Well I need a daily driver so here goes. Once again the "VERT" is put on hold. I bought this car up in indy. Had a locked up water pump, bad belt, blown head gasket, Bad oil leak on the valve cover. It is a 88 coupe. Rust free. Car has these really sweet pinstripes on it and the interior is kinda trashed. My goal is to build it to a nice driver in 14 days. Keep in mind that I work 6-7 days and 55-65 hours a week so lets see if I can get it done.
Here is what I started with

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88COUPE
88GT 3.4SC
88GT T-TOP
87GT VERT (build in progress)
www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum1/HTML/053203.html

Day 1-Sunday May 7th
Lets get some parts.

Tear down. Man that water pump is a p.i.t.a. to replace

Typical cracked manifold. I welded it up, sand blasted it and put a coat of black on it

I will have to get some pics of it all back together tomorrow. She is up and running tho. Making a bad noise. After holding a socket extension to my ear I found that the alt bearings are bad. I will have to replace it in the next few days. I want to get a few miles on her and see what else I need to fix.

2 questions...

first, where is the crack in the manifold? i've heard this is common.

second, what do you mean holding a socket extension to your ear??? i've used tubes before but never this method.

They tend to crack on the #1 and #4 pipes. Right where they meet into the #2 and #3 pipe. There is a factory weld there. If you look real close you can see there is a black line next to the weld. That is where is was cracked. I kept it bolted to the head when I welded it so that it did not distort.

The extension is a old trick. you touch the one end to what you are listening to and cup the other end to your ear. The sound transmits through the metal and you can hear the different sounds. Kind of a neat trick.

Day 3-Wed May 10th
Striped the body panels off the car. Removed the hood, fenders, doors, rockers, lower 1/4 panels, deck lid and started prepped them for paint. There was several gouges in the hood and trunk lid that I am fixing along the way.

(blackeco's white car and him in the pic)
There is alot of "crows feet" in the paint (typical of silver) so inorder to make sure they dont show through, I have to sand all the paint off in the affected areas. That includes just about every thing above the molding. This is a real pain when there is several paint jobs to remove.

I also hate a non factory sunroof so I am installing a sunroof clip.

I grafted it at the top of the a-pillers instead of removing the entire clip. I did this for 2 reasons. 1: I broke the drivers side a-piller removing the sun roof clip so I got to fix it anyway. 2: If you have removed a clip you know why I chose this route

[This message has been edited by YELLOWFIERO88 (edited 05-11-2006).]

Yellow,

Besides basic restoration, what if any modifications do you have for the car ?

What color do you plan to repaint it ?

Plans are basic restoration with a super clean paint job. The only mod to the body is the roof clip swap. some how I got the perfect body, with out the lugage rack and no major damage. Sometimes keeping it simple is the best looking way to complete a car. The paint job will be blue on the top and silver on the bottom. When I do a paint job, I completley disassemable the car and spray all the pieces off of the chasis. I will be lowering it, stock GT wheels, stereo, and interior clean. I have to keep in mind that this is a daily driver. If I make it too radical, because I will not want to drive it. It kinda sucks the underside is cleaner than the yellow car. But that will be adressed in the rebirth of the yellow car, after the vert is drivable. LOL.

Day 4-Wed May 11th
Had rain all day and its getting cold here. It is suposed to go down to 42* tonight. For a minute I was thinking it is the middle of may????

Well I got a tarp stretched over the drive way in front of the garage. It allows me to have the car under it and work on it. Tonight I got the first coat of primer on the hood, fenders, head light doors, lower 1/4's and trunk lid. Tomorrow I am going to block them and then re primer them for paint. I got the glass work done on the roof clip and got the rear clip sanded down and ready for the first coat of primer. I also got the bumpers off of the car. I am hoping that the weather warms up since I have to spray this outside. Its only going to be a high of 50* tomorrow.

[This message has been edited by YELLOWFIERO88 (edited 05-12-2006).]

Dont let him fool you, he does have plans for the car, and it involves an already built and boosted 3.4l, for some reason he keep mumbling about a 3800 though.

[This message has been edited by Blackeco (edited 05-12-2006).]

Day 5-Friday May 12th
Cold as all be. Raining. Nasty.
Poor cars.

I took a day of needed vacation today. I got to work on the car for about 4 hours before I got to go pick up my daughter for the weekend. I got it all masked off and the first primer done on the roof and 1/4 clip.


I prepped the door panels and fixed several deep scratches in them. I primmered them also. I got the second coat of primer on the fenders & mirrors, after I wet sand them they are ready for paint.

I probably wont work on it till sunday again but if I can get the roof and 1/4 clip and doors blocked and primered before that, it would be great.

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88COUPE
88GT 3.4SC
88GT T-TOP
87GT VERT (build in progress)

DA COUPE build thread
VERT build thread

CINCYMOTORSPORTS.ORG

Well laying around the house watching scooby doo for the 1,234,435,674 time with my daughter, I decided to wire the radio together, that way I can just plug it in when I get done painting the car.

I open the box and what do I find????????


A 7 YEAR OLD BUSTED RADIO

I called walmart and talked to a manager and he said to bring it on up and he would look at it. So I ran up real quick adn talked to him. He looked at me once over and said that he would replace it. I think If I was wearing anything other than dress atire, he would not have given me the exchange. I stood there and talked to the assistant manager and she was saying that this happens all the time and there is really nothing they can do about it. By the time they find out its too late.
So I headed home with a new radio this time and laid down on the couch. LOL. Boy am I tired.

Amazing work! Kudos to you!

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I have a Fiero.. Weeeee

Day 6-Saturday May 13th

Thanks FieroMontreal

Got to work a little on her today. I will post better pics tomorrow, But for now.........
Teaser pic

I like the paint job! Nice choice of colors!

Great Job yellow !

Almost makes me wish i was back home in Middletown so i could get you to help me with a few projects.

Welllllllllllllllll i did say almost hehehe. Talked to my mom today and she said it has been cold and rainy there lately.

Sunny, hot, and dry here amongst the palm trees hehehehe

P. S. Do you plan to lower it ?

[This message has been edited by exoticse (edited 05-15-2006).]

quote Originally posted by exoticse: Almost makes me wish i was back home in Middletown so i could get you to help me with a few projects. Welllllllllllllllll i did say almost hehehe. Talked to my mom today and she said it has been cold and rainy there lately. Sunny, hot, and dry here amongst the palm trees hehehehe

Its not nice to rub stuff like that in I came in early tonight because I was so cold I could not feel my fingers. Boy do I hate cold.

quote Originally posted by exoticse: P. S. Do you plan to lower it ?

Well yea

Looks good man, the car as came a LONG way in the last couple days. And you broke a 1000 post Congratulations on becoming a post hore!

nice paint choice. How'd you paint the pegas.?

Looks good. Can't wait to see it done.

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862m6 build up.
https://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum1/HTML/058455.html

quote Originally posted by 88White3.4GT: How'd you paint the pegas.?

First I sprayed the blue base coat and let it flash. I then applyed a vinal sticker over top of the blue.

Then I based in a silver base over top of everything.

Let it flash then did my shadowing with a black base coat. Removed the sticker. Then applied the clear coat.

[This message has been edited by YELLOWFIERO88 (edited 05-15-2006).]

Any more updates? by the way, the car looks fantastic you do awesome work.

-Jonny-

Thanks.

I have been sick for the last few days with phnemonia (dont know how to spell it). Damn cincy weather I hope to get better and get back on it this weekend. I did order new dew wipes and sunroof gaskets from the fiero store, but talking on the phone dont really count as working on the car.

Day 8- May 18th
Well getting restless in the house so I wired the harness for the radio together. I sodered all the wires together and heat shrunk them. No cut & tape here.

I also worked on scrubbing some of the interior trim pieces to re-install them.

[This message has been edited by YELLOWFIERO88 (edited 05-24-2006).]

Day 9 - May 20
Got most of the interior re-installed. Pluged in the radio. And redid the headliner in tweed.

I am not happy with the look of the back panel so I am going to take it out and tweed it also.

[This message has been edited by YELLOWFIERO88 (edited 05-24-2006).]

Day 11 - May 23rd
As promised the engine

I got the body bolted on tonight.

WOW, it turned out really nice. I remember when I first saw the car with the custom pin strips...you did a great job on it. Engine bay also looks very clean. Keep up the good work man.

Ryan

Day 12 - Sunday May 27th
Have been driving the car alot I need to get the rear bumper done and installed.

It will be painted after today. Interior should be complete. Engine is running great. Its not lowered yet and there is a few other things that I want to do to it.

women are the greatest

[This message has been edited by YELLOWFIERO88 (edited 08-02-2006).]

Been driving it and loving it. I only got 2 pics right now of it done but will get more and do a little more to the car when things settle down here.


Well last night my clutch action went down the drain. I push in the clutch and it kept on moving. Found it was a little low on fluid but not empty. I went ahead and added more but the same problem. I figured it had sucked air into the system so i bleeded the system. It got worse. So I loaded it on the trailer and took it down to the pontiac dealer in hamilton and told them to bleed it. I got a call 2 hrs later and the master cyl was junk. Here was the supprise, "Pontiac dont make them anymore". My response was a quick "dont everyone have a fiero? Why dont pontiac still make them?" We both laughed at that one. He had to order a aftermarket one and he also wanted to order the slave cyl and replace it to. I told him to go ahead and get it done. Here is the problem. It cost $200 more than I payed for the entire car for this trip I hate when I cant do the work myself, but with school, work, and the divorce I just dont have time. Oh well I still dont have to much into the entire car, and it looks great. I get to go get it at lunch tomorrow.

Thanks to Bob Hall (machanichall) for the pass side seat bottom. Might be a few weeks till I get it installed, but it will work out great.

Well I got a call yesterday and the new slave cyl was bad. They had another one overnighted and will be here monday.

Nice work. I like that color blue. What is it from? Numbers?

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Notchbacks RULE

"Let a man drive a Fiero and he'll own one.
Teach a man to fix a Fiero and he'll own eight....errr...nine."

Thanks. Its a mopar color blue. Sorry but thats all I will tell you

Well the car never dorve home on its own. I went down and picked it up and trailered it home. After all that we have come to the conclusion that the pressure plate is messed up and causing the clutch to lightly grab and make the car creap forward.

Fast forward to today. VERT is off the lift and moved over into the shed (every one says its the detached garage because its 1 1/2 car ) I got Da Coupe up on the lift and I will be droping the subframe to install a new clutch kit tomorrow. I am hoping to get it done in about 4 1/2 hours but we will see. I might clean up the engine a little bit more, maybe even paint it. This is the first work on the cars I have done since I started back to school. My brain is fried right now so I need a break. Sides, nothing like turning in papers with greese finger prints all over them

Well sat I got the engine dropped out. It took 1.25 hours. Man is it nice working on a rust free car. Tonight I got the engine/trans seperated. Tomorrow I will get it back together and maybe back into the car.

Nice TOOL there to get the job done!!! Wish I had one of those in my garage. Wish I had a garage to have one of those! Keep the progress posted.

Yellow you sure know your way around a car !

Very impressive array of work all crammed into the little bit of free time that you have.

It might be scary what you could do to a car on a weeks uninterrupted vacation ?

Thanks guys.

Last week that I had of vacation that I work solid on a car. I took a bone stock S-10, back halfed the frame and did full air ride, custom body work, including shaving everything, smoothed the body line, and rust repair, new interior, and swaped engine and trans. that weekend took it to a mini truck national truck show and won first place in the older body style S-10 class not bad for a $250 truck LOL. I think I slept the entire next week.