I've got a project I'm working on and felt it was time to share.



The patient going under the knife, started out as my old '87 gt.



The front clip started out as part of a tube frame I started building about 8 years ago and never got to finish, it uses C-4 Corvette spindles along with custom a-arms and Alden coilovers. In the process of fitting the front section to the frame, I moved the front axle centerline back 3 inches.



The Last body from my molds.
Here's the reason for what I'm doing. There's a problem with Fiero based Countach's, the Fiero passenger compartment is too far back relative to the Countach body placing the steering wheel farther back in the car than it needs to be, making it even more dificult to get in and out of. Moving the front centerline back also gains me that much room in the engine bay, this will be a huge help as it will get a 350 sbc w/ an Audi transaxle mounted longitudnaly.

Time still turns,
the pages of the book it's burned. Joe

[This message has been edited by motoracer838 (edited 09-06-2011).]

Awesome

quote Originally posted by LZeppelin513: Awesome

But wait, there's more.

Joe

wow. amazing. i'm actually curious how this will turn out

A few more pics for the night.





I'm building a tube frame around the Fiero tub, There won't be a whole lot left of the Fiero.

Joe

Looking good so far cant wait to see it done.

I am really interested to see what the final weight will be.

Starting to set up the back half.



Yes, that's an '88 rear cradle.



Big gokart.

Joe

As long as that motorcycle has no part of a trike build, you've got my blessing

quote Originally posted by Custom2M4: As long as that motorcycle has no part of a trike build, you've got my blessing

Trust me, my Nighthawk has no intention of being in any kind of trike build!!!

Cheers Beers n Gearz. Joe

Wow you have made some good progress, I might just have to come over and see this in person. Call me and let me know when we can see this master peice.

Amazing work! I love jumping into projects with two feet and accomplishing leaps and bounds but...this much is just a few days!? Please tell me these are pictures you found in your camera from early in the summer or even last year! I'm lucky to get a piece ready for fabrication each day, not building half a car. Looking forward to progress in this build but it sure is making me feel old and tired!

quote Originally posted by Reallybig: Amazing work! I love jumping into projects with two feet and accomplishing leaps and bounds but...this much is just a few days!? Please tell me these are pictures you found in your camera from early in the summer or even last year! I'm lucky to get a piece ready for fabrication each day, not building half a car. Looking forward to progress in this build but it sure is making me feel old and tired!

Most of the work has taken place in the last month or so, when I'm in the zone, I get a lot done, it helps that metal fab has been a part of my daily life since the mid '70s.

On to the latest updates.





It's amazing how well 1 1/2 X 3 box tube fits inside the Fiero frame rails.



I used 2 X 3 for the cross tube at the back of the cradle and the 1 1/2 X 3 is slid 8" into the original rails, if you look closely, you can see the holes I drilled for plug welds.





Starting to work up the mounts for the struts.







There will be gussets under the mounts to tie them into the frame, as well as some other bracing.

That's all for tonight, more tomorow night. Joe

More pics latter today.

Joe

Wow, that's awesome. I would love to do something like that someday in my future.

Joe,
That looks awesome!

Will

Work continues.



Looking up from the wheel well at the door jamb.







This is part of the structure that makes up the mount for the door hinges, yes there's more to come, it has to be very stiff or the door will work poorly.

Joe

Joe; Real cool project!!! ?? On the rear coil-overs, did you pre-set them to compensate for load to establish the mount point @ the top &
did you simply square the wheels from the floor as I see you have the whole frame hard mounted to keep it plumb & square. Will the ride
height be adjustable w/jack screw-lock nut @/or spacers, or just w/coil-over spring adjust ring? Top coil-over mount angle, picked up from fiero frame? Like the fish-mouth joints on the rear frame extensions-added weld area-added strength, along w/plug welds-zero flex.
laying out a similar project except mine is w/old school stuff. VERY interesting, I check ya out every day,lol. Rick

quote Originally posted by Rick Morehouse: Joe; Real cool project!!! ?? On the rear coil-overs, did you pre-set them to compensate for load to establish the mount point @ the top & did you simply square the wheels from the floor as I see you have the whole frame hard mounted to keep it plumb & square. Will the ride height be adjustable w/jack screw-lock nut @/or spacers, or just w/coil-over spring adjust ring? Top coil-over mount angle, picked up from fiero frame? Like the fish-mouth joints on the rear frame extensions-added weld area-added strength, along w/plug welds-zero flex. laying out a similar project except mine is w/old school stuff. VERY interesting, I check ya out every day,lol. Rick

Rick, Thanks for noticing the details, and excellent questions. Every thing is built around the established ride height, and the ride height can be fine tuned with the adjusters on the coilovers, the upper strut mounts are set up to mimick the original points relative to the cradle.

What are you working on???

Joe

I'm old school-Buick(87 Range Rover 3.5-old 215 C.I.) motor, a 62 Pontiac 4 spd transaxle & 65> Corvair trailing arms. Just old junk I've been draggin around for 30 yrs. Am starting w/fiero pass. tub & Vin plate. ?? What's your opinion of mating the Corvair U-joints w/outer
C/V joints?? The Corvair half shafts are tube, but I've got 3 different mate-ups for splined axles from Corvair/Tempest. I'd like to use an 88 K-frame/hubs. Your set-up is clean. I especially dig the fully fabbed front suspension. I don't want to hi-jack your thread here, so I'll go to
PMs/e-mails if that is ok? How many bodies have you or will you pull from your molds? Do you plan an integral roll bar/cage. Not sure if
you plan a targa top. Awesome build. Rick

quote Originally posted by Rick Morehouse: I'm old school-Buick(87 Range Rover 3.5-old 215 C.I.) motor, a 62 Pontiac 4 spd transaxle & 65> Corvair trailing arms. Just old junk I've been draggin around for 30 yrs. Am starting w/fiero pass. tub & Vin plate. ?? What's your opinion of mating the Corvair U-joints w/outer C/V joints?? The Corvair half shafts are tube, but I've got 3 different mate-ups for splined axles from Corvair/Tempest. I'd like to use an 88 K-frame/hubs. Your set-up is clean. I especially dig the fully fabbed front suspension. I don't want to hi-jack your thread here, so I'll go to PMs/e-mails if that is ok? How many bodies have you or will you pull from your molds? Do you plan an integral roll bar/cage. Not sure if you plan a targa top. Awesome build. Rick

Rick, Your drivetrain sounds interesting, I always wanted to do a V-8 Corvair back in the day, in the early '80's in Mt Vernon wa. there was a black V-8 'vair that was just sinister.

I suspect that using the Corvair u-joints w/ the Fiero outer cv's will give you headaches. I pulled 4 bodies from the molds before selling them, I do have the option of borrowing the to do another if the mood strikes. I might in a couple of years, this one is not for me. No roll bar, the body does have square tube steel support glassed in, but it's not a roll cage, no targa top.

On to today's work, wasn't feeling well yesterday, so I didn't get much done.





Front structure is far enough along that I can finish w/ the body off



Also got the rear kickers in, kinda hard to see w/ the body on, they form the support for the door latch striker, seatbelt mount and further stiffen the frame at a critical point. Body comes off tomorrow.

That's all for now. Joe

Joe, it looks like your stretch is "about" 18-20 inches? I set up the 3.5 V-8 to a 5 spd T/A & it is just too much work when I have a 4 spd
T/A all set up-but my stretch will need to be all of 22-24 inches. I can weld in a reverse tranny hump to the back of the pass.tub, maybe gain back 4". This will push a cab-forward design, some what like yours. The tread width will widened to 64" front/66"@ rear. I will be
using an 88 base coupe for starting frame. Did you move your front suspension center line forward or were you actually able to shorten it some because of your unique design? I'm working an 08 Buick Rendevous(spelling?) Suv IRS, forged alumimuim w/02 Grand Prix front
drive alum. hub carriers & driven hubs, bigger brakes also. This fully complete IRS can be swapped around, as all the suspension is
fully adjustable. The 62 tempest T/A will nest low-that's why the ?? on mating U-joints w/CV joints, cause I haven't found any CV axle splines that fit the older T/A--YET. I've rattled on too much-Later-Rick

Starting to feel better, actually got some work done



Checking the fit of the ac condenser and fan.







Man, it's getting crowded in there.



Other side done, all that's left up front is welding, lots of welding





I'm really liking how it's turning out. Tomorrow I'll start on the mounting of the drive train, One thing that I do see is that the rear crosstube that the back of cradle mounts to will need to have a hump built into it for room for the trans axle, as well as modifiying the cradle.

Cheers Beers n Gearz. Joe

Looking good, this is one nice build

Cool, a kitcar build in the Fiero forum. I used to frequent the Madmechanics site, but it was too troublesome to upload photos for me. I think Ferrobi will buy your Lambo project from you when finished.

Looking good! I would dive it with the chassis exposed.

Everybody, thanks for the interest.

What I did today.



Before I could slip the drivetrain into place, some offending steel had to go, so out with the sawzall and cutoff wheel, poof, crossmember begone.



I added a temp brace between the uprights and then removed the crosstube that forms the rear cradle mount, this is why when fabbing parts you don't weld every thing out untill you are done fitting parts, that would have been a pain if it was welded out.



First trial fit.



This shows why the cross member and crosstube had to come out.



And here we can see that the cross tube needs a hump to clear the transaxle, it needs to be high enough to also clear the brackets that come w/ the shifter from Cable-Shift.

Edit, I'm going to add a removable center section to the new rear cradle crosstube, to allow removal of the transaxle w/out having to drop the cradle.

http://www.cableshift.com/A...000/audi%20page.html

Joe

[This message has been edited by motoracer838 (edited 09-24-2011).]

Much easier to see--REALLY COOL BUILD!!

It's getting close, getting excited it's really looking good. Do you have a TBI system for it I thought you mentioned you had a system in the garage...

Corvairs, Fieros and you MX? We must be long lost brothers.

Ride ORANGE!

------------------
2010 WRX, w2a chargecooled & stage II
1987 Fiero GT 3.4TDC w/ n20
KTM 250SX

quote Originally posted by Vader Lambo: It's getting close, getting excited it's really looking good. Do you have a TBI system for it I thought you mentioned you had a system in the garage...

Everybody, say hi to Quinn, he's the owner of the project and will be taking over as soon as I wrap up the chassis work.

BV, Yeah it's a strange mix of things I'm into,It's good to see you posting again, it seems like they all come back eventually.

Joe

i got a question....awesome car btw and this is a no flame intended question. so i gotta ask why did you or other peoplee buy a fiero frame just to hack it up and then weld basicly a entirely new frame up to it? i can see useing like the front suspension or the rear cradle and the struts and everything. but to get a fiero even if its just the frame and to hack it up then refab an entire frame just seems like soooo much more work then just taking your fiberglass body and fabing up a skeleton frame then building a cab inside of it and so on.
agian no flame intended im just wondering if theres a reason behind using the frame.

[This message has been edited by Niterrorz (edited 09-30-2011).]

quote Originally posted by Niterrorz: i got a question....awesome car btw and this is a no flame intended question. so i gotta ask why did you or other peoplee buy a fiero frame just to hack it up and then weld basicly a entirely new frame up to it? i can see useing like the front suspension or the rear cradle and the struts and everything. but to get a fiero even if its just the frame and to hack it up then refab an entire frame just seems like soooo much more work then just taking your fiberglass body and fabing up a skeleton frame then building a cab inside of it and so on. agian no flame intended im just wondering if theres a reason behind using the frame.

Thanks for asking. There's a couple of reasons, first the Fiero has a lot of parts that you need to build the car, that work well in this type of car, in the case of this car. Fuel system, wiring, including things like the headlight motors and controls, wiper motor, pedals, steering parts, AC, ect,ect. Of even more use is it has a vin# and title making registration a snap, compared to the hassle that come with a tube frame car, here you get the best of both worlds.

I used to build a tube frame that used the Fiero as a doner for a company that made bodies and wanted to offer more to their customers, nice idea but ultimately more trouble than it's worth, since you already have the Fiero to start with. The car that I started with had already been striped of the parts that were not going to be used anyway, and it was too far gone to rebuild as a fiero.

Joe

quote Originally posted by motoracer838: Thanks for asking. There's a couple of reasons, first the Fiero has a lot of parts that you need to build the car, that work well in this type of car, in the case of this car. Fuel system, wiring, including things like the headlight motors and controls, wiper motor, pedals, steering parts, AC, ect,ect. Of even more use is it has a vin# and title making registration a snap, compared to the hassle that come with a tube frame car, here you get the best of both worlds. I used to build a tube frame that used the Fiero as a doner for a company that made bodies and wanted to offer more to their customers, nice idea but ultimately more trouble than it's worth, since you already have the Fiero to start with. The car that I started with had already been striped of the parts that were not going to be used anyway, and it was too far gone to rebuild as a fiero. Joe

Wow, after reading a 3800 v the world thread, this response was a welcome change. It's nice to see people can still be professional when faced with a tough question. Thank you. +1

BTW, what tranmission is that? I look through twice but didn't see the info.

[This message has been edited by Xyster (edited 09-30-2011).]

quote Originally posted by Xyster: Wow, after reading a 3800 v the world thread, this response was a welcome change. It's nice to see people can still be professional when faced with a tough question. Thank you. +1 BTW, what tranmission is that? I look through twice but didn't see the info.

Thanks, this place can be lacking in civility sometimes.
the questions that have been asked are all good and deserving of answers, such as yours, The transaxle is form a fwd Audi 5000, About as inexpensive a transaxle that will work behind a V-8 and have some life, having said that, you still have to take care of it, you can't treat it like an old school muscle car trans, you'll leave parts of it behind. The biggest pluses are that they cost far less than a Porsche 914 box, stronger and have a better first gear ratio, beyond that you get into the 911 box and the G50 from latter porsches and can easily spend 4-7 grand by the time you have it into the car. Between the adapter kit and the transaxle, there is about $1,300.00 in this, most in the adapter.

Joe