Today is my second day home from Iraq, and the weather was too beautiful to just let it go to waste. So we pulled the cover off my daughter Angelica's car, and we began some work. First order of business, there was no battery for the car. It's been sitting for a few years. The battery in my car also did not survive my deployment, so we both went off to Sears for a pair of Die Hard batteries. When we got back, I installed the battery and checked the fluids before attempting to turn it over. Now I had no clue what the condition of the drivetrain in this car, but to my amazement, it fired up shortly after cranking. And it actually ran pretty good.
After getting it running, we decided to start the project off. Since I put my new wheels on today, she got my GT rims for her car. What a difference those make of a coupe with steelies. She did all of the work herself, taking the wheels off of my car, and putting them on hers. We also decided that the car would look better with an 85+ trunk lid, and I just happened to have one with the vents. So she removed her 84 lid, and put the 88 lid I had, as well as a wing for it. She did fantastic work, considering she has never touched a car in her life. She actually plans to leave the car as a coupe body, even though we have an entire set of GT fascias and ground effects. I must admit, I love the way a coupe looks with the GT stockers. We have decided to get 87-88 coupe bumpers for the car though. Should look pretty sweet. Anyway here's the progress for today.
It's already starting to look much better. We have some bugs to work out, throwing a CEL code, have some light impact bumper damage up front, and the slave cylinder is not working well. But we made a very good start.
Were the "new wheels" the ones you got from me? If so post a pic.
Thank you everyone, it does feel great to be doing this with my kids!
Hi Henri, yes those new wheels are the ones I bought off of you. By far the best deal I have ever gotten for my Fiero! Thanks again. If you want to see them mounted, they are here: https://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum1/HTML/079191.html
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03:12 PM
Jan 22nd, 2010
Hulki U. My-BFF Member
Posts: 5949 From: Back home in East Berlin, PA Registered: Apr 2008
So she took advantage of somewhat mild weather after school to remove her taillights and exchange them with the ones on my parts car. Those were in great shape and were not sun-faded like hers were. As usual, she did all of the work herself.
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08:01 PM
GT86FASTBACK Member
Posts: 757 From: Monroeville, PA Registered: Jul 2009
You gotta love that. A beautiful girl who works on her own car. You did a great job of raising her. And that little car has alot of potential if she keeps at it. Every car needs a devoted owner IMO.Keep up to good work!
Yo Andy. You should look into thoes diffrent taillgiht lenses for her ill talk to mattwa and see where he got them The look 100% better than the stock notchie ones. Shame though. She choes the notchback over the dark side of the fastback
[This message has been edited by pontiackid86 (edited 01-22-2010).]
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09:00 PM
johnyrottin Member
Posts: 5492 From: Northwest Florida Registered: Oct 2007
Well, today we got a little more work done on Angelica's car. I had her pull the front bumper off to see just how bad the collision damage was underneath. It's worse than I thought, but we will fix it. I will cut the bad section out, and we will weld in a good section off of my last parts car. Here she is in action:
And here's the damage we are looking at.
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07:04 PM
katatak Member
Posts: 7136 From: Omaha, NE USA Registered: Apr 2008
Your daughter is putting me to shame with build speed... Better keep her locked up, or at least a gun handy, just mentioning "Girl who works on her own fiero" on this forum can cause spontaneous apoplectic fits...
Welcome home, and thank you for serving our country..
------------------ ---------------------------------------------------- Currently in the middle of my 88 + 3800NA swap
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12:07 AM
fierocarparts Member
Posts: 2552 From: Dallas-Fort Worth TEXAS Registered: Feb 2009
Welcome home! Your daughter sounds like a great kid. There is no way in Heaven that I could get my daughter to do anything like Angelica does. You have every reason to be proud. I wish her luck with the Fiero and please post some pics of her driving it.
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09:22 AM
PFF
System Bot
Aug 8th, 2010
Hulki U. My-BFF Member
Posts: 5949 From: Back home in East Berlin, PA Registered: Apr 2008
So yesterday, we finally got some time to work on this beast. It definitely has some issues, the Duke is running like poop, and the clutch will not engage. It also had a pretty decent valve cover gasket leak, so we took care of that. Once that was on and everything was back together, Angelica and I went to work on the GT body that we have for it. Unfortunately, we only had time enough to install the rear bumper. But Angelica did almost all of the work herself, and I was right there by her side to offer a hand when needed.
Hulki, I just want to say that its really great seeing pics like that.. You just can't find that kind of motivation with young people these days, nice to see you guys spending quality time together.. I always wished I could do a project like this with a close relative.
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06:19 PM
SNAPPY829 Member
Posts: 346 From: Cary, Illinois Registered: Mar 2009
Awsome work Angellica!!! The car is really transformed already. Once she gets the mechanicals sorted she will be soooooooooo proud to drive it and show her friends!!! They wont even know wtf it is!!! Hulki, there is no substitute for quality time with your daughter or son, it just doesnt get any better than this!
------------------ If I only had ONE more part it will be finished...... famous last words.....
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11:14 PM
Sep 4th, 2010
Hulki U. My-BFF Member
Posts: 5949 From: Back home in East Berlin, PA Registered: Apr 2008
Today was a very productive day as far as I'm concerned. First, we drove over to Chris Hahn's to cut the front corner off his parts car. Angelica did most of the cutting with the sawzall and ended up with this nice piece
And after cutting the damaged corner out of her car
I made a slight boo-boo while cutting from her car
Angelica soldering my screw-up
New corner welded in. My Campbell-Hausfeld wire feed arc welder does not shine in this area and likes to blow through sheet metal. After many really craptacious welds, Angelica cleaned and painted the welds and some rust areas. After that we applied some black door/window sealant to the edges inside the headlight bucket.
And all finished up!
Angelica changed out her stock shift knob for a Hurst knob that AlanD was nice enough to give to us.
It was nice to see both headlights now going up and down. We also did manage to get the hood put back on, but for some reason it's not latching. We'll have to figure that out next time.
[This message has been edited by Hulki U. My-BFF (edited 09-04-2010).]
Damn her cuts are almost as good as mine. unfortunatley i dident fix my frame i just junked the whole car. good to see you got some stuff done today though. it was a nice day for it.. i got a few things done on the imsa as well.
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09:47 PM
kyunderdawg Member
Posts: 4373 From: Bowling Green, KY. USA Registered: Aug 2008
Heck I kinda like the contrast of a black decklid to a white car. I'd rock it like that for a while, lol.
It has to beat the grind that you just left. Welcome home! 
How did I miss this ? This is awesome, Hulki. Car is coming along nicely. You got a tripple threat on your hands.....
Better get you one of these if you don't already.......
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