Here is a brief (edit "detailed") chain of events prior to the start of my build in Jan 2006

1983 - First ride in my Aunt's GM company car Fiero 2m4 (white) - I was 12 and loved it, but told her that my Dad said it was "gutless" - hmmm, could it be a sign of things to come?

2000 - Became very interested in Fiero based kit cars. My family is all GM, but I always had Jeep/VW/BMW as I wanted more unique sport vehicles. The Fiero was a very unique vehicle that would also satisfy all the relatives working at GM. Shortly after I found out that my Grandmother's friend bought a new Fiero in 1986 and still had it!
I went to the see it at the library where she worked - all original gold 35K mile 1986 Fiero Sport Coupe with the 2.5L auto.
Only noticeable issues were the ripped drivers seat bolster, faded paint and auto trans (I was hoping for a manual but beggers can't be choosers). She loved it too much, but I said if she ever parts with it - tell my Grandma as I wanted first right to buy it.

2002 - Grandma called to suprise me that the car was for sale! I asked how much and she said $1!!! I went over that day with flowers, wine and a "loonie" to pick up her baby, the Fiero. They bought a Buick and she didn't need the Fiero as she retired but wanted it to go to a good home. I boosted the battery, put a little air in the tire (13" steel rim) and drove it home! Cleaned up the car and found 10 cents under the seat that more than covered the eight cents I had to pay in tax to plate it.

2004 - After 2 years of driving an all original Fiero as a 3rd car, I got the itch to do a body kit or engine swap, but what to do first?
I eventually decided that a "sleeper" Fiero with a V8 would be a lot of fun - this is the point of no return when any spare change went into the Fiero mods and it was no longer the one dollar car. I did a lot of research on Archie's V8 kit and knew his kit was second to none. Best of all it, satisfied my need for under 5 second 0-60 acceralation! It was the classic formula of big engine in a little light car with a bonus of all the weight right in front of the rear wheels. Every local car crazy guy I talked to said the LT1 was the engine to have and I found a 1994 iron head LT1 ad in the local paper and beat 20 other guys to it for $700 complete. I was scared about the wiring so I shipped harnesses and computers to California to have them married together - never got them back, DOH! Soon I was worried that I would never get my Archie kit finished but I bought a Fiero computer on eBay and called Street and Performance to build a ODBI computer/harness for me. Thanks to Archie's video and some patience I got the kit completed in spring of 2005 after almost a year of downtime
Replaced the brakes, added a few body mods and hit the local cruise nights and shows after enjoying the rumours of "A Fiero around town with somethin' in it!" After disgracing every local teenager in an import tuner that didn't know what a Fiero or an LT1 was, I was put the car in the garage for the winter in the fall with a big smile on my face.

2006 - New Year's Day I made the decision to start an even more challenging Fiero project as I couldn't wait for spring. The plan was to upgrade to a performance beefed up and rebuilt 4T60 Cadillac STS transmission. A week later I convinced myself that "since the motor is out and it is over 10 years old I should have it rebuilt too". Of course the rebuilt motor would have ported heads, comp cam, 0.60 over JE forged pistons, reversed intake, headers, and a Nitrous Express LT1 Direct Port Kit installed. None of this was feasible with the stock 125C trans but since the bugs on the swap were all worked out it, was time for "Show and Go". With the Fiero empty and nothing to do since I enlisted pros to rebuild the drivetrain, I thought..."I always loved and wanted a roadster, should I go for it?" After some research on the internet and a rationalization that the car with be for shows and is already impractical and not needed as a daily driver - I thought this would be the most fun way to not go down the kit car road. The Fiero pride had grown within me and I didn't want to disguise it as something else. The roadster would be very cool and unique for around here...and now that the snowball was big enough, project Fiero 2m8 Roadster is underway!!!

Here is the last pic of my Fiero before the project started. I started it up and pulled it out of the garage for all too see and hear! The picture was taken in the wee hours New Years Day during my hot tub party.
I call this picture : "Hey Dave - easy with the fire next to my Fiero - they don't get along too well"

More of the build update to come regularly a little at a time, so you don't have to keep bumping or TTT...if you read this far, put it in your favorites... Rye

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1986 Fiero2m8 (LT1 NX / 4T60 Roadster in progress)

Here are the first few pics of the build:

From most of the reading on roadsters I did, a subframe was essential to reinforce the spaceframe.
I had a local welding shop build this x-frame. I modified the design to allow the center X to be unbolted for gas tank access.

After measuring several times, I lowered the car onto the x-frame and aligned it so the car was square on its new subframe.
The whole assembly sat on four jackstands and before welding it in, I bolted it with 10 - 1/2" bolts - (3 through each rocker, 2 through the front frame rails and 2 through the rear frame rails at the firewall)

Before cutting the roof, I removed the engine, transmission and cradle to reduce weight since I was planning to have them rebuilt anyways:

First I removed the rear window the fun, quick and easy way with a sledgehammer I call "The Enforcer".
Note the mess of wiring around the second ECM - its funny that this time I didn't bother to label everything as it's "old hat". I feel sorry for Archie when he has to explain and repeat himself for many new engine swap kit customers who are tenatively cutting into their harness for the first time

After removing the windshield bodywork (a pain dealing with the butyl rope), I am ready to cut the roof with my trusty sawsall in the following order:

1. Cuts on both sides at the back edge of the door windo to the sunroof opening.
2. Cuts on both sides at the front edge of the sunroof opening.
3. Test the targa for flex - no movement in the rear section but the windshield did flex - it will need reinforcement later.
4. Rough cuts on both sides of the notch to lift the rear section of the roof off.
5. Final cuts on both sides of the notch at the same height as the grill vents.
6. Final cut on the windshield to follow the its natural curve.

Here is a picture before the the notches had the final cuts done:

I was very pleased with the new open air roadster look - why didn't they sell these from the factory?

Cool project.

David Beeze

Keep'em comin'.

xgamefan - although I love the choptops, I sat in a 5" one last year and at 6'1" it wasn't even an option for me, so that was when I knew the roadster was for me.

omp2000 - hopefully there are others out there who already mated a 4T60 with a LT1 and will answer my ?'s later...but yes I will post it's progress. I have been using these two links as a good source of info:
http://spacecoastfieros.com/tech/440%2D4T60/
http://fp.enter.net/~rockcrawl/4T60a.html

I got a 1990 Cadillac STS 4T60 for rebuild. My goal was to make it stronger and accelerate as quick as possible. Since I was gaining a gear I could afford to increase the gear ratio. For strength a hardened part kit was ordered. The 2.84 Final drive was swapped for a 3.33 final drive. Then the sprockets and chain were changed to a 37/32 combo. This gives a overall ratio of 3.73 A transgo shift kit was also installed and the Caddy torque converter was replaced with a more LT1 torque friendly 1675rpm stall. I wanted to go with a 2200-2500 stall but several shops recommended to drop approx 600rpm as the 4T60 was designed for V6's and V8 with less torque than the LT1. It should feel like 2300 when I'm done, and I might save an axle or two

Here is a pic of the 4T60 back from fresh rebuild and primed:

I planned on painting the intake LT4 red this time around and since my TH125c was aluminum, I painted the trans red so you can easily tell it isn't the same transmission - something different that my neighbour suggested...

Since I already overworked a V6 fuel pump last summer, I thought now would be the right time to upgrade it to a 255lph pump given the mods. Its a Walbro pump branded Holley and is a direct swap for the Fiero if you order one for a Buick Grand National. Here it is:

This way I don't need to add an MSD inline pump at this time - they are noisier, but the option is still available in the future.
Here are the two pumps, and you can see they are identical in size:

Of course I had to drop the tank and try out my removable x-frame Here is the gas tank sanded and painted with some cast iron grey I had laying around:

Now the tank is back in and the x-frame replaced with no issues. Only primer the frame for now - painting the underside with come later but it's a good time to show what it looks like installed from underneath:

What do you think so far?
Stay tuned...