Better grab a sammich, this is going to be a bit of a read for a first post.
First off, a little about myself. My name is Jim and I have a problem. I am addicted to speed. I drive anything I can get my hands on faster than I should. Even my wifes 4 cylinder plain jane hyundai sonata.
I am a Marine, first and foremost. Unfortunately I got hurt and am unable to serve my country in an active duty role, so I had to get out and do something else (reconstructed right knee'll do that, especially when the bastard won't stop hurting when I move at anything faster than a brisk walk for more than 30 seconds. And I don't mean a little ache or pain I mean randomly locking up and/or just flat ass giving out.). I'll tell you what, though, I sure as hell didn't want to go back to work, so since I couldn't play Marine anymore, I decided to go to school and get edumucated on racecar and high performance type stuff (I hold an Associates in Applied Science in the field of High Performance and Racing Technologies). Besides the fiero projects, I also have a 94 Trans Am that I am slowly building into a racecar. I have a big goal set for this car (6 seconds in the quarter mile and competition in the NASA super unlimited class), and there will be some nifty stuff I'm working on for that car that will likely bleed over to one of the fieros so stay tuned for super cool go fast parts in the near future!
With that fancy degree, I proceeded to get a job in the industry at Speed City Performance in Eastlake Ohio, where we specialize in blown alcohol drag racing, and new for this year, we are going nitro funny car racing under Kalitta Motorsports. We are also a full service engine shop and we do a lot of fabrication and update work for our customers. I learned alot in school, and I'm learning even more everyday at work. I love it!
This is me in my nifty work shirt
On to the cars, the part I'm sure you've all been waiting for!
The beginning of this tale isn't fiero related at all, it starts about 4 months ago when my truck (2001 Ram 3500 24 valve) **** it's clutch on a haul out to indianapolis for work. I'm very glad that I chose a stick shift over and automatic or else I would have been SCA_REEEWED!!! Drove from columbus ohio to indianapolis and back to eastlake ohio with no clutch pedal. Truck was down for about 2 months trying to diagnose the issue and also due to the fact that it was february and this year was a colder than average winter, which ultimately lead to a full clutch replacement. Almost needed new undies, a 400 pound transmission trying to turn turtle on the trans jack just above your head is not a fun experience!
During this time, I couldn't just take 2 months off of work, so I purchased this:
That green blob you are looking at is a 1997 Oldsmobile Aurora with the 4.0 Northstar V8. This car has been nothing but a headache, began throwing codes shortly after I got it home and I finally gave up on it when it sat for 5 days while I was hauling back and forth from eastlake ohio to ft wayne indiana helping a client move a large hoard of old pontiac superduty parts. (worked 50 + hours and drove 1000 miles in 5 days. Payed good though) Got home, tried to start the car and nothing. . The engine still starts and runs fine (have to put the charger too it to get it going though), just a little stumble at idle and no white smoke/coolant smell coming from the tail pipes. Just a big electrical gremlin hiding somewhere, and the car isn't worth the effort in my opinion, as it's all ready half rotted out. So for now it sits in the yard, but will still be a part of this tale
Fast forward 2 months, and with the truck back up and running and a perfectly good 4.0 northstar sitting there doing nothing, I thought it was time to find another vehicle to drive so I could keep the miles off my truck (cars are much, much cheaper to fix than my 1 ton). So I started looking into fieros since I know 3 guys who have or had engine swapped GT's, 2 are 3800 supercharged swaps (1 auto, 1 getrag) and the other is a fuel injected 355 with a G6 6speed swap.
Well, 2 saturdays ago, I had a line on a clean 88 roller in michigan, but the guy sold it on me at the last minute, so instead I looked around and picked up these 2 Gems for 300 a piece. No way were either of these cars going to fit the bill, but I saved a lot of good parts from the crusher, even though the cars are in pretty rough shape. I almost passed on them for the simple fact that, despite what the previous owners told me, the first car loaded (the 86 SE) did not roll. At all. All 4 wheels were locked up when we started, and silly me, I didn't have a winch in the trailer at the time. So 4-4.5 hours later, the 86 is finally loaded, and the 87 didn't take all that long because it did infact roll. Still not winch though, so another 1.5-2 hours with chains and a come along and both cars where finally loaded.
A couple pics of my tow rig
The 87 GT under the silver tarp (front clip missing and interior is trashed. Some parts are salvagable, but not much)
The 86 SE.
But wait, you say, this is a tail of 4 fieros, not 2! And how does the oldsmobile factor into all of this!
Well, if you have a little more patience, I was just getting to that part. This past sunday I hoofed out from cleveland ohio to a town about a half hour north of louisville KY, and picked up the other 2, well, really 1.5 fieros, both 88 GT's. I had a winch this time, and you will see why it came in handy that I forced myself to work all afternoon on saturday and late into the night to get this thing mounted and wired up. The .5 would have had to stay had I not had that sucker.
Get on with it you say, I'm here for the cars, not to watch some guy have diarrhia of the mouth. Alright, alright, here are the newest additions to my flock of fieros.
The running driving 88GT #7532 off the line. It's rough, but it's mostly there.
This car is going to be my daily driver for awhile. When the other car is finished, then this one will be restored/restomoded and will likely have to find a new home so it doesn't become a poor neglected yard ornament. You will understand why I say this once you have made it through the next part.
The other 88 (#21426 of the line) is in pretty sorry shape. This part of the story is a little heart breaking, the previous owner had just finished putting the car together, then 2 weeks go by and he is rear ended buy a drugged up chick in a bottom of the line saturn (you know the ones, look like they have a heavily slopped caveman brow), ripping the rear half of the car completely off. But there are enough good parts left on the front half of the car and the back half of the 87 to resurrect this car and make it most of the way right again.
But wait, you say, what's that green blob at the beginning got to do with any of this? Well, since you've been patient enough with my rambling to read this far, I'll tell you. If you haven't guessed the logical conclusion that is. Which if you have, good on you! You win an internets! The car that is being resurrected will receive the 4.0 V8 after a thorough rebuild and a few small mods to increase power output and improve reliability. I'm going to be building a carburetor manifold for the engine and I'm pretty sure I have the distributor figured out (saw some pics of a blown northstar that had a distributor on it) This will be mated to a Getrag 5 speed, and the car will be tastefully modified to my liking. There is also a possibility that the car may be turbocharged in the future, but that has yet to be determined. This one needs reliability over power, at least for the moment (I know, I know, a NORTHSTAR? Reliable? Well, yes, if you follow the proper maintenance procedures. The one in the donor car has over 250,000 miles on it and has definitely never been opened up before so there! :P Plus, if this one shits on me, there are plenty more out there for decent prices. Rinse and repeat.)
Between the three cars that are partial, I will be making a complete one. That means there will be a lot of left over parts ( I don't need 3 sets of coolant tubes for one car, for instance). Once I get the cars sorted out and figure out what I need to make the two 88's complete (or at least usable in the case of #7532), I will be posting the rest for sale, but in the mean time if anyone needs anything feel free to PM me and I'll let you know if I have it or not. I also have to go back to lexington ky in a couple weeks to pick up a bunch of body parts and some other drivetrain parts as well as the mangled remains of #21426 rear end/engine compartment.
Depending on how things go over the next few months, I may make it a part time side business to hunt down cars to either save or use to help save other cars. Eventually I would also like to start doing engine swaps and other misc custom work/parts for fieros. But one step at a time, and the current step is to get these cars sorted.
A Disclaimer I know this last part might have some of you guys on edge/on guard. I've seen the whodeanie thread (last time mentioning that screen name, promise) and heard about a couple other sleazeballs that have screwed people over and out of a lot of money and/or parts in the past. I've also been following Rottenchop's revival thread, I was almost physically ill at how badly that car had been treated. I couldn't believe it when I got to the part where what had been a clean chassis was deemed too mangled to save. My day job is working on race cars, and my boss would kill me if I ever did anything like that to a customer car and expected them to be ok with it. I would make a whole big plea to the community and say that I'm not like that, yada yada, but I won't because it'll just sound like the empty words and promises of others who are less scrupulous. I will let the resurrection of #21426 and any future dealings with other forum members speak for themselves.
[This message has been edited by 94blackbird (edited 06-24-2014).]
Thanks for your service. My son Jaeger officially went into the Navy today. Very proud of him. Great to see another local guy on the forum. It's amazing how these cars bring us together. If you need another set of hands or just to bullshit, let me know. You are just on the other side of town. Just toss me a PM.
Welcome BB. Thank you for your time and service Marine.
Sorry to hear about your knee, but very glad it was not worse, as I'm sure you are as well.
Great introduction and I for one will be looking forward to seeing your posts and progress.
Should you get to the point where you're looking for cars (chassis or parts), I've got a a couple here (exit 1 on I-77) that could be up for grabs.
You're not too far from my old stomping grounds, Lorain, and I used to have work done (engines) at Lakewood Speed Shop, many moons ago. (pretty sure they're gone now and have been for some time.)
I'm down by the river now (Ohio), but do make it back to Lorain/Elyria area occasionally.
Should you happen to come down 77 past exit 1, sometime, give me a yell, (pm or email), I'll meet ya for coffee or such.
HAGO!
Jason: yes to your question below. Glad the TH worked out..sent you a pm. Don't want to distract from this thread. Same offer for coffee/whatever extends to you bud!
[This message has been edited by Sage (edited 06-25-2014).]
Yep. And Sage is one of the class acts on this forum. BTW, you get my text? It's in and on the car and working perfectly! My son was pretty shocked at the condition. Owe ya one bub.
Ok, got some progress in (finally) tonight stripping down the 86 SE. What's left of the interior is in great shape, just have to clean it up for the most part (some pieces will need redying). Got everything out of the drivers side and a lot out of the passenger side. I believe I also have my donor for the wrecked 88. The chassis is incredibly clean (very minor surface rust, nothing crunched when I was prodding around testing it). The body panels will be stripped off this car, and the panels that are in good shape will be posted up for sale (unless someone in northeast ohio or with in 3 or 4 hours needs se body panels in good shape like yesterday)
Welcome BB. Thank you for your time and service Marine.
Sorry to hear about your knee, but very glad it was not worse, as I'm sure you are as well.
Great introduction and I for one will be looking forward to seeing your posts and progress.
Should you get to the point where you're looking for cars (chassis or parts), I've got a a couple here (exit 1 on I-77) that could be up for grabs.
You're not too far from my old stomping grounds, Lorain, and I used to have work done (engines) at Lakewood Speed Shop, many moons ago. (pretty sure they're gone now and have been for some time.)
I'm down by the river now (Ohio), but do make it back to Lorain/Elyria area occasionally.
Should you happen to come down 77 past exit 1, sometime, give me a yell, (pm or email), I'll meet ya for coffee or such.
HAGO!
Jason: yes to your question below. Glad the TH worked out..sent you a pm. Don't want to distract from this thread. Same offer for coffee/whatever extends to you bud!
I still have friends down in NC, so I go by that way occasionally. I'll let you know when my next trip that way might be.
A little more progress tonight, began removing the drivers door from the 86. It till be used to replace the gutted door of the operational 88, and the 88 door skin will be put on in place of the 86's trashed door skin. Then the interior will at least be sealed from the elements again. Unfortunately the interior and wiring harness are so trashed it will all have to be stripped and redone to get everything working the way it is supposed to. I will slowly gather parts to put this one back together, but it's going to be a daily for awhile so for the time being I'm doing what is necessary to get it back on the road.
Really started digging into the 87 tonight. Some parts are salvagable but the interior is mostly thrashed. Planning to finish stripping it and the 86 by the end of the weekend.
Not as much progress stripping cars today as I would have liked. Went to Norwalk Dragstrip for the NHRA event yesterday and was there pretty late. Got to watch the Top Alcohol Funny Car of Steve Harker post a new career best mph of 265 at 5.55 ET (I helped put that car together, it's always awesome seeing a car you had a hand in haul ass!).
I did finally settle on the direction I want to take the wrecked 88 GT. I'm going to make it a convertible, and it's also going to be rebodied (and a new rear frame section contructed since that part is missing). I'm not going to go into too much detail just yet, I want to get a little further along with the project and make sure I'm actually going to like it, but it should look pretty cool when it's done.
That being said, I'm going to have a lot more body panel type stuff up for sale since I'm going to rebody route. I should be able to start posting up tomorrow with stuff that is available.
[This message has been edited by 94blackbird (edited 07-05-2014).]
Ok, time to update this bad boy, it's been way too long and ALOT has changed!
4 more fieros and a frame were aquired, 4 (the wrecked 88, the 87, the rotted out 86 se and an 84)have been sent to the scrap heap which leaves me with 4 (rolling 88 GT, partial 86 GT, partial 85 GT and another 84) fieros in various stages of completeness. I have had at one time or another in my possession at least 1 Fiero from every year fieros were produced. I have also had a GT from every year fieros were produced. Just something interesting I had realized!
Now to the actual update. As I said, a lot has changed. I have since moved on from the speed shop I was working at, and now work at a cnc machine shop, where the owners also happen to race nostalgia nitro funnycar on the IHRA circuit (Check out McAttack Racing to get the low down) and I have also changed my plans. I have an 84 fiero that will be getting a northstar v8 and 5 speed manual swap, along with a grey interior from tan, as well as swapping the coupe upper quarters for the GT unit (I will make my final decision on this once I get the body panels swapped and see if I like the way it looks)
I am also in the process of building a new Chumpcar out of the remaining GT's. The team name is Fauxrarri Motorsports.
I don't have a set date for completion or when my first race will be as cash flow is certainly an issue in this regard. I would like the make the 7+7 at pittsburgh international in october, but as things stand it will be next year before anything happens. Or the year after, as I have said that a couple of times already! I need to find some serious coin quick!
I have been planning and preparing for this build for a little over a year now, and I am pushing hard to hit at least one event this year. I will probably make it by the skin of my teeth, but I am confident that I can make an event towards the end of the year this year.
Once the car is completed I will be offering seat rentals. I can already tell you I won't be the cheapest out there, but you will be hard pressed to find a team that is more prepared and more meticulous in planning and prepping for an event than I am.
Welcome! We should hangout sometime, I'm a little north of Ann Arbor. You'd like my car... She should be drivable by June, and I'd like to see what your up to down there!
Welcome! We should hangout sometime, I'm a little north of Ann Arbor. You'd like my car... She should be drivable by June, and I'd like to see what your up to down there!
I don't have much to show yet, still clearing out stuff and making room lol.
Just a quick little update, just bought a boatload of Northstar parts. Just gotta find the time to make a little road trip to pick it all up. Chewing through the parts cars is taking longer than expected, mainly due to working a bunch of overtime the last couple months, but I am making progress on that front. Once I get a little more stuff sorted out and sent on it's way, I have a couple of equipment purchases to make, then hopefully some forward progress on the Fauxrarri Chumpcar and my Northstar swap project for my 84.
Also for anyone interested in some good ole fashioned drag racing, Team McAttack Nostalgia Nitro Funny car has two races coming up at the end of the month in the IHRA Nitrojam race series, Budd's Creek in Maryland and Grand Bend in Canada. I will be on the crew at both events, so there won't be too much progress until we get over this part of the season.
Hey there Jim. First and foremost, thanks for your service ! Welcome to the madness too ! Most of us have some kind of interesting story to how we got involved with The Pontiac Fiero. It just goes to show how much we love this car. I enjoyed your story a lot and got a good laugh out of your wording. Keep us posted !
Hey there Jim. First and foremost, thanks for your service ! Welcome to the madness too ! Most of us have some kind of interesting story to how we got involved with The Pontiac Fiero. It just goes to show how much we love this car. I enjoyed your story a lot and got a good laugh out of your wording. Keep us posted !
Given the temporary madness I was under at the time, I couldn't think of a better way to tell the tale lol. As it stands once the cars are finished (and the track car meets my personal goal of being able to go toe to toe with the cars that are "proven paths to the podium) I can see an article in some obscure GM related online magazine entitled: The Terrible Twins: Track Terror and Street Sweeper.
I won't give specifics yet, but my plan for the 84 is to drop in a good 4.0 aurora northstar, topped with the 300 hp cams and fuel system, run off a 7730 ecm with ryan hess tuning and soft ware. Eventually I will build a custom itb set up and 180 degree equal length headers. I'm also going to pull the fastback clip off one of my parts cars and swap it for the notch clip, while keeping the bumper pad bumpers. I also have to replace the right lower quarter panel and make some other repairs. Why a 4.0 and not a 4.6 you ask? Well, it's pretty simple actually. The difference in cubic inches is not that big, a little over 30 ci. Since the 4.0 used a slightly smaller bore than the 4.6, that means the liners are a little thicker, and in theory, a little stronger. I don't think I will miss the 30 odd cubic inches, given that the aurora 4.0 made a little over 1 hp/cubic inch in stock trim.
The track car is going to, for now, get the minimum necessary to get on track, with the exception of updated engine architechure (while still retaining the 2.8 litre displacement and fiero top end) and a grand am brake swap to get vented discs. As I get the car to the track and can get some wheel time and gather some data, I will start chipping away at building a car that can go toe to toe with the bmw and miata's that seem to dominate chumpcar. I'm also planning to move on to higher tier racing series, but my options to get into those series are A) get a specified amount of seat time in Chump or B) shell out a bunch of money and time to get an SCCA or equivelent licence. I think option A is more attractive for someone like me who likes to just jump in and do stuffI will definitely NOT be going into specifics here, for obvious reasons. I am hoping to make at least one race this year, but with how my year has turned out so far, that is becoming less and less likely. Next year should be a shoe in to make a race, though. I will have all winter to finish up, as I intend to have all the parts and equipment I need for sure by the end of the summer.
That is all for now.
One final note, I am letting my previous for sale thread die. I don't have time to dig through these cars for tiny oddball stuff that is difficult to get to and remove. I will be starting a new thread soon with stuff I am selling, and only stuff that I have posted pics of will be for sale. I will be contacting people who made requests from the previous thread to see if they still want/need the parts they asked about, but I will not be taking any new requests. As I said I simply don't have time to dig through the cars I have for some weird obscure part.
[This message has been edited by 94blackbird (edited 05-30-2016).]
Retrieved the engines and associated parts I bought this weekend from forum member Eirk. If you're interested in buying something from him, I wouldn't hesitate, he was great to deal with.
I had an excellent road trip out to pick everything up.
And excellent view of the road and sky on my way home saturday afternoon.
And a truck bed full of engines and parts
While I haven't unloaded anything yet, I have already started looking over the electrical side of things and figuring out what I have and what I still need to get this up and running. I have a busy schedule this month but I am hoping that with the head start I have now thanks to the mostly completed swap cradle, I will have something up and running by the end of august. Which means that it is doubtful I will be racing chumpcar this year, but only because I don't have the time to devote to both, especially with the overtime I've had to work lately and my boss' funnycar racing schedule being such that I will have zero time to devote to anything else. I think next year I will have to back off racing with them to get my own race car(s) up and going!
As they say, there is only so much time that is allotted us, and you can either spend it chasing your dreams or helping someone else chase their dreams.
Getting a little bit done (any progress is good progress). Probably going to be about a month though before I can really get back at it, I have two races with my boss' the next two weekends and a wedding July 4th weekend that I have to travel for. I have ordered the ecm terminal connectors for the 7730 ecm, and I'm looking into what else I will need to wrap up the install when I can get to it! Once the northstar fiero is up and running, focus will shift to the chumpfiero and hopefully it'll be ready early next year to race.
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There is plenty of resources here and over on our site!!
