Got the black parts on the car painted today. I plan to have the outside of the car 100% done by next weekend and then I will be moving on to the interior. I have to remove and recover the seats, replace the steering wheel with a replica wheel, recover the headliner, install the CD player and give everything a thorough cleaning and detailing.
[This message has been edited by EVM_Rob (edited 12-31-2011).]
Wow! Like I mentioned a while back in the thread, this is a great build and the car looks like it came out fantastic. It's really starting to show now all of that long and involved prep work in the nearing finished product.
Did I read right a few replies back that you plan on selling this particular car when it's finished? This may be relevant to my interests...
Very nice. Can I see a close up shot of the area below the rear bumper? I want to see part of the black painted center grill area and one side where it it painted red around small black opening.
Very nice. Can I see a close up shot of the area below the rear bumper? I want to see part of the black painted center grill area and one side where it it painted red around small black opening.
That is perfect! Thank you. I was thinking about trying to make those small side vents functional but I am not sure of what is actuall located behind the panel itself. I may just install some screen in the opening to make it "appear" to be functional.
Just a little progress update. Been waiting on some new seat covers to arrive that I ordered a week ago so I can get started on the interior (hoping next week they will show up). Once their here I will remove the seats to cover them and while their out, wash the carpets, install the headliner (recovered in black vinyl), install a replica steering wheel, install the sound system, get the trim and door panels back in place and give everything a good detailing once complete.
Here are a few pics of some things I have done the past couple weeks
I got the deck lid grill on the car. Not fastened down yet though. Still have to take the deck lid back off to paint the underside black and install the license plate lights.
I got the headlight covers installed. They still need a little tweaking but should look pretty good. Oh, and I have to make the headlight motors work. Both of them are pretty shot. I also got both side louvers installed.
I installed the black plastic license plate surround and finished painting the exhaust pipes with some high temp flat black.
I still have to remove the hood one last time to paint the underside black and I will get those headlight motors sorted at the same time. The weather has been all over the place here lately and its been holding me up. One day its 31 degrees and windy, the next its 45 but raining all day and then two days later sunny and 55. I'm pulling for more of those 55 and sunny days! Its supposed to be around 54 tomorrow then rain Saturday but clear and 64 Sunday (64!! In January!!) so I am going to try and finish up the outside of the car those days so all that's left is the interior stuff.
Still watching. Looking very nice! Thanks for the update. With everything you've done and are planning to do, it'll be hard to part with it when it's "finished"!
Still watching. Looking very nice! Thanks for the update. With everything you've done and are planning to do, it'll be hard to part with it when it's "finished"!
it will be tough but i will build another one this summer to keep....an even better one! (full replica interior and authentic 16" 308 QV wheels to name a couple things)
Did you just paint the edges of the side louvers silver?
I sure did. Gives them a much more detailed look. More like the original All the fine details look messed up in the pics since I re-size them down before posting. It distorts the pic a bit
[This message has been edited by EVM_Rob (edited 01-20-2012).]
OHH YEAH!! i have been totally lurking and watching this thread for a while now and golly.....its soo cool seeing it all come togeather.
you have quite the skills my man and hope to meet you and your car of the moment, so to speak. since it seems, you like to build and not own so much
i have a question as a Mera owner.....how much money and trouble would it be to fabricate a mountable shell only front hood for say, my Mera?? maybe even a rear one too....its a unique design to the Mera underneath..... (IE not a skin over but just as heavy)
they are a 2 ply, skin over of the OEM Fiero hood and i and maybe other Mera/kit owners would like to shed the weight. which to me would be a bunch. something very light weight, akin to the carbon fiber crazy but at Fiero prices
i was thinking it could be done by someone with your skills, and may open a possible $$ stream for said skills and just thinking aloud.
till the end....of this build and beyond. Daniel- Mera X
[This message has been edited by batousai666 (edited 01-23-2012).]
OHH YEAH!! i have been totally lurking and watching this thread for a while now and golly.....its soo cool seeing it all come togeather.
you have quite the skills my man and hope to meet you and your car of the moment, so to speak. since it seems, you like to build and not own so much
i have a question as a Mera owner.....how much money and trouble would it be to fabricate a mountable shell only front hood for say, my Mera?? maybe even a rear one too....its a unique design to the Mera underneath..... (IE not a skin over but just as heavy)
they are a 2 ply, skin over of the OEM Fiero hood and i and maybe other Mera/kit owners would like to shed the weight. which to me would be a bunch. something very light weight, akin to the carbon fiber crazy but at Fiero prices
i was thinking it could be done by someone with your skills, and may open a possible $$ stream for said skills and just thinking aloud.
till the end....of this build and beyond. Daniel- Mera X
Thanks for the compliments and yes. It would be possible to make a hood for the car that deletes the fiero stock hood from the equation. I had my hood off to paint the under side and had to put it back on the car today. It is a heavy behemoth! The rear deck isn't so bad. Not on my car at least. I didn't go over board on the thickness when I made it (except the mounting points). I can actually carry it around by my self easily. Giving the front hood a similar under belly to the rear may be a real possibility to look into.
I got my interior mostly done. New seat covers installed, replica steering wheel, carpets cleaned, new headliner in, stereo installed..) I recovered my old headliner myself with black vinyl. Turned out pretty nice. I rebuilt both of the headlight motors so they go up and down like new now. Just a couple more little things here and there to button up this week and this project will be complete! I will post a lot of pics once its all done in a few days.
Then I get to drive it ...a couple weeks then sell it then start the next project!
Anybody that has been following my tread in the technical discussion area will know why there haven't been any updates on the build. Now that I have the car 98% finished the freaking mechanicals decide to take a dump on me. Its running really rough when it does run and usually just starts and dies or wont start at all. I only have 14psi of fuel pressure and my ICM my be going bad on top of that. YAY!
Pondering whether to leave the headlight louvers red or paint them black. I did a quick photoshop to see what they would look like. You can scroll up a few pics to see them red
Cast your vote. Leave them red or paint them black?
Hey man, Car is looking amazing... Very well done. I would love to come see it in person if you are up for it. I am down in Maryville just south of you a bit. Never seen a mera or any other kit like this in person but I have seen an ridden in a real Ferrari several times. The 512 BB boxer is my personal favorite...peace
Hey man, Car is looking amazing... Very well done. I would love to come see it in person if you are up for it. I am down in Maryville just south of you a bit. Never seen a mera or any other kit like this in person but I have seen an ridden in a real Ferrari several times. The 512 BB boxer is my personal favorite...peace
Pete
We could probably arrange that this week. Shoot me a PM
Paint em black! They look good that way. So what did the problem turn out to be?
The temp sender to the ECU was missing one of the prongs. It had rusted completely away and was just brown dust in the plug. I cleaned out the socket and replaced the sensor. It was not sending a temp reading to the ECU tricking it into thinking it was always ice cold and making the cold start valve dump fuel into the cylinders when cranking even if the engine was hot.
The temp sender to the ECU was missing one of the prongs. It had rusted completely away and was just brown dust in the plug. I cleaned out the socket and replaced the sensor. It was not sending a temp reading to the ECU tricking it into thinking it was always ice cold and making the cold start valve dump fuel into the cylinders when cranking even if the engine was hot.
Good catch! Mine is running fine but I am going to check my sender anyway. I still want to send you my headlight doors. Can you post a close up picture of one when you get a chance?
First of all, I must tip my hat to your level of skill in manufacturing parts and building your kit.
Seeing as you've got black rims, black roof and black rocker panels....I think the black louvered headlight covers would completely unify the look of your car.
As to the HL covers------if the parts that are already black were not, I'd say leave the HL covers red, but since they are, my vote is for black on the HL covers to help "balance" the theme.
Personally, I like em' all red, with the trim and wheels being the contrast, but to each his own!
Incredible build. Your fabricating talants are amazing. I have a Testarossa on a 7" stretch chassis that I have owned for the last 5 years, and it was about 80% done when I bought it which I had to finish. I thought that was alot of work. Great Job!
So it looks like the vote is for black. I had to pull the covers off to repaint them red today. I wasn't happy with how they turned out the first time. You could still see some sand marks on the flat part of the cover and there was quite a bit of orange peel on the louver parts. So I think I will leave it to fate to decide whether to go black or leave them red. If they have orange peel again on the louvers I will sand them and paint them black. If they turn out smooth without all the orange peel I will leave them red. Red would of course be easier since to paint them black I would also have to paint the last louver that's part of the hood black. Which would mean some taping up and covering the car to avoid getting over spray on the body. So we will see I guess. I just got them resprayed a few minutes ago and I will know by tonight once they have had a couple hours to dry if they will stay red on the louvers or go black.
I think I will paint the louvers black. They turned out ok with minimal orange peel this time but the majority of people seemed to think they would look good black and since I am selling the car its best to make it appeal to the masses and a potential buyer. I must say the black would add a bit more detail to the head on view of the car which is a good thing. So I am off to do that now. I will post pics afterward.
That's a real beauty! When do we get some updated pics of the inside.
If all goes as planned the car will be 99% finished tomorrow and I will be washing and detailing it and taking out to take some pictures of it to use for selling it. So with any luck tomorrow night or Saturday afternoon I will post a ton of pics. Inside and out from lots of angles. I may also make a little video of it to include in my sale adds. If a pictures worth 1,000 words then video must be worth about 100,000
Took a bunch of pictures today of the car. Time to write up an ad for it and find it a new home. I can pretty much call this one done Now on to the next project!
Headliner recover in black vinyl
If any one would be interested in purchasing a complete body kit to biuld one of these for their own just shoot me a PM
[This message has been edited by EVM_Rob (edited 02-17-2012).]
Got to meet Rob and his Fiero/ferrari yesterday evening. We met after dinner in the parking lot next to the Hooters in Maryville and spent about an hour looking at this car and all the work and details he put into it. This man actually made all of the taillights, turn signals, emblems, and basically everything you see on the outside of the car. It looks very nice in person and it was a pleasure meeting Him and getting to talk about and see this cool car. Apparently he is also working on a couple other kit cars and has more than a few Fiero's. I quite enjoyed discussing the differences between the real Ferrari 308 and this replica. I feel that he did a great deal of good in getting this car to look as close as possible to the real thing considering the whole roof and windows and windshield are still all Fiero. I have not seen many kit cars like this over the years but it is clear to me that he went the extra mile to get the car looking as close as possible to the original.
Rob, I wish you the best of luck with these kits and hope that you sell as many as you like. I look forward to getting another fiero and maybe arranging a little cruise locally with you and some of the other locals. Thanks for taking the time to show me your cool car and keep in touch man...peace
My 308 badge came in the mail and I decided to make the mold off of it. I plan on building several of these cars and spending $100 just for the 308 badge is too much. Not to mention another $100 for the GTS emblem.
I'm really impressed with your skill and ingenuity--Bravo Zulu!
In the early years, many Mera owners rebadged their cars as Ferraris. Now it seems there's a movement to go back to the original badging, problem is the originals are impossible to find. I'm sure there would be a lot of present day Mera owners who would love to have a set of the original badges, or a spare set. Here is an original set.
...a couple weeks then sell it 
then start the next project! 
