Wow.... that literally brought tears to my eyes.... :'( Im no where near enough to come for a cruise but, it made me think of mine sitting in the garage and how it does just sit there grinning every time the garage door is opened and then i think how disappointed it must feel when the door is closed again and the lights are shut off to sit another day in the dark garage, undriven.... I think ill take it for a run tomorrow. I would drive your tangerine dream EVERYWHERE! Its GORGEOUS! Cheer up! Or else you may walk out there some day and catch your tangerine dream frowning!
Anyone up for a roadtrip to his house? Maybe we can "gang up" on both Randye and TD...dump the stale fuel, clear the dust, rip out her perfectly good beating heart while offering her a new one???? Just sayin it might be fun. Of course, there would need to be a BBQ and some frosty malted beverages....
Who knows....maybe today is the day!!!!
I would fly down just to get Randy a boot in the keister Its time for the fog to lift my friend
Dr. W. ------------------ Is your Fastback GT's trunk seal shot? My Gen III replacement GT trunk seals with solid molded corners are now in production. $95 + $15 flat rate shipping to the US (contact me for international shipping rates) or buy two and pay only a single shipping rate! More info can be found here GT Trunk Seal Project
[This message has been edited by infinitewill (edited 05-09-2012).]
I love my Burgundy GT, but why do I find yellow fieros so sporty looking?
I like yellow Fieros too, and I like pearl orange ones like mine, but before mine was yellow or pearl orange it was burgundy.
This photo shows what it all looked like when it had just begun. I had just started the complete teardown and parts were arriving almost daily. ------------------
[This message has been edited by randye (edited 05-10-2012).]
Over the last 12yrs I have had my lows where I didn't care much about my red car. Then the love re-surges. Funny that I see over and over people put a lot of effort on a 3.4 just to be disappointed later. Being there done that. Get that 3800 done and you will want to drive it every day
Over the last 12yrs I have had my lows where I didn't care much about my red car. Then the love re-surges. Funny that I see over and over people put a lot of effort on a 3.4 just to be disappointed later. Being there done that. Get that 3800 done and you will want to drive it every day
I will admit to being only mildly disappointed with my 3.4 swap, but I think thats mainly because I kept the old T125C 3 speed automatic when I should have upgraded to a 4 speed overdrive like the 4T60 at the time I did the swap.
You are correct that the 3800sc with it's auto trans would be an ideal swap for me, and should fortune once again smile upon me, that is precisely what I have in mind. As you can see from my thread, that swap was actually *almost* underway until circumstances changed.
All of that is history now though. The GOOD NEWS is that this past weekend Tangerine Dream got a replacement Optima Battery, (under warranty), and she was freed from her garage prison and treated a "A Day at the Spa"...( a complete car wash, clay bar treatment and glass polish) Her tire presures were checked and she was started and run up to operating temp. (The old stale fuel smells awful but she seemed to run ok on it, just not "snappy") Amazingly she runs almost precisely like she did when I last turned the key (except for the stale fuel), and has no obvious leaks or other problems after such long storage. Even the A/C seems to still be fully charged and blows nice and cold !!
The last bit of business I was tinkering with before I "abandoned" the car was the 7730 ECU swap that failed , (I think due to a bad ECU). I found the *new* ECU I purchased way back then and installed the chip from Ryan at Sinister Performance in it and will try the "adapter harness" I bought one more time. ( The adapter harness could also be the problem but the forum member I bought it from swore to me that he checked all his work and had not had any problems before)
I would MUCH prefer to repin the existing harness into the new 7730 connectors, but I'm afraid my confidence (and eyesight) might not be up to the task now.
SO!...I thank everyone for their concern and their prodding and wishes for me to regain interest and get back to the car again. I'm trying the best I can and figure maybe a little more every day might get me going again back at the pace I once was at.
.....then there's that Fi355 nose STILL to be installed and cut & buffed......
[This message has been edited by randye (edited 05-10-2012).]
Are you ever going to get back into the shop and finish your bumper and other upgrades????
Hope you and the tangerine Dream are both well
Dr. W.
------------------ Is your Fastback GT's trunk seal shot? My Gen IV replacement GT trunk seals with miter double bonded corners are now in production. $95 shipped to the US (contact me for international shipping rates) More info can be found here GT Trunk Seal Project
This must be "my day". Attended a local cruise-in / car show today, along with 50 other cars and got a trophy for PEOPLES CHOICE! All the car owners had to vote for a car other than their own and damned if I didn't get the prize! Having won quite a few trophies since we started showing the car and even getting a few "best of show in class" in some large shows, I really treasure this "peoples choice" award because it means that Fieros are getting favorably noticed and are gaining popularity even around some VERY nice street rods and customs.
.....
Hey Randy, Sorry to hear about the funk you have been in lately. Go take a look at the people's choice award again and think back to that day, and how proud you were to beat some very nice street rods and customs. That's a big deal!
I think you need to take it out for a nice cruise and turn some heads and maybe go to a few cruise nights. That should do the trick. Maybe hold off on any big projects for a while like installing the nose, you don't want to take it apart and lose interest even more. I vote, put some miles on it and get that fiero bug back. Then get that new nose mounted, that's going to look awesome!
Your car has been a big inspiration to us all. You do very nice work, and are innovative and creative. I know I've always enjoyed seeing your work.
I had an occasion to call randy last week on behalf of myself and another forum member in regards to some modifications he had done to his car that we were interested in.
Randy is now back working again and pretty much getting back on his feet after losing his longtime occupation a couple of years ago,
I think most people would go into a funk somewhat.
Randy also was having serious regrets about his engine choice. Wants more power. Very disenchanted with the current setup.
Give him some time, i think he will snap back when he is ready.
Originally posted by randye: SO!...I thank everyone for their concern and their prodding and wishes for me to regain interest and get back to the car again. I'm trying the best I can and figure maybe a little more every day might get me going again back at the pace I once was at.
.....then there's that Fi355 nose STILL to be installed and cut & buffed......
Glad to see you’re back at it. I just moved down the road from you in Tarpon Springs. Shoot me a message if you ever need a hand with something.
Wow I thought you were over on the east coast. Great to see you're so close by now and I'm sorry I missed your post until now. I just sold my engineering consulting business and retired last August so I've been busy getting myself un-busy Maybe we should meet up for lunch once this Corona thing is over. I will PM you my cell number.
Wow I thought you were over on the east coast. Great to see you're so close by now and I'm sorry I missed your post until now. I just sold my engineering consulting business and retired last August so I've been busy getting myself un-busy Maybe we should meet up for lunch once this Corona thing is over. I will PM you my cell number.
I'm glad you texted me about that favor Randy... I enjoyed talking again about our Fieros. You know I got lots of help and inspiration from you with my 3.4 swap and have loved it. I drove it for almost four years before doing my 3800sc swap, and now I've been driving and enjoying it going on my third year now. I can tell you, if it wasn't for my 3800sc Fiero as my escape mechanism I'd go nuts around here during this covid-19 crap. But my little car sets me free and makes me feel 18 again every time I get in and fire her up. I recently installed a set of Fiero Guru's coil overs, so I can install the after market wheels and tires that I want, to get more contact with the road, and of course increase her beauty. You've been a retired engineer for a few years now, and I've been a retired architect for 13-years, and have pretty much filled those years with the fun of working on and driving my Fiero. It's definitely my escape mechanism. Just today, there was a guy on the face book "Modified Fieros" forum, that took his beautifully modified '87 GT and went on the famous Route-66, from Southern California up through the Northeast and back, with his boxer dog as his companion. Check it out on Face Book. Maybe that's what you need to do to shake off the doldrums...lol? I live in Lynden, WA, right up next to the Canadian border, and I'm thinking I just might make a trip that I've done in my Fiero when I had my 3.4 in her. Only now I'd make the trip with my 3800sc, which would be allot of fun. I took Hwy I-5 last time, where I did 85-90mph most all the way. This time I would take Hwy-101 coastal highway, All the way to Fallbrook, CA, where one of my daughters lives, and back. It has some beautiful scenery and lots of winding road, and I would take my little Chi-Yorkie dog with me. All 7# of her...lol. She loves to ride on the console, that has a Mr. Mikes cover, and she thinks that is her seat I'm sure... So get that little tangerine dream on a shake-down trip up to Main or something like that, and put some miles on that 3.4 before you swap it for the 3800sc... Or, swap it out, then make the shake down cruise with the 3800...? Bet your better half would love to make a trip like that in your little car...!?
New billet buttons for engine deck popper and driving lights:
Machined billet buttons, (purchased).
The top button is a momentary button for the engine deck lid "popper".
The bottom button is a latching button for the driving / fog lights.
Both buttons have a LED ring around their center section that lights up when activated.
This is a very small modification that I had wanted to do a long time ago just before I had garaged the car and lost interest in it, so with the recent "resurrection" of Tangerine Dream it seemed like perfect time to do it so I gifted them, and the installation, to my son during the fire damage restoration.
They help tie the rest of the gages, and dash trim together as a better, more cohesive, design and they are just better made switches than the black plastic stuff. (a "win-win")
[This message has been edited by randye (edited 11-26-2022).]
A few "upgrades" have happened since the car had a small electrical fire after my son took ownership of it.
You might also notice the the new touch screen stereo head unit and the new MOMO shift knob that matches the MOMO Millennium steering wheel.
Those two are my son's new mods and old Dad here agrees. They look perfect.
The new stereo head unit also connects via Bluetooth to a cell phone, so that's nice too.
...
The electrical fire destroyed the fuse box under the driver's side of the dash and "fried" a large part of electrical harness under the dash. The "flaming" melted fuse box apparently fell onto the carpet and burned a nice big hole all the way down to the steel.
The smoke damage caused all of the fabric materials inside to be replaced or cleaned, including the headliner, all new carpet, insulation etc.
The whole interior had to be gutted again and a lot of cleaning, rewiring and replacing parts was required.
We were having a problem with the HID headlights coming on after getting the car out of storage for so long and my theory is that there was a high voltage "feedback" through the fusebox from the high voltage HID (10K volts) that caused the fire......no way of knowing for sure though since so much was burned under the dash. NEW relays were installed throughout the entire car since very long term storage in Florida heat appears to cause them to go bad somehow....(the A/C and fuel pump relays also went bad before the fire...)
Everything is now repaired or replaced and my son got a lot of "OJT" in how to do Fiero specific electrical work.
Anyway, Tangerine Dream has a new life now and a very enthusiastic new owner and the car stay's in the family....and I still get to help tinker around on it occasionally and offer my advice on more mods.
I will probably continue this CZ thread for a while and add occasional news.
All cleaned up and out in our Florida sunshine again.
She also lives in a newer garage showing the Pontiac "love":
[This message has been edited by randye (edited 11-28-2022).]
While rebuilding all the electrical stuff after the fire my son told me that he didn't like the LED warning lights I had originally built into the instrument panel.
I agreed with his point, especially since he is the owner now.
The original LEDs were some generic Radio Shack parts. They were all that was available years ago, just plain, unmarked, colored lights and I was really the only one that knew what they indicated and I didn't want to put some tacky looking labels under each light:
So AJ found some MUCH BETTER indicator / warning lights online that are LED and have proper automotive symbols and as luck, (and good planning on my part), would have it they were a direct, "drop in", fit and I wired them right in to the modifications I had made many years earlier. Easy-Peasy.
I have to admit they look lots better:
[This message has been edited by randye (edited 11-28-2022).]
Originally posted by exoticse: Randye remind me who painted your beautiful car ?
It was Billy Kidd / "Tricked Out Customs", but as good as his paint work is, I cannot and will not recommend him to anyone now.
He stole a set of mint condition GT taillight lenses and associated parts from me as well all of the money I prepaid to him to create custom fiberglass molds from them for a very special project.
I HATE liars and thieves.
[This message has been edited by randye (edited 01-05-2023).]
Its time for the fog to lift my friend 
