I went to my favorite junkyard and I found a side vent to put on the car and painted it flat black and finally replaced the small aftermarket scoop that has been on there since I got the car. I also found a replacement headlight module to replace the finicky one the car had. I would have to press the headlight switch twice to put the lights up, happy that is fixed. Lastly, I found a HUD in a Grand Prix and I am working on that project now, I need to pick up a new soldering iron with a really fine tip as the electrical contacts I'm working with are absolutely tiny.
Washed the car for a car show this Saturday and got my new HVAC controls in the mail. I'll be working on installing this next. And I'm working on a HUD as well. Lots of work to do...
I'll upload a better photo later. I cracked my camera.
After responding unforeseen ‘crises’ of Life's little emergencies; completed all of my chores and even finished enough items from my official ‘do list’ - I was able to work on the Fiero this weekend!
I decided to attack the dreadful and time-consuming job of stripping the faded factory finish on the metal rear deck vents……
I started by washing them down, and then drilled-out the pop rivets from the ‘J’ rubber seals and the push rivets from the UV baffle to separate them from the main grill.
Using Citristrip® Paint & Varnish Stripping Gel; I bathe the thin aluminum plate first in a covered pan around an hour. Then using a brass wire brush; I scrubbed-off the black goo…
The ‘sunny side’ got very clean; however the engine bay side needs another pass to remove a few areas of black paint.
Today, I’ll soak the main grills next which I believe it will be easier than scrubbing the thin aluminum baffle, I hope!
I’m still researching if I’ll use Heli-Coil inserts; threaded inserts or simply fill the main grill rivet holes for the UV baffle with J-B WELD epoxy, and then drill/thread them for new fasteners.
Painting on Raw Aluminum I’m planning to use POR-15 products to refinish the vent parts as I've heard nothing but good reviews.
Their 3-Step Procedure: 1st: ‘Cleaner Degreaser’ 2nd: ‘Metal-Prep’ which etches the metal and leaving a zinc phosphate finish 3rd: ‘Top Coat’ which I’ll use an aerosol gloss black
POR-15 Top Coat DTM paint is a direct-to-metal UV Resistant coating designed to work on prepped bare metal {as above}with no need for a bonding primer and has exceptional long-term sheen and color retention; they say….
Another option is Mar-Hyde™ Black Satin Automotive Trim Coating which has a Fiero on the can! However, I’m leaning on a gloss finish better than the original satin finish…..
{EDIT} 'No Joy' on the main grill black 'paint'! After two hours, the chemical paint stripper didn't remove the black finish the tiniest bit....
So, I'll look for local shops first with 'soft' blast media like glass beads or baking soda at a low pressure to only strip the coating without causing harm to the aluminum surface.
If no success, I guess I'll slightly sand the satin finish and then use the same POR-15 products as the original paint is really bonded well on the aluminum.
Damn..... ------------------ Original Owner of a Silver '88 GT Under 'Production Refurbishment' @ 136k Miles
[This message has been edited by Vintage-Nut (edited 03-11-2024).]
I installed the last part and got my car back on the road after months of it being down. 😀 Surprisingly the battery was still up. It was great to be back in the seat again.
I can’t remember if my signature still works here. I’ll check the box and see what happens.
Time to admit my embarrassing mistake I finally rectified.
Never really figured out why my 86GT ran so hot while moving. Basically had to have the rad fan on all the time and still cruised at 225 on the highway. At idle it would cool right now.
Never noticed the fact my freaking airdam has been missing. Yoinked one from a friend who is swapping to a mouth breathing bumperpad.
Guess what, my car runs cool now. Whodathunk? Unfortunately I lost my Thermostat last summer while trying to dianose the heat issue. So no I have no heat when its 30 degrees out lol. Easy fix
too cold still today but eight days ago i replaced the heater core without breaking anything.i felt lucky there.a couple of days later i replaced the front parking light socket.
One of the first warm weekends of the year. Finally getting back to the wide body. Working my gaps and body lines. Working the rocker fitment is turning out more difficult than it should be.
[This message has been edited by Awalker W02 (edited 03-12-2024).]
Well today will be all about cleaning the engine bay and further prep for my manual swap! in the event i dont have parts waiting for me when i get home, then further work to make the headlights better so i dont get shown up by a miata is on the list.
The all silver colored car cover is less than 1 year old. I did not like starting with day 1. It is NOT a "custom fit" for an 88gt with spoiler. SEALSKINCOVERS.COM Bought on 5/13/2023 for $153.
The replacement cover is from Coverland.com. On sale plus a veterans discount lowered the price to $143. So far (a few days) it fits a lot better than the previous cover.
This last pic shows just how LARGE the silver cover was. The black bag is what the NEW cover came in.
Ordered new alternator, window motor, some switches, spark plugs, etc. Rodney Dickman idler/power pulley, some stickers, and in the process of ordering Mr Mikes seats, sent message about refinishing my steering wheel (no reply yet. Please, take my money Irrationable!) and will be ordering new sail panels, headlights, dew wipes, etc. soon. Over the winter my Fiero has gone from a junky, nothing special, no rust car to being in great mechanical and cosmetic shape (on the inside and under the hood/decklid, everywhere but the paint, which is not good, but that will be the only problem with it!).
[This message has been edited by 1985 Fiero GT (edited 03-28-2024).]
I had been working on my faded metal heat vents/grilles next to the rear deck lid……
Before I drop-off the four parts for blasting and powder coating; my desire is to remount the original thin lower ‘tray’ which were riveted beneath the main grilles.
The plan is to make the grilles ‘easier’ to clean-out tree leaves or ‘matter’ which often gets trapped on the 'UV Baffles'.
I decided to use M6-1.0 Heli-Coil inserts as I had all the tools to install them.
The machining process on the upper grills was to drill the mounting areas….
Tapped the holes and installed the inserts…..
And screwed-in the new hardware, so they’re now ready for blasting and powder coating…..
------------------ Original Owner of a Silver '88 GT Under 'Production Refurbishment' @ 136k Miles
Sourced 1 yard of new old stock Fiero seat material from a guy near Detroit (but had a nightmare as he wouldn't ship outside US - so it took almost 3 months to get it sent to a friend in CA & then had to wait until he visited UK to bring it over with him - really hard work when folks just point blank refuse to ship me parts, its not difficult to send USPS, why be so awkward ????)
Anyway I replaced the center panel in my drivers seat squab
The original material was badly split & the foam underneath was no good
I removed the cover, unpicked the stitches, used the removed piece as a template, cut the new material & sewed it all back together by hand as I don't have a sewing machine.
...really hard work when folks just point blank refuse to ship me parts, its not difficult to send USPS, why be so awkward ????
Tell me about it. Very recently, an eBay vendor in Seattle WA informed me they wouldn't ship across the border to me here in Vancouver BC, only 142 miles away. "No international shipping" was their response to my inquiry. Not only that, but they also wouldn't make use of eBay's International Shipping program where eBay themselves actually ship the item across the border. And then to top it off, when I had secured an American address of a third-party forwarding company to have them ship to, I discovered when I went to bid on the item that bidding was restricted to bids from only within the US.
And your seat looks great!
[This message has been edited by Patrick (edited 04-02-2024).]
Finally dropped the engine from my '87 GT (basically a barn find, parked for 25 years indoors with an exhaust leak).
Did sort of have it running but it would quit after a few seconds, almost like it was running on the cold start injector alone. I figured I'd drop everything and re-do all of the engine gaskets and stuff while it's out - also needed a small repair on the cradle. Also have a set of roller rockers to install, plus the valve covers and intake could use some cleanup and paint.
Ran the injectors on a signal generator, and they were all stuck closed. After letting them soak for a few days, I ran them again and they're all working with decent flow.
The engine was allegedly rebuilt before the car was parked with an exhaust leak, and all of the frost plugs and gaskets look "new" so maybe there's some truth behind this.
Washed the car for a car show this Saturday and got my new HVAC controls in the mail. I'll be working on installing this next. And I'm working on a HUD as well. Lots of work to do...
I'll upload a better photo later. I cracked my camera.
Did some fine tuning on the front swaybar arms, took 39lbs off the front nose, re tuned the ignition timing table and just waiting for some track time to get a feel of the new engine.
Repaired wing stand studs with Jb weld. Worked great. New battery, startup perfect after about a year and a half. Tcc locked and would not stay running when put into drive. Two footed gas and brake and somehow got it to open. Still get engine light after 40-45, but runs great. Fyi, tcc sensor still plugged in and transmission still works normal at highway speeds which is strange to me but anyway.....
Missed the hell out of driving this car!! And lurking back on the forum!
I pulled the front suspension out to start the rebuild process. I've gone this far, I'm thinking I should pull the front subframe so I can clean and paint it...
Driving with some other sporty cars down an unmarked highway in Mexico, clipping along at 120ish my right headlight door, which was already slightly damaged caught air and snapped up and off, it flew back and cracked my A-Pillar and disappeared into the wilderness along the highway.
So I got to replace my driverside headlight door. I am grateful I am not doing a windshield
I gave my car a wash ready for cars and coffee in st. Augustine Florida on Saturday. My 87gt looks wonderful. I love the vent project, they came out great.
Got the car on the highway today for first time in almost 2 years!
Discovered my high idle problem at cold temps is really kind of a fiero thing… i think? Was around 2500 rpm. Ran it today on a warmer day here in CT, and car dropped down to 1200 rpm idle after 2 minutes or so.
TODAY? – Well, not exactly as it was yesterday…..
This tale begins many, many moons ago when my left taillight lens was damaged with a pointed object which ‘punctured’ the top-right corner of the reverse lamp area….
Then a couple of years ago, I was super lucky to stumble on of a brand-new genuine General Motors lens set so I put the task on my Fiero refurbish list.
Yesterday, I had a rare moment with a ‘hole’ in my agenda, so I quickly jumped into action with this little of ‘spare time’!
I removed my fastback taillight assemblies from the GT and sat them in the California sun to warm-up the plastic and soften the butyl seal.
I cautiously pried the housing hooks from the lens tabs {one hook already was missing} and I opened the assemblies without any other plastic fatalities…
Fortunately to me, the original ‘puncture’ piece from the lens was still inside so I’m hoping to repair the lens as a spare.
I cleaned-out the butyl seal from the housings...
and now I need to find more ‘spare time’….
------------------ Original Owner of a Silver '88 GT Under 'Production Refurbishment' @ 136k Miles
i checked the compression on my 2.5.its pouring white smoke from the exhaust.average 120 per cylinder,130 on the cylinder with the wet plug.but the oil is now white and way overful.i guess i will try to pull the head off.
Washed, Detailed and just back from a 120 mile "shakedown" cruise after replacing all the plastic vacuum lines with Rodney's stainless steel and resealing the intake. She's running great for 38 years old and 136k miles. Fixed the hunting idle, sits dead on 900 RPM when warmed up and no more code 32. Now to finish isolating why the Compressor won't engage.
I opened my fastback taillight assemblies a few weeks ago mainly to replace the lenses...
However, I found that the OEM plastic ‘chrome’ plating in the reflectors was in terrible condition with black areas.
My normal routine of restoring old taillights has been using aluminum tape and doesn’t need much surface preparation to install, but it can be a pain in the {fill the blank} to install the foil tape smoothly.
With my GT taillight assemblies, I want to attempt to restore the plastic reflector areas with a shiny ‘chrome-like’ finish but this method requires more surface preparation.
I saw ‘PChrome spray’ but their ‘small’ kits are exorbitant, so another more reasonable option is Rust-Oleum Bright Coat Metallic Spray Paint and applying a topcoat.
Clearly, the first step is to remove the factory finish so a new primer/paint will adhere on the bare plastic. I’m using 3M Scotch-Brite pads to scrub-off the old ‘chrome’….
------------------ Original Owner of a Silver '88 GT Under 'Production Refurbishment' @ 136k Miles
