Well it looks like it's time to start a build (er rebuild) thread for the XTC. We have a lot of projects planned for the car and we have already started on a few. First thing we had to do was install a new front motor mount and a new dog bone. Next was the headlight(s) motor rebuild. And today, we did some canser surgery and a battery relocation. We got a lot done but still have more to finish it up. Here's the Battery tray: And here's what we found below it: We trimmed out all the rusted metal: I wire brushed and ground and cleaned then sprayed some Rustoleum on there until I can cut a patch panel out of a parts car and reinstall. We moved the battery to the bottom of the trunk. I will pull some better carpet from the parts car then resinstall it. After the carpet is in we will build a panel that covers the lower part of the trunk/battery and he can store some tools and things in there. Next weekend we are going to start installing power windows, locks and mirrors along with new door glass and dew wipes.
[This message has been edited by katatak (edited 03-14-2009).]
yes yes very bad home... thats where all the cancer came from... hehe... kidding... it had a great home... just didnt get messed with much... still a neatO car!
My son is so excited about this car it's hard to keep him out of it. He ran the battery down last night just sitting in it listening to the stereo. It had a good home at Phil's - Phil just had no time to do the things to it needed from the PO. It will be great to go through all the little upgrades and fixes with my son as he is truly learning the way of the Fiero. I highly recommend this father son bonding experience to everyone. I really like it cause I get to sit in the chair and drink beer and watch him get dirty...... I've been waiting for this for a long time! Plus I promised Phil he could come drive it whenever he felt the need.....
Got to looking at it a little closer this evening - planning the Power Window/lock/mirror upgrade. I was thinking that I would have to change the guts out from the donor doors to the XTC doors but I think I can just swap the doors. There is a little fab required for the door hinges but I think it would be easier / quicker than swapping the guts? I'll know for sure by next Saturday when we start dismantling.
When I get back to my Camper, I'll get you the PO's email. He can give you any info you need on the door mods. I'd say swap them whole if the panels come off easily. I know the door handle has to be moved out away from the stock location(for obvious reasons)
BTW, Pat, I'll be back home next Thursday night and heading out sometime Saturday. If you wanna raid my stash before I leave, you are welcome to it. Or you can wait for my triumphant return.
Well after much debate, searching, 50 plus phone calls, comparing, etc, etc. I have made a decision on the dilema of purchasing custom made wheels or using spacers on the XTC. Many folks on PFF were dead set against using spacers so I started seaching for custom made wheels with the right backspace and width to get the right look for the car. I did manage to find a wheel manufacturer that was reasonable and would build the wheel any way I wanted. The down fall is that these are steel wheels used mainly in circle track / Nascar applications. However, they would custom design the wheel center any way I could dream up. I was looking at somewhere in the neighborhood of 150.00 per wheel plus shipping. So 700.00 plus just for wheels went beyond my budget.
I started looking at wheel spacers. I found a manufacturer that makes special wheel spacers for off road racing and drag racing applications. The guy that makes them gave me some phone numbers to several of his customers and I made several phone calls talking to people that use these. Not one bad report from anyone. There is a certain design and specific instructions for installation that are critical to the life of these spacers and everyone I talked to said that if you don't follow the instructions and use the wrong design, I would have problems. So I decided to get these spacers. I had to take a lot of measurements of the hubs and wheels and send them wth pics. A week later I had a custom made set of spacers for the XTC. We went with 2" wide in the back and 1.5" wide in the front. Here's some pics. Keep n mind that we will be going to a 245 tire in the back and maybe a 215 n the front. Right now they are 225 in the back and 205 in the front. The boy wants to keep the stock lace wheels and I do have a set in gold ones that we may try out. I think the gold would look good but he wants to keep the all black theme going.
What I learned is this: As for design of the spacers there are a vast majority being sold that are simply lug centric from the spacer to the hub and lug centric from the wheel to the spacer. Everyone I talked to said "do not use these". Others are hub centric from the spacer to the hub and lug centric from the wheel to the spacer. I was warned to stay away from these type too. The kind I am using are hub centric from the spacer to the hub and hub centric from the wheel to the spacer. Most companies that sell these will only build them to order as there is more machine work to do versus the standard type you can get off ebay. Also they could not emphasize enough that you must use proper torque and sequence both on the spacer to hub and wheel to spacer. Most important is that each lug have the same torque as all the rest. One other important thing to look for is that the cheaper ones recess the pocket for the lug and use a standard length lug. The ones I bought do not have a pocket machined for the lug and use a longer lug. The back face of the lug is flush with the back side of the spacer versus recessed. Recessing the lug is the number one cause for the lug's to break.
XTC before spacers: And after: I love being able to sit back and watch my son do all the work!
Yeah sure.....Wait another month or 2 so I can get the power windows,locks and mirrors installed. I checked out installing the stock power mirrors like we were talking about. Looks like it will work great. I will have to fab a backing plate for strength. Still not sure if the stock style Fiero mirror goes well with the XTC body. I'll have to look at it a littl more before I go drilling holes.
I've been looking at a few sets of mirrors that might match the theme. BMW and volvo seem to look ok if you can get them cheap enough. I'll wait til the V-8 is running good before I pick it up. Sound good?
I found the remote for the alarm and the rest of the wood trim surround for the shifter if you need them. I'll add them to the parts list I'm gathering for you. Hope you are ready to rebuild some headlight motors!
Way better look with the spacers. I was set against them, but I can't argue with a guy that does his homework. I also see that you are becoming quite the pro at headlight motors.
I don't know why but it seems like I have done a bunch of headlight motors recently. I found some "brushes" the other day at a hobby store that I think wll be a good fix for the Gen 1 switch's. Going to put one together this weekend and see how it works.
Great car, 1 question, do you bottom the nose out at all?
Well that was one of the problems I thought we would have. The 86 SE and the 88 Formula will scrape the lower valance when backing out of the driveway but the XTC barley clears the same curb. We also were worried that it would not clear the enormous speed bumps in the high school parking lot. First thing we did was drive it down to the high school and run it over the speed bumps - if we are carefull, it clears no problem. It looks low but I think it is an optical illusion due to the length. Probably will have to be carefull going in and out of parking lots form the road if the "dip" is long or deep. Have to take em at an angle.
[This message has been edited by katatak (edited 03-19-2009).]
Hey Pat....the wheel wells look soooo much better now that they're filled up.
Hey Dan, I was not real crazy about this car but my boy had to have it. Now that the wheels look right, I am not sure he is going to get it. I can't believe the difference.
While we were excited about getting the spacers on and they way the car looked, I did find some issues with the front end that we are going to have to address before we drive it much. The righ inner tie rod is pretty sloppy and the ball joints are ready for replacement. I ordered the parts today. Also got a set of KYB struts and shocks to install. I'll probably end up doing all the rear suspension too. And that leads to brakes, brake lines, etc. etc. Guess I'll get to learn all about 88's now...... And when it's all done, it won't be mine to drive. Something is not right here.
Got a bid on getting it painted today - going to stay with the black with some silver/charcoal accents (maybe). I have had a few cars done by this guy and he does very good work - he is slow - but he is good. He gave me a quote of 900.00. There are a few little cracks to fix and knowing how he works, he will go through the car and make sure everything is aligned right, etc. He uses a basecoat clear coat system. He does all the body and paint work for the Sheriffs office here in El Paso. What do you guys think - is 900.00 a good price. Included in that is any striping, accents, etc.
Today we decided it was time for an oil change and Trans service. Pulled the trans pan and much to my surprize, it was pretty clean. Installed a new filter and beat the dent out of the pan. I can not believe how much oil is! It's ridiculous..... All this cost me 47.00. While I had it running and was checking trans level, I bumped the connector that attaches to the MAP sensor and the car nearly died. I started messing with it and I could not believe how much it would affect the way it ran. Must have been shorting out. Anyway, here's what I found. Somebody spliced this connector in. Looks like a pro job to me! The harness has a black w orange stripe, a green and a gray wire. The plg has a black w/ orange stripe, green and a light green wire. Does not look like this is a Fiero plug but the insulation is coming off of them and the whole thing was held together with slimy electrical tape. Got to see if I can dig up a good plug now! Next week - rebuild the front end and install ne struts and shocks.
Pat
[This message has been edited by katatak (edited 03-29-2009).]
While I had it running and was checking trans level, I bumped the connector that attaches to the EGR control and the car nearly died. I started messing with it and I could not believe how much it would affect the way it ran. Must have been shorty out and oepning the EGR at an idle? Anyway, here's what I found. Somebody spliced this connector in. Looks like a pro job to me! The harness has a black w orange stripe, a green and a gray wire. The plg has a black w/ orange stripe, green and a light green wire. Does not look like this is a Fiero plug but the insulation is coming off of them and the whole thing was held together with slimy electrical tape. Got to see if I can dig up a good plug now! Next week - rebuild the front end and install ne struts and shocks.
Pat
Dude, that's not EGR; its a MAP connector. It's importance can't be overestimated.
This is not to mention that shorting out the +5V line from the ECM probably temporarily knocks out signal from all the other sensor that use it such as the TPS.
I posted a little blurb about this over in the tech section and was promptly corrected by buddycraigg that it was the MAP. I forgot to come back here and edit my post. I did get it fixed though. I used heat shrink to cover the bare wires then soldered the ends together with more heat shirnk. It will get me by until I can find a new plug. I am electrically challenged and I just assumed that it was the control for the EGR. Thanks for the heads up - I will go edit and correct.
Was time to tear the front suspension apart. I did the right side and the boy did the left. Now we have to do a lot of clean up, burn out the old bushings, grind off the old ball joints, paint and reassemble.
Here's the right side coming apart:
Had to torch the shock off - the only thing that was too rusted to remove with a wrench: Took me all of 45 minutes........
And the left side: Took him 1.5 hours to get this far - now I have to finish it. Teenagers just do not have a great attention span.
I also have to remove the inner tierods from the rack. Should have it ready for reassembly tonight.
Trying to figure out how to get the passenger side plastic bushing out of the end of the rack - without a lot of cursing and knucle busting. Is there a special tool I should be looking for? TIA
Pat
[This message has been edited by katatak (edited 04-06-2009).]
Show us a pic of what you're talking about, I can't picture it. The car is coming along nice, wish it was mine. Just watch out on that light fixture under the fender. I had one under the hood on my Cuda and I decided to pull the heater core hose and got some coolant on the bulb. That thing blow and I couldn't see for about 30 seconds. We all laughed about later on during that day. I now use one of those light fixture incased in plastic to prevent that again.
Show us a pic of what you're talking about, I can't picture it. The car is coming along nice, wish it was mine. Just watch out on that light fixture under the fender. I had one under the hood on my Cuda and I decided to pull the heater core hose and got some coolant on the bulb. That thing blow and I couldn't see for about 30 seconds. We all laughed about later on during that day. I now use one of those light fixture incased in plastic to prevent that again.
Thanks for the heads up on the light - it has one of those rough service bulbs but I'd bet if you hit it with any type of fluid it would blow. Sorry for no pic.....here it is! The plastic bushing has three "tabs" inside the rack tube. I can get them all squeazed in but can't get the bushing to pull out - it will spin but won't come out. I ordered the replacement bushing from RD. Hoping he has some instruction on removing the old bushing. I really wanted to get it out before the new parts get here - to install RD's new bushing, I have to polish all the rust off of the rack shaft. Any help is greatly appreciated.
Got all the bushings out of the A Arms last night - started drilling them out but broke 3 bits and a knuckle or two so I resorted to burning them out. What a freakin PITA and mess. Took longer to clean up the mess then it did to get em out. Also knocked out the lower ball joints.
Today we ground off the rivets for the upper ball joints and got them off. Was a little worried how I was going to get the new lower ball joints back in. I do not have the tools to do it. Dodgerunner gave me a swift kick in the buttocks and reminded me that I could probably get a loaner tool from somewhere. I went to AZ and they had one. So I got the lower ball joints pressed in and the upper ball joints installed along with the new poly bushings.
I was reading some threads on the front poly bushings and there seems to be some debate over whether or not the thrust bushing should be trimmed, wedged in or left out entirely. I checked these out - held them up in place on the car and do not see where I have to trim them or where I would have to force/wedge them in - it is tight but I could pretty much push the a arm into place. Maybe they are slightly different on pre 88's?
So anyway, I am ready to start the reassembly process. I also got the new rack bushing and zero lash sway bar links from RD today. I'll probably get that taken care of before I stick the suspension back together. RD's instructions say that I can do it in car but I am kickng around the idea of taking the rack out so I can work on it on the bench. That's it for now - back to the garage!
Way easy when you have the right tools! Ball Joint in - now for the Poly. Tada! One set done! And the other!
Nice! You are going to be so happy when you finally get all of those fresh parts on her. Is your son still helping, or are you finishing the front end yourself? He, he, he.
Doesn't look too bad. The expensive stuff is already done. But....alas....we're having new windows put in the house ($2600) this week, plus I had to fork over $547 to Uncle Sam by April 15th....so not buying anything for a couple of months.
You could always pick it up....it's emissions exempt as of this year....(hint hint)....
I also see that you are becoming quite the pro at headlight motors. 
Was it this one?
