Hey Pat. Great work! Give me a call when you get a chance. I've got some things you might be interested in....
Hey there Phil,
Some things? You have a more than "some" things I am interested in. I just don't have room for it all....lol. My 16 year old is pushing hard for that 4.9. He thinks it would fit perfect in the XTC! I need to make a run up there to look at that 88 rear facia anyway. I'll give you a call toward the end of the week.
Pat
Edit to add: Muwahhahhaaa - Page 5 Ownage!
[This message has been edited by katatak (edited 12-07-2009).]
Not much to report today. I got a lot done but it's more of the same from the past few pages. I started laying glass on the rear console last night and continued today. Made good progress and went through a lot of mat, cloth and resin.
A few shots of the console as it sits this evening.
Sanding started:
Sanding finished:
And a little filler to smooth out some rough spots before more glass:
And my entry for the unofficial PFF Fiero Build Art Contest - Abstract Catagory!
Pat
[This message has been edited by katatak (edited 12-07-2009).]
I have a grey dash in great shape, and a tan one that would be a perfect skeleton for a custom job. It's cracked up, but complete. Have you looked at the interior of the Solstice? Some of it could work in the fiero. Might give your brain some more ammo. You gotta teach me some of that fiberglass business. I'm still on duct tape and tie wire.......
I have a grey dash in great shape, and a tan one that would be a perfect skeleton for a custom job. It's cracked up, but complete. Have you looked at the interior of the Solstice? Some of it could work in the fiero. Might give your brain some more ammo. You gotta teach me some of that fiberglass business. I'm still on duct tape and tie wire.......
Pat,
Project XTC might have just gotten a bit more interesting?
Thanks Greg. It's a lot of work but I am finally seeing what I want to see. It's all your fault anyway. Your console build inspried me to take the fiberglass leap. It would not be where it is without your help (I have to put a plug in for Archie too - the Miura build is a work of fiberglass art. Those guys make it look so easy).
Pat
Thank you - I think. LOL. In the course of just a few weeks we've been able to help each other and that's pretty cool. You keep raising the bar on me with one great idea after the next... And you are correct, Nolan, Revin and Archie deserve mucho kudo's. So technically, it's their fault.
[This message has been edited by Sofa King (edited 12-08-2009).]
It was a rough day in El Paso. We had 86 mph winds and I spent most the day chasing lawn chairs, tables, garbage cans, Fiero parts, etc around the neighborhood. My workshop is not air tight so this afternoon, around 3 pm, the wind started to die down. I went out to the shop and spent an hour cleaning the sand out. Once the shop was cleaned up, all the lawn furniture back in place, the Fiero parts stacked back up, I had a little time to work on the console.
Nothing exciting. Just laying more layers of glass to get the overall size and shape that I am after. Once I get it close, I will start the finish process. It's kind of boring right now. Cut the mat to size, mix a batch of resin, spread the resin, lay the glass, roll it out, and repeat.
After the cleanup, I got organized:
I got tired of messing around with the "child" size cans of resin and picked up some "man" sized resin:
A great tip from Sofa King. I was using plastic drink cups to mix my resin in. About the time it was starting to gel in the cup, it would eat through the bottom and would make a nice mess. Per SK's suggestion, I picked up a few of these plastic mix buckets at Lowe's. These work great. Once the resin sets, just peel it out. Now if you leave resin without hardner on the plastic, it will soften it and I imagine eat through it if left long enough. A quick swipe around the inside with the brush and it will cure and peel out when set.
I'm glad you found all your lawn furniture. I'll have to look for mine when I get home. We finally got power back here, but it was pretty much a wasted day. Glass work is looking great as always.........
The short bus is pending sale this weekend depending on the weather and a few other things. The 4.9 is looking like a hopeless dream. You might have to save it from an early grave. My new project has it's possibilities, at least until another Fiero finds it's way into my yard. (They tend to do that) Get you dibs on whatever interior parts, etc. that I have before I offer them up to the vultures. I'm only saving the absolute must haves in the shed until the garage is complete. Being back on the road has slowed my busted knuckles and cussing pleasures to a crawl. I might need a little favor to ask if you call later this week....
Sweet! I love progress pics. What's funny... I'm looking through your latest build pics... I see the "Man Sized" tub of resin, the brushes, the cups, the space heater, the console, the primer, the eye glasses, the dust... it's like I'm looking in my own garage.
Sweet! I love progress pics. What's funny... I'm looking through your latest build pics... I see the "Man Sized" tub of resin, the brushes, the cups, the space heater, the console, the primer, the eye glasses, the dust... it's like I'm looking in my own garage.
I wonder how many other garages out there look just like ours? Fiero projects at thier best........ At least I am starting to see real progress. I am going "stereo" shopping this afternoon. I am getting ready to start reinstalling the interior this weekend. Even if the console is not quite done, I can get everything else in. The only thing holding me up is the speakers. I was going to do 6X9's in the dash but have decided that I do not want to modify the AC duct. I will probably do a 4" round with some little tweeters in the dash and some decent 4X6's in the B pillar. I have a complete factory sub woofer setup I will use but I will look for a small amp instead of using the factory one.
I have also started a "new" glass project. I will post pics when I get it closer to what I am wanting. I'll keep it a secret for now just in case it does not turn out. More later.
Pat, a 6x9 box will fit right behind your head, on the ledge, jamed up against the headrest.
Be sure to run wires before you put it all back together! like rear speaker wire, amp wires, and I even run a wire into the engine compartment for the "just in case" moments. Like I ran a light to the trunk, switch inside the car. or new oil pressure guage? run the electric wire or the clear tube for a manual guage. I find it very easy to reach my "I am going to add ______ to the car next" goals when I run a extra wire. Be sure to label it "blank" or not in use, or for trunk lite, oil pressure, etc.
OR NOT!
Have you looked into what you will be covering the console with yet??
Pat, a 6x9 box will fit right behind your head, on the ledge, jamed up against the headrest.
Be sure to run wires before you put it all back together! like rear speaker wire, amp wires, and I even run a wire into the engine compartment for the "just in case" moments. Like I ran a light to the trunk, switch inside the car. or new oil pressure guage? run the electric wire or the clear tube for a manual guage. I find it very easy to reach my "I am going to add ______ to the car next" goals when I run a extra wire. Be sure to label it "blank" or not in use, or for trunk lite, oil pressure, etc.
OR NOT!
Have you looked into what you will be covering the console with yet??
Thanks Revin for the tips. Actually, the XTC has a set of Sony 6X9 Explod's mounted in some really nice boxes behind the head rest. Although they sound great, they do tend to rattle my brain a little but is in an option. I'm with you on the "extra wire" to the truck thing. I picked up some manual gauges (OP and Temp) today and I will be running those donw the console to the motor plus the wiring for the Volt meter. I also need to run a power cable for whatever amp I use but I think I'm going to mount the battery up front. The PO has it sitting inthe rear trunk on the left ledge and it's a little shaky.
As for the console, Sofa King and I are thining about going in on a couple of kits from a company in Germany called Lunitec. Check this stuff out. It's spendy though. We have to see how are funds are after the holidays.
We have to buy a minimum of 4 kits - of the "Instant" aerosol kits (3 cans per kit). I thnk one kit would do the entire console. The product itself is not too bad, it's the shipping of Haz Mat into the US that's expensive. We've been looking all over for something similar in the US but no luck yet.
Let's get ready to sand! I finished laying on the glass today and then saaded it smooth. Then is was time to fill the low spots so I spread on the filler. Now it looks like caca....... I will transorm it tomorrow with a marathon sanding session. While I was waiting on the filler to setup, I took a bunch of scrap mat and cloth glass and made a panel for my next project. I need a "thick" panel so I piled it on.
This will take a lot of sanding to clean it up:
And my extra thick panel:
More later!
Pat
[This message has been edited by katatak (edited 12-11-2009).]
Originally posted by katatak: I have also started a "new" glass project. I will post pics when I get it closer to what I am wanting. I'll keep it a secret for now just in case it does not turn out. More later.
awe man... Secrets, secrets, are no fun. Secrets, secrets, hurt someone
Pat, This is looking good. Sometimes I don't think outside the "box" but your comment on getting rid of the lighter (I'd be moving it) gave me a great idea. I think IF I build one, I will put the retractable cup holders there in the place of the lighter. So what ever happened to the Indy that you refered to in the beginning of this thread?
------------------ When life gives you lemons, thank them for the Fiero.
Pat, This is looking good. Sometimes I don't think outside the "box" but your comment on getting rid of the lighter (I'd be moving it) gave me a great idea. I think IF I build one, I will put the retractable cup holders there in the place of the lighter. So what ever happened to the Indy that you refered to in the beginning of this thread?
Hi F,
Unfortunately there is no room under the console to fit a cup holder - I already looked. There is a DL connector on the right and a small notch in the console subframe for the lighter to point downward on the left - but other than that - ZERO room. That's why I had to build the armrest on top of the console I'm building to accomodate the cup holder. Have you started a custom build?
[This message has been edited by Sofa King (edited 12-11-2009).]
Pat, This is looking good. Sometimes I don't think outside the "box" but your comment on getting rid of the lighter (I'd be moving it) gave me a great idea. I think IF I build one, I will put the retractable cup holders there in the place of the lighter. So what ever happened to the Indy that you refered to in the beginning of this thread?
Still working a deal on the Indy. I am hoping by the 1st of the year, the deal will be done.
LOL! I don't think it looks like "caca"... LOL!!! I don't think I've used that term in 20 years... that cracked me up!
The console is looking good! What's the plan? Tell me tell me tell me. It's the holidays, Pat... the time for giving?
Hey Greg,
Seeing how it is the Holiday Season, I did not want to use foul language...........(snicker snicker). Ok, no secrets. I just did not want to say anything in case it turned out bad but I got a good start on it today and it's going to work out great. I'm building a custom face plate/gauge pod/thingie to hold 3 - 2" gauges in the Pod. I'll post up some pics later.
Alright, time for another update. I had planned on getting an early start on the console today as I had planned on taking the day off.........Work prevailed so I ended up working most the day. I met up with Frizlefrak and Rick88 for lunch around noon and ofcourse, when you get 3 or more Fiero nuts together, it's not long before a few hours have gone by. We stopped by Rick88's house to see his latest acquisition. It is the first one I have ever seen in person. It is a beautiful car and now I want one...... Here's a few shots of Rick's new Fiero.
And a very nice 88 GT to boot:
I finally got back home and went to work on the console around 3:30. Finsihed up around 1 am.
More to come!
Pat
[This message has been edited by katatak (edited 12-12-2009).]
I wanted to try my hand at building a custom gauge pod face plate to hold 3 - 2" gauges (H2O temp, OP and Volts). I wanted to angle the gauges toward the driver but was not sure how to do it. I have been reading Archie's Mirua Project and trying to glean as much knowledge as I could. At first, I thought I would just make some fiberglass "rings" to mount the gauges into. Heck, Archie's guys make it look pretty easy. I should be able to do that. Guess what? It is way tougher than it looks. It takes a lot of talent and experience to make nice round fiberglass tubes/parts. After several attempts, I failed miserably. I had given up on the idea pretty much and was going to make a flat plate, drill 3 holes and mount the guages flat in the gauge pod. Last night I was out in the shop rummaging around my various boxes of junk and came across a piece of 2" PVC pipe. Much to my surprise, the 2" gauge fit perfect. Click....the light bulb came on.
Today, I cut 3 pieces off the pipe - 3/4" wide. I took a stock gauge pod face plate and traced it out onto the extra think panel I made last night then cut it out slighty larger than the trace. I then used my bench sander to "shape" the new face plate to fit the pod. Then I drilled the 4 mounting holes and laid out the 3 gauge holes. Off to the drill press. I messed up and used the wrong size hole saw so the holes were a little bigger than I wanted them to be. Fiberglass is so forgiving. You can fix just about any goof you make.
Roughing out the face plate:
Test fitting in the pod: I know, the pod is warped. I will replace this one with a better one once I am done mocking it up.
Checking it out on the AC surround:
The Gauges I will use have the threaded lock ring on the back. I had to cut down the locking ring so it would fit the rings:
[This message has been edited by katatak (edited 12-12-2009).]
Next I had to fit up the 3 rings. I simply "super glued" the rings in place. It took a little bit of patience but I got them pretty close to where I wanted them: You can see just how big the holes were. My bad!
You can see here that I got the right one "off" the angle slightly. I will adjust the other 2 to match later:
Checking the fit: Look at those huge gaps! Looks like Caca........
Once I got them close, I cut some (2) mat fiberglass the same shape as the plate. Then I mixed up some resin and glassed the back side.
When the glass was set on the back side, I turned it over and used some epoxy to fill the "gap" in the "too" large holes I made.
[This message has been edited by katatak (edited 12-12-2009).]
Now with the gauges sitting at an angle in the face plate, I had to grind off the 2 screw bosses inside the pod. These are the 2 screw bosses thatt hold the stock gauges in the pod. There's no going back now!
Now some more test fitting:
Then some sanding and filling:
And some filler primer to find the spots that need work:
[This message has been edited by katatak (edited 12-12-2009).]
One last post before I hit the sack. I am working on a custom 3rd brake light cover and I needed to remove the light from the car. I had not paid any attention to this when I pulled the headliner out. I am amazed that more Fiero's are not burned to the ground due to this. This is the 4th one I have seen this way.
Pretty scary if you think about it. Imagine, sitting at a traffic light in rush hour traffic and all of the sudden you smell smoke. That's when you notice the headliner is on fire above and behind you. I'll need to figure out a fix for this before I resinstall tha 3rd brake light setup. That's it for tonight.
Alright, time for another update. I had planned on getting an early start on the console today as I had planned on taking the day off.........Work prevailed so I ended up working most the day. I met up with Frizlefrak and Rick88 for lunch around noon and ofcourse, when you get 3 or more Fiero nuts together, it's not long before a few hours have gone by. We stopped by Rick88's house to see his latest acquisition. It is the first one I have ever seen in person. It is a beautiful car and now I want one...... Here's a few shots of Rick's new Fiero.
And a very nice 88 GT to boot:
I finally got back home and went to work on the console around 3:30. Finsihed up around 1 am.
More to come!
Pat
Well the cat is out of the bag now.....Pat, if I had known you were going to post my Fiero's on Pennocks, I would have posed them better for you.
[This message has been edited by Rick 88 (edited 12-12-2009).]
Spy photo's Rick...... When you get it the way you want it, we will have to do a "photo shoot". It's a great car and you made a great find. I am completely jealous.......
On the subject of the third brake light...I had a small fire in the one on my old 86 GT back in the day. Actually got flagged down by a motorist that noticed sparking in the light housing. Melted the piss out of the housing, and wrecked the headliner. Crazy thing is that with the windows down, I did not even smell the burnt plastic. Can you imagine that thing smoldering? You come out in the morning to a crispy Fiero!
Oh yeah......Go to bed Pat! With the time zone differences, sometimes I wonder if you are a vampire.
On the subject of the third brake light...I had a small fire in the one on my old 86 GT back in the day. Actually got flagged down by a motorist that noticed sparking in the light housing. Melted the piss out of the housing, and wrecked the headliner. Crazy thing is that with the windows down, I did not even smell the burnt plastic. Can you imagine that thing smoldering? You come out in the morning to a crispy Fiero!
Oh yeah......Go to bed Pat! With the time zone differences, sometimes I wonder if you are a vampire.
Tony
Nice Mera Rick!
Hey Tony,
Thanks for checking in on me.....lol. I was up late because my 16 year old started his first job last night - bu boy at Applebee's and I had to go pick him up @ 12:30 so instead of watching the boob tube, I decided to get some stuff done. I'm paying for it today though.
I got up early and went to the mega pull to get a 3rd brake light fixture. I found 2 that were not in too bad of shape but every single one was melted to some extent. I just found out about these Fiero's a few weeks ago. They have been picked pretty clean but there are still quite a few good useable pieces - mainly screws and things. They are all Notchies - 84's and 85's.
Poor old Fiero's:
Sorry Greg, all the door panels are in pretty poor shape - been out in the West Texas Sun for years. If anyone needs something, let me know and I can check it out. I fear these are about ready to his the crusher!
While I was in the junk yard this morning, I went on Arm Rest/Console/Drink Holder quest. I found a couple that had promise. The first one I like but I would have to cut a few recessed holes in the rear console and I was not sure there would be enough room. The second one I bought and will play with it. It's out of a Volvo. The arm rest is a little narrow and I'm not sure how it will look in the Fiero but it has a cool recessed 2 cup cup holder that I can take out of the arm rest and maybe incorporate it into something like Soaf King is doing.
Here's the first one:
Here's the one I brought home:
I took off the original monuting bracket. Thinking I might ount this to the rear console in the Fiero. It's a littl tall and a little narow?
I had to hurry back to the junk yard to claim my new wheels so I did not get a chance to take a look at the arm rest earlier. I just got back from the yard picking up my wheels and went out to the shop to take a look. I'm not feeling the arm rest on the console but I think I wll try and figure out how to use the cup holder.
The arm ret with cup holder setting on the console - I think it's too high and not wide enough:
I like the cup holder though so I may have to follow Sofa King's lead and build a custom housing for it. This one is kind of cool as it has 4 cup holders - 2 slide out the fron and 2 slide out the back.
Some of my other little treasures I picke dup today:
I had to come home and get a jack and a lug wrench so I could go back and get the wheels. As I was carrying the Jack into the yard, a guy stopped me and told me that I could not take the jack into the yard....WTF? So I threw the jack back in the truck and headed out to the car anyway. The fronts were alrady off. I took the lug nuts off the rears and then tried to figure out how I was going to get the car up to get the wheels off. The car was sitting on the chasiss in the sand so I dug the sadn out from under the tires till the suspension was hanging then I was able to get them off. I did not want the beat tires that were on the rims so I had the guy at the yard remove them. I had 3 perfect condition center caps. The first one he trows up on the tire machine and puncded a hole in the center cap. Then he beats the heck out of the rim gettin the tire off. Then he litterally throws the rim off the machine onto the conrete floor. I say "hey man, I want the rims, take it easy.... He syas "Oh, I thought you wanted the tires". How dense can you be? The tires are cracked and bald and junk. What would I want the crap tires for? Some people! ANyway, he managed to destroy another center cap so now I need to find 3 good caps instread of one. Then the check out lady wanted to charge me extra for the 2 broke caps and the one good one. I don't think so..... Anyway, I got them home in one piece. A couple have a littl curb reash but it's nothing I can't clean up.
And what are these wheels going on? I cant believe the idiot broke your center caps. I'll keep a lookout for some. I don't know if you can still get new ones. Send me a part number and I will check at work for you.
And what are these wheels going on? I cant believe the idiot broke your center caps. I'll keep a lookout for some. I don't know if you can still get new ones. Send me a part number and I will check at work for you.
Hey Rick,
These will be going on the V8 Coupe.....I've been looking for a set of decent 16" rims for awhile as I have a brand new set of 16" tires in my storage shed. I'll see if there is a part number on the one good cap and give you a call. I'm wondering if any of the Pontiac wheels have a center cap that will fit? I'd like to have the Pontiac symbol on the caps but I also like the bow tie - ties in with the 350..... The hunt begins.
