Hey Hoddy!

The T-top is just one of a few down here. I also have an '87 SE V6, and my dad has an '84 Sport Coupe that he's spent the last decade restoring.



Dad's not exactly in the finest of health, and had been talking about selling the car... but who knows? He's had it so long and has so much time invested in it, I'm not sure he could actually bear to part with it! He caught the bug from me, the first car I really got into was an '84 base coupe with a 3800 in it. So we have a reasonable stash of random spares, but if there is an '86 SE that's sitting around broken, I'd sure like to talk turkey on some body parts. The bumperpads on the T-top are in horrendous condition!

There IS an '85 GT on Trade Me at the moment but the guy wants $14k for it. He's bloody dreaming, I only paid $5500 for the '87...

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Another big update, and unfortunately this one doesn't have a happy ending.

Last time I posted a picture, the little car had managed to pass its safety inspections and was able to be used on the road for the first time legally since I'd owned it. Naturally, I'd been driving it every chance I could and managed to put a few miles on it. Here she is casually relaxing in Riverton, NZ.



Unfortunately the same perils as always when dealing with a car that's sat this long. It wouldn't start, I couldn't hear the fuel pump... why is the fuel pump relay hanging upside down in the engine bay?



Once I cleaned that tasty morsel and reassembled it, everything seemed to be alright for another few days, but the oil pressure wasn't consistent, it'd make awful smells and occasionally belch smoke from under the decklid... something was amiss. It had a seep around the valve cover assembly, so I removed it and found this.



Eurgh. I pulled the home made rickety cork gasket and cleaned up, tried RTV as per the book... leaked even more. Cleaned it up again, ordered and installed a new Fel-Pro PermaDryPlus and cleaned up all the other sheetmetal on the top side while there. Dry as a bone!



So it was finally looking reliable. At this point I had put about 450 miles in with all the testing and short runs over the last five years to get it to the point I was comfortable with a big open road jaunt. My girlfriend and some of our friends decided a road trip to Te Anau for a coffee would be a fantastic way to blow the cobwebs out. We only got 50 miles out of town before a lovely old gentleman in a wee Daihatsu failed to stop at a compulsory stop sign. We tried our might to stop but there just wasn't room. He got hit at about 40MPH.





At this point I'm now in limbo - waiting for insurance and police reports and the whole nine yards... but luckily, nobody was severely injured other than the cars.

Thanks for reading everyone, it's not the end I wanted but I'm still here, so thanks once again to the Pontiac engineers for that amazing spaceframe. It's a bacon saver.

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Glad no one was seriously hurt! Ouch on the Fiero though.

Sorry to hear of your accident.

Well, that sucks!
Not much else to say really is there, after all your work to save her.

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Anything I might say is probably worth what you paid for it, so treat it accordingly!

Dave

www.ltlfrari.com