Orchidwild has her own '86 SE.. really enjoys the car she does (well, she will when I get her bent cluch pedal fixed)... But there are some things that just bothered her about it. One of those things were the badly discolored, chipped and cracked deck vents on the back. Tonight, she decides it's time to do something about it.

She had me do the rough removal of the old paint and primer..

The devil is in the detail...

She wet sanded the metal to give the primer a good base..

Rattle can primer.. gotta love it!

Finished product. Basically, Krylon semi-flat deep black. The pictures just don't do these justice. No runs, smooth as a baby's bottom. She really did an excellent job in painting these IMHO.

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hokt on foniks werkd fer me!

Nice job! I hope you didn't get too much dust in your drink!

[This message has been edited by rodmcneill (edited 03-05-2004).]

quote Originally posted by rodmcneill: Nice job! I hope you didn't get too much dust in your drink!

Notice I let him have a change of drinks in picture two

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85 SE

Wow, those are pretty impressive.

Makes me want to do the same thing to them actually..

very good job!!

Matt

NICE!

Nice! Gives me motivation to do mine as well

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AIM: gtfastbackgt

fastback vents are easier to do than notchback ones

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Sweet!! Gotta do what ya gotta do!

Rob D.

Wow...I was thinking of doing my brothers at one time. How long did the sanding take on them?

that looks great, but i think you put too much time/effort into it
a can of aircrafr remover would have done the trick, just spray it on, scrape it off, spray it on again rince it off with the hose and your redy to paint

GREAT JOB. I did this on my notchie and, let me tell everyone. This is no easy job.

The paint remover, as mentioned above, does not work that easy.

Looks good.. I recently repainted mine and I also painted the Quarter piller black as well since it was faded. I used a gloss black and did it with a rattle can. In the next few weeks I plan to get the Front and rear bumpers repainted in trade for my blazer... however that will be done by a Body shop with a paint gun. I am preparing my car for a car show next month.
I also removed the lower portion of the vents to get better air flow out of them. I had to get a new battery, for one the old battery just didnt look good being able to see it thru the vent... and it wasnt holding a full charge as well, so it was time to replace it.
I got one of those yellow everstart batterys.

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Don Pottorff
www.vmf323.com
Red 88 2M4
Silver 86 2M4

I give a - to those who correct spelling. I couldnt care less If I spell something wrong.

quote Originally posted by $Rich$: that looks great, but i think you put too much time/effort into it a can of aircrafr remover would have done the trick, just spray it on, scrape it off, spray it on again rince it off with the hose and your redy to paint

Perhaps.. but there were imperfections in the metal, dings, chips, etc that the mechanical removal helped to smooth out that chemical removal wouldn't have been able to do.

Besides.. I got to use power tools!

quote Originally posted by $Rich$: that looks great, but i think you put too much time/effort into it a can of aircrafr remover would have done the trick, just spray it on, scrape it off, spray it on again rince it off with the hose and your redy to paint

we did feirobears that way and it did not work so easy.i'm not even sure if he finished them.

that brushed aluminum look ... i like that

Chester and I have created a monster!! Datacop saw our Fieros and then had to have one. Now they are up to 2 Fieros in a very short time! Addictive, aren't they?!

quote Originally posted by WhiteFieroGT: that brushed aluminum look ... i like that

I was just thinking the same thing. Wonder how that would look on a car?
Maybe i'll find out, and if it dosn't look so hot, well, my vents needed to be painted anyways.

does anyone know FOR SURE, what years those vents came on? If you look at 88fiero2m4, you will notice there are no 'fins' on the bottom. These vents are much lighter than the other notchie vents. I managed to find one that is just the driver side. I would like to get the other one, but I can't find for sure what years these vents came on, vs the others. An 86 coupe I had, had 1 of each. Just wondering if there was a reason for the difference in vents, or why the switched designs....?

quote Originally posted by Jncomutt: does anyone know FOR SURE, what years those vents came on? If you look at 88fiero2m4, you will notice there are no 'fins' on the bottom. These vents are much lighter than the other notchie vents. I managed to find one that is just the driver side. I would like to get the other one, but I can't find for sure what years these vents came on, vs the others. An 86 coupe I had, had 1 of each. Just wondering if there was a reason for the difference in vents, or why the switched designs....?

Something sticks in my head that the "honeycomb" mesh vents were '85-only... but I don't know why that sticks in my head

Not the mesh... some vents are shaped / only. Other are /l I'm wondering what the differences in them are... Look... (these are spare parts)

quote Originally posted by MinnGreenGT: Something sticks in my head that the "honeycomb" mesh vents were '85-only... but I don't know why that sticks in my head

Her vents are off of an 86 and have the mesh on the bottom. They are held on by small clips. We seperated the mesh from the grills for painting and sanding.

quote Originally posted by Jncomutt: Not the mesh... some vents are shaped / only. Other are /l I'm wondering what the differences in them are... Look... (these are spare parts) https://www.fiero.nl/uploads/imgs2003/P1010356.JPG https://www.fiero.nl/uploads/imgs2003/P1010357.JPG

Yeah... that's right - and I believe they were different because of the different style lower sections - the one with the "/ only" vent, I was thinking went with the "honeycomb" pattern ones. The one with the "/I" had the heaviery lower section. But again... I'm just going off memory right now!

quote Originally posted by datacop: Her vents are off of an 86 and have the mesh on the bottom. They are held on by small clips. We seperated the mesh from the grills for painting and sanding.

Doh! I've apparently been smoking too much crack lately Nevermind me...

If it helps, my '85 has the /I vents and the honeycomb mesh underneath. I bought the car in '89 and AFAIK they are stock.

I refinished my 85 vents by bead blasting them. Took less than 30 minutes of easy work. Most machine shops have bead blasters and will do it for you for just a few bucks.

After beading, I hosed them off to remove the glass bead residue, let them dry, sprayed them down with white vinegar to remove impurities from the surface, dried them again, then primed and painted them with rattle cans. Been about 7 years now and they've weathered well.

Since I have a sand blaster and a powder coater, I'll be redoing mine in to look like highly polished alluminium. We use that color on manifols we make for MR2s and it looks great. As of now, they are just spray-bomb aluminium and look good on my black 86GT. I will post pics of the almost-chrome look and hope to have them done in time for Carlisle. With my turbo install my currant priority, they'll have to wait. Here's something you might want to try, to go with the aluminum engine vents, I put a mesh gril up front and also cut mesh covers for the turn signals. The way they are recessed, they look like small scoops with the grils, yet you can still see them when you use your turn signal. They even passed state inspection. Guess l'll have to post pics of those too. Total cost, under $5!

I just saw this thread while looking for the original car cover thread. I did the vent on Jane's 84 last year. It's the year model with the big vent in the center. Sanded, washed, primered, then painted. Wet sanded again, then another coat of black satin. On the 84 center vent, a tremendous amt of heat comes out that vent. The paint has literally burned off in places. I'll re do it with hi temp engine paint. I also added a set of side vents from an 86. They have the / vents,with the honeycomb mesh. I removed the mesh, sanded & painted it the same basse color as the rest of the car. White. Painted the vents themselves black, then reattached the honeycomb mesh (we don't have tree-no leaves either). It really looks good, with the white mesh underneath. I have a picture of the finished vents, but none with them installed, but I can't post pics here.

Jnco,
my 85 has the mesh stuff under the vents. i believe they changed the design due to the fact that leaves and other flammable materials would gather in the vents and eventually pass through to the engine compartment. Possilbly causing fires. Not sure whne the change occured though. And i never realized the notchback vents came in two different deflections like you showed in your pic.

does those type of vent hurt the battery or anything when it rains??

No, won't hurt the battery at all, however, removing the grill panel under the vent panel allows sunlight to fade the wiring to an even shade of pinkish-white. That makes trouble shooting a wee bit difficult. I suspect that's why GM ditched the honeycomb and went with the louvered panel under the grill.

JazzMan

quote Originally posted by JazzMan: No, won't hurt the battery at all, however, removing the grill panel under the vent panel allows sunlight to fade the wiring to an even shade of pinkish-white. That makes trouble shooting a wee bit difficult. I suspect that's why GM ditched the honeycomb and went with the louvered panel under the grill. JazzMan

thanks for the info, i'm still trying to gather as much info about fieros as i can

Orchid pleez talk to my wife,id love to be doing car repairs in the house,instead of the dusty old shed.

Last year I painted a set of honeycomb type vents like you did and they looked perfect. I could not get them to fit properly on my louvered mounts. It is possible that I did not try hard enough.

Two weeks ago I did the same project to mine. I used sandpaper in stead of a Dremel though. My choice of paint was gloss black lacquer. They turned out very nice.

I have a question. that honeycomb grate on the back of the decklid vents, is that really neccesary? does it serve any purpose other than getting clogged with leaves?

I found out at the swap meet that those grilles are supposedly made of magnesium. One of the guys there took a pair to have welded together, and as I recall, the weldor was a little nervous about it, and wouldn't guarantee that the things wouldn't burn. He probably did it on a mig welder with the gas turned way up to keep the air away long enough for the metal to cool past the flash point. I wonder how they'd look stripped, polished, and clearcoated?

quote Originally posted by my2m4fiero: I have a question. that honeycomb grate on the back of the decklid vents, is that really neccesary? does it serve any purpose other than getting clogged with leaves?

Keeping the leaves and other combustibles out of the engine area for a start. The last thing you'd want is to park under a tree in the fall, have a bunch of dry leaves settle on the exhaust manifold, start the car up only to have it catch fire cause of the leaves heating up on the hot manifold.

I was thinking about repainting mine flat black... I think gloss/semigloss might make it look kinda funny... Never heard of this 'semi-black' you speak of...

Semi-gloss has a soft glow that looks very nice. It looks very classy when installed on a nice car.

I think gloss black may be a bit more durable though. I wanted something that was easy to take care of as well.

What I have noticed about deck lid vents is that you usually only notice them if they look bad. If they look nice they disappear into the car.

The grilles are magnesium and, IMHO, they don't polish worth a darn. I was playing with mine on the Mighty Duke and decided to try out a chrome powder coating on them. They came out pretty well considering I spent a whopping 30 minutes of prep time on the two of them counting blast cabinet, washing, and all the other time involved. They're definitely shiny. Now the '84 center grille pretty much looks like crap because it won't fit in my oven to powder coat it, but it serves the purpose of a full width deck lid opening to let the heat out and that's all the Duke's interested in.

John Stricker

quote Originally posted by Vonov: I found out at the swap meet that those grilles are supposedly made of magnesium. One of the guys there took a pair to have welded together, and as I recall, the weldor was a little nervous about it, and wouldn't guarantee that the things wouldn't burn. He probably did it on a mig welder with the gas turned way up to keep the air away long enough for the metal to cool past the flash point. I wonder how they'd look stripped, polished, and clearcoated?

Here is a photo of how mine look with gloss black.

quote Originally posted by Black-Azz-GT: GREAT JOB. I did this on my notchie and, let me tell everyone. This is no easy job. The paint remover, as mentioned above, does not work that easy.

Found that out last weekend