While I have the top end of my 87 gt fastback apart I thought I would try to restore these to the nice original red finish with the aluminum still shining as mine are starting to flake some. I e-mailed the fierostore and the said they could powdercoat them red and mill the aluminum surfaces down for $200.00...I'm currently really strapped for cash, so is there a way to repaint or whatever these that is cheap but will still turn out well?

Thanks in advance!

There are other options..... there are members here who sometimes do powdercoating.... probably more reasonably than the price you listed, but may still be outside your budget. The other option is to strip and repaint them yourself. This route is more cost effective, but would be less durable/long lasting than powder coating. I ended up painting mine when I put the new motor in my 86GT last year. I used high temp engine paint. There are several threads around on what the best match to original is, and you can decide for yourself. I chose the "Chrysler Industrial Red". One thing to ensure the best possible job is to strip off all of the old paint, and ensure things are absolutely clean before you paint. Also I used high temp clear over the exposed aluminum portions to help prevent oxidation. Here is a picture of mine when it was all said & done.


Rich

WOW, the top of that engine looks great. I was looking to do the same to my 86 SE V6. Thanks for the input.

I just stripped mine, and sparyed with engine paint - Ford Red was the color. then, for the alum part, just took a block & sandpaper, and sanded the ribs back out. worked great. if ya got the "Fiero" sticker on the intake, you can get a new sticker. overall - $20 and some work. and, sofar - the paint has lasted over 5 years on the valve covers.

Richjk21 that engine looks excellent! So if you take the colored engine parts off to have them powder coated or to paint yourself, where would you get the gaskets to replace the old ones? Anyone know of somewhere that sells our gaskets for a good price to seal them up like new after the job is done? Not sure if it matters but mine is an 88 GT.

Most parts places sell an intake manifold gasket set... around $20.00 has most of what you need ... but ... be advised it usually doesn't have the "Good" valve cover gaskets in the kit... to get the good rubber ones you usually have to buy those seperately. Also, another good point to note ... I got the "Fiero GT" sticker from Rodney Dickman. I enquired from him about putting the sticker under the high temp clear on the manifold, to provide it with extra protection as well. He said he couldn't say because he never tried it, and if it destroyed the sticker it was at my own risk, but it worked out great as you can see. Like I said in my first post, there are different opinions on which off the shelf color most closely matches the original factory paint. The 3 most often used are the duplicolor 1) Ford Red, 2) Chrysler Industrial Red, 3) Chevrolet Orange. My suggestion is buy a can of each (only about $10.00 total) and do some test samples, don't just go by the cap. Then pick the one your happy with. I don't think there's any one "right" color .... hell you could probably put 3 different originals all together and they wouldn't necessarily match exactly. Again, really pay attention to your surface prep... that's the key to good results. in addition to stripping all the old paint off and cleaning everything thoroughly - twice, I also used self etching primer under the high temp paint to give the paint a little more bite. I also just painted everything and then block sanded the raised aluminum portions. For me it was a lot easier than trying to mask everything, plus you pretty much have to sand the aluminum portions at some point to remove the oxidation.... so it was just as easy to combine it all in one step. After I block sanded the color off the raised portions, and I was happy with the way the aluminum looked, I then applied my sticker and then used the high temp clear over everything. If you have other questions feel free to ask and I'll try and snswer as best I can.

Rich

[This message has been edited by Richjk21 (edited 07-18-2007).]

Rich, amazing input. Thanks to everyone else also.

So, what do you suggest for stripping all the old paint off? sandpaper? or is there something better?

okay .... I'll tell you how I did mine, but with a great big DISCLAIMER!!! Do this at your own risk --- I am not liable for any damage/injury you incur by following this.

There ... that's out of the way. I tried a bucnch of stuff sanding, wire brush, etc, etc. and was getting really frustrated. Where it was flaking already, it came off pretty easy, but where it wasn't it was still holding on tight. So ... I decided to go the chemical stripper route .... available at the auto parts store, usually called aircraft stripper. That was working better but still not great ... softened things up, but was still having some trouble getting it all off before it started to re-set. so I came up with a very effective (but also a bit potentially hazardous) method. I combined the aircraft stripper and my pressure washer. I would coat it thoroughly with the stripper, let it soak in and bubble up about 10-15 minutes, then start blasting away with the pressure washer and it would just come right off. I did try to be as safe as possible while doing this. I wore a pair of coveralls, rubber gloves, and safety goggles, as thie striper is nasty stuff. And I did it in an open area, away from everything and everyone else. I spent hours before I switched to this method, and a total of about 45 minutes after.

quote Originally posted by Richjk21: I wore a pair of coveralls, rubber gloves, and safety goggles, as thie striper is nasty stuff. And I did it in an open area, away from everything and everyone else.

Paint stripper or aircraft stripper is dangerous to your health, kudos for posting the safety warnings. I specifically kept myself on the upwind side of my work, (stripped wheels) tossed my old clothes in the trash afterwards. Just use common sence, remember that "oooops" is too usually too late with extemely strong compounds.

That is a nice touch with applying a coat of clear over the covers and the intake decal. I purchased the Fiero Store powder coated cover and intake several years ago, don't think that they were clear coated though. Nice job, makes me motivated to refinish my other covers.

Yeah ... I'm huge on safety ... the last thing I want to hear is someone got hurt following my advice. Just so people know there are also other alternatives out there, like bead blasting, etc. so definitely look around, or if you have access to one of these by all means do so.

Thanks also to everyone for the compliments on my engine pic. You can see more pics of my car here


http://home.comcast.net/~rrisc21/fiero.htm

I always like to say it's evidence those good deals are out there ... not bad for $500.00 eh

I used Talstrip from Advance auto and it works pretty well. A few coats, a little scraping, and just a bit of wire brishing and they came clean pretty easily. It is pretty nasty stuff to work with as well but you certainly don't need a pressure washer.

I brought a few galons of concriet etching/rust remove for tanking oud parts and found it work great. I just put them in a bucket with top ( 5 gal drywall mud type) and let them soak overnight and then hose them off. I'm going to see what it 'll do to a valve cover and let ya know, mayeb snap a pic or two. BTW: got the stuff at home depot for $13/gal. But it is very reuseable.

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Trueleo.com/fiero.htm
RSpiderII@aol.com

quote Originally posted by SCCAFiero: I used Talstrip from Advance auto and it works pretty well. A few coats, a little scraping, and just a bit of wire brishing and they came clean pretty easily. It is pretty nasty stuff to work with as well but you certainly don't need a pressure washer.

I used the Tal-Strip stuff as well. It is VERY NASTY stuff and will leave some burns on your skin if you get any on you.
Approx. $29 per gallon jug at Advance Auto, (Parts America)
Stripped the old paint off my upper manifold and valve covers in minutes!
I even poured it inside the manifolds and let it sit for 30 minutes and then flushed it out with water and it removed ALL carbon and other residue and left the insides of the manifolds bright clean aluminum!
I now refer to Tal-Strip as "liquid sand blasting"

As for refinishing, I used a trick my son and a lot of his "ricer" buddies are using. (Yeah I know, I didn't raise him right, and he went Japanese on me )

Anyway, I shot the upper manifold and valve covers with VHT "Universal Red", several nice smooth coats and let it dry for a day or two. Once your'e sure it's cured, you sand the paint off the raised ribbed areas and buff to a nice sheen. Wash with warm soap and water to get any residue off and then comes the "trick".

Use Duplicolor brand HWP-103 CLEAR high performance wheel paint.
http://www.duplicolor.com/products/wheel.html
Shoot a couple of thin *mist* coats on and let dry 10 minutes between coats, then apply a few wet coats over the parts. Shoot over the polished aluminum ribbed areas too, to prevent oxidation.
At this point you will think that you've made a HUGE MISTAKE as the clear will have a foggy, milky appearance.
Just let it dry...
The milky appearance goes away as it cures and leaves a very deep high gloss, that gets even harder and better looking with engine heat later.
The wheel paint is chemical resistant and heat resistant and seems very durable so far. My son has a Honda cam cover and other parts on one of his project cars that look just like the day he painted them and they've been on the car for 2 years now.

Here's my 3.4 PR rebuild with the refinished upper manifold, valve covers and oil pan:



Looks pretty!

[This message has been edited by randye (edited 07-19-2007).]

I sanded the old paint to ruff it up, then sanded the fins with 1000 and polished.

Masked and painted with Hi temp paint and then Hi temp Clear over all. Painted black between the fins to accent. The interesting effect is since the grooves betweent the fins are black everyone that looks at it think the Fiero is milled into the intake also until they touch it.

[This message has been edited by Dodgerunner (edited 07-19-2007).]

Myself and a lot of others have just used their car color and redid them with regular basecoat/ clearcoat with no problem. Rather than stripper, I prefer to bead blast them. You can also find places that will do it for you. Just make sure you wash and clean, and air blow them thoughly...any residue can eat your engine. I dont primer them after blasting, but just put a coat of non sanding sealer on before the paint.

quote Originally posted by rogergarrison: Myself and a lot of others have just used their car color and redid them with regular basecoat/ clearcoat with no problem.

Just last month you answered my question about this! https://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum2/HTML/083552.html and here are the results!

I also did the EGR cover, dogbone and spark plug heat shields.