Being a relative "short timer" on PFF, first off I need to say thanks to all those that have generously shared their knowledge and experience here. This forum has been my principle guide, (along with a factory shop manual), to even getting this far. This is my 87GT as it was about 1 week ago, fitting and reassembling body panels after panel-off paint, (Millennium Yellow) Wheels are HP Evo 18" with Nexen tires and I'm STILL waiting on the Intrax lowering springs, (back ordered!)
WAY too much done to the car to list here, but let's just say that everything in the interior is new except the steering wheel and about 60% of the exterior is new or refurbished and the stock 2.8 has been gone through fairly throughly.
Just thought I'd ask....How am I doing so far?
Did I mention this is my first Fiero?
Randy
------------------ Everyone thinks I'm psychotic, except for my friends deep inside the earth.
Just thought I'd ask....How am I doing so far? Randy
SLOW, SLOW, SLOW, SLOW I thought you would've been here last weekend with it
In Fact I think when I left your house 2 weeks ago that same blue tape was holding the rear taillight panel.
I got to tell you people the pictures do not do this car justice. Randy is very articulate about what he does and it shows in the detail he has done on this car.
I put one of the scoops on my car and it is going to look great, thanks again.
Hey, I thought you were going to Germany this weekend? If not, you and the wife should go to Zephryhills tomorrow, we are leaving here around 8 or 9 should be great, even though I am going Fieroless
SLOW, SLOW, SLOW, SLOW I thought you would've been here last weekend with it
In Fact I think when I left your house 2 weeks ago that same blue tape was holding the rear taillight panel.
I got to tell you people the pictures do not do this car justice. Randy is very articulate about what he does and it shows in the detail he has done on this car.
I put one of the scoops on my car and it is going to look great, thanks again.
Hey, I thought you were going to Germany this weekend? If not, you and the wife should go to Zephryhills tomorrow, we are leaving here around 8 or 9 should be great, even though I am going Fieroless
SLOW is right! I was hoping to drive it to Zephyrhills this weekend. You didn't notice that I FINALLY got the door panels back from paint? Just got the nose and headlight doors back this week too. Only thing left to paint is the fuel door and mirrors, then cut & buff everything. I swear I'll be in a retirement home before this thing is done. Leaving for Germany on Monday and will probably be meeting up with Yellowstone and Fiero1Fan next Saturday. Should be fun
------------------ Everyone thinks I'm psychotic, except for my friends deep inside the earth.
Definately more pictures........ BTW.... Good choice on the Millennium Yellow.
------------------ Paul Pontiac prestiege.... Pontiac performance...... Pontiac POWER! For a full history of the Fiero SS: http://www.cardomain.com/ride/789315
Is very good looking! BTW that is the paint and wheels I had planned for my car (even the tail light black panel).. No questions you are doing very well.
Since this is a work in progress, I thought maybe I'd show what I started with. 87 GT hardtop with 80k miles on it. Loaded with all power options. The car had been sitting stored for 4-5 years and was a mess. It had apparently been involved in fender bender sometime in it's history and had a coupe GT nose on it that had been butchered to fit smooth moldings. Note the nice "new" refurbished proper GT nose from Fiero Warehouse sitting in the background. (Thanks Doug!) Thankfully the chassis was fairly straight even though it showed evidence of having been straightened around the left front corner.
The side glass was horribly scratched by dew wipes that were literally petrified hard as rocks, so new door glass for both sides was ordered from SafeLite, ($102 ea.) Since I had decided to basically completely refurbish the car I started stripping off all the body panels and planned for a panel-off paint job. With the panels off it was an easy job to clean up what little surface rust there was on the chassis and paint with Rustoleum semi gloss black. New window motors, dew wipes, (inner and outer), and power door lock solenoids were installed along with the new side glass.
Then the interior was gutted to prepare for all the new stuff. The steering column was in bad shape, (amazingly the steering wheel is great shpe though), so I tore the column down using all the info posted here on PFF, (Many Thanks to Jazzman) Tightened up the tilt mechanism, replaced the wiper internal column switch, ignition switch, dimmer switch and turn signal cancel switch. Also replaced the lock cylinder, hazzard flasher knob and turn signal lever while I was at it. The console support skeleton was barely hanging together, cracked in about 100 places, so it was removed and glued back together. Headliner was shot and the fabric literally fell apart like tissue paper, so the liner board was sent out for recovering.
Carolinajoe furnished me with an amazing 100% like new, factory original all black dash, so that went in with the new Sony Expold speakers, Pontiac Monsoon CD Stereo deck, new carpet and Mr. Mikes seats. Speaker covers were re-covered with new all black cloth, (Funny but they look almost purple in photos) Installation had to wait until SafeLite returned to install the new windshield. Here's the SafeLite guy getting a Fiero windshield out in one piece in under 5 minutes:
more "in-progress" pics later
Randy
------------------ Everyone thinks I'm psychotic, except for my friends deep inside the earth.
i see two more pontiacs ... I like the light panel, the entire car looks very nice, keep up the good work![/QUOTE]
Yeah. We sort of have a "thing" for Ponchos around here. The GPGT is the wife's ride and the white Firebird is my trusty old daily driver. Trying to convince myself that the Fiero will be fun enough to make the voices in my head stop telling me to go buy a new Solstice
Thanks for the compliments
Randy
------------------ Everyone thinks I'm psychotic, except for my friends deep inside the earth.
The car finally rolled out of the garage yesterday, but both front and rear deck lids are back at paint to fix some mismatch problems. Still waiting on my mirror housings to come back from paint as well so I can finally button up the inner door panels. It's getting real close to being done now.....er...these things are *never* really "done" are they? Need those dang Intrax springs to show up soon. The car is sitting up in the air like the Toonerville Trolley and I can't wait to drop it down.
Another view Fuel door needs to be installed and some misc. trim and adjustments yet to be done. Crazy angle of the rear wheels due to no alignment yet as that will be done after the darn springs show up and are installed. Keep watching for the FedEx truck to arrive.....
Yet *another* view, It's looking good (to me), so far, and we haven't even cut and buffed the paint yet.... Waiting to get everything hung back on the car so it's easier than fighting with individual flexible panels. Anyone want to rent out some space in the wheel wells??...I have plenty to spare right now
That car is going to be almost new ! I know you are getting the lowering spirngs (good move), but did you have to do anything to the rest of the suspension and or brakes ?
That car is going to be almost new ! I know you are getting the lowering spirngs (good move), but did you have to do anything to the rest of the suspension and or brakes ?
Nothing special done to fit the wheels and tires, except that I had to shave off approx. 1/4 - 3/8 inch off the rear axle ends with a die grinder so that the wheel center caps would go on! I'll be replacing tie rod ends, ball joints and bushings when I do the springs, (still watching for the FedEx truck). The brakes are still stock, except that I've replaced all 4 calipers and 2 rotors. Two of them were near frozen when I picked up the car. Big brakes are definately in the future for the car, but I haven't yet figured out what I want to do. It's definately going to need better brakes though, as I plan on sending the car up to Ed Parks to have a 4.9 Caddy swap done.
Yes, I've made more progress but it's been real tuff going. My wife and I both came down with the flu over the holidays so that pretty much shut down an entire week off I had planned on getting a lot done. Working on your car while sick with the flu is NOT fun.
I'll try to get some more progress pics posted very soon.
------------------ Everyone thinks I'm psychotic, except for my friends deep inside the earth.
Ok, time for a little update. Even being down with the flu, I did manage to get my new Intrax lowering springs installed over the holidays. The drop looks great and really makes the tires fill up those wheel wells nicely now.
Randy ------------------ Everyone thinks I'm psychotic, except for my friends deep inside the earth.
[This message has been edited by randye (edited 04-21-2019).]
The rear tires and wheel look MUCH better now, but I still need to get that rear fascia buttoned down after getting the taillight panel trimmed a little bit more and installed.
[This message has been edited by randye (edited 04-21-2019).]
Hood is back from the painter...again...and it finally looks like it matches the rest of the paint. Left front fender still isn't quite the right color, but we will shoot ity again on the car since there are nice edges to paint to and no blending necessary. The car looks like it's smiling at me every time I go out in the garage.
With some down-time over the holiday, I managed to find this little item. It looks and fits almost like it was specifically made for a Fiero I think I may fabricate a small bracket to fit up under the rear of the roof "lip", or it also looks like this light could simply be installed with 3M double sided tape. I think that the wire can be fed into the stock light housing inside thru a small hole poked in the "goo" around the rear window up at the top and behind the LED light where it won't be seen.
I'm trying to find a source for more of these lights and might offer them for sale if there's any interest. The one I have is weatherproof and testing it on 12VDC it lights up BRITE!!
Finally getting around to some more of the interior trim. I thought that I would try to replicate the style of the Mr. Mikes seats on the center armrst console, so I shot the main body of the console with SEM Products satin black vinyl paint and shot the door with presidio grey.
Installed, but I think the satin black is the wrong color. I'll probably take it back out and use some "charcoal grey" or other color that matches the seat leather and stock console vinyl better. The SEM strips off with acetone, (don't ask me how I know that), but it takes some work and a LOT of rags. Oh-well..one step forward, two steps back, but I want it right.
The shifter console was reglued, (what a nasty job, but well worth it), and the shifter trim plate was painted with SEM satin black...here I think it looks ok and I'll probably leave it this color. New windorw switches, power mirror switch and switch plate were installed and I thought I'd see what this nifty little chrome shift handle would look like. I figure you want to use chrome on the interior lkike jewelry..don't over-do it, just a little here and there, tastefully.
Mirrors are painted and reassembled. I didn't know that the only way to properly reinstall the power mirror motors was to have the glass part of the mirror OUT of it's holder. Some very careful work with a small flat screwdriver and a thin piece of aluminum strip and I miraculously managed to get both mirror glass out with no damage! Once the motors were reinstalled in the mirror housings, the glass was reattached with some marine silicone sealant and adhesive.
Ran into another problem with the drivers side door. I replaced the bushings and upper hinge pin but didn't notice how worn out the body side hinge hole was. It's wobbled out bad enough to need to be re-drilled and have a bushing put in, so the drivers side door skin will have to be taken back off...good thing too because I noted from this photo that I need to readjust the hinges to move the door inward to line up with the fender! Another step forward and two or three more steps backward....
The fuel door is all painted and reinstalled, but I am waiting on some nice tinted MsLori quarter windows to install to fill up those gaping holes on the quarter sails.
All the body panels still ned to be wet sanded and buffed, but the shine is already great. This thing should be SLICK once the paint finishing work is done. The new Fiero Store side mioldings and marker lights look good. The outside door handles I bought on Ebay and they match nicely with the new moldings and markers. Wiper arms were sanded, cleaned and painted with Duplicolor black trim paint. The plastic cowling was scrubbed with #0000 steel wool and soaked down with medical grade flourinated silicone oil. It now looks almost like new.
Gorgeous car, absolutely beautiful but you rotten guys who live where there are palm trees, you aint real car guys like up in Michigan where we get to lay on our backs on freezing concrete or out in the mud shaking with chills and fever just to do the simplest thing which takes hours in the freezing cold. Thats dedication, not to mention that every single part of the car is rust welded to every other part and needs to be blasted apart. I could whine with jealousy like this for hours but I think I can hear you laughing so I'll shut the hell up. Love those seats man they just look RIGHT in there. Gotta love it when a Fiero gets done right.
