Second, we have Kathryn registered for the site, but her approval to post just came through this morning. I am sure that you will be hearing from her in her own voice soon. I know that she is excited to share with you all.
\-MH
Glad she had a great birthday but, what's her screen name? I may need to ask her some information on how to do some things. Is she available for a couple of jobs? I've got a couple of Fieros that need restored.
------------------ Ron
[This message has been edited by blackrams (edited 06-13-2011).]
We had a good birthday, I have to tell you that Kathryn was almost in tears reading through all of your well wishes and notes. It meant a lot to her, and as such it meant a lot to me, so once again thank you.
She ended up with a number of nice presents, some books, movies, nail polish, etc., but a lot of fiero parts as well. Including new carpeting, caliper paint, some tools and tool box, DIY STU dew wipes, powder coater, etc.
Some new Timken wheel bearings all around and seals
A wonderful gift from the folks at FieroFiberglass who are letting her pick a set of custom quarter panels! She was absolutely speechless!!!!
A set of LED marker lights from Danyel and the Widow! Her biggest fans in Canada!
A big box of suspension components from Rodney Dickmans...all new ball joints, and a rear strut for the back deck.....nice.
And some nice new shiny exhausts!
Finally, some nice new Mr Mikes seat covers, console cover and firewall cover
Once you have the parts of course you have to do something with them.....So Saturday morning it was time to get started. Kathryn decided to do something easier first
So the first thing up was the install of the Mr. Mikes console cover.
That didn't take to long and made for a very nice result.
Then on to the firewall cover
That was a bit trickier. You really need to stretch the cover to get it tight and get out the wrinkles. Kathryn did a pretty good job and Dad helped, but still not sure that we did as good as we could. This might get redone yet again...We'll see. Of course once she got that far she was curious to see what it would look like mocked up with the console and the firewall and then with the console, firewall and the seats.
Then for the last two days we have been working on the seats, or I should say, Kathryn has been working on them with Dad's help. For those of you that have been considering a Mr. Mikes kit, let me just say you should have no hesitation. The product is top notch in quality, the instructions are easy to follow, and Kathryn was able to do a lot of the work on her own. The first seat Dad took the lead on, the second one Kathryn did most of the work on.
First thing to do is to strip down the old seats, so a good time to use the new tools.
Then you have to cut into the existing seats so that you can expose the wires that need hog ringed.
Then you have to turn the seat covers inside out so that you can install them. Here Kathryn is doing the turning....
Time for some new foam to build up the seat a bit.
Tada, here is the first seat bottom or cushion done.
Finally, you need to reassemble the seat back and the cushion.
You end up with this when you are done. That is the first seat done. Then you need to work on the second seat.
Here Kathryn is hog ringing on the new cover. A bit of hard work to find the right places and a lot of arm strength for a 13 year old girl in order to attach the rings, but she managed it.
And then reassemble the second seat
And that is as far as we have gotten through tonight. The seat tracks need to go back on now. We will be down working on her car again tomorrow night. Finishing the underlayment on the floor, and probably starting to pull some suspension pieces....and doing a bit of sandblasting.....the project continues. I am sure that you will all be hearing from Kathryn shortly.
Kathryn, you are truly lucky to have a dad like you have. And you guys are doing some pretty awesome work and I am totally jealous of your color scheme as it is incredible. Anyway, happy belated birthday and keep us posted!
If you're changing color it's probably best to remove the panels so that all edges and underneath fasteners will be painted. You can better mask the back sides to reduce overspray, too. You'll need to pull off all the aero trim pieces anyway. You could leave the top and rear clip on the car. The front portion of the top is difficult to remove without breaking the A pillars, and the rear clip requires a bit of work.
Sounds like panels off is the best approach, since she will be doing ALOT of sanding and a color change...the car is kinda black now, since the PO rattlecanned a lot of it...so all of that needs to come off, and then the car underneat that is red. Panels off, Sand, Sand, Sand, and prep, then paint then panels back on! Got it!
What an incredible thread. The satisfaction of doing the work yourself is very rewarding, and the perserverence to see the job to completion is the best life lesson of all for any teenager. My hat is off to you, Kathryn, and the rest of your family as well. Welcome to the Fiero community!
I hear leaving the roof panel on is a good idea, since it's the most likely to be damaged during removal. Unless of course you guys are considering adding a sunroof?
We ran into a bit of a problem last night....the passenger side top subframe rail is in pretty bad shape. I'll get some photos when we are down there next. I mean it looks BAD. We'll have to look at the one on the drivers side as well, the rest looks good...cradle, bottom frame rails etc...just those tops. GRRR! Kathryn's uncle thinks we can fab it back together and Bob can work miracles so we'll see.
Other than that, the new padding and heat barrier is in waiting for the carpet, but it will be a while before we put the interior in. The tanks is pulled and looks in good shape, we'll repaint the outside just for good measure, but no rust in the tank so that is a good thing. Not sure what happened to her fuel pump, it looks like someone smacked it with a mallet...the bottom is all smashed up, but the tank isn't. Weird. We'll pull the front body panels next time, and start to work on those while at home. Seat tracks are going back on the seats and then they are ready to be stored to await install.
Is it better to paint the car with the panels on or paint the panels off the car?
-MH
I just painted my car and I did a Mix. I took off the nose, fenders and hood and left the rest of the car together.
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**************************************** 88 Formula CJB Arrived Finally. #689 of 1252 Time to start Working TONY! There are Two kinds of Fiero's : Notchies and Donors!
hey everybody my first post on here!!! sorry about the late reply....but i'm on now and have all summer to post my updates ect. i was soo shocked on by birthday! so many surprises at one time, but i just wanted to put out a special thank you to all of you fiero lovers out there who sent me such wonderful gifts and made my birthday the most memorable ever! I truly had the best b-day EVER thanks to all of you who are supporters to me and my project! i also wanted to thank those of you who have offered me support and wished me luck, thank you! and last but not least to those of you who wished me a happy 13th...thanks i had a wonderful day and was surprised to see how many people around the globe still liked the little fiero! i will be sure to get on regularly and will be adding my updates....thanks again to all of you! -kathryn
hey everybody my first post on here!!! sorry about the late reply....but i'm on now and have all summer to post my updates ect. i was soo shocked on by birthday! so many surprises at one time, but i just wanted to put out a special thank you to all of you fiero lovers out there who sent me such wonderful gifts and made my birthday the most memorable ever! I truly had the best b-day EVER thanks to all of you who are supporters to me and my project! i also wanted to thank those of you who have offered me support and wished me luck, thank you! and last but not least to those of you who wished me a happy 13th...thanks i had a wonderful day and was surprised to see how many people around the globe still liked the little fiero! i will be sure to get on regularly and will be adding my updates....thanks again to all of you! -kathryn
Keep it up Kathryn! This is an excellent thread! Welcome to PFF, I hope your Dad warned you though, its addicting!
I like your color scheme, Kathryn. Check out my car. It's currently not running because I'm rebuilding the engine. Wait till you see the color scheme on that!
dad and i have just been working on fairly small stuff recently, but i did get a chance to finish up the underlay of my flooring tuesday. i really like my dad's new toy...the sandblaster it is sooo much easier than doing it with a wire wheel!!!! part of today and yesterday was spent sanding some smaller pieces and getting the tracks back on my seats! now my seats are ready to go back in.....yet it will probably be a while before they do. hopefully i'll be able to soon start working on some bigger stuff, but for now i just need to finish up some small pieces...from who knows where. -kathryn
Kathryn, you and your Dad have done an outstanding job working on this car, and it's going to look FANTASTIC when you get it done. I've been reading through this thread since it started, and have been impressed with everything. My own son and I have a project car now (He'll be 13 in August) and you guys have been an inspiration to us as well. Keep us the great job, and keep us updated with lots of pictures and "how to" tutorials!
Kathryn, Wanted to tell you how impressed I am with you, your family and your project. I have two things to say, first, you go girl! Second, let me know when you're available, I may need some help on one of my project cars.
okay...yes i have a few i guess. i have spent exactly two hours on sanding my lights i have also masked off the actual light part. i have mostly been sanding or washing parts to get them ready to paint! it's kinda boring but it needs done. and yes i do have a matching toolbox, that i am very enthused with!!! no major updates yet but sometime soon my dad and i will post new pix!!!! -kathryn
Humm she even has a color matching tool box talk about color scheme hehehehehe Keep up the good work
lol. thats awesome, looks liek the screwdriver set (i think thats what i see there) is too... how much searching did it take to find matching toolsets, or was that just something that happened to be?
Happy Belated Birthday. I was actually having a birthday party for my now 4 year old son on the 11th. I am very impressed with your project. I just finished a 4.9 V8 swap. I am glad to see a young person like yourself taking on a project like this. I hope that both of my sons (one is 6 the other 4) Will get into cars when they get older. Keep up the great work.
[This message has been edited by bristowb (edited 06-21-2011).]
Some updates with pictures coming soon. Kathryn has done some powder coating and sanding recently....so the work progresses. Just been real busy at work to get some updates on here. I need to show Kathryn how to upload photos!
As promised, here are a couple of photos for everyone.....perhaps Kathryn can give you an update tonight after soccer as well.
She got the calipers all cleaned and prepped and ready for paint. There are the new calipers for the Grand Am Brake upgrade.
Then we got some fun stuff in the mail.....DIYStu dewwipes for the doors. I think we will wait until the doors are all done before installing. She still needs to clean up the window components and install the new lock solenoids.
And of course, we have the tank out of the car ready to be cleaned, resprayed, and the new pump put in.
Some images of the surface rust....the rest of the tank looks real good, no rust or peel inside. So this should be pretty easy to clean up.
yes ok i'll have dad show me how to upload photos because i'll be getting on more after july 10th because i have swim lessons and girls camp until then.... today i'll be de-rusting and re-painting my fuel tank i'll also be sanding my back panel (it's going to take a while and i dislike sanding even w/ machines it take forever!) -kathryn
Wow, that tank looks pretty darn good. Mine is pretty rust damaged; I just noticed a slow leak last night. Looks like I'm on the market for a new one. Best of luck getting it all cleaned up!
For everyone else, we do have some photos to update aw well. Kathryn fixed one side of the tank the other night and hopefully will have the second side done by the time I get home from work. She also finished one of the back vents in terms of blasting it clean and we have it powder coated yellow. It still needs one more coat but looks pretty good. We also finished the repair to the plastic panels that screw to the seats and cover the ratchet mechanism. We had to fab some new tabs for the screws since the old ones were broken. Should have gotten more pictures of how we did that as we went, but at least it is done. Her spare tire retaining rod and the lug wrench are also blasted and repainted, as is the air filter box. She has started sanding on the back deck lid as alluded to in her post. Lots of sanding to do! The front of the car needs some wire wheeling and encapsulating then respray, but nothing at all like what the back was like.
We should be moving on to suspension soon and Kathryn can continue working on sanding the panels and paint prep over the course of the summer.
Topic Closed
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You can build new ones if you have a welder and the skills:
talk about color scheme hehehehehe 
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