This Thread Is Amazing!

quote Originally posted by Bloozberry: Rick, you're doing a fantastic job on this installation. Thanks for spending the time to do thorough write-ups on how you're making this thing fit, including how you're making all the little fiberglass pieces as well. Putting a thread together like this takes at least two things: the ability to make a purse out of a sow's ear, and second, the fore-thought and effort to take great pictures and describe what you've done. You're great at both! You may not get a lot of written feedback, but I for one am following this thread silently in background storing all these little fabrication tips in the back of my mind. Kudos to you!

I second that. Your effort is amazing!

Thank you very much for the kind words. I don't need constant praise to keep going with this (but it is nice!!).

As I said, if there is anything that is not clear, please ask. I generally have more pictures than just what I've posted and may not have described some of the steps in detail. Of course I am inventing this as I go along, so some things in later pictures may not be the same as what I said I was going to do.

What is left to do? Finish the small compartment under the radio to put my iPod/cellphone. Mount the hood release bracket that is still just hanging down. Make something to cover the opening under the shifter -- I'm thinking of a gated shifter type plate...yes I know it's an automatic, but it will look cool anyways. Finish the piece that goes on the rear firewall to cover all the wires and insulate things from the engine compartment. Have to mount the tranny controller first and see if I can cram all the wires in. I think that is about it. Of course the Miata door panels will go on at some point, but probably not for a while since I have a bunch of other projects I want to do first.

Since I just bought a Triumph GT6 that I'm going to work on a little, the Dinero will be on the back-burner for a couple months. I will get back to it, but it may not be until the end of the year.

Rick

[This message has been edited by couldahadaV8 (edited 03-07-2011).]

simply fantastic!

bump

If you are going with a gated shifter, I bought a great one from Amida a few years ago for my V6/Auto 355 Fiero
Jim

quote Originally posted by bowrapennocks: If you are going with a gated shifter, I bought a great one from Amida a few years ago for my V6/Auto 355 Fiero Jim

Pics pleeeease!

I would like to know how are you going to get you maintenance lights (check engine light, door ajar, etc) to work and how will the turn signal operate. i ask this because i rewired a new tach and speedo and im trying to find a turn signal alternative, and i have no maintenance lights.

I think the real ultimate Fiero dash swap would be to put a Fiero dash in something like real Lambo.

quote Originally posted by Francis T: I think the real ultimate Fiero dash swap would be to put a Fiero dash in something like real Lambo.

Why do you think I kept the Fiero dash I took out.

Bumping this one to the top. Anything new? This thread is one of my favorites.

How is this for a little teaser?



I am back at it and will be posting updates soon to finish off this dash swap.

Rick

No reverse?

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Power is nothing without control.


Twin Engine Fiero Project

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[This message has been edited by infinitewill (edited 01-02-2016).]

quote Originally posted by 268 GT: No reverse?

Sure, 4 speed plus reverse.

Touche.......

Getting back into the dash swap. This is the rear cover piece that goes on the firewall and covers the computer in a stock Fiero, and covers the transmission controller (and a lot of wiring) in this swap. It was made a while back from fibreglass over a foam core pattern:



This shows a layer of filler on it which is then sanded, filled, sanded, filled...until it is fairly smooth. Once it is done, the question is, what to use for a final finish. It could be covered with carpet or material to match the rear firewall cover. What I decided to do was to just paint it a colour close enough to the colour of the Miata centre console piece (sort of a light tan). OK, so how to match the colour closely?

Some of the radio-control plane guys use latex house paint to paint their planes. On the plus side it is cheap, fairly durable, easy to apply, and comes in virtually any colour you can think of, or have a sample to match. I took the rear cover piece from the centre console to a paint store and had the computer colour matching thingy make me up a container of paint (latex, not oil). On the negative side, it isn't an exact match (but I suppose it could be if you spend more time and keep going back to the store to have a little more of this or a little more of that added until it looks just right). It is close enough that I don't think it is out of place. The other thing is that it doesn't really seem to dry hard. Apparently it will given enough time, and it is thoroughly dry after a day or so, but I think you can still sink a fingernail into it so I am being a little carefull with it for a while. It should be pretty durable though since you are supposed to be able to scrub your walls clean without the paint coming off. So this is a picture of the rear piece and the centre console base fibreglass piece after painting, along with the centre console cover piece that I took in for the colour matching:



I left them out in the sun for a day or so to try and bake the paint to let it harden. I put the paint on with a small foam roller, so there are no brush marks and the finish has a slight texture to it, kind of like the rest of the plastic console.

Rick

[This message has been edited by couldahadaV8 (edited 01-03-2011).]

quote Originally posted by couldahadaV8: Sure, 4 speed plus reverse.

Then you have it upside down

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Alan Frazier

'84 2m4 Northstar 5 speed
'84 3800SCII sold
'86 GT-'92 3.4 TDC 5 speed(sold)

quote Originally posted by neverendingproject: Then you have it upside down

Geez, everybody's a critic! It's my anti-theft device.....you can't steal the car if you can't find the right gears.


Of course the real reason is, just like this whole swap, to have something with a Ferrari'ish flair to it, without actually trying to duplicate the F-car exactly. You can see that to machine the remaining part of the right side leg would bring it very close to the console trim piece. I thought it might look like I was squeezing it in without sufficient room to do it properly. I had a choice of making a gated shifter type plate or making a leather/vinyl boot to cover the shifter. I figured my machining skills were better than my sewing skills. Is it designed to fool people into thinking it is a manual tranny? Well, yes of course it is and other than those clever individuals on this forum I think it will do that. Even if it doesn't, it is a lot of fun thinking how to make something, then making it, and having it come out pretty much like you imagined. Much like the shift knob I have in mind now.

Rick

[This message has been edited by couldahadaV8 (edited 01-03-2011).]

This is one of the nicest dash swaps that I have ever seen. The workmanship is excellent and I even like your colors. I also have a new interior but since I do not have either your fabrication skills or patience, I went with a commercial one from Amida that installed fairly easily and just bit the bullet wrt economics.

Nelson

quote Originally posted by couldahadaV8: Since this is the car, I can probably show up at Fiero, Miata, or Ferrari meets and confuse people (or more likely annoy them in the case of Ferrari).

The Dino is my all-time favorite in a Fiero kit car. I've only seen one other that also was in the process of being finished, one that was professionally chopped by V-8 Archie. (However, the photobucket picture of it in another thread unfortunately has disappeared. )

quote Originally posted by couldahadaV8: One more shot to show what it will look like at night. Pretty nice, eh? The centre console details are being finished now and once that is installed that should pretty much complete the swap. Rick

Much better than could ever be the case with the rectangular lines of the stock Fiero dash pod, IMHO, the curves in your Fiero's Miata-based dash swap and in particular, those of its dash pod in front of the driver, will very nicely compliment the curves of your Fiero's Dino-like body.

quote Originally posted by hnthomps: I went with a commercial one from Amida that installed fairly easily and just bit the bullet wrt economics. Nelson

That certainly is one of the nicest dashes you could put in a Fiero (I just wasn't willing to pay the price, so had to find a way of getting a nice looking dash for a fraction of the cost). Since I couldn't make a dash that looked that nice, I had to find one I liked that I could fit in myself.

quote Much better than could ever be the case with the rectangular lines of the stock Fiero dash pod, IMHO, the curves in your Fiero's Miata-based dash swap and in particular, those of its dash pod in front of the driver, will very nicely compliment the curves of your Fiero's Dino-like body.

And that's why I think the Miata dash may even be a better match than the 308 dash for the Dino. The body of a 308 is a little more angular than the Dino, so the dash pod being a little more angular works well. The body of the Dino, being all curves, needs a dash with some nice curves in it.

Rick

Now it is getting exciting again; on to the shifter.

Since this is an automatic tranny there are several options of what to do about a shifter. I could have made or modified a shifter boot to cover up the Fiero shifter, but that wouldn't be too exciting. I could have modified the Miata or Fiero auto shift indicator but I didn't really think that would fit with the general look of the interior. A Ferrari type gated shifter is what is called for. Yes, this is an auto tranny, but that only makes it easier. The shift pattern on manual tranny cars it pretty narrow these days so fitting in a gated shifter plate is a challenge; the spacing between the shifter slots gets pretty narrow. With the auto tranny, I only need one slot, so the rest is just for looks.

I machined a gated shifter plate out of 1/4" aluminum. I sanded it with very fine paper in an orbital sander to give it a nice matt finish, and then sprayed it with a satin clear-coat. Came out very nice:



This fit up inside the Miata centre console. There are 4 screw-holes conveniently located to secure the plate. I made up 2 thin steel bars to hold it in place. I epoxied some wood onto the bars to take up the space between them and the shifter plate (hard rubber or something like that would have done just as well). This allows some adjustment in the location of the plate to line up exactly with the shifter.



If you don't have access to a milling machine, make the plate out of thin wood or fibreglass and then paint it black or silver and it will look almost the same. Or, since you have to make a pattern first, you can give the pattern to someone to have it machined for you.

Now for the shift knob itself. My original plan was to use an auto shift knob from a late model Vette since they look sort of like a manual tranny shift knob. This plan fell through when I could not find one. Oh I could find them, but promises to get me shipping estimates never came through from those selling them. Maybe that was a good thing since what I came up with looks even better.

The only downside to using a shift knob from an auto tranny is that it has a button on top to release the shift lock; obviously this doesn't look exactly like a manul tranny shifter. There are some options to get around this, but the ones I've seen just slip over the existing shift rod and don't seem to lock in at all, so if you lift up on it the whole thing comes off. Just didn't appeal to me. I've played with some ideas now and then to try and come up with something better. When the Vette shift knob idea fell through, I decided to make my own.

I machined it from a piece of free-machining stainless (which is very nice stuff to work with). Aluminum would work just as well, but you would have to clear-coat it after to prevent your hand from turning black with use. Now here is the clever part (well, I think it is clever). I machined a slot in the shifter rod (after cutting down the rod to a more reasonable length):



(note to the machining experts out there...obviously you can see the cardinal rule of milling that I am breaking here)

What is this slot for you ask? Go ahead, ask...
I drilled and tapped a hole in the side of the shift knob for a small set-screw:



This keeps the shift knob from coming off, but lets it press down to release the shift lock. This will be on the front side of the shifter so it won't show when installed:



I also glued some black vinyl to the underside of the gated shifter plate and cut a slot for the shift rod to move in, to hide the shift mechanism stuff under the console. Put it all together and this is what you get:





I don't think you can get much closer to the look of a gated manual tranny shifter than this. It works very nicely, just press the shifter down to release the shift lock. Yes, there are no shift markings to show what gear you are in, but that isn't a big deal. I machined it so the slot going to the left lines up with the shift rod when in "drive". You know that one notch back from "park" is reverse, and that's really all the gears you normally use. If I want to add more to it I can rig up an electronic shift indicator on the dash; several are available that trigger off the shift linkage from the tranny.

That's it for now.

Rick

I made almost the identical shift knob for my 4t65e trans, was still tryink to figure out what to do for a boot, I like your gate idea, think I will steal it !

And I saw that endmill in the drill chuck above and was going to say something the I read what it said there and LMAO'd !!

Full points to you Mike! With the limitations of the mill/lathe combo machine I have, I sometimes have to cheat a little. I take very light cuts when not using a proper collet. The milling cutter/collect wouldn't reach down far enough and I didn't feel like coming up with something to raise the shifter assembly higher up once I had it clamped.

Rick

I know what you mean about limitations, I have a 3 in 1 ShopMaster ElDorado I converted to CNC. Before I CNC'd it I was always trying to figure out ways to hold and reach things. Luckily now I also have a full sized CNC mill to use on bigger jobs.

Excellent work on your dash install, I will be looking at different dashes now ! inspired by this thread !

[This message has been edited by Mike Gonzalez (edited 01-07-2011).]

Bump!

quote Originally posted by hnthomps: This is one of the nicest dash swaps that I have ever seen. The workmanship is excellent and I even like your colors. I also have a new interior but since I do not have either your fabrication skills or patience, I went with a commercial one from Amida that installed fairly easily and just bit the bullet wrt economics. Nelson

that is sweet nelson.. how much did that set you back? you have a link to the company website?

Continuing on with some more of the little things. This is out of order, but I hadn't shown it yet, so you'll see the centre console without the shifter pieces in place.

Look at the lowest panel in the centre console of the Miata dash:



There is a switch and light for the passenger side airbag, along with a power outlet (formerly known as a cigarette lighter). The power outlet is worth keeping, but the airbag stuff is not needed. The panel with the light and switch snaps out of the main part of the console:



The rear part can be removed, leaving the front portion that still allows it to snap back in place:



What you do now is saw out the centre of that piece, leaving the rim all around with the "snap" part still in place:




In the above picture you can see the larger centre console piece that it snaps into, and also a foam piece that will be the "core" for molding a fibreglass compartment to take the place of the airbag light/switch. The foam is shaped to fit into the dash and clear the metal and plastic right behind this area of the dash (hence the strange shape since there isn't much room here).

Now cover the foam with glass cloth and fibreglass resin, after first covering the foam block with packing tape to protect it from dissolving:



Looks a bit of a mess (since it is). A bit of cleaning up and sawing off:



Now dig the foam out and clean up the inside a little. Then glue it onto the rear of the original piece from the Miata and paint the whole piece with textured black paint. Snap it back into the console surround piece:



The wire that you can see in the above picture is the iPod connection to the radio. The original plan was to put the iPod in this compartment. It turned out that the compartment really isn't deep enough to let it sit all the way in, so I ended up running the cable under the centre console to the large rear compartment where the iPod can be kept.



It still gives a small compartment to keep something in, and at least it is functional and sort of blends in with the rest of the dash, rather than being a switch that wouldn't do anything.

Rick

[This message has been edited by couldahadaV8 (edited 01-25-2011).]

Looks good! You could have kept the switch and wired it to an ejector seat

quote Originally posted by 86fierofun: Looks good! You could have kept the switch and wired it to an ejector seat

No, that switch is hidden in the shifter knob!

quote Originally posted by couldahadaV8: No, that switch is hidden in the shifter knob!

Note to self, don't bad mouth couldahadaV8's car when you are riding in the passenger seat.

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Jim Martin
White '86 GT
California

I would love to see it finished, awesome work.

quote Originally posted by Wam3: I would love to see it finished

So would I!

Actually, it is pretty much finished. I didn't show what I did with the inside release for the hood, and it turned out to be really easy. It is kind of hard to see what is going on, but this is a picture looking up under the dash on the left side; this is the opening for the fuse panel cover in the Miata dash. I just fed the interior release handle mechanism in from the back and left it there. There didn't seem to be any need to mount it.



Once the cover is snapped on, it looks stock (stock Miata that is). Kind of a bad, out of focus picture, but this is the fuse panel cover:



To open the hood the fuse panel cover has to be opened and then the Fiero handle is pulled. One more operation than a stock Fiero, but not a big deal.


I think that pretty much finishes the dash swap, unless I've forgotten to show any steps (entirely possible).



The seats need to be put back in, once the tools and junk is cleared out. I'm going to recover the seats first. One thing I'm not really happy with is the small gap between the fibreglass centre console piece and the Miata centre console. The fit is good, but not perfect. When I order the seat covers, I'm going to order some extra vinyl and cover the fibreglass piece with tan vinyl (no foam backing, just a thin layer of vinyl). I think that will let the centre console just sink in a tiny bit and take up any small gaps. Also I'm not thrilled with the colour match of the paint that I put on it, so I'll pick a nice tan colour to complement the other interior pieces. I will of course show pictures of the interior once those final steps are done; that will be in a month or so.

Sometime down the road I will get around to putting the Miata door panels on. This will be a bit of a job and I'm not rushing into it. The stock Fiero door panels don't look too bad with the Miata dash and I need to spend time getting the car on the road first. I'm also restoring the interior of the GT6 that I bought (no, I'm not putting a Miata dash in that one!), so that has taken time away from the Fiero.

So that will be it until the seats are done and installed. As usual, if there are any questions fire away.

Rick

[This message has been edited by couldahadaV8 (edited 03-16-2011).]

Wow, Fantastic job on the install! It looks like it came from the factory that way.....

Awesome install! I give you two thumbs up...

bumping to find it easier.