Some yes. But others pop up. I'm a little disappointed with the power so it'll be getting pulled apart again for new trans gears and a cam/spring swap. New cam has .610 lift and 234 duration so it should wake up pretty good. I also bought some racing seats and am waiting on carpet samples. I bought some autometer gauges and am making a new gauge pod. I am keeping busy but I'm pretty sure it's down for the year. Looking forward to next summer though.

hey joshua that sounds like a pretty serious cam, how much power are you looking for? i think i'm going to back off my ls swap for now as i've had too many other projects this summer. i just repowered my boat, i went t from a 4.3 v6 to a 5.7v8. boat flies now, anyways i still hope to have my car in primer before the snow flies. maybe not we'll see. i'll get it down to show you sometime. it sucks having other responsibilities/projects. your car is/will be awesome when it's done. keep up the excellent work

chris

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88blackchopv8

Sappy from 60degreev6 says 310hp acording to his simulator. He thinks this is conservative and I'm probably going to build some long tube headers. Shouldn't be any excuses after this. I'm going to leave it running for now. I've gotten bit by the interior bug. Going for a black and tan look with autometer C2's and tenzo R seats. There is a big car show in Watertown this weekend if you make it down this way.

Sounds like you're trying to keep up with me? lol

all I'ld have to do is wait until you have to shift and go for the kill. And that's in the HHR!

[This message has been edited by joshua riedl (edited 08-06-2009).]

Just a few shots of the interior. Still trying to figure out some paddle shift levers, thinking about infiniti paddles off ebay. The suspension is being rebuilt. New poly bushings with grease zerks installed. Still need to do the rod ends. After all that is done I'll get to the new cam. I want to get the trans paddle shifting correctly before I dig into the engine.

how about a chop top how too thread?

yes? no? maby so?


I'lllllll be yer best friend!

[This message has been edited by Jonesy (edited 12-31-2009).]

How do you like the Tenzos' ? I have a set for my Fiero thats been sitting in my bonus room for 5 YEARS!!!!

Vinny

Everyone does their chops different for their own reasons so I'm not sure about promoting mine. For example, I removed material from the sunroof area. For me this means less welding and reinforcing but I loose the factory sunroof. Others choose to modify the rear hoop, which seems like more work with the bonus of keeping the sunroof. Strip the car and look at it for a few days and decide how you want to do it.
I like the Tenzo's. They are sitting on the floor right now and give me more headroom than stock and they look cool. They are a pain to get out of and the plastic seatbelt holes may hit my head if I were rearended. I will probably look into having pads made to slip into those holes. They were cool looking and cheaper than MrMikes so I went with them.

And a shot of the last trip out for the year with the cars. The oil isn't comming from mine!

[This message has been edited by joshua riedl (edited 01-01-2010).]

So Josh, what is next ??

Are there any build threads on these two choptops or even pics? I haven't seen these two before?

.

quote Originally posted by joshua riedl: Everyone does their chops different for their own reasons so I'm not sure about promoting mine. For example, I removed material from the sunroof area. For me this means less welding and reinforcing but I loose the factory sunroof. Others choose to modify the rear hoop, which seems like more work with the bonus of keeping the sunroof. Strip the car and look at it for a few days and decide how you want to do it. I like the Tenzo's. They are sitting on the floor right now and give me more headroom than stock and they look cool. They are a pain to get out of and the plastic seatbelt holes may hit my head if I were rearended. I will probably look into having pads made to slip into those holes. They were cool looking and cheaper than MrMikes so I went with them. And a shot of the last trip out for the year with the cars. The oil isn't comming from mine!

This is actually the defacto build thread for the green one, which was originally red. Joshua also built the orange one too !

I bought a trans cooler with fan I am going to install. The transmission was running about 215* in the hot weather, I'm going to try to keep it around 170*. I have a set of fiero seats that will be getting some mrmikes before being installed. The racing seats interfere with the seatbelt operation and I've decided it's unacceptable so the racing seats will be going in my cj5 project I picked up from another forum member. I had covered the trim pieces in mrmikes but it wrinkled in the heat so I got new trim and painted it to match with fierostore paint. It's a perfect match. I also bought a magnaflow muffler to replace the corsa's. I liked the corsas but the pipes were too close to the frame and I was getting knock retard. The old corsa's are installed into my jeep and my uncle got the other one for his jeep. They sound better behind v8's anyway.

Joshua,

Do you miss your first choptop ?

Do you feel you did a better job on the second one or about the same ?

It's hard to say. I think the old one looks nice but it didn't look like that when I owned it. I also drove it last year at the track and don't care much for the fiero's stick shift. I chopped this one taller and went with the automatic so I'm happy with those decisions even though the manual would probably be faster. The interior on mine is also nicer but the green paint is better. What are you going to do? Live with choices and make the best of it! I'll be making this one nicer and faster as time goes and that's good enough for me.

Anything new ?

Not a whole lot really. I can't help but think my engine is underpowered so I ordered some thinner headgaskets which should give me a full point of compression. I'm determined to hit 12's without going boost so that's where my efforts are now. I'll clean up the install while I'm at it and install a tranny cooler. It seems the radiator heats up the trans more than cool it down. I also did the brake booster upgrade. It helped a lot and will hopefully let me power brake and get off the line better. That's where the focus is now. I realize I'll never be the fastest but I can be the fastest N/A V6.

Hey Josh,
That is one sick looking notchie you built man, I really like the looks of the chopped notchbacks. It somehow gives the car a real aggressive wedge look. You are doing some nice work there and I love the color. Keep it up man. I too would love to see a choptop build thread with A LOT OF PICTURES. I am a very accomplished Tig welder and I think I can handle the body work but I would not know where to start with the chop...peace

Pete