So I'm gonna start a pre-build thread for what will eventually become my build thread. As I write this I'm still sitting in iraq, but as I'll be home in 18 days, its time to start prepping myself for this super awesome 2 weeks of throwing parts at my car and seeing the result! I've been waiting for this for a very long time , we've been over here over a year now, and I'm ready to come home!

This is how she sits right now, with 8006 miles on her..


Heres a history.
I purchased my car from someone on the forum, for 4500 bucks in May, while I was on mid-tour leave. It was sort of an impulse decision, I wanted a car, was looking at Fieros (owned 2 already) and a lexus sc400. I wanted a d/d but something I'd enjoy too. I was surfing the net randomly and ended up seeing the ad on here, which I surf from time to time. I thought it was a ridiculous good deal (I see lately alot of 3800sc's going for the same price these days) and I jumped on it.

The car seems to have been rebuilt all over the place, no exact dates on when all these parts were replaced, or anything but it was all pretty new. The rebuilt engine has 8,006 miles as it sits in my driveway.

305ci 5.0 v8, with the Archie Master Kit. (No flames on the 305, I didnt build it I just bought it) According to the dyno it gets 226 HP at 4500 RPM and 302 Torque at 3500 RPM. I'm pleased with this, as the mileage on the drive home was 30-32MPG over the 1,000 mile trip. And I had plenty of power leftover on the city driving so yep, i'm happy with it.


One edit: Its a 1984 base, with a 5 speed isuzu tranny in it.

pics of the engine bay..









Accordingly, this is everything thats been replaced.
Engine, its got a 305 from an 86 firebird, rebuilt engine by a machine shop. bored over .30 over, heads rebuilt to stock
Edelbrock performer-plus cam
Edelbrock 600cfm carb
Edelbrock Performer intake
140amp alernator
Aerospace Components elec. water pump. (Remotely mounted)
Sanderson headers
New CV Axles
intrax loweringspring set
All polyurethane components.
a pair of cats AND mufflers. (Its at a great volume, rumbles just right, not too quiet but not too loud either)
monroe front shocks and struts
new upper and lower ball joints
a center force clutch (pressure plate and dual friction disc)
stainless steel braided brake hoses
stainless steel metal brake lines
new calipers and rotors, front and rear, as well as a new clutch master cylinder and slave cylinder. Also, 5spd clutch line.


Also, anything thats on the archie master shift kit that isnt listed here. I think the tranny was replaced recently too cause I was poking around and found a thread he did on it.

OH and a battery relocation to the front!! =D AND the 2 gauge pod addition to the a-pillar.

Quite an extensive list of parts replaced, again no date that it was all done, but the pics were awesome and I was impressed. It has 16x7 Kazera KZ-U silver rims with 205/55HR-16 Pirelli P6000's wrapping them, and a factory wing on there, also the car had a new paint job done last year.

Interior is immaculate, like ridiculous clean, minus a bit of shampooing wanted on the floor carpet. The dash was beautiful, seats were perfect shape, its a GREAT condition car.






When I drove up there, from Fort Campbell, KY (it was in Syracuse, NY) i loved it. The sound, look, it was great condition. So I paid, got plates on it and drove it back down to Campbell. It ran like a champ the whole way and got great gas mileage to boot!

Me slapping the new plates on there, and some other pics the day I bought it...






The bads so far are..

-Needs a headliner in the interior, seems to be missing that and the visors (haha)
-Tranny needs a bleed, its a bit tough to get into any gear while sitting still and running, i've been through this and decided to get a power bleeder and bleed the crap out of it.
-Stereo doesnt work, wasnt hooked up or whatever.
-Pass. headlight goes up, but refuses to go down. It worked when I picked the car up, but on the way home it stopped going down, I had to hand-crank it down. Luckily, I've had experience in this field, my old 85gt used to not go UP, and I had to crank them up before I went out at night. It was ridiculous haha
-Sail Panels, one side has a good blank one, the other side has a good SE one.. Need to get another blank one.

EDIT: I forgot to add, it also needs outer dew wipes, which I am going to purchase from diy_stu. Checks in the mail! The outer dew wipes on there are crackled and fangled up, soo needing replaced!

I think thats it for bad, amazingly. Thats just stuff that needs worked on, lol.

And now to the stuff I'm going to do! the build part, if you will.

~~~~~~
I've already purchased a dash, upper dash "pad" if you will, and door panels from someone on another forum, from a 2000 Trans-Am. Its ebony, mint condition, just absolutely beautiful. I paid a pretty penny for it, compared to if I'd had just got the regular grey but what can you do, I had to have the black color. I've got Jonathan (jscott) of texas working on a 155mph speedometer cluster for me, making the wiring harness and all that jazz, and it should be sitting in the pile of parts I've ordered while over here! =D
I was very specific with the cluster, I wanted the 1997 Cluster, because there are big differences in the 93-96 and the 97 one. The 97, for starts, has a digital odometer, which I like alot. It also has a bezel around the different gauges which modernizes the look of the cluster a LOT! Also, I ordered a white gauge-only overlay for the cluster, which I had shipped to Jonathan to instal for me, which is just going to look ridiculous awesome.

Here are some photos my wife sent me of the stuff at the house waiting for install =P







EDIT to add!!

Here is the gauge cluster that I was verrrry picky about, Jonathan Miller has consented to doing a gauge harness for me, I sent the cluster and white face overlay to him, and he's doing all the wiring and making it an awesome plug and play setup, to include the headlight switches and all! Heres a pic of it half finished at his house, I couldnt resist showing it!



I've researched the dash install a LOT this deployment, and have decided on Roys install method, which involves some cutting and welding which I do not mind doing at all. I've got eveyrhting I need for the install, and I'm fairly confident I can do this while keeping the vehicle on the road. All i'm going to do is tear down the Fiero dash, and install the plug and play harness with gauge cluster from JOnathan and drive it like that. Then I'll lop off the stuff needing cut, do the welding necessary for the steering column to raise, and drive s'more. Next day I'll start test fitting the dash, making mounting points and whatnot, and maybe temporarily mount it. After this point will slow down because it'll take some time to get everything correct, aligned and whatnot, but it'll still be driveable because I'll have the cluster installed and working.

The only snag with this is the door panels. I've got them, and I know the general ideas behind putting them on, got the diagrams and stuff from the threads but its the capping of the ENDS that worries me. Here i'll show some pics of Jonathans doors before he did fiberglassing to make his look cool, and thats basically what i'll be working with. I'm wanting some suggestions here for how to handle this, if anyones got any? I've never fiberglassed before so its new to me. I'm thinking I can use 2-stage poly foam, slap it on there in a general shape, let dry, and then carve away until I get the look I want. I'll make sure that two or three holes are on the latch-side, where the portion facing the rear of the vehicle, if you follow me, so I can bolt it down. The front, portion, so to speak, the facia that has the door handle on it, will be smooth. To color this, or whatnot, I will get it covered in some form of black or dark grey vinyl or leather. TO remove the door panel, you would unscrew or unbolt the end cap, pull it off and then unscrew the door panel and remove that. If you don't follow, i'm sorry I cant explain any further. Its in my mind though haha

I will leave the stock console as is for now.

Also, I've ordered ACC Carpet, graphite colored, and will be putting this in asap too. While i'm in there, i'll wash and repaint the seat rails too.

Also, stereo!

I've bought 2 sets of 3.5" kickers, and I'm gonna pull the seats out, pull the covers off and replace the speakers. I'm also going to put 6.5" speakers in the firebird door panels, as they come.

One snag with this, is the subwoofer. I'm wanting something as unintrusive as possible, and up until a few short weeks ago, I was planning on using wikid_ones sub box, I was next in line. But its been nearly a month and he hasnt been online or replied to any PM's, or emails, or thread posts. Needless to say this sucks cause it knocks off an important part of my sound setup. I want a good amount of bass, and this would have been perfect. AS far as I know noone makes anything of 8" or so that goes in the stock subwoofer position, and a few options I've seen go in the footwell, and as I tend to date girls that arent 5' tall, and that are closer to 5'5" and up, I don't wantto take away from their foot room. Also, behind the seat I didnt want to go with, because with an 86 2m4 I had, we made a box go to behind the passenger seat and you had to sit straight up, and it took alot of room away from the passenger too. Plus, you felt that **** WAY too much in the chest for the passenger. So i'm still as of now looking for a solution to the bass problem.

Havent decided on a deck option, i'm just gonna pick something and go with it. My brothers got a variety of amps to choose from so that wont be a problem either.


~~~~

Body!

I dislike the bumperpad look. Don't like it at all, and I loved the look of my 85 GT. I liked the front and rear bumpers and am a fan of all that.

I payed for and am going to recieve when I get back, a front, AND rear bumper of the 85GT style, as well as all the side skirts and paneling and all pieces to complete the look, from mrfiero.

I am going to pull off the bumperpad front and rears, but I've decided to go a little different direction with the side skirts. I got a good price on some of Archies Integrated Rockers from Jonathan (jscott) and so I'm going to use those instead! I'm super happy about this cause I've always loved the look of cars with the IRM rockers and archies rockers, but didnt want to go this route due to price. But I dont care, i'm gonna do it. I'm just gonna sell the GT rocker setup once it arrives to try and make some of the money back on the archie rockers, as well as selling the great condition new painted front and rear bumperpad bumpers.

Heres a pic of archies rockers, the ones Jonathan are selling me are primer grey, as seen now in the first pic. Never used though so cool for that!





I plan on taking it somewhere to get it painted, and the color I chose was a darker grey kind of color, as similar as possible to this.



Also, I'm going to paint the rubber black molding the same color as the body. Some don't like this look, but I love it.

With the openings in the rockers and the front bumper, I'm gonna throw some mesh grill wiring in there, havent decided on a look, but yeah. I think it'll set it off nicely.
Thats all I've got for now for plans, I think its plenty to be getting along with for a little while! I'm going to try getting all this done as soon as humanly posible when I get back. I'm sure some stuffs gonna interfere, and it wont get done as quickly as i like but you can bet it'll be faster than any of you expect! =D

Any input, advice, suggestions, ANYTHING you wanna put in there after reading through my NOVEL would be appreciated! I'm doing this BEFORE i start the build so I can implement any advice anyone has in advance, also if anyone has any solutions to my problems I can gt working on that before I get back.


Thanks alot, appreciate you taking the time to look at the photos and reading the stuff I wrote! This is all months and months of speculation and thoughts and dreams coming together, and whats been getting me through the deployment!

Matthew Hanson
Rakassans, 101st Airborne
Fort Campbell, KY

[This message has been edited by MetroMatt (edited 10-20-2008).]

Hey I saw the color you wanted..I am painting mine a Nissan color. It is the grey that is on the Nissa 350Z's. It is Called Carbon Silver Mettalic. Just thought you might like to know due to it being close to the color you want. The brand I got was Omni (PPG's budget brand) and you can get it a O'Rielly's <sp>. I like the ideas you have and I was thinking of the same type things for my 87 GT. I would be interested in the build on the door panels due to not having a clue about interior work. Where in Iraq are you? I was Ali base (Tallil) for 6 months. I am Air Force so I know all about wonderful Iraq (was also at Baghdad International close to Stryker). Have a great trip and remember when you leae Qatar on the airline you can get a beer LOL. Have a good one man

Looks good to me!

I could give a crap the displacement of your motor if it runs and drives as good as you say it does. Most v8 owners brag when they get 20mpg, and it "usually" starts when its cold out.

Still has double the power of the 2.8, might be able to rev a bit harder too.

Terrific Deal !

You might consider upgrading your headlights to the gen 2 system (87-88). it's a much better system (just my opinion). If you decide not to do the upgrade, get to know buddycraigg because sooner or later you will need him

If you want a place to read about engine info (since that engine was also used in the firebirds and camaros), try this one - you can get info AND buy used parts http://www.thirdgen.org/

Here are a few shots of my favorite gray fiero (hope Revin doesn't mind me posting pics of his car)

[This message has been edited by PaulJK (edited 10-19-2008).]

Thanks for the responses guys

arfiero- I'll keep that color in mind, thanks for the tipoff!

I'm a big photo-whre so I'll be taking pics of every step. I've always loved the threads that people post thorough pics of their steps and processes so I'll be doing that as much as I can, to give a bit back to this fantastic community. I'll be sure to pay special attention to the door panels for you

I'm actually on Stryker right now, getting some downtime before we head to kuwait and go home! =D Unfortunately, we do not pass through qatar so no beer until I land =P

I'm happy with my v8 darkhorizon, it does get good fuel mileage, sounds alot better than the 2.8, and it runs like a charm! I really dig the "other" swap, the 3800SC but alas, this one came into view before all theseothers did and I chose this one! Although, to my credit, the other cars for sale arent really built up as much as this one is, they need work in areas such as suspension, brakes, etc.

Paul - I will consider it, but what makes it a better system? I'm curious to know what the major difference is that makes the older ones so bad?

THanks for the link, I definitely will check that out! It did come out of an 86 Firebird, so sweetness! I'm loving the color, seems very similar to what you posted Paul, do you have the paint code on that?

Matthew Hanson
101st

hmmmmm. Good Color Choice



Ryan

Is this your car Ryan? And are those archie rockers? And whered you get the turn signal covers?

Matthew Hanson
101st

Glad to hear that you will be able to start on your project soon. Best of luck to ya. Love the looks of all the parts and that engine.

Sweeet, heres some photos Jonathan just sent me of the cluster and rockers!






Very exciting stuff! Thanks Jonathan, if you're reading this ! =D You just made a very happy soldier haha

[This message has been edited by MetroMatt (edited 10-20-2008).]

You'll have to contact Revin for the paint code, it's his car.
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Senator's daughter: Why did my dad send only 1 man to rescue me ?
Val Kilmer: 1 riot, 1 Ranger

from the movie Spartan

Update!

Its been a few weeks since i've been home. I decided to deal with the mechanical issues I've had instead of the looks, mainly because i havent recieved the gauge cluster or rocker panels, and I refuse to start either without having all the parts. The car would look tacky without a paint job and mismatched body panels while i waited for the rockers to come in, and the interior I cant do anything till the gauges are here.

I've half started on the carpet installation, it looks nice. Only the passenger side for now. No pics yet

Anyway I got to driving it a few days, and at night my voltage would drop to like 11 under a full load which seemed to me a problem.

I jacked the car up, pulled the alternator, had it tested, had the battery tested, and all was good. I decided that, accompanied with the squeeling, it must be the belt and the tension so I bought a gates belt from oreillys and had to buy a dremel and grind away clearance on the frame to get the old belt off, and get the new belt in, that took like 2 days. I can take pics if anyones interested how that turned out. There was no way getting it out without either doing this or lowering the engine entirely, it couldnt be pried away.

Sooo after many metal splinters and 2 days of stupid labor, I got the new belt on, took a leaf out of some of the members here and bought a bottle jack, and used that to bring up the alternator, since there was nowhere else to get leverage. got it for 19.99 at wal-mart. i ran it, and it did fine, alot more juice, but if i'm under a full load with heater, headlights, the night-equipment, it'll still squeel if i'm sitting at a stoplight for longer than 30 seconds. i'm gonna tighten it back up some more..

I can't think what else to add here, but after xmas when I get back is when the big stuff will start happening, such as the dash swap, and the body swap. I'm most likely going to finish the carpet this weekend, as well as attempt to put a stereo system in there. I'm waiting on a sub enclosure from gunslinger so that'll provide the bass. I bought 2 sets of kicker 3.5s for the seats. I'm gonna hold off on big speakers till i get the firebird door panels in, as theres no point in getting dash speakers for the fiero dash, they will be useless anyhow.

matthew hanson

quote Originally posted by PaulJK: Here are a few shots of my favorite gray fiero (hope Revin doesn't mind me posting pics of his car)

Well Paul you were close...but no cigar!

Mine is a fastback see sig
My color is from the 2001 Ford F150 Harley Davison series
dark met grey base coat clear coat

But the question is.....AM I STILL YOUR FAV??? lol

------------------

88 GT, 3800SC, Getrag 5sp. 12" Vette Rotors,Custom stuff done

Matt I got a Firebird dash (black out of a 2001 Trans Am and a Camaro Cluster from a 97. I also got the 1998 Lens for the cluster that has the cover like yours. They guy I bought the dash from gave me a grey dash also and he sold me the black and leather door panels. Looks like two military guys might be working this at the same time. Now all I have to do is get a 3800 SC and an F40 6 speed and then paint. If you want we can compare notes while we build.

Shelby

Hi,
I was the one who did the engine swap in your car. I'm glad to see it's still living on. Thank you

quote Originally posted by vwaltdog: another pic

what are those two pipes coming up on the tranny side?

------------------
First LX9 Fiero GT, 1987

If you can't fix it with a hammer, you've got an electrical problem

Fiero's are people too. We pay just as much attention to them, if not more than our loved ones

they are the coolant overflow tanks

ah ok

------------------
First LX9 Fiero GT, 1987
If you can't fix it with a hammer, you've got an electrical problem
Fiero's are people too. We pay just as much attention to them, if not more than our loved ones
My Fiero Fuel Economy
Videos of My GT

Ok Matt you are falling behind here. J/K I just cut the snout holding the steering colum up to fit the dash in. I'll get pics as soon as I go buy batteries for the camera. Hope you have a merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Shelby

Hey Matt,

I don't know where your deployed at and I know you don't know me from Adam, but how's your family doing in your absence? I'm just a little ways up I-65 from you, less than 10 miles from Ft. Knox. I'm in the Small Arms Readiness Group (SARG) Unit there and have been in the Army a total of 9.5 years. If your family at Campbell needs anything, I'd be honored to help out in any way I can.


Aside from that, hurry home and get to work on this car. A lot of folks are anxious to see this critter come together!

Let us all know when the soles of your boots are once again on American soil.

Brocephus I believe he is now back from Deployment. He was at Striker at BIOP and I for one am glad he is back safe.

TSgt Shelby V. Vernon

quote Originally posted by ARFiero: Brocephus I believe he is now back from Deployment.

That is friggin' awesome news.

Did you two work together in a joint task force? How did ya'll meet and is he back home now as in, he's walked through his own front door? The demobing units I dealt with at Ft. Bliss had a week or so of outprocessing and debriefs to go through before goin' home. Hopefully he's past all that and is back at home, in his own skin and in hot pursuit of normalcy.

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My Fiero ate an import. No, seriously.

[This message has been edited by Brocephus (edited 12-24-2008).]

Matt and I met on here in this post. I saw that he was doing the Firebird install and I asked him to post pic in the thread so I could see how he was doing it. Then I decided I wanted to do this as well so I told him on here that we could talk if need be. I wasn't stationed with him but he told me where he was at and I had been there before when I was training the new Iraqi Air Force. Matt said in an earlier post that he was "home" and working on the mechanicals of the car first.

Shelby

am I imagining things ? does your rear deck lid also open just around the bulge ?



if it does that is one awsum mod !

------------------



87 Fiero GT 5sp with Vortec L35 4300 Turbocharged V6
Bully Stage 2 clutch
Syclone intake manifold and engine management with Moates adapter and chip burner
Air/water intercooler and Devil's Own progressive water/alky injection
50lb injectors, 3 bar map sensor, Walboro fuel pump and Jabasco Intercooler pump
LM1 wideband on custom manifolds and 3" stainless exhaust system
T31/T04B H3 turbo and a S10 caliper conversion.
Murphy's Constant Matter will be damaged in direct proportion to its value
Murphy's Law of Thermodynamics Things get worse under pressure.
Arthur C. Clarke "Any significantly advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic"

quote Originally posted by vwaltdog: Hi, I was the one who did the engine swap in your car. I'm glad to see it's still living on. Thank you

hah thats so awesome! Pleasure to meet you, i'll be sure to direct any further questions on parts needing replaced (etc) at you.

did you always have problems with the clutch not disengaging, cause thats a problem I can't seem to fix. I've replaced the slave, master cylinder, bled it a billion times, i'm gonna replace the line and then see whats up.

ARFiero. I"ve been waiting on funds and the gauge cluster to be finished by jscott, which hopefully should have been this weekend!

Send me some pics of your progress! silence.v3@gmail.com

Thanks for all the kind words everyone, I've been back since november, but I havent had much time to work on my car, or rather I havent had time to post progress in this thread. But its back to normal life, my divorce is final, i'm a little bit stable and funds are back up!

vortecfiero, yes it does, it was a mod the previous owner did.

I'm going to make another post later this evening of my whole progress, i've changed up some plans quite a bit, which you'll hear later.

matthew

Hi,
I repalced everything with the clutch when I put the car together. That includes the line and the clutch pedal. I did'nt have any problems. I know the transaxle is a different one than I put in because nyfastback blew the one I had in there. I had very good luck with the gravity method for bleeding the clutch, so maybe that will help. I will be interested to see what cool things you will do with the car.

Okay, time for an update.


The original plan for the BODY was to put the archie rockers on there, put the 85GT bumpers, and paint it gunmetal grey.

I decided to nix the archie rockers, as they were 325, and I picked up a parts car, as shown here..


and I turned it into THIS!




All those body panels are being put on my car, the sunroof section and all!

The parts car I bought came with a whole intake plenum, valve covers, slot drilled rotors (4) and I took out of the car the third brake light setup, with the entire harness, the performance sound option, power windows/locks/windows (mine has power windows, but not the other stuff) gt aux gauges, and 120mph speedo cluster.

I'm going to take the entire doors and put them on my car, so that I hae a whole power setup, as well as the rotors, which are here..


Todays progress, now that we have all the panels off, we took off my front bumper, quarter panels and hood, and replaced them with the new/old ones! Paint job isn't great, but still. We're going to sand it down and primer them until I can pay for a good paint job.






The firebird dash is still in the works, it was a waiting game of me coming up with the cash for the gauges, and jscott finishing up the gauge cluster, which as he said, should be done this weekend.

This coming weekend, we're looking at this job... The windshield has to come out for me to get the roof panel off, because of how hard and difficult the molding is around it, i'd break one of the two getting it clear of the panel.

Thursday, windshield comes off, and we take off the roof section, dash, gauge cluster, center console and all that. If theres time, since we'll be starting late thursday, we'll run the wiring for the new door power options and all that.

Friday, we'll put on the roof section, third brake light, we'll drop the steering column and make the cuts necessary for the firebird dash, test fit the dash, make our marks for where we will mount it at... and if we have time, put the new doors on, and remove the notchie clip and bumper, rear quarter panels and side skirts.

saturday, have the windshield re-installed, the dash won't be permenantly mounted because we'll need to know that the thing can be removed with the glass in, but we'll work on that later. lots of projects this weekend so it can't be that full and perfect. We'll also put the fastback portion on, rear bumper, side skirts and rear quarter panels, and install the taillights that I have coming in the mail, which have been paid for and are shipping out monday.. OH and put the doors back on.




sunday, we will admire all our hard work, finish up whatever we didnt cram into the past three days, and possibly clean up the firebird dash install.

SO as you can see, we've got a ridiciulous schedule planned, and it probably won't work out this well in real life, but i'll post progress and pictures as I go.

If anyone needs photos or anything of any of this progress, let me know specifically what you want and I'll do my best!

Thanks for reading
Matthew

So!! An update. I got my gauges from Jonathan Miller, and he really came through!

I got antsy tonight, and in an hour and a half, I tore out my dash and cluster, and then I plugged my new cluster and it worked!

Then I got even more antsy and did some dremel action, and fit my firebird dash in there. Its not pretty, but it will do for a few days.

Well, we took the day off yesterday to relax and go to the pull-a-part, and look around. I picked up some gas struts for the front and rear lids, havent put them on yet.

Also got a center console out of a 92 firebird to match the dash, for a mere 7 dollars! It needs to be painted on one portion, but its in great shape. I'll mess with that in a few days too.

We also picked up a bracket for the steering column, which we had hoped to use in our firebird dash swap, which was awesome as it seems to have worked out well..

My day started like this....And I don't want to be yelled at about my stupidity and complete lack of safety, i beat myself up for it enough already.,.

My car doesn't have an ebrake. It doesnt have a neutral safety switch. SO, I'm adding fluid in the car, radiator fluid, and I go to start it to circulate some fluids, so I reach in, facing the back of the car, and crank it over. Stupid me left the car in reverse, and the high idle kicks in, and the car just runs me over and lands itself in a ditch, It went pretty fast, and my friend was on the passenger side, and managed to jump in right as it started moving, so he shut it off once it landed in the ditch.

This is what it landed in. I got up in a daze and was like... wtf just happened. got terrified cause I didnt see my friend, thought he was rolled under the car, and landed in the ditch beneath it. But i see him shut it off from inside and was relieved, to say the least



We pull it out, as shown here....



And check it out. No damage seen, minus a piece of door panel that snapped off on my hip as the car went over me. My left hand was rolled under the damn front tire, and i'm pretty badly scraped up on the knees and hands. It was damn ridiculous.

We check out the car, and it seems fine, we start it up, runs, drove it and it seems to have developed a wander in the passenger tire, not sure what thats about.

So that was the morning. Next post will detail our progress, because of course we trucked on once we figured out the car was okay.....

Matt I am at the same stage you are. It was cold in the garage all winter and have put it off till warmer climates arrived. So tomorrow I plan on attaching the dash to the car itself and making the bridges required to mate it up to the metel band under the windshield. I haven't ordered the harness yet but will order it next month. Hopefully in person if JScott comes to the Fiero gathering in San Antonio. I am going to bring my gauges, gauge pigtail and GT gauges along as well. I am going to also ask Jonathan to please put the wires I need for my HUD on the harness as well. (picked up a HUD on Ebay for 50 bucks) Tomorrow I will also cut and test fit the center console to the car (I got a 2000 console as I heard they are wider then the earlier ones). I will send you some pics to show you where I am at. I also am doing the LeBaron brake upgrade with the Caddy Seville rear calipers to keep my e-brake (kinda need it on the 5 speed). Glad to see the ditching of the Fiero only resulted in minor damage.

Shelby

Shelby..

Did you not do what I did, as far as cutting of the snout and making that bracket for the steering column so you didnt hae to make the bridge? My dash will be bolting on simply with self tapping screws right up to that metal band.

If I were you I'd order it soonish, it takes jonathan a while to make them, as he has his own projects and a full time job, the harnesses he makes are only a part time gig, if that. I ordered mine and had my gauges at his house in october, and didn't get the whole kit until a couple weeks ago, in march. Its a spare time only kind of deal for him, so you need to give him some notice so he isn't rushed.

I thought about doing the HUD thing, but I didnt feel like going through the headaches. Now to updates...

Matt yeah I did cut the snout but I have both outter attachment points are a little shy of reaching so I am making 2 U shapped brackets to attach to. I am no rush with mine just yet because I am not done gathering parts (4.9 caddy and 6 speed) plush it is no where near ready for paint so I have time. I guess you will be done before me...damn and I was soo close Damn sorry to hear about the hubs and the loss of oil press; but at least you found it before winding up in another ditch. The fast back is going to look good on that and I dig the tail lights. I think I am going to go with the round ones with the Ferrari lamps (Have a friend in Aviano AB who might be able to help me out). Looks good man. I am still needed to send you those pics. I'll take your e-mail to work tomorrow and send them from my .mil address and include my home as well. Later man.

Shelby

FYI, I think you'll find, if you mock up your dash while its all in there, that those two outer attachment points won't reach because your column hasn't been brought up enough. Thats the problem we had, and having those rear points mounted like they were was pretty much keeping it in the stock position.

We fixed this by putting like 4 washers on the back points, and THEN putting those nuts on slightly, then we marked and drilled holes to put two bolts and nuts on the front points, thus bringing those flush, and then after we had those flush we tightened down the rear nuts with the washers so it accomplished what we wanted, which was bringing up the column. Its these little details that they don't mention in the other threads, because its all completely custom on how you want to get the job done. Just like permenantly mounting the dash and whatnot. You've gotta find your own way after a certain point.

Looking forward to an email. We got quite a bit done, permenantly mounted the dash today, and got all our wiring srted and figured out. Now we're doing stuff with the center console, we're gonna do a really custom job with part of it, but I won't reveal that until its done

Posting some pics tomorrow with my progress, its really coming together nicely.

matthew

quote Originally posted by ARFiero: Matt yeah I did cut the snout but I have both outter attachment points are a little shy of reaching so I am making 2 U shapped brackets to attach to. I am no rush with mine just yet because I am not done gathering parts (4.9 caddy and 6 speed) plush it is no where near ready for paint so I have time. I guess you will be done before me...damn and I was soo close Damn sorry to hear about the hubs and the loss of oil press; but at least you found it before winding up in another ditch. The fast back is going to look good on that and I dig the tail lights. I think I am going to go with the round ones with the Ferrari lamps (Have a friend in Aviano AB who might be able to help me out). Looks good man. I am still needed to send you those pics. I'll take your e-mail to work tomorrow and send them from my .mil address and include my home as well. Later man. Shelby

Progress!!

So heres the story. I obviously dropped the car into a ditch. Had some oil pressure issues, so I assume it means the oil pump went bad. Seemed like the likeliest thing cause I could hear a noise.

I cut my exhaust apart, find my massive exhaust leak in the firewall header where the gasket had completely fallen apart (it seems someone saw fit to use cheap gaskets, I replaced with aluminum mr gaskets) and completely removed the entire exhaust system. I also finished the big huge parts of the body swap, I'm going to wait till I get to georgia to do the sunroof swap, as I havent got the time before I go on vaca to finish that part, and I may have lost my hardware.

I dropped the pan, which required the removal of the exhaust, the lifting of the engine several inches, wherein I found that I was missing the passenger side two mounting bolts that hold the engine to the frame for the most part, and keep it from rocking and torqueing (sp?) on itself when you gas it. This explained so much about why it seemed so rough when I hit the throttle even the slightest bit. Some ridiculous stuff there, but I called archie (thanks arch!!!!) to verify that bolts went on this part of the bracket, cause I couldnt think why it was there unless it actually bolted to the engine!!

Put the new header gaskets on, put the new oil pump on, new pan, filled with mobil 1 synthetic, and started her up!! Sounded harsh as hell with open headers, but it ran fairly smooth. I found a miss, which turned out to be the number 1 spark plug had cracked due to the alternator being RIGHT against the boot for the spark plug. Badly placed alternator. I removed all the plugs, replaced with accel header plugs and accel 90 degree spark plug wires and that fixed the issue of the alternator. wasn't cheap to buy those accels though. I did find out that my gauge wasn't working, my oil pressure gauge was shot. So i odn't think I needed to do ANY exhaust removal or oil pan dropping. I replaced the gauge with a mechanical gauge and also replaced the water temp gauge, as I couldnt have mismatched gauges. They look 10x better than that sunpro crap anyway.
Drove it to the muffler shop near me, (LOUD!!) and had them put new colletors and an entirely new piping system on there, and my new flowmaster super 40's (which I picked up for 100 dollars for the pair from a hard up friend) and asked the guys how much they charged for the same mufflers. they said 100 EACH!!

Anyway it sounds so amazing. i'm going to try to get a recording and put it up, but it just sounds so sweet. I finished wring up the tail lights and I have some minor stuff like molding pieces and a gas cap door, and putting the side view mirrors back on.


for the DASH, i permenantly mounted it, and its very sturdy. looks just fantastic too. I also put my center console in and mounted that, but the center piece with the stupid cupholder and jazz just looked retarded, and I didn't have the leather, so I've got something special planned, I'll try it out tomorrow. We'll see how it works.

I also mounted the sub behind the dash, so its completely hidden and still sounds great! I really need to get photos of this, I don't beliee i've posted anything about the stereo system yet!

big things to do now..
paint
cutting a hole and putting a cowl or something on the rear decklid, as there are clearance issues with the new hood and my air cleaner. I'm gonna see if a shop can't do it for me tomorrow.
Taking care of the missing center console piece
Covering up the ECM
Putting my firebird door panels on (i'm going with the stock ones for now due to lack of time)

and i'm sure a dozen other things I'm just not thinking about right now. Here are some photos.

Matt, I got my dash Hard mounted and you were right I missed a cut in the metal bracing on the left of the steering wheel. After the cut it slid right up. The only extension I have to make is the one bolt hole in the upper left corner and the two bottom mounts. I am in San Antonio right now because I came to the Roundup and met John. I gave him all the stuff to make my harness to include the H.U.D. and harness to run it. I am working on the center console like you but after test fitting it I also have some concerns but John talked me though some on what he did (nearly gutted all the back glove box). Now I have to make a computer cover. I have decided on the 4.9 Caddy swap and was told of a shop in Arkansas that does the entire harness so that I can use the ECM and not have a nightmare on my hands.

I started sanding the body again and have quite a bit to go but it should be prepped for paint by the end of May. I plan on doing a Warber hood scoop from Archie on mine so I am going to be learning fiberglassing skills soon.

So Far yours looks great. What did you do for the A/C ducting? I would like to see that if you have pictures. I'll post pics when I get back to Little Rock (have ya heard this before??? LOL)

Shelby

[This message has been edited by ARFiero (edited 04-27-2009).]