Ok heres the deal. This is a long read but I need to start at the begining. I have always wanted a gt40 but who has that kind of money laying around, so the next best thing. A poor and I do mean poor mans gt. I have had the fiero about 2 years now about as long as I have been reading this forum. I have yet to post because I don't know much as you guys on the fiero, but I have gotten alot of info off here. My son was driving the fiero and blew the motor up. put a piston thru the block. It is an 85 v6. Now for the good stuff. Remember this is a trial by error build. It is a very hard build too. You need to have the know how of chopping and metal fab. Welding is a must! I have 36 years in building and working on cars. I have 24 years of body work and metal fab. Also having alot of metal working tools is a must also. On to the build. After looking over the internet for a few months I found a 1967 fiberfab avenger gt. I had the guy messure the width and wheel base. The wheel base was the same. The width of the avenger was 2 inchs wider then the wide fiero... After this info i knew it had a chance to work. Now I know most are thinking there are kits out there for this. Most of these kits look great. But look a little short and the roofline is to high. The fiero wheelbase is about 3 inchs shorter then the real gt. On these kits there is to much space between the top of the tires and the bottom of the fenders. The bodys just do not set low on the frame. Also because most people would freak when you say you have to chop the top to make it look right they make thier kits to fit up to the fiero roof line. By doing this they also have to make the rear hood over the motor raise up high to meet the roof line. The fiero roof is 7 inchs highter then the avenger roof. Looking at these kits with the high roofline and the large space between the tires and fenders makes the car look short. Kind of pushed together. I wanted the lower and longer looking gt. You can find avenger gts on ebay for $1000 or less. Remember the avenger is in 3 parts. Front hood, center cockpit and rear hood. I first stripped the fiero of its body panels and lights. Removed the seats and carpet. Will get new carpet and racing seats. I then cut the roof off. Cutting at the bottom of the a pillar just above the dash. I also cut the b pillar about middle ways up. I removed front and rear bumper supports. The rear of the avenger body is very narrow and just doesn't look right. I cut the top line down the quarter panel front the door jam all the way back on both sides and pull the sides apart about 4 inchs on both sides. This will be fiberglassed in and looks a whole lot better. More like the real deal. The back hood section of the avenger body fit right over the rear of the fiero. Lots of room for any motor and no cutting at all. You can keep the trunk too. With this clamped and looking right I started fitting the center section. A few cuts here and there and it fit right in. It sets 7 inchs lower with the fiero roof remove and me being 6 feet tall I can set in the seat with about an inch of head room. The front was a little more to deal with. I had to cut our the headlight buckets and the frame all the way back to the spare tire. The Radiator can stay in the same place and the spare tire also. I will build a rad frame later. The avenger has its on headlight buckets made into it so I was not going to use the fiero lights anyhow. After cutting the front section it went right on. Some moving the body up down back and forth and I had it looking like I wanted. Lots of room for the body to clear the fiero frame. Next step will be to lower the fiero with the avenger body about 2 inchs. This will make it look just right. Also making the body mounts and welding them on. I am using gt 40/cobra wheels and 15 inch tires. The new tires are a good bit taller so this will help fill in the gap too. I will put some more pics on as I go. These are a few I took today. I still have to decide what motor trans to go with and what to use to lower it. O and also I will have to fab and weld in a small front frame and roof frame or roll bar. So there is still alot of work left. Remember a sawsall and guts and you can do anything!!!!

[This message has been edited by loctitegt (edited 01-13-2008).]

Welcome! Great first post.

Nice work.

Will be watching this one with much interest.

Is your buddy a basset?

HAGO!

Wow, great looking project !

It looks like you really know what you want and how to go about it.

I am going to be watching this one with great intrest.

That is an awesome looking car.

quote Originally posted by loctitegt:Now I know most are thinking there are kits out there for this. Most of these kits look great. But look a little short and the roofline is to high. The fiero wheelbase is about 3 inchs shorter then the real gt. On these kits there is to much space between the top of the tires and the bottom of the fenders. The bodys just do not set low on the frame. ... The fiero roof is 7 inchs highter then the avenger roof. Looking at these kits with the high roofline and the large space between the tires and fenders makes the car look short. Kind of pushed together. I wanted the lower and longer looking gt.

I admire the difficulty in the endeavor you've undertaken. I offer the following photo to show that the Fiero-based GT40 kit can be made to look better once lowered. Granted, my roof is the OEM Fiero roof, and while it has not been chopped, the top center of my roof is only 44" above the ground. On the plus side, my glass and interior can remain stock. You've obviously done a lot of work already, and I wish you the best in making it work.

[This message has been edited by WAWUZAT (edited 01-13-2008).]

Hey Sage. yes it is a Bassett Hound. He hangs with me every step of the way on these builds..... WAWUZAT. Good looking gt. by lowing the body it looks really good. Most people don't lower theres and it sets to high. What did you do to lower yours? Also your right you save alot of time using the fiero glass.

Good luck! It sounds like it will be a nice one! I'll be watching with great interest.

One thing I have noticed is that when most people chop off the roof, they weld in some support from front to back before cutting to keep the lower body from bending until the new roof support is in (see Archie's Miura build). That might be something to watch for if you haven't reinforced the bottom of the Fiero yet.

Thanks for showing us the progress!

Very cool project!

For the sake of comparison, the fiero kit does indeed look retardedly 4X4ish on an unlowered car:

Welcome to the Forum.
Looks like a nice build, looking forward to some more pictures.

quote Originally posted by loctitegt:WAWUZAT. Good looking gt. by lowing the body it looks really good. Most people don't lower theres and it sets to high. What did you do to lower yours? Also your right you save alot of time using the fiero glass.

Thanks. I installed dropped spindles AND lowering springs in the front, and then re-arched the frame because the tires were up against it. I weled in arched "bridges" over the wheels, then cut out the original structure, and finished by re-working the steel fenderwells. The GT40 body allows plenty of room for that type of mod. In the rear, I installed coil-overs, top-hats, and raised the entire drivetrain by modifying the engine cradle. On page 3 of the thread linked below, you can see the top-hats welded atop my rear strut towers. You can also see my cradle being modified further for my Northstar installation. The forward ends of the stock cradle sweep upwards, and I cut & welded them flat which moved the drivetrain up about 2-1/2". Then I modified the rear mounts to allow the cradle to sit level when bolted to the chassis. The coil-overs allow me to adjust ride-height. In the following thread, you will see that I replaced both crossmembers to suit the Northstar engine.
https://www.fiero.nl/forum/F...2/HTML/081971-3.html

EDIT TO ADD: I also had to re-arch the rear frame rails above the tires for clearance.

EDIT AGAIN TO ADD PHOTO: Here's a 1994 photo of mine with lowering springs only ... not low enough.

[This message has been edited by WAWUZAT (edited 01-13-2008).]

Hey Saxman. Yes most of the time i brace the car when I chop the roof off. The fiero frame should be more then enought to suppot the wieght. No wieght in the front and most of the wieght in the rear is over the axle. I have messurements before and after and its still the same. WAWUZAT Yes thats how low I want this one. I looked at your other post and you did alot of work to get it that low. But it was worth it. i still have to decide what motor I will be using. Anybody know of a ford motor and trans axle that might work? Would be nice to have a ford in gt clone. Maybe long ways?

Now I remember why I brought up the sagging of a roofless Fiero - it was here: https://www.fiero.nl/forum/F.../HTML/068941.html#p9 - He had to actually take the body back off to make it right.

I asked the "Ford" power question when I first joined here and it wasn't very popular. I am sure it will be better received knowing that it is part of a GT40, though.

Man, I wish I were doing a GT40. That would be the last one I did because it doesn't get much better than that, kit-wise.

Welcome to the forum, car looks like an awful lot of work. I like yuour garage too, it makes me wish I had one. Have you checked out the Georgia Fiero Club yet? I would like to extend an ivitation for you to join us. We also have a couple of members out there, Raydar being one. Check out gafiero.org. Alos, what did you do with all the body parts? It seems like I am always needing parts. Thanks, Scott

quote Originally posted by jmarek78: Very cool project! For the sake of comparison, the fiero kit does indeed look retardedly 4X4ish on an unlowered car:

Hehe. Same ride height as the mower.

Good looking cars. I always liked the GT40.

Hey Racer37. I already know a few members of your club. Don H is who I got this fiero from. He's only 1/4 mile from me. Talked to alot of you guys in Charlotte at the spring swap meet and at the world of wheels. I still have to go thru all the parts to see what I will need to put back on but after that there free to whoever picks them up...

[This message has been edited by loctitegt (edited 01-14-2008).]

So a Fiero is almost 47" tall and the GT40 is 40" (thus the name). You think you can knock her down almost 7"??
Not to mention the wheel base is over 13" longer. To make her look like a replicar you'll have a bit of work ahead of you. But to make a custom kit out of it I think you're almost there. Just need to slam her down a bit.

------------------
Julian - MERA #8071

Julian. First off this is not going to be just like the real gt40. as you say it is alot longer and has different body lines. I am trying to make a avenger body look as close as I can to the real deal. It will keep the fiero wheelbase but will be alot lower. I'm not sure but I think the fiero is taller then 47 inchs. I have cut out 6 inchs on the roof already and still have to lower the body. As for alot of work? Yes it is but I like doing this kind of work. If you are expecting to put this side by side to the real thing and not be able to tell or that they even look close then this thread is not for you. Bottom line is this is a fiero with a avenger body on it and theres nothing wrong with that unless you have $170000 for the real deal.

I have been checking the web the last few days for some info on mounting a ford motor in this project. Yes a ford motor. First I am a sbc fan but I would like to put a sbf in this kit. I know about the sbc mounts and mounting a sbc longs ways too. The gm th325/425 looks like the way to go with the space that you have. Somewhere I found a link to a guy that mounted a sbf to the gm th325 but lost it. Is this possible? If you used an early 302/351 with a carb and the gm th325 you would not need the computer or any special wiring. You would need to fab an adapter plate to mount the gm bellhousing to the ford block. Also fab a pilot bushing. Use the chevy torque convertor. I guess you would have to use the ford flexplate. This is the problem. you would have to change the bolt holes in the flexplate to mount up to the torque convertor. I know i am missing something here. Its alot of work but still sounds to easy?

I know someone did mount a SHO engine with the SHO 5 speed in their Fiero with the GT 40 kit. It is possible, just a little more work. If I was you I would look into the SHO V6 or SHO V8, they are great engines for this and they have a "exotic" look to them. I am not a Ford guy, but those SHO engines are durarable and can turn some pretty impressive RPM's, someone on here had a Fiero with a 302, if was for sale a while back, maybe someone knows who that was or who did the SHO engine swaps.

I want. <--- This is the most profound thought you've seen all day.

Here is the Fiero with a 302 in it, its sold, but is has pictures.

https://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum4/HTML/039333.html

http://www.avenger-valkyrie.org/gallery/index.html

quote Originally posted by loctitegt:If you used an early 302/351 with a carb and the gm th325 you would not need the computer or any special wiring. You would need to fab an adapter plate to mount the gm bellhousing to the ford block. Also fab a pilot bushing. Use the chevy torque convertor. I guess you would have to use the ford flexplate. This is the problem. you would have to change the bolt holes in the flexplate to mount up to the torque convertor. I know i am missing something here. Its alot of work but still sounds to easy?

Some folks flipped the differential over 180* in order to have the heavy transaxle mounted forward of the engine versus hanging out back. I thought about it, bought a rebuilt TH425 with axles, then wound up going with a Northstar. There is now a company offering the plate needed for flipping the differential, and I still have that TH425 ... and I wanna' get rid of it.

Street dreams has the plate to flip the diff. Not sure how the cv axle would work on a ford oil pan. When you flip it you have to cut out some of the oil pan on the chevy swap to clear the axle. I know some ford pans or cut out to clear the sway bar so it might work. TCI has the ford to gm swap kit. I don't understand why people are saying the motor will be to high and your CG will be bad and handing too. The ford swap should be about the same as the chevy swap. I haven't heard of any CG or motor mounting to high on these swaps? Also most say the handing is not that bad.

Theres some pictures of mine in here http://groups.msn.com/RogersCarPhotos

It was also a Fiberfab Avenger body, but mine is on a Porsche 911 frame, with the Porsche w/ Webers drivetrain. Roof was realllllly low if your very tall. My 3 inch thick seats were bolted straight to the floor too. I do personally think the Avenger has more true GT40 lines than the AASP one for Fiero....but then you also have headroom.

Those are some good looking photos! Where are the car pics? I only see the women! yes the fiberfab body sets really low. Thats what makes it look better. The roof line. I am 6 feet and can set in it with my gt seats and my head will just clear . That is a really good looking avenger you have.

quote Originally posted by rogergarrison:I do personally think the Avenger has more true GT40 lines than the AASP one for Fiero....but then you also have headroom.

Huh? The ASPP (formerly NAF) kits were developed directly from the original GT40 MKII molds after NAF's Jack Kube bought them from Holman & Moody. My Fiero-based GT40 has been parked next to Lee Holman's GT40 MKII, and the bodies are identical (including imperfections) from the windshield forward. From that point aft, NAF modified the lines to suit the Fiero's roof panel.
http://www.mshf.com/index.h...hof/holman_moody.htm