Rick, Although the paint can cover was chromed, it actually turns out to be a very bright silver. Previously owner installed the H4 headlight conversion in my Mera. See em all over e-bay, it's the housing conversion that takes a bulb. They are really nice and super bright. I also have a set of the low profile headlight buckets that FieroFan sells. Undecided on whether to install them on the Mera or the GT. Got the buckets only, still need to buy the round lights and harnesses. If I install them on the Mera, then the H4's are going on the Corvette! LOL...no ticket yet! Most fun car I've owned yet! The Fiero, IMHO, handles better on high-speed turns. It's hilarious...I took the Mera out for a ride on Sunday, and it just seemed so "mild mannered" compared to driving the Corvette all week.
^^^^^^WINNER!!!!!^^^^^^ i made my Mera emblem out of a later year Grand Am SE from the 90's i think
the main difference seems to be that my silver is more rounded.....and two letters are connected. i had to cut mine apart. if i remember correctly.....the OEM Mera emblem is all loose letters.
i got 2 sets of my year for $12 plus shipping. so its all good for me.
should one look in a junk yard for the year in question, the Grand Am we/you need is of the square back design. most 1987 models were some of the last year "squared" cars made before this new rounded angle trend. so it will be easier to spot hopefully. good luck!
Dan
[This message has been edited by batousai666 (edited 10-07-2010).]
a bit off topic - I'm looking for a pair of tail lights (yellow) with the back up lamp in the center OR the post a while back that showed how to install a light tube and clear lens to make the more accurate F car look for my 308. Thanks and now back to the regular program ......... PM me if you have a set for sale and thanks. Steve
hello steve308, to my knowledge i have the only oem new mera1 rear lights/lenses left in existance. there are used ones out there im sure, but mine are new still in the original packing material. i sell the complete oem new sets, reds and yellows lenses for for 850.00. i have a pair of very nice used yellows for 350.00. i know rodney and i think nelson or some others here have some spares but i dont think they will ever sell them as they are spares for their cars. thanks, mike in oklahoma
Sorry guys, poor explanation on my part. I need to know the "name" of the Mera font letters shown on the emblem and brochure. (Eg: helvitica etc.) I want to get a custom license plate frame made with lettering that matches like the style of the Mera letters.
The Fiero "font" is called "hemi head" but I have no idea on the Mera lettering.
a bit off topic - I'm looking for a pair of tail lights (yellow) with the back up lamp in the center OR the post a while back that showed how to install a light tube and clear lens to make the more accurate F car look for my 308. Thanks and now back to the regular program ......... PM me if you have a set for sale and thanks. Steve
I just recently missed a set of the exact yellow lenses with center reverse light you wanted on ebay. They were factory 308 and went for under $100.....rats. The auction ended in the middle of the night and I slept thru it.
Rick, Although the paint can cover was chromed, it actually turns out to be a very bright silver. Previously owner installed the H4 headlight conversion in my Mera. See em all over e-bay, it's the housing conversion that takes a bulb. They are really nice and super bright. I also have a set of the low profile headlight buckets that FieroFan sells. Undecided on whether to install them on the Mera or the GT. Got the buckets only, still need to buy the round lights and harnesses. If I install them on the Mera, then the H4's are going on the Corvette! LOL...no ticket yet! Most fun car I've owned yet! The Fiero, IMHO, handles better on high-speed turns. It's hilarious...I took the Mera out for a ride on Sunday, and it just seemed so "mild mannered" compared to driving the Corvette all week.
Nelson is THE expert on the MERA letters.
Tom
Tom, I'd install the round lights on the GT. The retangular lights do not appear to stick up as much on the Mera and look better than on the GT. I will pick up some H4's for mine.
The Mera does hang better in the corners than wifey's C5. But she can still leave me in the dust (even with the 3.4 swap) on the straights. I still like driving the Mera better, but each car is fun in a different way. Wifey still has the fastest car..... I'd get too may tickets driving her car more.
lol you guys... my porsche 911 rs america is lots more fun to drive than the mera... but again there were like 100,000+ special edition 911 rs americas made and only 247 mera's. tom keep your mera.... rick i like to drive c5's too but i like my mera more. my .02 mike in oklahoma
a bit off topic - I'm looking for a pair of tail lights (yellow) with the back up lamp in the center OR the post a while back that showed how to install a light tube and clear lens to make the more accurate F car look for my 308. Thanks and now back to the regular program ......... PM me if you have a set for sale and thanks. Steve
Thanks guys for the help with the tails ----- Mera 7-I really don't wan't to cut up a set of OE Mera lites as the trend for many is to keep their rare vehicles "stock". I'll continue to watch the market (E-Bay) and hopefully something will pop up. There was a guy in California. J Brian Riley who had 308 F car conversion badges emlems and lights - I used him in the past for Speedometer 180 conversion kits but his site had gone dark. -- the F company probably got to him. Thanks again and let me know if you find anything.
so i started to look at a source for reverse lights, seeing as this is a good indicator of a real Mera.....and all i could get is for the non- wagon, style. till i remember this old pic of my Mom's, 80's something escort wagon.
i look to be about 14 or so in this photo. that puts this Escort Wagon at 83-85.....t'was a new car because Momma wreaked My (future) '81 Mercury Capri. i so wanted that car. i think it was in the summer of 1984crash! i was knocked out for an hour. do not remember a thing! anyway, bam! this is the only pic i can find on our reverse lights.
back for more, Later Dan
[This message has been edited by batousai666 (edited 10-08-2010).]
Hey guys, Pete Matos is making some nice emblems for Choptop owners. He has a thread currenlty posted in the "Mall" showing them.
I would like to see if enough people here would buy one if he made some that say MERA GTS. Personally, I'd like one for the grill on the Mera. Pete is going thru some medical problems and selling emblems to help pay bills. Check out his thread and then post if you would buy one. We could help out an get some nice bling for our cars.
[This message has been edited by Rick 88 (edited 10-08-2010).]
Here are original MERA letters as well as the replacement ones (uncut at this time).
Nelson
quote
Originally posted by batousai666:
^^^^^^WINNER!!!!!^^^^^^ i made my Mera emblem out of a later year Grand Am SE from the 90's i think
the main difference seems to be that my silver is more rounded.....and two letters are connected. i had to cut mine apart. if i remember correctly.....the OEM Mera emblem is all loose letters.
i got 2 sets of my year for $12 plus shipping. so its all good for me.
should one look in a junk yard for the year in question, the Grand Am we/you need is of the square back design. most 1987 models were some of the last year "squared" cars made before this new rounded angle trend. so it will be easier to spot hopefully. good luck!
LATEST UPDATES FOR 7071; ok i have been working late every night diligantly on the mera. new front and rear monster 1.25" diameter swaybars with heim adjuster links/i made, are installed, complete suspension strip and powdercoated all a arms and links, installed poly on all suspension pieces not using heims, all new moog ball joints and tie rods, my subaru wrx turbo cross drilled 12" rotor conversion, my f430 brembo conversion, the f430 19" wheels with michelin pilots are on, and im building a second cradle with one of my built up 5spd getrags and a sbc zz4 383 with gmpp fastburn aluminum heads with grand sport corvette gmpp lt4 hotcam package to go in the car. i am doing an electromotive crank trigger conversion on the motor as well. i custom made aluminum valve covers that say ferrari in them for the motor since the rest of my car is sporting f badges anyways. i custom made one of my 180 degree headers sets for it, and am running a tubi stainless muffler for that european sound. rough in body work is done but still have final body work to do and finish putting the new cradle/motor/trans into the car. then paint. hoping 30-60 day completion. will be one hell of a ride when done. Mike in oklahoma
wowweeee....i wish i listened better in "auto tune up" class.....
quote
Originally posted by Rick 88:
Dan, those look like our back up lights alright. You have a lot of guts posting a pic of yourself like that...
Hey Rick? the hard part was the landing . springboarding off the Escort bumper. i think this was when i snapped this board in half. i now, use the broken SK8 as a car key peg board. you know, for the "Crimson Fleet"
uhhhhhh........later D
[This message has been edited by batousai666 (edited 10-10-2010).]
Hey guys, Pete Matos is making some nice emblems for Choptop owners. He has a thread currenlty posted in the "Mall" showing them.
I would like to see if enough people here would buy one if he made some that say MERA GTS. Personally, I'd like one for the grill on the Mera. Pete is going thru some medical problems and selling emblems to help pay bills. Check out his thread and then post if you would buy one. We could help out an get some nice bling for our cars.
now i like this idea. in the front grill. yeah!
or maybe a C/C...... CC or some kind of nod to Corporate Concepts...
i still want a Corporate Concepts- Mera plate to put on the Pininfarina badge, behind the dr. door. wonder if this could be a possibility?? Dan
[This message has been edited by batousai666 (edited 10-10-2010).]
or maybe a C/C...... CC or some kind of nod to Corporate Concepts...
i still want a Corporate Concepts- Mera plate to put on the Pininfarina badge, behind the dr. door. wonder if this could be a possibility?? Dan
The CC side emblem sounds like a project for Tom in Hawaii......if he ever quits driving around in that Corvette.
I was thinking of a Coorporate Concepts decal on the long plastic doorsill insert where the early cars said "Fiero" Zigaroo even came up wtih a nice font for it earlier in this thread. Who can whip out some of these for us?
The aluminum badge needs to say Mera GTS. Dan it sounds like you and I are the only ones interested at the moment in these. I don't know if Pete will make just two.
[This message has been edited by Rick 88 (edited 10-11-2010).]
ohhhh yeah, i will buy anything with "Mera" on it.
and this needs to be a Tee Shirt! the offical "Mera Club" T-Shirt......wonder if Rodney can get ahold of the Artist??
they still make "iron on's?".......sooooo 1970's! KISS and TransAm Tee's. All, nice and shinny. 3/4 jersey sleeves.......hahahahaaaaa......*sings*....."memories" DingDong, wake up!.....anyway.
i also think i am gonna start to look for a couple of "C's". 2 inch tall? i wanna see what they would look like on the front grille. C/C offset. maybe a lightning bolt or something inbetween.
Here is a photo of an unusual sticker that I found on Mera 7014. I have never seen any other stickers like this one and assume that they were only used on early vehicles for some period of time. Does anyone else ever remember seeing a similar sticker one their vehicle?
i am gonna say that this is for the T-Tops, right? Cars and Concepts, they did the T-Top conversion on all the OEM T-Top Fieros. thats another cool sticker to have.....nice score again, Nelson. bonus....
Rick88 and others interested.... If you dont know what 180 degree headers are, instead of all 4 of one side going to a collector, the cylinders that are 180 degrees apart in their firing are paired together, maximizing scavenging, the bad part is its a nightmare to plumb it.While one is on the compression stroke, the other is on the exhaust stroke so that theres a constant flow, helping to smooth out the pulses. 180 degree headers pair up the cylinders that are 180 degrees apart. You still have two collectors, but some of the pipes for each collector come from both sides of the motor. Plumbing is a pain because half the tubes have to cross over the motor somewhere. This makes a cross plane v8 such as a sbc sound like a ferrari flat plane v8, with a mild hp increase as well.
[This message has been edited by mera7 (edited 10-13-2010).]
Rick88 and others interested.... If you dont know what 180 degree headers are, instead of all 4 of one side going to a collector, the cylinders that are 180 degrees apart in their firing are paired together, maximizing scavenging, the bad part is its a nightmare to plumb it.While one is on the compression stroke, the other is on the exhaust stroke so that theres a constant flow, helping to smooth out the pulses. 180 degree headers pair up the cylinders that are 180 degrees apart. You still have two collectors, but some of the pipes for each collector come from both sides of the motor. Plumbing is a pain because half the tubes have to cross over the motor somewhere. This makes a cross plane v8 such as a sbc sound like a ferrari flat plane v8, with a mild hp increase as well.
I believe that was how the Taiwan Fiero Guys got that 2.8 to sound so good. The sound clips are posted here on Pennocks and on You Tube. How would the cylinders be routed on a 2.8/3.4 to reproduce this effect? I also know they used a diesel resonator as part of the exhaust system. I am not so much after a performance increase as much as the exotic sound for my Mera. Since the firing order is 123456 I thought cylinders 123 and 456 needed to be grouped but that was a guess.
[This message has been edited by Rick 88 (edited 10-14-2010).]
Originally posted by hnthomps: Here is a photo of an unusual sticker that I found on Mera 7014. I have never seen any other stickers like this one and assume that they were only used on early vehicles for some period of time. Does anyone else ever remember seeing a similar sticker one their vehicle?
As far as I know there were only two 88 Meras that were GM ordered T-tops. The rest were after the fact installations.
------------------ Rodney Dickman
Fiero Parts And Acc's Web Page: All new web page!:www.rodneydickman.com Rodney Dickman's Fiero accessories 7604 Treeview Drive Caledonia, WI 53108 Phone/Fax (262) 835-9575
286 GTS?? Where did you find that? I like the style of the letter and numbers!
A Mera owner had these made a long time ago thinking many Mera owners would want one. Maybe in the early 90's. He sent me one. I do not think he sold many if any.
------------------ Rodney Dickman
Fiero Parts And Acc's Web Page: All new web page!:www.rodneydickman.com Rodney Dickman's Fiero accessories 7604 Treeview Drive Caledonia, WI 53108 Phone/Fax (262) 835-9575
damn......that took some digging. but i found the source...... i got this from Richard, who is not been around so much. HEY RICHARD!!!!
where did you find that cool 286 badge?? man i had to dig into my Email attachments from last year to find that.
i even looked in the Mera archives here with a "Mera" search......crap theres a lot of pages that need siftin'. its gonna be a long winter.
get ya sum!
D
Hey, Dan!
When we first published that badge on this thread--way back when--Rodney chimed in and said he had seen them before, and knew the guy who made them. We need to check with him.
I'm still here--in the listen mode. Unusual for me--that's what my kids say.
Dick
Oops, I see he already did!
[This message has been edited by reholmes (edited 10-14-2010).]
Rick88 and others interested.... If you dont know what 180 degree headers are, instead of all 4 of one side going to a collector, the cylinders that are 180 degrees apart in their firing are paired together, maximizing scavenging, the bad part is its a nightmare to plumb it.While one is on the compression stroke, the other is on the exhaust stroke so that theres a constant flow, helping to smooth out the pulses. 180 degree headers pair up the cylinders that are 180 degrees apart. You still have two collectors, but some of the pipes for each collector come from both sides of the motor. Plumbing is a pain because half the tubes have to cross over the motor somewhere. This makes a cross plane v8 such as a sbc sound like a ferrari flat plane v8, with a mild hp increase as well.
I agree, but then what the heck do I know. Others say you can't have 180* headers, unless you have 180* crank--or some such--or that ignition must fire on alternate banks. So, who cares as long as it sounds cool. If you google 180* headers, you'll find guys that make them for just about any engine--PRICEY!
HOLMES... hey dude good to see you again yes a 180 degree/flat plane engine is what makes this distintive sound possible, ie ferraris lamborghinis alfas fiats so on. but checy small block v8s are cross plane engines and thats what makes the muscle car sound that we all love. to make a sbc sound like the flat plane motors you have to scavenge the pulses in an positive pulse from the opposing 180 degree firing cylinder. it works and sounds nice. i have built several for customers. i am trying to figure out the plumbing nightmare so it will fit under the decklid of my mera.
A Mera owner had these made a long time ago thinking many Mera owners would want one. Maybe in the early 90's. He sent me one. I do not think he sold many if any.
Interesting piece of Mera memorabilia. I wouldn't mind having one.
Rodney my 3.4 swap is proudly wearing your Mera engine badge on top of my intake. It sure makes people scratch their heads when they look at the motor.
they are not connected.....the M-E- are loose (glued to each other, kinda) and the R-A are connected from the g-RA-n-d.... i cut everything long and inched my way to the results.....i like it.
heck, i am not even sure if i ever had the M-E-R-A on my trunk. if X is an early example it may have never had them, same with the sticker....???
the 86 proto does not have them....and just noticed that Mera's #7005 and #7006 do not have the rear deck letters either. happy daze!......looks like it could be another OEM Mera ticket, maybe?? its my story......hahahahahaaaa
also, where it is now, it kinda "looks up" so it catches light different from the "Pontiac" emblem so there is a contrast, always. thats cool, too.
Daniel
[This message has been edited by batousai666 (edited 10-15-2010).]
I know of some Meras that lost the MERA letters when removed for paint or during a F308 "conversion". Some of these "conversion" letters are still floating around but you cannot buy them without also buying the car.
I'd get too may tickets driving her car more.
my .02 mike in oklahoma
crash! i was knocked out for an hour. do not remember a thing! anyway, bam! this is the only pic i can find on our reverse lights. 
HEY RICHARD!!!!
