that the screw is letting too much gas into the engine. Check this out and see if that works.