Keep up the great work. You are making it look easy enough for me to attempt!

quote Originally posted by 4.9 PFI FIERO: I want to make my own door panels but I'm looking into using late model cavalier door panels. I like the way they look but im gonna try making custom ones first.

Good Lord, man! Is there no limit to your talent? Have that stuff ready by fall. I go down to N.O. a few times a season for Saints games. I would love to get a chance to check out your work.

Lookin KILLER!!

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Choptop WideBody GT 1 of 1
4.9L-V8- another set back (illness)

I'm trying to have the car ready by November. I call myself doing it in stages. Stage one was to get the car working. Only one headlight popped up (bad control module, thanks orge). The fuel pump was dead (changed it and found out it was a blown fuse, damn!!!) clean and painted the front compartment, and installed poly bushing and painted the front suspension components. Stage two is this dash swap. When I got the car I didn't really care for the dash. My friend had his fiero with a FB dash and I was amazed how it brought the car up to date. I wanted one but only different. So I searched and it was out of the 300ZX or the 3000GT. Mostly 300ZX. Stage 3 is gonna be rear suspension with sway bar, coil overs, poly bushing, solid cradle mounts, and 4.9 swap. So far on the rear I've gotten darrell morse chrome strut brace on sale (focusing on finishing the other 2 stages first). All this and I never drove the car pass my driveway (total 10 yards one time). P.S. I never done nothing to a fiero but changed plugs on a 4 banger 3 years ago. My car make a year of ownership in July.

Ya'll, I need a sunroof. I taken my hard top off already and I cannot find a donor to save my life right now. If you can help, please reach out your hand...

I see Sir...you have solved part of the mystery.......hmmmm?

Houston...we have a match.

Nice write-up. I've seen those gloves before too. If my guess is correct....hmmm?

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Archie's Choptop conversion #11, #15, Redux & The Stealth

[This message has been edited by madcurl (edited 06-26-2005).]

Whoa! I never even paid attention to that. Wow man, my dash...

And yes madcurl you have seen those gloves before lol.

Good eye curly !

I dunno... I thought that when I first saw the Pirhanna, but I don't think it's the same... Just something about the center gauges that doesn't seem right.. (are those even gauges in the Pirhanna, or vents??) I agree it's very close, but I'm not 100% convinced. There's been so much work done to whatever dash *is* in there, that it's really hard to tell. The Pirhanna dash looks to have an inset top section with totally different defrost grilles, the side vents are in the wrong place (too high) the glovebox is close, but of different shape... In this picture from the driver's side (before it was re-painted):

things just really don't look right... The picture of the blue interior has the tops of the center gauges "washed out", but in the older picture you can see they're much more rounded *up* where the 3000GT's are straight back / slightly dipping. I've spent 7 months driving around with the 3000GT dash in the car, way too much time stuck in traffic staring at the dash! LOL

Look Ma, no wheel!

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Bob Williams
Multi-colored '86 Mutt, a work in progress! (3800SC running great! Fixed the bent roof, now I need an intercooler! Yeehaa!)

Hi all,

I would venture to guess that its some kinda recreation....If you also look at the stealth dash there is more of a curl above the main guages where as there is only a lil curl above the pirhana......

Not to mention, the Stealth/3000GT dash has a horizontal seam running just below the guages; but the Pirannah dash has no seam. To me, it looks like the Pirannah dash is either based off the Stealth/3000GT dash; or a heavely modified Stealth/3000GT dash. Whichever one it is, it still looks pretty impressive to me!

So how wide is the dash area in the Fiero? I haven't gotten my car in yet (pick it up next week) and have an idea for a dash, but need measurements...

In previous Fieros, I had a EuroDash (308 replica) and a half-finished 94 Mustang Dash...looked pretty good, but still needed a lot of work when I gave up...

Absofrigginlutely beautiful. I need to start looking for a 3000GT to steal a dash from.

I think that Alex took the dash a step further? If I'm not mistaken, the original dash may have been fiber glassed, curved, and reshaped? Making a mold that is a "one-off" job. I never got around to asking him if the dash was made of fiberglass but, it looks like it is painted? Alex IMO seem to be too talented to just leave a dash "as-is." The same could be said of the entire Plamsa car.

[This message has been edited by madcurl (edited 06-30-2005).]

HI all,

I agree with madcurl......Great eye, catching the likeness!!

If the several versions of the similar car were in fact different cars (ie: Plazma, Pirhanna) then I'd say he had quite a nice mold of the dash. They look identical, and very well done! Those side caps and side window defrost ducts look better than what I've seen on many production cars! Alex was a very very talented man for sure... So how's the swap going? Any plans for filling the "extra" areas of the center console, like the emergency brake handle? Not sure if it would be easier to mod that piece, or make a new one......

[This message has been edited by Riceburner98 (edited 06-30-2005).]

Alex said the interior consisted of many molds like 70 or so, and I bet a lot of them were of the dash. His creation looks like a combination Stealth, Firebird and Stock parts. Alex would never just bolt on a stock part and leave it at that.

Any dash you put in a Fiero other than a Fiero dash is going to require some custom work to get it to fit and look right. I'm still working on getting the look and feel of my firebird dash right. The problem is I suck at fiberglass and my upholstery is even worse. I'm about to throw in the towel and have a professional finish it for me.

Ladies, Gentlemen, PFF and Friends
Lately I've been trying to rig up the air ducts using stock fiero parts. It has been a long journey and progress is being made but not fast enough. I've been side tracked by the finishing parts to my front suspension arriving. I made my tops mounts finally using some advise from JScott. Pic's and instructions following my next post.

As far as the plazma dash, you can see that the vents are from the FB dash. Look to where the cd changer is, It looks like the early model 3000GT dash without the airbag. It has the lip thingy over the glove box like the 3000. The center console should be from the 3000GT also. Looks like he removed the stock middle air vent and mounted the radio, ac, and something else there.

Alex's dash is a single fiberglass shell that he made from an assortment of parts and clay models. We never got the full story but from what he told us all the various pictures we see of the Plazma/Pyranha/Laura are the same car in various stages of mockup or clay models. He appears to have taken elements he liked then grafted them all together then spashed a fiberglass mold from that. The best way to do it really then you don't have all these pieces stuck together trying to look integrated when they really are not. Curley I don't know if you saw this but here is the picture of all the molds for Alex's interior:

Having said all that my dash is a collection of pieces all grafted together trying to look integrated. Maybe one day a mold will be splashed from it so we can have a bolt-in modern dash. Until then we have to admire the folks like 4.9 PFI Fiero that are doing it the hard way.

[This message has been edited by jscott1 (edited 07-04-2005).]

Bump for that last statement.

Back to my roots with the dash. Here are the update pics. I'll explain how I got there later.

First off, I'm now setting up the pods for the gauges. I decided to go with aftermarket since it's easier and looks great.

This is 2in PCV tubing sitting in the holes fiberglassed on the backside to stay in place.

Another shot.

As you can see the a/c controls and radio are in place using the center mount I made. The a/c controls are placed in the bracket that holed the rally gauges. Just instal it backwards so that the lip on it points to the front of the car. Use a aftermarket install kit for the radio and with small screws and washers you can bolt it to the slotted angle iron. Real simple....

Thats all for now, not much time to finish so I'll post the rest tonight. Just giving off a little taste of progress.......

lookin good man.

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Damn that looks sweet! I hope it blows your mind when its done .

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Fiero 2MCUSTOM - 3.4 Pushrod swap in progress....

That looks cool. I like the white in the gauge area. Would look sweet if you could fit them inside and the white still shows. Any pics of the right side? It will be nice to have space (a glove box) for stuff. You could use the airbag area too. Look foward to seeing more pics.

Your right. The white does look good. I said that myself but I'm thinking about adding chrome in there. To fill in the little gaps between the tubing and the dash, I'm making a centric ring to go behind the bezel of the gauge to make it look full and stock.

Here is the glove box pic. I thinking of placing a cd changer in there or in the air bag area. Take a look.

Here is a better pic of the radio install. This is the right side of it. You can see the install kit is bolted in place on the bottom and there's also one on the top (The gold screw). It's the same on both sides.

I've gotten the hood release cable to work with the stock cable. To do this you have to cut one side of the metal clip and bend the other through the hole in the latch. Then you use pliers to squeeze the black plastic piece though the part that holes the cable in place. Look behind the two gold screws at the end of the cable its a little blurry but the piece I'm talking about is black.

This is a front shot of the dash. Look you could see my new brake pedals.

quote Originally posted by 4.9 PFI FIERO: Here is the glove box pic. I thinking of placing a cd changer in there or in the air bag area. Take a look.

It looks good, but please don't put a CD changer in there...that's so 90s. Instead put a DVD screen in there. The DVD player will also play MP3s and fit more music than a 10 disk CD changer.

Hey J, It's time. This might be a possibility for my sound system. PFF what ya'll think?

This is a better pic of the defroster vent under the dash. I removed the grill so you can see it. No mod's needed in this area unless you want to make it the length of the dash like the Stealth.

That's all I have for now. Next I'll show how I made the top mounts with the advise from JSCOTT. He made it real easy for me. Here is a shot. There is a hole under the speakers in the dash. You have to cut the passenger side off so the dash sits back to the window but here is what it looks like. On the right is the screw and the left is the speaker over it.

quote Originally posted by 4.9 PFI FIERO: Hey J, It's time. This might be a possibility for my sound system. PFF what ya'll think?

I'm pretty sure that would rattle WAY too much it would be awesome if you could figure out a way to keep it solid

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prowling the pacific...

87 GT - V8 - 5 Speed

It's looking really good. I think that's a great dash for the Fiero. Personally, I prefer it over the Firebird dash (not to take anything away from the awesome work the the FB dash guys have done) as it looks "sportyer" to me.

Nolan

quote Originally posted by MilleniumFiero: I'm pretty sure that would rattle WAY too much it would be awesome if you could figure out a way to keep it solid

I found that pic at cardomain.com. I was browsing through stealth's and 3000gt's to see what people was doing to their interiors and found that pic. The guy that done it said it was designed to be fired into the dash so it work with the glove box closed. He reinforced the area around it so the dash won't shake or make noise. I have a sound man that should be able to make it work for me but he lives about 1 hour away from me. I really want a tv in the car but nothing beats a nice sound system. Don't you agree?

quote Originally posted by 4.9 PFI FIERO: I really want a tv in the car but nothing beats a nice sound system. Don't you agree?

I agree, but why not both...

When I fire up my DVD and the sound is what impresses people that's when you know you have a good sound system. And I don't even have my console sub hooked up yet, just the factory sub and the 6" round speakers in the door.

Well the ideas are still floating. Nothing positive as of yet I'm getting the electronics such as gauges and lighting together now. It's shocking to hear your car running with the interior gauges not moving, so I'm looking for aftermarket gauges to go in. I like the APC Glo Gauges. I'm looking into either those or Faze CompEL gauges.

If anyone need me to break down how i installed something just give me a post or pm.

If you're considering that sub set-up, it might make more sense to have the sub firing down. Custom make a box that uses the space in the glove box, fiberglass it sealed, and mount the sub at the bottom, outta sight. It would be a real stealth set up. If you had some real good skills, you might be able to squeeze more airspace out of it by using the open space around it too, similiar to what Golden86 did under his dash. All depends on your fiberglassing skills though.

Thats true but I don't even think that I will be adding a sub under there as of yet shall I say. I don't know its still early. I'm more focus on getting the gauges together for the electronics right now. I'm trying out a few ideas on the setup. Looks like the white tubing may be coming out. But for a tip on installing the tubing rap it in fleece and fiberglass it (the exterior). Sand it down untill it fits tight and fills the gap. I'll show pics of the upcoming gauge project on my next off day so I can take a few pics after i buy the gauges.

Clickey here...

Holy snap those gauges are expensive... Maybe nevermind them, lol.

[This message has been edited by 1986 Fiero GT (edited 07-18-2005).]

quote Originally posted by 1986 Fiero GT: Clickey here... Holy snap those gauges are expensive... Maybe nevermind them, lol.

Linky no worky

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www.FieroLoki.com
Yahoo! = michael_from_tx | MSN = red85gt@hotmail.com | AOL = fieroloki1976

http://www.3sxperformance.com/ is the link. Good lord those prices are though the roof...

But they look damm good.

Looks great so far. It looks like your shifter is very close to the dash.

What were you planning to do in this area. Mine was real close, too. I ended up cutting off 1.5" from the shaft and bending the shaft back another inch or so.

Bob

With all the dash talk I'd never introduced you to the car. Its an 87gt. I call her 8 Mile. The name comes from the Caddy 4.9 beating damn near every car in the 1/8 mile. Since that's my engine of choice, the name fits perfectly. So without futher ado hereeeee is 8 Mile!!!!

A lot of work and new components is in this car but as usual you can't see it but we know its there. The only thing visible is the dash swap and the roof skin is off waiting on donor. Still more construction to be done as you can see, but there is one thing that keeps me motivated.......

This is my motivation... Right in the rear license plate area.

Today I'm starting on the gauge pods for the 3 holes above the air vent. I'm trying something different than the 3 white tubes. I'll show the progress when I get it working.