With winter here, I've begun working on my Fiero project. I expect I'll get some mixed reviews on this one, but I'm looking forward to the results.

Here's the victim:


Bought for $300 originally , I daily drove this car for about 2 1/2 years year round. Only a few issues, had to drop the engine twice, but served me well overall. The picture makes it look a bit better than it is, the upper half of the car is missing paint

Now for the overhaul:

Fastback Kit
T-Top Kit
Lowering Springs
Poly suspension
KYB
Bumperpad Fascias
Wide front Fenders (Hopefully)
Slightly wider rear (Also Hopefully)

I'm debating on looking for a Kamei kit as well, but am sticking with regular fascias for now.

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"If any car is both the parade and the rain, it is the Fiero"

Driving a Fiero is like driving a Rough-Draft, Pontiac got it to work, now its up to you to make it a good car.

[This message has been edited by Xanth (edited 01-20-2011).]

I've started working on the rear, dropped out the struts and knuckles.


These bolts were horribly seized. I was debating whether or not to just buy replacement knuckles. I managed to separate them finally after about 3 days of applying Freez-Off, Impact Wrench, and a big hammer.




Here's what my struts+springs looked like


Some replacement parts, a Sandblaster, and ceramic paint leaves me with this so far:


I'm using the FieroStore 88 lowering springs and KYB struts for the time being. I may end up swapping out for coil-overs in the rear but we'll see. I also bought Rodney Dickman's zero-lash endlinks.

Hi Xanth, none of the pics are showing up.....

pics work on mine, looks like a good project good luck!

Yep, pics work fine! The bumper-pad fascias have ribbed molding, are you going to change the door and fender trim to ribbed also?

I will be swapping the molding all the way around, I like the round molding better but I definitely don't want to mix the two.

I already bought a set of ribbed marker lights from the FieroStore. Not totally sure if I'm going to use them or not though. In my initial line-ups the curvature on them seems like it may be a bit off and stick out oddly.

xanth i have a set of ribbed molding from when I changed my car to round.

oooh another build thread
i hope you didnt reuse the old struts??? if so i hope that was only oil from the freeze off that i saw on them

quote Originally posted by Fiero1Fan: Hi Xanth, none of the pics are showing up.....

Now they are working fine..... strange. Looks really good.

Good Times! This looks like it will be a perfect build to watch over the long winter hibernation. Maybe draw up some inspiration for our own projects!


..... just rememeber, lots of pics!

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1984 Base Coupe Red Stock MY8
1984 SE Black Stock

2002 Grand Prix GTP 40th Anniv. Stock

quote Originally posted by BlackGT Codde: oooh another build thread i hope you didnt reuse the old struts??? if so i hope that was only oil from the freeze off that i saw on them

The struts are new KYBs, those ones I yanked out might actually be originals, but I'm not totally sure. Some of that oil was freeze-off, some was from the strut

I've ordered the poly link kit from FieroStore, going to clean up the extra set of links I just purchased here. I'm undecided on how to paint these. I usually see them totally assembled then painted, but I don't think I want to paint the threaded portion. I'll definitely be needing an alignment once this car is done and I want to make sure everything works properly.




I'm going to try and make replacement brake dust shields with stainless steel. I don't think I really need them anyway, but I want to see if I can duplicate them nicely.




And some of this for the chassis as I go along:

http://www.por15.com/MIX-PACK/productinfo/MPBC/

quote Originally posted by Xanth: With winter here, I've begun working on my Fiero project. I expect I'll get some mixed reviews on this one, but I'm looking forward to the results. Here's the victim: Bought for $300 originally , I daily drove this car for about 2 1/2 years year round. Only a few issues, had to drop the engine twice, but served me well overall. The picture makes it look a bit better than it is, the upper half of the car is missing paint Now for the overhaul: Fastback Kit T-Top Kit Lowering Springs Poly suspension KYB Bumperpad Fascias Wide front Fenders (Hopefully) Slightly wider rear (Also Hopefully) I'm debating on looking for a Kamei kit as well, but am sticking with regular fascias for now.

Honestly, if you only paid $300 for it, I don't see how anyone could even be remotely upset about what you decide to do with it.


What are you planning on doing with the body panels that you remove? (IE front and rear bumpers). You should try to sell them. Those are getting rare too. I suppose that doesn't make them worth any more, but still, there's got to be someone lokoing for them.

It's funny... the people in the South all have a rust-free chassis with somewhat warped panels, while the guys up north all have immaculately unwarped panels, with a rotted out chassis...


If you end up throwing them out, I might be interested in them. Don't really need them, but I'd just hate to see them get junked.

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Todd,
2008 Jeep Patriot Limited 4x2
2002 Ford Explorer Sport 2dr 4x2
2002 Ford Crown Victoria LX
1987 Pontiac Fiero SE / V6
1973 Volkswagen Type-2 Transporter

I definitely won't throw anything away, I'll probably hang onto most of the Formula stuff in case I get finished and don't like my bodystyle choices.


My poly bushings arrived today, FieroStore got them out the door real quick like apparently. Now I have to decide how I want to remove the bushings. I think I'm going to rig up something to press them out rather than burn them.

quote Originally posted by Xanth: I definitely won't throw anything away, I'll probably hang onto most of the Formula stuff in case I get finished and don't like my bodystyle choices. My poly bushings arrived today, FieroStore got them out the door real quick like apparently. Now I have to decide how I want to remove the bushings. I think I'm going to rig up something to press them out rather than burn them.

Yeah, I always get really weary about burning them out, but that's how I've always done it.

------------------
Todd,
2008 Jeep Patriot Limited 4x2
2002 Ford Explorer Sport 2dr 4x2
2002 Ford Crown Victoria LX
1987 Pontiac Fiero SE / V6
1973 Volkswagen Type-2 Transporter

Finally had time to do some more disassembly:

Driver's side exposed:


Some rust towards the rear:


Some more to the front:


Passenger side:


Bit more rust here:


This seems to be the worst rust area. The old batteries leaked down and ruined the metal:



Bumper frame isn't as bad as I expected:


Overall the rust doesn't seem bad. My next step will be cleaning up and getting ready to POR15 the rear end. Not totally sure what I will do with the rust-through spots. I'll have to check inside and see if it reaches the frame rail.

She looks awesome Xanth!

Man I Love Those Black Dimond Spoke Rims.

Some follow up from above:

I wire-wheeled and cleaned the driver's side rear. Breaking up loose rust bits and scuffing up the clean surfaces to paint. I didn't stop to take any pictures of this, pretty much the same as above but with scratches

After POR15 application:







I used almost a whole 4oz can of the POR15 doing this side. Covers about the area I would have expected.

[This message has been edited by Xanth (edited 02-10-2011).]

Does anyone happen to know if the swaybar can somehow be removed without dropping the cradle? (Or cutting the bar) I'd like to clean the bar but dropping the cradle is not on the schedule for this particular project session.

Also, when I paint the knuckles, is there anything that I should not paint besides the threaded holes? Will paint on the mating surface between the knuckle and the wheel bearing cause any problems?

New goodies arrived today:

Looking awesome I'm dreaming of the day when I'll have the down time to take everything apart that you have and get'em looking that good.
Marc

I have also redone most of my Formula.

You dont have to apply POR-15 everywhere. This paint is very expensive. I just treated rusted spots and finish the color with good old tremclad black semi-gloss.

I took a lot of pictures (more than 1000) Follow the links in my signature.

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"I'm not driving too fast, . . . I'm just flying too low."

Work done 07-08 | Work done 08-09 | Work done 09-10 | Work done 10-11 |
4.9 ongoing project | Parts for sale

So I've been working more on this, rerouting wiring and whatnot in the engine bay, getting the suspension together, and all was going well...



Bonus Points if you can guess which one this is. I ran out of cuss words before I even got a chance to open my mouth.

Exhaust manifold stud?

quote Originally posted by Xanth: So I've been working more on this, rerouting wiring and whatnot in the engine bay, getting the suspension together, and all was going well... Bonus Points if you can guess which one this is. I ran out of cuss words before I even got a chance to open my mouth.

Bingo!

Front Right Upper stud to be exact.

Another new toy arrived today:





I still haven't decided how to go about repairing the exhaust stud. Debating on whether or not to pull the heads to do it.

quote Originally posted by Xanth: Another new toy arrived today: I still haven't decided how to go about repairing the exhaust stud. Debating on whether or not to pull the heads to do it.

Hey, that's mine! Hope you enjoy it and put it to a good use. I'll be watching this thread.

Do you have an questions on how I set it up or anything?

[This message has been edited by mattwa (edited 04-13-2011).]

So far looks pretty straightforward, I'll probably change the throttle body setup from the way you have it now. At the moment, I still have a distributor. I've also re-located a bunch of the engine wiring to move it to the back side of the intakes, tossing ideas around in my head how to manage connecting the two throttles together.

quote Originally posted by Xanth: So far looks pretty straightforward, I'll probably change the throttle body setup from the way you have it now. At the moment, I still have a distributor. I've also re-located a bunch of the engine wiring to move it to the back side of the intakes, tossing ideas around in my head how to manage connecting the two throttles together.

I would suggest Toyota style - single shaft with both butterflies on it. Little bit of machining involved on the throttle bodies but entirely achievable, assuming both throttle bodies are aligned equally to one another. Means one TPS, no linkages - just a shaft between the two. Cool project though, keep the updates coming.

quote Originally posted by Carcenomy: I would suggest Toyota style - single shaft with both butterflies on it. Little bit of machining involved on the throttle bodies but entirely achievable, assuming both throttle bodies are aligned equally to one another. Means one TPS, no linkages - just a shaft between the two. Cool project though, keep the updates coming.

There is still only one TPS in this setup, as the ECM could not handle two. Running a shaft down the center of the TB's was my original plan, I even lined up both TB's almost perfectly with an adapter plate made from Mike Gonzalez (sorry if I spelt that wrong) here on the PFF, but I just couldn't get it to work. I'm sure Xanth will have better luck with it.

Had a few minutes today to tinker with the car and better see what needs to be done:

Old intake is a Darrel Morse setup, also kind of shows how the visible wiring is gone from the trunk side of the engine:


Popped that off to get down to the lower intake, also shows my thermostat housing I need to chop the extra lines off of:


One thing I'm really liking now, is I have a perfect place to relocate my coil too. There is a lot of space underneath the cover where I can hide things. I had previously been trying to find an out of the way spot I could relocate the coil without running more wiring, now I can fit one easily under that cover.

One of my goals is also to move all the electronics and tubing to the firewall side throttle body where it won't be visible, and cut as much as possible off the second one. I will have to do something creative with the TPS I think, since I can't run a shaft straight through it. Perhaps it could be moved to the throttle cable side.

Here is how the dual setup sits in its current design, it sticks farther to the left than others I have seen, but I can't think of any reason why I should change that dimension at all:




The current throttle linkage actually stops just short of the distributor in its full open position, so if I decided to be hasty I could actually use this pretty much as-is:


Cover set on top:

[This message has been edited by Xanth (edited 04-14-2011).]

SWEET! I am myself surprised on how far it sticks out, and I'm even more surprised it clears the distributor! That looks great on it, I miss it already.
I may have missed it on this thread, but does that 2.8 run?

quote Originally posted by mattwa: SWEET! I am myself surprised on how far it sticks out, and I'm even more surprised it clears the distributor! That looks great on it, I miss it already. I may have missed it on this thread, but does that 2.8 run?

It does run actually, I believe popular phrase that describes it best is "was running when parked." This was actually my daily driver before I started tearing it apart. In theory, if I hook all the electronics back up it would run. It is definitely in desperate need of a cleaning.

[This message has been edited by Xanth (edited 04-15-2011).]

Alright, I've made the decision to pull the heads to repair the broken manifold stud. I have bought a head gasket set, gasket sealer, head bolts, and a spring compressor.

What I was wondering, is if I can compress the valves to remove the push rods and avoid having to re-adjust the valves when re-installing the heads. Is there a reason why I should not do this?

quote Originally posted by Xanth: Alright, I've made the decision to pull the heads to repair the broken manifold stud. I have bought a head gasket set, gasket sealer, head bolts, and a spring compressor. What I was wondering, is if I can compress the valves to remove the push rods and avoid having to re-adjust the valves when re-installing the heads. Is there a reason why I should not do this?

Yes! Yes you can!

Run to your local parts store and buy a Lisle GM V6 Rocker Arm tool... About 20 bucks, give or take.

Lisle Part Number 48500
http://www.amazon.com/Push-...ngines/dp/B000W1R276

I have one, and the thing is fantastic! Pull your upper/lower intake, pull the valve covers, use the tool to rock the arms (compressing the valve springs) and remove the pushrods.

Install is reverse of removal.