THWARTED! So, I was trying to save some money on this build without cutting too many corners. When I first got the car I noticed that the clear was peeling on the rear bumper. My original thinking was, "No problem! I can just sand it out!"
Of course, I later discovered a crack in the rear bumper and noticed that there's a definite gap where the bumper meets the body. So, its been tapped.
Determined to keep things cost effective, I tracked down a rear bumper. The owner told me that it was free of major issues. "Self, you can just sand it out and have it painted with the car!"
I drove something like 6 hours round trip to get my $50.00 "perfect" bumper, only to notice later that, on the backside, sure enough THIS one has a crack!
This morning, a bit fuzzy headed still, I grabbed the bumper and threw it in the back of the explorer with the intent of taking it to Keystone. Estimates from PFF had a refinish around $150 or so. I called them up and, while waiting for a quote, realized that I thwarted my own plans to expedite the bumper prep. I hadn't test fit the stupid thing yet! So, I was already frustrated with my own error when the guy got back on the line.
"Yeah, we can do that for $200."
So, simple math. . . $200 refinish + $50 for bumper + $50 for gas picking the thing up = $300!
For $60 more I could have just ordered one from fierofiberglass.com and not spent 6 hours driving!
In light of this, I think my decision has been made to go ahead and buy a fiberglass front bumper. . . I might keep the urethane one for autoX and create a quick disconnect so I don't mess up my nice new bumper.
Of course, this puts the spoiler and side scoops on the back-burner now.
ORDERED Add a Fierofiberglass bumper to my parts list!
[This message has been edited by Blueiii (edited 06-26-2009).]
First, I used scuff paste and the 3m scuff pads to hit the edges of the fender. Then, I realized that I had not test fit them yet. Not wanting to have any issues putting it back together, and not wanting to spend x number of hours sanding another fender to find out they won't work, I opted to test fit.
Removing the fenders and rocker panels ended up netting a few neat things. . .
1.) There is no more beehive in the driver's side fender, effective immediately. 2.) The molding broke off right at the clip for the driver's side fender. (The GT trim.) This will just get glued to the fender itself as there are enough adhesion points to make it work. 3.) Figuring out how to take everything apart was a royal PITA. I eventually ran a search, at which point I felt stupid. 4.) There is zero rust under the fender! Good new so far as this is a northern Ohio car!
Pictures tomorrow, the battery in the camera was dead.
A few more updates to the build, now with pictures!
6/26/09 - 23 days of Fiero ownership As previously mentioned, I was scuffing the edges of the driver's side fender and getting ready to get started on the passenger side. I realized that I hadn't test fit the fenders at all! (And, having read a post by another member where his fenders did not fit, I was markedly concerned.) I managed to remove the fender only to find a bee's nest inside the fender! Per the guy that's doing my paint, I used 3m grey scuff pads and scuff paste to go over the edges around the headlights. Then, I test fit the fender that's ready for paint.Of course, I also wanted to document how the fender and bumper match up for when I (try to) put everything back together. Obviously, I also pulled the rocker panels in order to remove the fenders. These are sitting in my garage currently, waiting for sanding.
[This message has been edited by Blueiii (edited 07-01-2009).]
6/27/09 - 24 Days of Fiero Ownership I spent Saturday with my trusty sanding block, "Blocky," and the un-sanded fender. I had a bit of time left post-fender sanding and started attacking the rear deck lid. No pictures of that yet. I had pulled the Fiero out of the garage to clean up some of the paint off the garage floor. When my girlfriend pulled up to the house later I'm sure she was REALLY impressed with what she saw.
[This message has been edited by Blueiii (edited 07-01-2009).]
6/29/09 - 26 Days of Fiero Ownership Over the weekend I took my girlfriend to an AutoX event. The particular event was a Divisional and held at the Airport. Because the BMW lacked any real torque I never liked the long straights of the airport courses very much, so I decided I would take her to a race to see what I do rather than actually race. (There were over 200 entries, which also meant less runs. Again, this is day 16 with the car so I wasn't quite ready to bring it out yet.)
The next event is July 12th followed by the MIS trip August 2nd, both of which create perfect excuses for deadlines. So, I got home from work and tore into the car again.
First, I wanted to make sure I documented alignment of the rear bumper to the body.
Then, I got started on taking the bumper off. It wasn't overly difficult and I made sure to bag all the different pop rivets.
With the old bumper off I put the new bumper on to test fit. Everything lined up great! I stripped the hardware from the new bumper and will reuse the hardware from the old. (MUCH less rust!) I'll be taking the bumper over to Keystone today to have it refinished. Per Keystone, it should run me around $200 and will take about a week.
With the bumper cover off I decided to wash the actual bumper. I removed the honeycomb material (which I'm going to need to ask someone about how to re-install, especially since some of the rubber rivet "things" were broken) and scrubbed the bumper. Although in REALLY good shape for a 22 year old car in Ohio, I did find a few spots of surface rust. I picked up some 60 grit and sanded them out. These will then be hit with Rustoleum.
Post sanding, and with the car in the garage already, I opted to remove the passenger fender and the rocker panels. What a PITA! Apparently the rockers were removed before, and whatever shop, person or monkey had put them back on decided they should never come off again. Metal rivets were used all around. Many swear words were thought, though somehow not muttered aloud. I did, however, manage to get everything off eventually. My fingertips are now a mix of sanded and burned off after grabbing a hot drill bit more than once. Whoops.
I also talked to Jimmy S for a while. Thanks for calling! I'm waiting to hear back, but I'm 99% sure I'm picking up the side scoops after all. Yes, it will put me over budget, but you only live once.
[This message has been edited by Blueiii (edited 07-01-2009).]
7/1/2009 - 28 Days of Fiero Ownership Well, I realized my math was wrong on the number of days I've had Grrr and made my corrections.
The scoops fell through, so I'm holding off for the time being. All the major body parts have now been ordered, and I've decided to not make any more changes from the original plan before paint. (ie: dropping the antenna, euro style side markers, etc.) This is, in part, because my calendar for July is pretty full and hectic and I want to make sure I have enough time to finish everything properly.
July 12th is the next regional AutoX event, and after my girlfriend stopped out to the Division event with me this past weekend I'm pretty set on racing on the 12th, crappy bushings, exhaust manifold leak, squeeky belts and all.
IP: Logged
12:49 PM
aaronkoch Member
Posts: 1643 From: Spokane, WA Registered: Aug 2003
You might consider hitting the bumper bars with POR15, which is amazing stuff. It will seal out and prevent rust. I think the only place you're not supposed to use it is anywhere that gets direct sunlight.
Thanks! Its on my list. The pictures are of the rust before sanding. I talked to my local friendly Auto-zone-ite and he recommended the same product. He also indicated they don't carry it, so off to Painter's Supply again.
Does anyone know if you can soak bolts in this that have mild surface rust to clean them up a bit?
For soaking bolts and screws, go to your local Home Depot or Lowes and pic up a 1 gal bottle of this...
Pour about 4" deep into a medium sized paint mixing cup and just drop your nuts and bolts into it. Be careful not to get this stuff on your skin. After about 2 hours, dump em out and rinse them off real good with clean water.
7/1/2009 - 28 Days of Fiero Ownership Completely not part of the project, but I ordered a few things from FieroStore.com today. Mainly, the High Performance Fieros book because, from what they had indicated on the page, its based on SCCA and handling primarily. Plus I thought it would be cool to have. I also got a Fiero key fob and calendar.
Post work, the progress continued! (I kept looking at the calendar and realized how little time I have before the MIS trip.)
First, I mounted the fenders. I ended up using the brackets from my car instead of the brackets in the existing fenders. (Mine had a TON less rust.) Fenders aligned great with no issues, other than the (new) fenders were bolted in halfway when I realized the wheel well tabs were all rusted out. Took the fenders off, removed my old tabs, and reinstalled.
Next, I started on the rear decklid. Started might be a bit of an understatement. The only part I didn't get ready for paint was the edge around the rear glass. Because of the angle, and because the decklid is coming off for paint, I opted to leave this for now and hit it once I have it off at the body shop.
I was going to finish up just the decklid, but I looked at the clock and realized I had time left before it got too dark. (I only have one lightbulb in my garage at the moment.) So, I hit the rear quarter. This could have been completely avoided had I bought the scoops from fierofiberglass.com but that's being saved for later. I burned through numerous spots that now need to be spot primed, as can be seen from the white spots.
I also hit the GT trim for the fenders. I can only assume that these are grey plastic to begin with. (Or gray, depending on your spelling.) These are going to have to be epoxied onto the fenders since both lips broke off during the removal. To me, this isn't a huge problem (yet.)
Unfortunately, progress is going to be slow for a few days. I'm going to the Go-Kart track with my girlfriend tomorrow night for a bit of SCCA warm-up (I'm trying to get her to race!) then its the fourth weekend, and we have a ton of commitments over the weekend so the progress might slow a bit. Next week is somewhat brutal with post-work events scheduled in advance. I'm going to do my best to keep the following week as open as possible for the sake of Fiero progress!
[This message has been edited by Blueiii (edited 07-06-2009).]
7-6-2009 33 Days of Fiero Ownership I cleaned up the actual bumper (not cover) and snapped off a few pictures of the finished product. Not too bad! I also got underneath and snapped off a few pictures of metal components that would normally not be visible with all the panels on the car. Lucky for me, VERY LITTLE RUST!
Progress is now going to get extremely slow. I will HOPEFULLY have the brakes worked out by this weekend. I'm scheduled to head down to Fostoria, OH for an AutoX event, which means I need to have the bumper back on and finish the fenders. The downside is that I have something scheduled every night of the week after work, so there isn't a lot of Fiero work time available.
I've been viewing a few vehicles on PFF since I bought Grrr, and have recently come to a conclusion.
I REALLY need to stay focused on the original plan, which is to build a decent looking vehicles for under 3k. Well, 3,200. Fine, 3,500 WORST case scenario. Of course, I keep coming across other cars and drooling all over myself. Someday, sometime, in the way to distant future, I'd love to do:
Norm's Flipper Nose Archie's hatch conversion Archie's widebody
That combo is . . . . ummmmmm. . . . sex. It would not look right with my current color combo idea, but time will tell what happens. 4 years from now, as I look back at this post, this will be my inspiration to do these body mods and build the car I'd LOVE to have, but cannot currently justify.
Darn you Archie and your awesome designs. Also, darn you to heck. You are too close to me!!!!
Addiction? I'm going with stage 4. This is where you blame it on other people.
My girlfriend responded to a text today with, "Maybe you should buy some more car parts today. You seem stressed." Hahaha. If I would have bought a stick I would have been in much better shape for mods, as I could have simply driven it (and had better control!) I wish I could find time to wrench and get a few bugs worked out, but apparently I now have to run a rowing camp for 3 weeks. Unexpected, but another 1k or so of unexpected income. Translation: slower mods, but faster duckets. All for evening work with no major stress.
I have to say, though, that the hatchback from Archie might put a delay on paint and 3800 options. At the same time, the more I pull off panels and look at things, the more I am liking this car. (Even if it drives like poo.)
I've got an autoX event this weekend, and although I haven't driven Grrr much my girlfriend and her friends are going. Fun times, since I haven't shaken off the cobwebs from last year yet thanks to selling the BMW.
I got the honecomb, existing rear bumper and tail lights back in. Since it was not "street legal" and I had some time, I swung through the parking lot of a closed grocery store to see what the suspension felt like under load. (In this case, slalom at around 30 mph.)
First impression? Poly bushings will be on order once everything is back together. The dogbone is sloppy as all get out, but I'm sure the 22 year old bushings are even worse. The back end felt like it was loose and there was a surprising amount of body roll. I other words, I'll drive it for this event just for kicks, but for next season I'll definitely be running CSP with suspension work over the winter.
Since I knew the brakes were spongy still, I started to install my Earl's Speed Bleeders. Now I've got a fun "problem" to figure out. For some reason the bleeder screw on the passenger rear caliper is a 8mm instead of the standard 10mm. This leads me to believe that the wrong caliper was used, or a caliper from a different vehicle, on this wheel. I'm going to have my girlfriend help tonight with bleeding the brakes (She's AWESOME!!!) and eventually switch these out. So, hopefully the spongy / soft brakes will be corrected.
Unfortunately for Grrr, my summer free time was pretty much eliminated as of Monday. I'm a high school coach in addition to my normal day job. Although next week is still open, I was asked to run a 3 week rowing camp after work starting the following week. I agreed. It will help grow my team and keep our sister school moving forward. After the camp I have a week reprieve, then 3 months of 18 hour days between both jobs, with weekends out of town for races. So. . . little work will get done, though the coffers will be slightly replenished.
IP: Logged
08:46 AM
LitebulbwithaFiero Member
Posts: 3380 From: LaSalle, Michigan Registered: Jun 2008
Wow - in retrospect, that REALLY makes sense from what I experienced yesterday. It wasn't so much that tires were moving, although the suspension did feel soft. It felt more like a pendulum swinging inside the back end. I originally thought this might be a characteristic of the Fiero, but based on the cradle comments that seems more fitting.
Does anyone have a write-up on the installation process? I planned on swapping to a 3800 SC this winter (possibly) anyway, so that might be part of the swap.
I got the brakes bled and took Grrr out a few times tonight.
Tomorrow is my first autoX in Grrr, as well as my first time ever racing in an auto. I'm a bit nervous, but the g/f, her friends, and a new friend who I talked into racing his s2k will be joining me. I'm pumped, but a bit nervous about the lack of control an auto provides, as well as the 22 year old suspension components.
No more progress to speak of on the build, other than the brake bleeding issues. I ordered Earl's speed bleeders from the Fiero Store, and found that the passenger rear was an 8mm with a different thread pattern for some odd reason. I finally got the brakes bleed out tonight, so we'll see how things go.
I also saw a green Cavalier at my local Uh-Oh-Zone. Though the tinted windows made it appear a bit ricey, the overall look was impressive and is making me reconsider my original plan of green. I should be wrapping up prep work this week and ready for paint by the weekend, so I need to make a decision and stat.
Yesterday was my first AutoX in the Fiero. I was a bit disappointed in both myself and Grrr.
I normally ran the bmw with my tire pressure around 38-39. I went to air up my tires the morning of the race only to find that my compressor, for whatever reason, wasn't working. My tires were LOW and needed air. We stopped at a Speedway gas station on the way to the course and I aired up.
I planned to make adjustments to air pressure in the grid and mark the tires, like I usually do, with chalk. I had a difficult time chalking the tires as the sidewalls were SO round! To make matters worse, the front passenger tire was only inflated to 32 PSI, so I had to match all around as my starting point.
The tires felt like they were covered in grease. I couldn't take corners at any kind of speed, which meant I was shifting up and down in and out of turns.
This morning I was sitting outside, staring at the "Douglas" brand tires I had tried racing on yesterday. I realized, to my dismay, that only 2 of the tires were the awesome Douglas brand. The other two were equally cheap and on opposite wheels / sides. Not only was I running really bad street tires for racing, but they were completely mismatched as well!
On the plus side, my goal was to find out if anything suspension wise would break under load. The brakes held up reasonably well and the car was driven to and from the site. I desperately need better tires, though.
I will throw some pictures up once they are posted from the scca site, or when I get in front of my camera again. (There weren't a lot of good ones, though.)
Scoops! I ended up ordering the GT side scoops I wanted today. They are blemished and will need to be finished, but since they are getting painted anyway I see no reason not to! These should be here by the weekend!
Paint is coming VERY soon. Kumho Ecsta V710s and new daily wheels will have to wait, possibly even until next race season. My body guy is now suggesting that we prime and block it smooth once I'm prepped, so I might be going that route now instead of spraying over the existing primer.
[This message has been edited by Blueiii (edited 07-14-2009).]
7/13/2009 (conrtinued) - 40 Days of Fiero Ownership
First, the pictures from this weekend's race on Sunday, August 12 2009 in Fostoria, Ohio. For now I'm only going to post the official event pictures. I have some that are from further away that my girlfriend took at home, so if I think about it I will get those posted sometime as well. As I mentioned, I represented our vehicle of choice . . . poorly. The miatas beat me up pretty bad. This, of course, is because running Douglass "Performance" tires at 32 PSI in AutoX against other drivers with R-Compounds is akin to running a marathon in steel toe work boots while carrying a bowling ball. No matter how good of shape you're in, it simply isn't going to happen.
The solution may have already been found, though! I'm waiting to see what happens with the rowing camp (and incoming funds) on Monday as I found a brand new set of Toyo Proxes for $400 locally. Never used, the guy sold the car before the season started and has been sitting on them.
7/15/2009 - 42 Days of Fiero Ownership Parts have arrived! My rear bumper that was being refinished by Keystone was picked up yesterday during lunch. My front bumper from JimmyS at http://www.fierofiberglass.com was picked up from Greyhound last night. It was well packaged, however when I took a quick glance at it this morning there were holes in the cardboard packaging and obvious gouges out of the fiberglass. Not Jimmy's fault, but it will be a bit of extra work for me.
I spent a little bit more time scuffing up edges and removed a sail panel as well. Those are a PITA to get off, especially in one piece. The driver's sail panel is now sitting in about 10 pieces on my garage floor.
As always, more pictures to come soon. . .
[This message has been edited by Blueiii (edited 07-15-2009).]
7/20/09 - 46 Days of Fiero Ownership All parts have arrived! I had originally hoped to have the side scoops by Friday, get out of work early, get them rough sanded and over to the body shop for an initial coat of primer. No such luck, as while driving the Explorer the brake pedal decided it wanted to drop to the floor. I also had told the girlfriend we would head out to the park with friends, so I couldn't very well justify bailing on her to work on car stuff, especially since we had been planning this for about a month and a half.
The Explorer is back together, though, and ready to haul some parts at some point in time this week. I have this other major commitment ahead of me, though. Namely a full time job and putting on a rowing camp for two local high schools over the next 3 weeks. I'm also going camping next weekend followed by the MIS trip the following weekend, thus a bit of a damper on Fiero project time.
I've got the sail windows out now as well, so we'll see how much time I get to spend working on more body prep. My to do list before paint:
1.) Remove the door trim, sand the doors 2.) Sand the remaining rocker panel 3.) Scuff the rear bumper for primer 4.) Sand the scoops and bumper 5.) Repair small holes and cracks in the front bumper from shipping 6.) Remove heat vents from rear decklid 7.) Remove trim around rear decklid 8.) Re-Scuff all edges 9.) Remove sunroof and repair small holes 10.) Cut all mounting holes in trim and scoops
I'm sure I'm missing a ton of stuff, so there will be updates!
Grrr goes to MIS I had originally hoped to have Grrr completely painted and ready to go for my dad and the Capital City Fieros trip to MIS. Unfortunately, with pre-planned events for weekends and putting on an impromptu rowing camp for 3 weeks, my free time suddenly disappeared.
Still, the plan was to keep it on the road throughout this stage of the build as well as keep as many body panels on the car as possible. So far, so good!
I had forgotten to check the work calendar, and as it turned out this was my weekend to work. I ended up unable to attend the early morning festivities. A lack of additional planning resulted in me arriving at my parents' house, located 2 1/2 miles from the track, around 4:15. To further complicate things, I never checked to see how far Chesaning, MI was from Brooklyn. I (incorrectly) assumed it would be fairly close. As we pulled out of the driveway the GPS finished calculating the trip, only to inform me we of the distance. Whoops!
We did manage to stop by a car show in Adrian for a little while as they wrapped up. No big surprise, there were no Fieros.
Sunday morning we rolled out to meet up with my new Fiero compatriots at Bob Evans. As I pulled into the parking lot I was immediately drawn to a bright orange GT. There were, I believe, three "complete" Fieros in the lot at the time. (Are they ever really complete?) We got out and checked out everyone's cars before coming inside and meeting people.
The track was a blast. Since my dad moved to Michigan, he and I haven't had as much time together lately. It was nice to talk to him about motor swaps and car plans while he reminisced over cars he once had. I definitely had the ugliest car present, although I wasn't surprised as it has been a work in progress since I bought it.
Enough chatter. . . . pics? Don't mind if I do!
[This message has been edited by Blueiii (edited 08-03-2009).]
I managed to get a bit more filler / putty into the scoops this weekend. There were a few gouges in them that I wanted to address before priming the car. I'm hoping to have them sanded out and ready for primer tonight, however I am meeting with my paint guy to check out his mustang and make some decisions. Namely, whether to prime it completely and block it down or just paint it. Its not a show car and I'm on a budget. JUST the labor to help me prime, block and paint - with me assisting, is going to run $800. If we just paint it then I'm looking at about half the cost.
Anyway, here are two renderings of what I'd like to do with the paint. Orange has been done SO many times already, so I'd like to go with something different. These are also the same scoops as what I have, although the front bumper is obviously different.
[This message has been edited by Blueiii (edited 08-10-2009).]
8/11/2007 - 67 Days of Fiero Ownership Rowing camp is finally done, and this is now my last week at work before graduate school. I managed to get over to the guy that was going to spray my car for me and chat for a bit.
He originally told me $200 - $300 to spray it. Then, as things progressed, he suggested we prime it and he block it down. I asked him how much he would charge based on the color change ideas and he told me $1300 if he did it himself, $800 if I helped out.
Of course, I also have to purchase all the supplies.
Oddly enough, when I spoke to him last night the price changed again. I wanted to see a car that was sanded down to just the primer and sprayed, then cleared and buffed. He showed me his car and told me it would be $1000 with me helping. Not primed, not blocked, but now we're up to $1000 just to spray it plus materials.
To say the least, I was a little upset. Okay, I'm pi$$ed. I'm about to be broke to begin with, and even going with what we ORIGINALLY decided to do, WITH me helping, the price has gone up quite dramatically.
I talked to the owner of a local Maaco. If I go with a single color I'm looking at $700. He is fine with removing a couple of panels, and they are going to primer seal it, block it down, 3 coats of paint, 3 coats of primer. Needless to say, I think my decision is made. I just need to decide on a paint scheme once and for all. . . .
After speaking with the Maaco shop owner on Monday, I've decided to take the car to them for paint. We had a slight issue when trying to find the paint color I wanted. I'm really leaning on the GT40 inspired theme. This is not a replica or meant to be a replica, but rather to invoke a sense of familiarity.
In 2006, Ford released a special edition GT called the Heritage Edition. Although powder blue and orange, the colors were not an exact match to the original Gulf Cars. Apparently Gulf Oil wanted to charge Ford an outrageous licensing fee to use "their" colors, so Ford opted to go with something similar, but not identical.
I tried calling Maaco to see if the 2006 colors would be listed in factory color sheets, though didn't expect much. (Its a limited edition $200k+ car, after all.) No such luck.
I did, however, find a GT40 registry and got paint codes in PPG from a particular car I liked. It may not be identical to the Gulf Car, however the game plan is not to built a replica anyway.
For reference, if anyone REALLY likes the way this turns out, the color codes from PPG are as follows: Powder Blue PPG MBC2626 Topaz Orange PPG MBC60812
I will also be using a 1/2 inch navy stripe between the orange and the blue.
------------------------------------------------------ After work I had an interview for a part time job with the rowing club, so I didn't have the entire evening to work on the car as I had originally hoped. I had about an hour, though, and managed to get the new bumper installed. I did not put the reflectors in, though, since it is going to get sprayed at Maaco.
After getting the bumper on I had a little bit of time left. I had already started to fill the side scoops with glazing putty in the small holes that I had found and they've been sanded lightly, though still need some work. I still have to sand them out again, then I plan to hit them with primer, look for pinholes, fill the pin holes, and resand them out again. I ended up removing one of the quarter panels to test fit the side scoop.
The scoops need some adjusting as the cuts and holes aren't big enough, resulting in a slightly incorrect fit. I'm hoping that making a few adjustments will allow everything to line up a bit better, but we'll see what happens tonight if I get some time to work on the car.
I'm hoping to have everything ready to be dropped off for paint on the 21st, with the hope of having it returned by the 28th. (The next autoX is on the 30th, and I'm hoping to have it back in time for the event.
[This message has been edited by Blueiii (edited 08-13-2009).]
8/13/2009 - 69 Days of Fiero Ownership If you look closely at the picture above, you'll notice that the saide scoop isn't lined up perfectly along the trim edge.
I took it off last night and re-cut the mounting bracket it seemed to be hung up on, as well as enlarged all the rivet holes since I had them drilled out too small.
The next test fit everything lined up fine.
Since they were already sanded, I decided to hit them with a light coat of primer. The intention was to prime both scoops very lightly, look for any more blemishes, fill them, then re-sand them out (remove the primer) with 400 wet.
I washed down both scoops and tack clothed them. The second one came out great, however the first one. . . let's just say whoops. There was still some dust from the sanding on the upper edge that I had missed somehow. Obviously when the primer hit the dust it didn't work out so well, so now its back to sanding everything down again and re-priming.
In the meantime, I've run into a bit of a financial snaffuu. I'm paid monthly and start graduate school in a week. It turns out that I'm NOT going to be receiving a month's worth of salary that I had expected, which definitely ties things up a bit. I'll be looking for an apartment in the very near future, which will eliminate the garage. . .
You know all those setbacks that everyone talks about when working on their project cars?
I got a text from my girlfriend the other day. "You know you you've been really tired lately? I got test results back today. I've got something that rhymes with 'Bono.'"
Yup, mono. No wonder I've been EXHAUSTED way more than usual lately. I thought it was just stress?!
Well, in between 3 hour naps I went and checked out the apartment I now need to move into thanks to my former employer and a lack of financial backing. I shouldn't necessarily blame them because it COULD have been my error. The simple fact is that for the past 8 months my pay stubs have indicated I was paid on the 20th for the past month. I expected to have a pay check for the month of July and partial month of August still. Needless to say, its not going to happen. I need to cut expenses as much as possible now, and moving to an apartment 2 months early will save me around $600.
I re-sanded the primer off the scoop I messed up with 120 grit, then cleaned it and its drying currently. Soon I will tack it down and re-prime the top half. I'm hoping this mono doesn't kick my a$$ so much I don't get the Fiero ready for paint this week as I had originally hoped.
8/24/2009 - 90 Days of Fiero Ownership I've been able to get a little bit of work done here and there over the past week. Nothing too impressive, mostly because I've spent WAY too many hours working on my scoops.
When I received them, I sanded them down (scuffed) with 120 grit. I threw a light coat of primer on them and began filling in all the tiny blemishes with glazing putty, then sanding out the glazing putty and primer. I re-primed, only to find more blemishes. Sanded it out, re-glazed, primed. MORE BLEMISHES. Sanded, glaze, reprime. Blemish. You get the picture.
I finally decided to try some filler primer, hoping it would help with the minor imperfections. I also realized that cleaning the scoops before primer with a sponge wasn't the best idea, so I've been using a rag.
I got the first coat of filler primer on the scoops and saw a LOT of improvement.
I still have to fill a few small blemishes, re-sand, and I will reprime with filler primer, then sand again before installing. HOPEFULLY I'll have the driver's side installed this week.
I did get some more sanding of the body panels done. There's still more work to be done on the driver's side as you can see, however I reached the point that I couldn't tell the difference between my own blood and the paint anymore. I'm not sure which one was more prevalent, so I stopped sanding for the day.
Today marks the first day of Grad School for me, and In another 3 weeks I'll be gone every weekend for rowing season. I'm also moving into an apartment in 1 month and 3 or 4 days, so we're getting down to the wire of having a place to actually work on Grrr. . . Not good at all as I still have a LOT to do before its ready for paint. The more I get done, the less paint will cost, so I'm hoping to get a fair amount accomplished this week.
This week's goal: Scoops - FINISHED Driver's Side Door - finish sanding Driver's side trim - sand Passenger Side - sand door, trim, remove 1/4 panel Sand final rocker panel
I sure hope your not trying to prep those scoops with rattle can primer. You need to use actual primer from a spray gun. After sanding, you need to wipe the panel down with wax and grease remover and then with a tack cloth before you apply another primer coat.
I left you a voice mail to call me but never heard back from you.
I've been extremely busy - I got your voicemail, but then lost your number in the phone when I didn't have a chance to call you back for a few days.
Another test fit this afternoon, and I realized that the bottom portion, where the rocker panels connect, also needed to be cut out. . . failure on my part! One has now been cut out, the other one will likely happen this evening.
8/31/09 - 97 Days of Fiero Ownership The best laid plans of mice and men are often times thwarted by unforeseen circumstances. I didn't get quite what all I wanted finished this week, however I definitely made some progress.
I decided it was time to install the driver's side scoop, however it still didn't fit right. I ended up realizing that some of the alignment brackets weren't right, so I re-cut those out, re-drilled, fit, recut, fit, etc. Eventually I got everything together and installed with the plastic pop rivets. A friend came into town unexpectedly, and since he's a car guy I ended up meeting up with him for brunch. Parked outside of the I-Hop, I was actually REALLY surprised at the number of people that stopped to gawk. My favorite comment was, "Seriously dude. Its like 17 cars all in one. There's a Fiero, a probe, and I don't know what else."
The deadline for paint is Tuesday of next week. Whatever I don't have done and ready I will be paying for (literally.) I am REALLY cheap, so weather permitted my butt should be kicked into OD over the long weekend.
Pictures!
[This message has been edited by Blueiii (edited 08-31-2009).]
Lol - the drilling and cutting weren't TOO bad. A little time consuming, but overall manageable. I had to redrill and recut things that, for whatever reason, weren't lining up with the original marks.
Looking good so far. . . now on to the passenger side, then on to the bumper!
9/5/09 - 102 Days of Fiero Ownership The long weekend is upon us!
This also means that I have today, Sunday and Monday to finish prepping the Fiero before it goes in for paint.
Here's the run-down, in no particular order, of what is left:
1.) Sand the door 2.) Remove the door trim 3.) Remove passenger side quarter panel 4.) Install passenger side scoop 5.) Remove hood 6.) Cut / drill mounting holes for bumper 7.) Prep new bumper 8,) Remove old front bumper 9.) Install new front bumper 10.) Sand top 4 inches of deck lid 11.) Remove heat extractors 12.) Remove trim above heat extractors 13.) Replace hood 14.) Touch - up nick in front of hood, roof nicks
Should be a handful, but it seems doable in one long weekend. Its about noon on Saturday, so there will be lots of updates as things progress. (Mainly so that I can take a break every now and then!)
[This message has been edited by Blueiii (edited 09-05-2009).]
1.) Sand the door, including the molding. Check! Rocker panel test fit worked out well, however I'm going to leave it on as is while en-route for paint. 3.) Remove passenger side quarter panel. Check! 4.) Install passenger side scoop. Check! (Needed to make a bunch of cuts again and grind a few corners down, but its now pop-riveted in place. (I did realize the the rivet inside the door should have been left out after I installed it, though. Crap. I'll be drilling those out and replacing them later.) 7.) Prep new bumper - not just one task, but a bunch. In this picture it has been scuffed up with 120 grit, washed and is now drying as I type this. I'll be heading out for more tack cloth in a bit, then tacking it down for primer before filling all the pin holes and mars from shipping.
