front end changes :


you can see that with the shock upside down , there is very little interference .a little grinding of the old spring pocket and spring perch and then some touch up welding.i need to get some new springs for these shocks .my old springs were 10" long but narrower and after cleaning one off found out they were 300 lb rate .being 1 7/8 ID they have a tendency to sag about a half inch over the summer so i want a slightly higher spring rate .the new shocks have a slightly shorter travel than the old shocks , so i may go with a 9" spring .i will have to find my old QA-1 catalogue to find which spring i am going to need .that info used to be on their web site , but the new website has everything but the charts i need .

Man, you don't waste any time when you say you're going to do something! You get it done!

when i work on something i dont quit until it is done or i need to go to sleep so i can work the next day .and it really helps that all of my kids are either married or away at school and doing really well and i dont have to worry about them anymore .i have enjoyed being a father but it is really funny at 57 i now have the same freedom i had before i got married .only now i have more money luckily .so plan your lives well my young apprentices , there is fulfillment coming .except i really did not plan that well , i hate to say but i think i have been more lucky than good . my dad always said if i stepped in a bucket of sh@t i always pulled a boot out that smelled like roses .you dont have to be really good , just good enough .anyway , i got one side done today and it really went a lot better than expected .pics:



plan B if i cant get the subaru stuff to work

all back together for now .got to put the wheels back on so i can spin it around and do the other side .i like the way the red springs look but are 2" to short .

got the other side done yesrerday .went a little quicker .while i have things apart i am setting the caster to around 4 and hopefully the same on both sides .my last allignment only had one thing in the red and that was pass. side caster .when i put this suspension on originally i did not have a welder , so i cut out what i had to and just folded the joint over .since the control arm mount tube is welded top and bottom i figured it would not move .and it hasnt , but now it is welded properly and looks a lot better .before :

after :

still waiting on more parts .i am going to start the rear clip replacement while i wait .

i cancelled the willwood kit today .it got back ordered for the third time so since i had already prepaid for it i cancelled the order to get my money back .summit is going to put the money back in my credit card acct so no problems there .i am going to call willwood direct to see if i can get it from them .there is also some other online sites i can try .plan b is starting to look better though , since i already have those callipers .the lighter weight discs are the main appeal of this kit .

StopTech and some others also make pretty lightweight 2-piece setups...

looked up the wrx stop tech stuff .over 3000.00 .and it does not look as good as wilwood stuff .i am going to use the willwood gm metric racing calipers until i can get the willwood subaru kit .for 930.00 it is a real bargain .

got my new 9" 350 lb springs installed .so other than setting the ride height , this mod is now finished .i am going to put new rod ends on this year as well , but i will do that just before i take it in for allignment .


starting the HT bumpsteer kit install . axle nut came off easily with my electric impact wrench :

the axle has to be removed to install the kit .have to work nights all weekend but i should get a lot done between now and monday .i will try to get a lot of pics of this mod to the rear suspension .

got the bumpsteer kit done on the drivers side and all assembled ready to go on the passenger side .but i have had a degraded CV boot on the axle on that side for a while now so i ordered a new axle assembly and it should be here monday .overall i am happy with the HT motorsports bumpsteer kit .there are some minor things i dont like :
1 .the assembly could be made lighter .16lbs per side vs about 8 lbs for my old RCC stuff .dont know how it weighs compared to a stock set up , i threw all those parts out .
2 .the rod ends could be better .i have been looking at some QA-1 rod ends that are sealed and self lubricating .when these wear out , that is what i will install .
3 .the bolt supplied to attach the toe link to the arm is about 1/4" too short , the nylock barely engages .
on the plus side , the welds and powder coating are awesome , bends are perfect and a very strong looking assembly .as you will see in the pics i am rough setting the allignment and it is easy to set everything .overall well worth the price and i will be really surprised if it is not a big improvement .
on the assembly side you should get a 1/2" fine thread tap to clear out the powder coating from the spindle adapter .i almost ruined one side when i got it cross threaded .cleaning the threads out with the tap worked wonders .and for some reason my mac would not print the pictures with the assembly instructions .so i managed to get the arms reversed on my first attempt .a lot of running to the computer to figure out my screw up .some pics :







i substituted some 90 degree grease fittings for the straight ones supplied .you cant get a grease gun on the straight fitting once the arms are installed .

i now have both sides of the rear of the car ready for a quicky allignment and then off to the allignment shop in the spring . i thought i was done working on the front end but i kept looking and measuring and jacking it up and down and i finally decided i needed more upward travel on the shock .i had less than 1 3/4" of travel to the stop .that meant hitting a bump big enough to drive the tire up 3.25 inches or so would bottom out the shock .so i raised the upper perch by cutting it and then welding it back together .now i have 2 1/4" of travel to the bumpstop .total travel on this shock is 4" and yes i have lost some rebound travel but it will not affect anything as the sway bar prevents full extension under rebound .on this setup 2" of wheel travel = about 1 1/8" of shock travel .also i braced up my hockey stick E brake brackets so hopefully i can get that working again .
bracket that mounts to strut to hold Ebrake caliper cable :

cut and tack welded one side , checking fit

clamped and bolted to old shock for welding

a bracket was added to each side to make up for lost strength and then some paint and back together

you can see a slight up slope to the ball joint on the upper arm .i can still go lower on the ride height now , before i was limited in how low i could go .

it is hard to get good pic of the suspension with the wheels on and sitting on the dollies .

took off the old damaged rear clip and the rear deck lid .then i took the wing off and took the deck lid and clip to the body shop to see how much for paint .1138.00 including tax .i was hoping for around 600 , so now i dont know what i will do .i just ordered new saddle bags for my bike .a do it myself paint job might be in the cards for me .paying to have the whole car painted would end up at around 5000+ .the car just is not worth putting that kind of money into .

most of the things i wanted to do are done now .so i have a month or two to make up my mind on what to do .i think i will take the parts down to the basement and see if i can prep them myself .but i really dont like body work .

I think you should get another quote on the decklid/rear clip. Seems kind of high...

there are not that many body shops around here now , that is one reason .i took the clip in the basement today .i am going to try to at least prep it myself .should get the quote down a little .

That should help with lowering the quote. I wish I knew more people in the bodywork business. Always helps to have a friend or two that can give you a majorly discounted price. I have a custom hood that I was working on, but its been on hold for a long time now because I can't justify the cost of having it finished. I would rather do engine upgrades etc. Hopefully you can get the price down and get that piece of the project buttoned up.

Great work with the suspension too. A lot of nice custom work you've done there!

thanks for the comments .i would much rather spend money on performance upgrades than paint jobs .so i found some rustoleum spray bombs at canadian tire and i think i can do a decent job with them .i have two colours ,arctic grey and cardinal red that i got on sale .the red is discontinued so i only found 6 cans .might be enough to do the top half of the car and i can get more from home hardware at a higher price .i sprayed the new to me rear clip with the grey as it will make a good base for the red and it doesnt look bad either .i need to wet sand before i put on the final colour coat and i think it will look good enough for me .



this should save me more than enough money to buy a new headlight mod i have my eye on ...

willwood brake upgrades :

got both sides done now .the bore of the piston is .380 larger on these over the cast iron calipers i was using , so i may have to do the S10 booster upgade or a different master cylinder .but i will drive it first and decide .the main advantge of these calipers is over 2 lbs reduction in unsprung weight per side.i dont expect better braking , the old brakes worked really well as they were .i may get a set of these for the back and then put on spot calipers for a parking brake .the rear calipers with the built in parking brake i have now are not working out .every time i use the pb , i have to manually back them off .still a problem even with the better cable mounts i made .i will post a picture later , cant get pip to work right now .these calipers are sumitt racing part # 120-7197 .not for year round use , they do not have dust boots .

[This message has been edited by wftb (edited 02-01-2012).]

painted the new calipers red .i have also ordered wilwood alluminum calipers for the rear ( wil 140-12097-R from summit ) and these are on the way .these come powdercoated red .they have white letters according to the summit pictures but i am going to wait for them to get here before i highlight the letters white on the calipers i just painted .you never know , they may actually have black lettering .the new calipers might end up on the front , i have not decided this yet .i was trying to get some spot calipers for parking brakes but they were back ordered so i canceled those and hopefully i can pick some up locally .picture to follow .

[This message has been edited by wftb (edited 02-13-2012).]

Couple quick ?'s..?

Not to nit-pick an awesome build, but doesn't adding the spot calipers sort of negate going to the aluminum calipers for the express purpose of saving weight? The Cobalt SS Turbo Brembo calipers can be had pretty cheap (<$600 US) and have dust boots, lol.

i was thinking along the same lines as that about the weight gain using the spot calipers .but i weighed my old rear caliper and it came to 8.2 lbs. i weighed the calipers i was going to put on the rear and they weigh 3.9 lbs .the ones i have on the front now weigh 2.9 lbs .i decided i liked the look of my new calipers so much , i am putting them on the front and the lighter caliper on the rear . with bracket the spot caliper will weigh in at 3 lbs .so i still save 2.3 lbs per wheel on the rear of the car .the old front calipers weigh 7.2 lbs so on the front i will be saving 3.3 lbs per wheel there .i finally have a scale that can weigh these things .the weight of the old rear calipers was a shocker .the price of my new front calipers and pads was 374.00 from sumitt .new calipers:

on the car :

still have to clean the rotor up .it needs some fresh paint so i was not worried about the over spray .

Very tempting to go with these calipers.... I just wish they had dust boots! In the summer, I drive mine daily now, rain or shine. Looks great!

it is the winter time where you might have a problem.i drive my car every day from april to november .not hard to rebuild these any way . thanks for the reply ,i got to say i cant wait to try these out .another thing i have learned but not confirmed is that with the bleed screws set up at the highest point of the calipers , i have just opened up the screws and waited till fluid starts running out and the bleeding seems to be done .rock hard pedal .takes about 10 minutes a caliper .

just a post to stay out of archives .i am at the stage where i have a lot of painting to do and after we had a really warm march the temperature has plunged .it has been too cold too paint .so i am stalled for a while .too bad because it would be nice to see how all my changes work out .

the spray bomb idea did not work out .i have been test painting the rear deck lid with the red colour and i can get it nice and smooth but the gloss is blotchy . so i gave up on that and i have bought an airless sprayer and i am probably going to paint it an easy (i hope ) colour like white .so now i have to prep the whole car and try to spray it in one go .the goal is to drive it in the fall .

If you had the entire top half of the car prepped, I can't imagine it being much more then a few hundred bucks to get it sprayed a cheap color. Do a single stage if you really wanna save some money.

Not sure what the airless thing is though, so hopefully that works out for you if you decide to do it.

I used to repair/service all sorts of airless spray equipment. Just about any setup can do a good job, (don't confuse "good job" with "factory correct") the key is to learn how it works and practice practice practice. A quality automotive paint can run $300 to $600 and up depending on a number of factors. I'd be hesitant about burning through too much of that learning. If you're just looking for a 20 foot paint job, princessauto has gallon cans of tractor black, yellow, green and red (I think). Make sure to filter the paint before trying to spray. Any chance you are willing to show us your airless system?

i will post a picture later .the problem is here in ontario , body shops are not allowed to use the old acrylic enamels and other single stage finishes .it is water based only because of all the deaths caused by unsafe use of the old paint .used to be , you could get a car painted for 400.00 to a thousand but all those guys are dead now .i plan on spraying it with rustoleum or tremclad of some kind .i am not looking for factory perfect .just want a finish that is the same texture on the whole car .i am a pretty good spray painter already .once i am done i am going to sell the sprayer on kijijii .

Any updates? How's the ecotoc running?

i havent run it since last fall, when it was running great .i did a lot of mods over the winter that i would really like to try out but i started doing body work and now i am kind of stalled .i hate body work so i have not had the motivation i usually have to get it done .but i will be back at it soon , just got my doublec4 headlight stuff and i have my new sprayer to try out .but its summer and i bought a seadoo and last fall i got a can am spyder .too many toys and not enough holidays right now....

i am finally back at the fiero again .today i put the rear wheels back on and fine tuned the brake line mounting .i am also working on the headlight mod but one snag with it is my overflow tank has to be moved to fit the passenger side bucket .the parking brake spot calipers are going to wait for now .i have newer lower rockers to go on and all the trim and taillights etc to put back on .then a whole lot of handsanding before i try a paint job .i am going to spray it white and do it with the car all together because i dont want to clean the sprayer more than once .

got some more done on the doublec4 headlights .so far i like this system but of course like everyone here i am doing some things differently .i want to eliminate any gap between the covers and the hood so i am playing around with some home hardware weather stripping .i have painted the covers , i use electrical tape for masking the inside .this is an old slot racer's technique , it is really easy to get a sharp line and cut contours with an exacto knife .and bleed thru is much less than with painters tape .pics:




i dont know if i will use this sealing method or not .it fits fairly tight but with the velcro attached it may be a big fight to get it in to the grooves.i cut the groove with a pair of sharp scissors .i may use small counter sunk bolts instead of the velcro as well .lots of experimenting to do .

Looks like you're doing a great job with the lights!

I've seen some slightly lower profile weather stripping on McMaster Carr and it comes in black as well. Just an option !

there are about 8 shapes to choose from at the local hardware .this was the thickest and what i thought would be easiest .but there is another shape available that should work better now that i know i dont need it to be that thick .the ideal would be a U shape rubber channel that just snugs on to the lenses and sticks out about 3/16" and then just push it tight into the opening . i will look at the place you mentioned .i was going to paint the car white , so the white rubber will look ok i think .thanks for the comments and thanks for a great product .