Test ride with Chuck Fiumara. Good test of the power and performance of the build to show others that you don't lose handling characteristics of the stock feel. Turn up the volume and listen to the engine sing, some of the comments are funny as well.
Test ride with Chuck Fiumara. Good test of the power and performance of the build to show others that you don't lose handling characteristics of the stock feel. Turn up the volume and listen to the engine sing, some of the comments are funny as well.
Cool. Have fun, be safe. I have an F40 for my LS4, but never put it in. I still need to get the parts for it,...axles, clutch, flywheel....so on and so forth. I am a manual type of driver, I just want to shift it. I also thought the automatic would be a drag,.....not let the car be as fun. But I was wrong. As much as I want the 6 speed manual, the automatic is a lot of fun to drive with this much power. The sound of these things is really the cherry on top.
[This message has been edited by Rickady88GT (edited 08-03-2021).]
Now that everything was painted and back at the house, it was time to put it all together. As I am sure most people do, we bought all of the new clips, dew wipes, widow guides, etc.... Thankfully there are places like Fiero Store for all of the fasteners and clips and people in the Fiero community that make things like replacement dew wipes and other seals. We try to buy as much from these vendors to keep them going and wanted to mention our gratitude for what they do to keep these cars going like new. So, on with the task of putting everything back together.
Of course nothing ever goes off without a hitch, and we dinged the front decklid putting it back on. I know.... and after everyone warned us, several times. That and don't put your door clips in first, you can't get the trim on that way, too funny. Either way, we got them out and put on the door trim piece and everything went together pretty well after that. The LS4 badges on the front fender trim turned out great also and now to take it back for touch-ups. Not pretty, but it got done and came out very nice from there.
[This message has been edited by GPickardt (edited 08-09-2021).]
The final part to the paint job as a whole was a trip to ProGloss Auto Solutions for a fresh coat of ceramic coating. Our goal on this was to build a nice driver so we went with a single stage paint job and finished off with a protective coating that is also more chip resistant. Not only does it give it a shell-like protective coating, but it also added more depth.
Next up, some interior upgrades and other projects!
After finishing this swap, we took time to just drive and enjoy the car while we worked on the interior. We started with Alex Babineaux's steering wheel and shifter knob. He suggested the leather and where to purchase the material and we kind of went from there. Russ Wormuth did the arm rests, shifter surround, shifter boot, and e-brake boot. The dash was in perfect shape, so we wanted to preserve it, but update the rest of the interior. We also had original seats with lumbar supports that were in decent shape, so we decided to re-wrap some other leather seats that were not in good shape. Unfortunately, there are not a lot of good options for upholstery in our area of SOMD. At one point, we even discussed sending seats back to California to get them done, and our friend Fakhri had a set of seats I could have used, but ultimately, shipping was not a good option. Fastanals 3PL is a good option, but in the middle of COVID, 3PL was not an option in California. In the end, we found a local shop in Alexandria, Va. The only problem is that he agreed to this one set, but there would not be any other sets after this one. I guess that makes them a true one-off.
The seats were done with the same leather as the other interior pieces done by Alex and Russ. Due to timing and lack of time to finish the interior before Carlisle, we cleaned and reinstalled the original carpet. Jenn is not sure about my color choice for the new carpet, but I will try to trim and install again sometime soon.
