Hello fellow Fiero enthusiasts! In this tread i will be following build of my 88GT into bumper pad fastback, the build includes changing both bumper covers, removal of all Aero GFX and installation of coupe/formula rocker panels, changing rounded exterior trim to ribbed trim and what's most important, creating custom front lip, rear spoiler and rear diffusor.

It's worth noting that I live on the other side of the plant from Fiero birthplace, in Georgia, country in eastern Europe, there are only two other Fieros in my country, one bumper pad, and one 1986 GT, both not in a roadworthy condition (there was one more but it had an accident), For almost a year I had to look online on salvage car auctions in US until I found right car for the right price for me, finally I bought 88GT in a very good condition which probably had a minor front collision and was missing a front bumper cover, front turn signals, impact bar and impact absorber, in 4 moths car was in my country, and project begun! The car was a dream, 88 GT great condition, 88 000 miles, tan leather interior, the only thing i missed was T-top, but I decided not to try my luck and didn't pass on this otherwise perfect opportunity.

I have to explain my desire to turn GT into bumper pad, as an designer and architect, I always had a love for 80s European mid engine sports cars and I thing Pontiac pretty much nailed it with the styling of the original Fiero, very edgy and angular, in my opinion the looks of the original Fiero is easily a match for anything Pininfarina or Bertone did in the 70s and 80s for the best European brands like Ferrari and Lotus among others, although I always thought that the rear of the car was bit too small, and gave it a proportions of a smaller car, this was partially corrected by introduction of the fastback body, which made rear of Fiero look bit longer, but at the same time in my opinion new bumpers and GFX didn't do the justice to the original design of Fiero, it lost the edgy and laconic style that European supercars have, that Fiero had too, that's how the idea of getting the best of two was born, after browsing through photos of converted cars online and on the forum, I realized two things, that changing only front bumper cover would not work and that even after fully changing fastback to bumper pad, there still was a room for improvement, I started to look at photos of Maseratis, Ferraris, Lambos and Lotus cars of 70s, started to do Photoshop and came ap with three mods: front lip in style of Maserati Bora/Lotus Esprit, rear spoiler that would overhang rear lights, giving it longer profile and adding some sharper edges to the rear to compliment edgy angular front, and rear diffusor in style of Ferrari 308 and first Lotus Esprit Turbo.

One additional reason for this project was the fact that I saw how many people are modifying Fieros with some modern design influences, which doesn't make this classic car look like a modern car, but creates some kind of mish-mash without distinct style or defined design era, I never understood the concept of liking a classic/old car and at the same time trying to make it look not like classic car (That's my opinion and I don't intend to offend someone), So I decided to go the opposite way, enhance it's 80s style cues and features, further realize the potential of Fiero looking like proper midengined sportscar of it's era.

Here are the photos of the car how I got it:





After i got the car, I got a hold of a front and rear bumper pad bumper covers from a guy who owned two of the Fieros in Georgia and crashed one, the rear was ok but the front was too damaged and had to find it online in US, I got ribbed moldings, front crash bar and absorber from the Fiero factory, got rocker panels from same guy in US who had front bumper cover, got some hardware from Fiero Store and that's how my car is looking now:





Further plans are to fill the holes left from GFX, replace cracked outer dew wipes with new ones which I got from Rich aka "silver 85 sc" from this forum, create custom front lip, rear spoiler and rear diffusor, and repaint custom parts, bumper covers and the car bellow beltline.
Here are some of my Photoshop work done on photos found online where you can see before and after versions, the designs are not final, I am still working on them and will be correcting them when car will be in fiberglass shop.

Rear spoiler and diffusor:






Front Lip:






Side view:




The idea is to make exterior mods like something that could have been stock.
I am also considering the possibility of reproducing all the custom exterior parts that i will create for this project and offering it to Fiero community if the interest for it will be there ))

I am very excited to be doing this project, to work on this fascinating car, I already got to know a lot of amazing people from the community, so far only online and I am looking forward to meet more people and hopefully meet some of you in the flesh ))
I will be happy if this tread will help or influence someone else, also I am looking forward for the opinions and hope for advices from so many knowledgeable people on this forum.
Also please post all the photos of bumper pad fastbacks you can find )))

[This message has been edited by Alienbishop (edited 07-24-2023).]

Your rendering of the slanted tail lights reminds me of the prototype car.

[This message has been edited by IMSA GT (edited 07-24-2023).]

Hey- That's my car!

i have been experimenting with different ideas....Wanted a blended-in spoiler out back, so did a mod on a pic of my car....(Also blended the door into the fender-line)

[This message has been edited by cvxjet (edited 07-24-2023).]

quote Originally posted by cvxjet: Hey- That's my car! i have been experimenting with different ideas....Wanted a blended-in spoiler out back, so did a mod on a pic of my car....(Also blended the door into the fender-line)

Wow! Great to meet you! Photo of your car helped me a lot! )) I think my spoiler will be great for it ))))

Btw, i wanted to ask you about that sail panel, is custom? could you post some closeups? it sure looks very cool!

quote Originally posted by cvxjet: Hey- That's my car! i have been experimenting with different ideas....Wanted a blended-in spoiler out back, so did a mod on a pic of my car....(Also blended the door into the fender-line)

I made those back in 2013-14.....Out of aluminum...Here is the thread on how I made them with pictures;

https://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum1/HTML/097804.html

quote Originally posted by cvxjet: I made those back in 2013-14.....Out of aluminum...Here is the thread on how I made them with pictures; https://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum1/HTML/097804.html

It is a great mod and your initial idea to have it ribbed sounds amazing too.

quote Originally posted by Alienbishop:

The Georgian scripts in the background look really cool. I suspect this is the first time that most of us here have ever seen such writing!

Your Fiero looks great... except for the front plate. I was wondering why it was bent. I realize now it was probably bent in two places to clear the bumper pads. Would it not look better if the plate was straight and simply mounted on standoffs that would allow the plate to clear the bumper pads?

It is probably first ever photo of Fiero and Georgian writings together

As for the front plate, it is temporary, I will change it to narrow square one soon, which will fit nicely )

quote Originally posted by Patrick: The Georgian scripts in the background look really cool. I suspect this is the first time that most of us here have ever seen such writing! Your Fiero looks great... except for the front plate. I was wondering why it was bent. I realize now it was probably bent in two places to clear the bumper pads. Would it not look better if the plate was straight and simply mounted on standoffs that would allow the plate to clear the bumper pads?

quote Originally posted by Alienbishop: As for the front plate, it is temporary, I will change it to narrow square one soon, which will fit nicely.

Great. I didn't know whether or not you had that option.

Most exciting and interesting stage starts! creation of custom front spoiler, rear spoiler and rear diffuser, I talked with almost every person working on fiberglass, some of them stopped doing this, some of them don't have the workshop anymore, and most of them are doing only copies of existing parts, or stuff that they already have molds of. Finally I found found two different persons, one of them is doing old-school fiberglass stuff, but another guy is in the first stage of his startup, his idea is to scan a car, create 3d model of the custom part, than print it in pieces in ABS plastic, than put it together. Since I can do 3D modeling that is a very interesting option for me, I can tinker with the design in 3D software until i get it right, and then we will print it! so the scanning began!


Here is the link to little video of the process:

https://files.fm/f/yap7v2aaf


And a photo:




It didn't quite work out well because of the car paint being too refelctive, but it's enough for me to start working on the 3d models of the custom parts, in the meantime we will rescan the car using special powder to make the car mat during the scan.

I will be posting pics of 3D designs soon!
------------------
My build:
Bumper pad fastback build out of 88 GT (With some custom exterior mods)
https://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum2/HTML/147065.html

[This message has been edited by Alienbishop (edited 08-05-2023).]

You're soon going to realize one very large challenge trying to design parts in CAD around a 3D scan.

The output of a 3D scan is a tessellated file, most often an stl format, which is nearly impossible to work with in all the major CAD programs (NX, Catia, Creo and Solidworks). When I say impossible I mean: sure you can see it on the screen, but good luck taking measurements, or doing real CAD design around it.

quote Originally posted by lateFormula: You're soon going to realize one very large challenge trying to design parts in CAD around a 3D scan. The output of a 3D scan is a tessellated file, most often an stl format, which is nearly impossible to work with in all the major CAD programs (NX, Catia, Creo and Solidworks). When I say impossible I mean: sure you can see it on the screen, but good luck taking measurements, or doing real CAD design around it.

You can use the STL as a visual reference on-screen.

Then, you redraw the part using sketches, using guide curves, etc.

Adjust your parametric model so it approximately follows the STL reference.

Just work with natively-generated CAD features, and everything will be fine.

[This message has been edited by pmbrunelle (edited 08-05-2023).]

quote Originally posted by lateFormula: You're soon going to realize one very large challenge trying to design parts in CAD around a 3D scan. The output of a 3D scan is a tessellated file, most often an stl format, which is nearly impossible to work with in all the major CAD programs (NX, Catia, Creo and Solidworks). When I say impossible I mean: sure you can see it on the screen, but good luck taking measurements, or doing real CAD design around it.

I export scanned file to .obj file, which is a mesh, after I import it in Blender which I am learning especially for this project (I could do it in 3ds Max which I know, but decided to start learning Blender) after teh designs will be done, it will be exported as 3d printing file.

Another update

next week i will have new 3d scan of the car and will be able to finish 3d modeling of the parts, so far is still do some mockups on the scan that I have, that's where am at right now

Still tinkering with very bad 3d scan that I have until I do a rescan, added louvers to quarter glass in style of Lamborghini Urraco, It solved the problem of quarter glass shape looking too modern. After adding colors, I realized that front spoiler is out of proportion with the car, will continue to try different shapes and sizes.