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Shho13
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JUL 07, 01:53 PM
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Howdy everyone! My name is Shawn, I live in North Jersey, and I just bought my first Fiero! I got it about a month ago from a friendly fellow named Vinny!
It's a 1988 Fiero GT. I think I'm going to name it Discord...... There are now a couple reasons why, but I will start getting into that a little later! :P
Vin number is: 1G2PG1199JP207545
Build date according to the door jam is 11/1987... I wasn't even born yet, It's four years older than me!
I used to be a mechanic for Ford, Mercury, Lincoln, Subaru, as well as Porsche! I'm no expert at mechanics by any means, I have 5 years of professional experience in wrenching, and I still do it, but only as a hobby!!  (I hate flat rate). I originally fell in love with the Fiero when a guy I used to work with had an 86 GT. It was a blast to drive, and I knew I would eventually get one to tinker on but I just didn't quite know when at the time. After a year or two I got promoted in my company to work on Porsche... Long story short, I got to work on and drive many different exotic cars including countless 911 GT3, GT2, Turbo S, Carrera GT, the Nissan GTR, Maserati GranTurismo MC, Mercedes AMG SLS, SL65AMG, as well as more but my favorite of them all for some reason was a simple Cayman S. The mid engine and the 46/54 weight distribution made it the most predictable, best handling car I have ever had the opportunity to drive. I was close to buying one, but I didn't want to trade in my daily driver (2006 Impreza) to make it affordable and besides, I remembered a car from the past I enjoyed driving...
Ah, the Fiero!!! Mid engine just like the Cayman, weight distribution somewhat close to the Cayman's, Awesome looking in it's own way, YET not $80,000+ like the Cayman, American made, and DIFFERENT. I like being different than everyone else, especially if I were to go to the track and blow some upper tier cars away not only for a fraction of the price, but for a car that I would rebuild with my own two hands... Not bought like a new Corvette or 911, BUILT! 
I narrowed it down to an 88 Fiero GT or a Trans Am. I saw the Fiero on Craigslist and I went to take a look. There is little rust, the trunk has no rust holes and it looks pretty clean from what I can see so far under the car. It's had five owners according to the Carfax, clock says it has 148,000 miles, it was originally from PA, and it has some quirks that need to be fixed before it can really be driven. The car has TONS of potential, so I am super excited!
At any rate, here it is!
My mission is to do fairly basic restoration on it; get rid of rust where I can, redo suspension, blah blah blah as well as a few tasteful mods to make it my own. I want to have this car for a long time so I want to do everything RIGHT.
Eventually, when I have the means and the space, maybe I'll do the 3800SC swap, obviously allowing a greater amount of power for a few laughs on the track every once in a while if I choose...
It's definitely not quite road worthy yet... I have been working on it non stop for the last few weeks just to kinda get it up to speed mechanically before I really start taking it out for long rides. Next project now that I got the electrical side not in dire shape is the brakes. The brakes go to all the way to the floor before they even start to apply! At any rate, Ill show you the chaos, err... Discord that I have dealt with so far on this poor thing. I honestly feel bad for this poor car... just check out how the previous owners tried very feebly to rig this thing together....
There are blade connectors EVERYWHERE, including ghetto house wire nuts and horrible electrical taped together junctions and connections. They are all gone now, and wired more professionally. All those wires fell down after I removed that plastic cover from under the steering wheel.
When I got it it had a 2.9 Amp draw. The battery was replaced recently according to the previous owner, but due to the constant dying and jump starting, no surprise, the battery took a dump. It smelled like pure sulfur when driving it down the road.
The jumble of garbage you see above was the alarm system, if I remember correctly that was a 1.9 amp draw (no surprise there). The AC system was leaking out and it was sitting in a small pool of water and was shorting out and corroding at the rather ghetto splices and connections. The other draw at 1 amp was the aftermarket rear view mirror hooked into the always hot map light circuit. I hate powered mirrors since they always seem to break and not transition from light to dark after a few years (no surprise this one is always in it's dark setting) Since I didn't feel like dropping the headliner quite yet, I simply disconnected it... Ill fix that when I replace the headliner.
My next repair will be the brakes... it may need a master, the fluid is GROSS and the seals may be shot... Ill bleed them first to see what's up, but if I'm gonna do it right may as well put a new one in for safety reasons if I track it eventually. My biggest problem right now is that my floor jack doesn't fit under the car far enough to reach the jack up point haha. Ill go to Harbor freight next paycheck and get the low profile "race" jack that I used at my old shop. Speaking of which the clutch master fluid is the same color.....
More to come eventually... I've been luring the forums for awhile now, and I hope to meet some of you guys at some meets or something one day! I'm pretty excited to finally get a project going!
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"Discord"
Red 1988 GT under restoration!
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
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no2pencil
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JUL 07, 02:13 PM
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Welcome to the forum! Quite a project you've got there. Thank you for sharing, & posting the photos.
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carbon
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JUL 07, 02:18 PM
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At lease get rid of the imgur [url] tags and just use the [img] tags... it jumps anyone who clicks on pics to show or hide them to the imgur website.
Welcome to the forum! And yeah, sometimes I wish some people wouldn't touch wiring, but inevitably, Jimbo will still get a handful of wire nuts and go to town.
When you bleed the brakes just make sure to not push the pedal to the floor... if there is crap in the back of the master, it will ruin the seals and you'll never get a firm pedal again.
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Shho13
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JUL 07, 02:37 PM
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Thanks guys much appreciated!!! I fixed the photos for easier viewing... My camera lens on my phone cracked so that is why the photos are all blurry and gross, sorry guys! Ill get that fixed soon too...
Thanks for the tip on the brake bleeding, I may replace the master anyway since I bet the fluid that is sitting in there is probably older than me... I can only image what all the seals and junk look like in there... EWWWW! :P
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"Discord"
Red 1988 GT under restoration!
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)[This message has been edited by Shho13 (edited 04-05-2015).]
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gtoformula
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JUL 07, 03:12 PM
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Congratulations on your purchase and welcome to the Fiero disease. Your description of what attracted you to these cars is spot on ... American, mid engine, sports car and, uh, "different". Lot's of info available on this forum and many expert forum members who will share their experience with you. Also, expect a variety of opinions on various topics. Do your research and pick the ones that you feel work best for you. If you haven't already done so, you can click on the "Search" tab that is just below and to the right of the "New Topic" link. Try using different combinations of search words and you will probably find anything that has ever been posted. At the very top of the page on the horizontal line you will see several links ... try the one titled "Ogres Cave". The Ogre share's many different repair procedures as well as operational theory in a very easy to understand manner ... lot's better than the factory service manual.
Enjoy the car. With your mechanical background you will have a better than average capability of working on these cars. They aren't very complex ... just "different".
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88FieroGT TTops
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JUL 07, 03:13 PM
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Great looking GT!! good job of getting rid of that wire nest! check out "the Ogres Cave" at the bottom of every page---he has a a great write up on the brakes, bleeding and everything else, the 88 brakes are only common to the 88, so is the suspension--but this forum will help you get through any issues you have---currently I am on a restore/replace parts on my 88---good luck! ------------------
Pat Jones
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Shho13
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JUL 08, 10:51 PM
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Slight update on some small stuff I noted while working on the ol' beast today... Phew it was hot out today!
First off I want to thank you guys for your interest and help so far! You guys all rock!
I read the Ogre's cave brake stuff... (Awesome advice man, very well written) I'm gonna check out the parking brake system before I perform the bleeding of the system! I see that I may get a low pedal and a brake light from a faulty e-brake self adjuster along with caliper issues. No surprise the parking brake isn't releasing correctly, I can feel it when I try to engage and disengage it. Ill start there and see whats going on and let you guys what's going on!
I also found some coolant on the passenger side rug this morning. What a shame... It's looking like its coming from the heater core, so no biggie... I just ordered a new one.
Also, a quickie question; Looked at the fuse panel under dash to see if there is any misplaced/incorrect fuses, the big shiny circuit breakers are missing and were replaced with random amp rated fuses! (Not even rated at 30A, 10A ones are jammed in there!) by any chance, does anyone have a part number that I can order for new ones or are they generic 30A that I can pick up at the parts store?
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"Discord"
Red 1988 GT under restoration!
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)[This message has been edited by Shho13 (edited 04-05-2015).]
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Shho13
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JUL 15, 07:15 PM
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Some small updates since things have gone to a crawl recently...
1) Got two flat tires in one day over the weekend. All patched up and holding air... AUGH, they were sheetrock screws, I wonder where I could have picked those up!?
2) Not making any progress of late, the weather has been way too hot, HUMID, and rainy.
3) I have been waiting for my new heater core to show up in the mail for about a week already so that isn't done yet. When it's here Ill post pictures of the procedure.
3) I ordered a new gas, brake and clutch petal pads. I found old gas petal is currently being held on with a zip tie and the brake and clutch petals are gone after 26 years and 150K miles!
4) Cleaned up the engine bay! 26 years of grime and dirt are gone now, found more zip ties, except this one is holding the distributer cap on. Just great! Also more hokey wiring repairs, its got those blue blade splice connector things coming off a couple senors...
5) Most importantly, I got a set of GT tail lights on the way, Picked them up in The Mall off indyguy888! Thannks for being so awesome man! They are delaminating but Ill restore them when I get the car painted later this year.
My old passenger side has giant holes in them if I didn't mention it before:
And some usual delamination on the driver side:
My plan is if I ever take the car to the track ill use the old beat up tail lights so if anything stupid happens I wont be out a set of very rare tail lights...
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"Discord"
Red 1988 GT under restoration!
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)[This message has been edited by Shho13 (edited 04-05-2015).]
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Shho13
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AUG 24, 11:31 PM
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Howdy all! Been super busy the last few weeks doing stupid stuff here and there... I had to get the timing belt done on my Subaru, and now that that is done and good for another 107,000 miles, I can focus more time on the HOT ROD a little bit more! Had to use the Fiero as the daily driver for the last few days! It is a blast to drive so I am not complaining about that!!!
Recently, I have been super active getting a bunch of odds and ends from The Mall, Ebay, Amazon, and of course the Fiero Store...
Ordered and not yet installed:
- New brake hoses all around
- New front left and right rear calipers + paint
- New driver side E brake cable, adjuster, and clip
- New trunk light assembly complete with NO BULB. I wish they said that it didn't come with one when I ordered it!
- New oil pressure sender
- New ash tray doors from Fiero Store (I need new return springs!!! Why wouldn't they come with new ones???)
- Driver's door molding clips since it's loose and only held on by one clip right now
- Passenger side door handle broke again. I should have bought a quality one to do right the first time...
- HVAC controls! I am missing one of the buttons on the current one!
- Radio and speedometer face plates. I am close to getting a new aux gauge and face plate...
Installed/repaired recently:
- New Heater core is in!
- A cup holder! GASP!
- Radio wiring harness scotch locks and wire nuts removed and heatshink wrapped
- Brake system bled
- Clutch system bled
- Greased up the passenger side window motor and tracks for faster operation
Oh and I got a new set of seats today! I am gonna re upholster them with some Mr. Mikes leather seat covers!
Here are some pics of stuff!
Some of the old brake fluid/clutch fluid. Probably the worst I have ever seen... I don't think it was ever flushed.
Radio harness butcher job fixed up a little bit. I HATE SCOTCH LOCKS AND WIRE NUTS BELONG IN HOUSES NOT CARS!!!:
Much better!
New shiny cup holder installed where the old plastic one used to be. You can see the missing button on the HVAC controls here:
As the interior comes together, the stainless steel cup holder will match a little better with what I plan on doing. I want some brushed aluminum in there! :P
Seats!
and another picture of my co-pilot, Peach!
Timing belt coming out of the Subaru for good measure:
I brought it to a show the other day just for fun!!! The pictures make the car look pretty nice. I can't wait until I paint it!
It actually got a decent amount of attention, didn't win any awards of course... I met a few Fiero guys when I was there! Everyone was so nice! I have to say, in the auto industry it is a SMALL world...
That's all for now, I am tired! More as it happens...
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"Discord"
Red 1988 GT under restoration!
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)[This message has been edited by Shho13 (edited 04-05-2015).]
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Shho13
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OCT 26, 01:34 PM
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