Originally posted by fierogt28: I'm impressed with the alignment shop...its very, very clean and tidy. That's the way a shop should be. Man, its discouraging when you bring a nice car in and the shop is newer that the car you own, but the shop is a friggen mess. I don't know how mechanics can work when their tool box is out of order. There's not a trace of grease on the alignment rack.
I see they have a newer style rack by Hunter. At least they can't have an excuse for scratching your rims...
Good job !!
I remember seeing the tire changer and wheel alignment equipment several years back at SEMA. I haven't found a shop that has the Hunter alignment system here where I live, but just the newer tire changer. It's a pain, but I have to mount my tires here in the Bay Area and not down south.
Here's pictures from the painting. Sorry I didn't get these up sooner. Been enjoying driving my car
I decided to come inside for a few minutes before I take some photos today. We were supposed to have partly cloudy skies today. So much for our forecast.
Hi Charlie, I've been around this forum off and on since the beginning, and I guess I just like lurking, but I had to come out of the shadows to tell you how beautiful a job all the various crews (and you too!) did on your Fiero. Even my best friend says she thinks it's "Splendid" ! https://www.fiero.nl/forum/icons/icon12.gif
Thanks so much for taking the time to share your progress with us. The skill, passion, and dedication of everyone involved is an inspiration to what can be done with our favorite orphan.
I meant to put these up Sunday. I went to two Northern Virginia Sports Car Club meetups that occur every weekend. Saturdays is in Great Falls, VA the other meetup is on Sundays in the Fairlakes area. Anyway, I was late to the meetup on Saturday so I didn't get to park where all the cars were being viewed, but I did receive a lot of compliments on my car's looks and definitely the sound There were plenty of Ferraris, Lambos, Aston Martins, Audi R8s, Lotus, Vettes out the yazoo, classic Shelby Cobra, a Ford GT, a Nissan GTR, a Telsa, a few old school rides, and then there was my car. At Sunday's meetup there was a balance of European, Japanese, and American (both new and old muscle cars). I was early to this meetup so I managed to get a good parking space. My car got lots of attention. There were three of us Fiero owners at this meetup so I didn't have to "represent" alone. The most fun part of both meetups was having people try to figure out what my car was.
I finally got the windows tinted Friday...whoo whoo!
Gotta give recognition to Steve's car as well. Thanks for letting me know about this meetup.
Saturday's meetup starts at 7am, but you have to arrive by 6:30 if you hope to have a parking space. I didn't take any pictures of my car at Saturday's meetup and no one has posted any pictures from Saturday's meetup. Sunday's meetup was a little more forgiving on the start time (8:30am). I'm looking forward to going again this weekend...as long as the weather cooperates.
[This message has been edited by Charlie64 (edited 11-16-2012).]
WOW I LOVE this car. Good job. I am a fan of the stock GT tail lights so that is one thing I would not have changed but a great looking car. My hat is off to you.
[This message has been edited by Rickady88GT (edited 11-30-2012).]
Originally posted by exoticse: Charlie any more stories ??
Actually...yes. Last Saturday I went to the meetup in Great Falls. BBBRRRRRRRR cold. Anyway on the way home someone in a C43 AMG tried to "run" on me. Not only did I have to back off to keep from being in his back seat....at the next light I made him a memory. Then I let off the gas and he caught up 5 seconds later. Pretty sure he got the message.
Thanks for the compliment Rick. I'm enjoying driving it
[This message has been edited by Charlie64 (edited 11-30-2012).]
I really like the shorter wheelbase, like a Lancia Stratos
Here's the new one, based on a shortened Ferrari 430 chassis and engine. Looks agile and really good the way it is. I am sure it would look good either way of course, photoshop never does the final result justice.
Meant to post this earlier this month, but here's a change I made to the car....
authentic Ferrari tail lights...the wiring and getting the bulb adapter plates to cooperate was challenging, but it works!!!
We even filled in the spaces in the bumper where my back up lights used to be. I think this gives it a much cleaner look.
Forgot to add this video as well. Was on my way home testing out my new GoPro Black Edition to see if it really did record as well as I was told in low light (and it does!) when this jerk in a 2013 5.0 GT kept annoying me. Where he turned off I was originally going to go straight until he decided to "take off" so I chased him down from 2nd gear. Pretty interesting how quickly I caught up with him. Couldn't shift into 4th and had to let up while in 3rd before ending up in his back seat. Pretty sure he got the point and got to find out his Mustang wasn't the speedster he thought it was. Notice he still had his turn signal on the whole time. Guess he was too busy watching me catch him that he forgot to turn off his signal...
[This message has been edited by Charlie64 (edited 02-24-2013).]
Haven't made it to the dyno yet , but the 2013 5.0 advertises 425hp with 390 tq. from the factory. We were doing that much if not more with the old engine. For me to have chased him down from 2nd gear after he had a head start.....
I'm just saying...
[This message has been edited by Charlie64 (edited 02-27-2013).]
Haven't made it to the dyno yet , but the 2013 5.0 advertises 425hp with 390 tq. from the factory. We were doing that much if not more with the old engine. For me to have chased him down from 2nd gear after he had a head start.....
I'm just saying...
'Nuff said, thats unbelievable! My DOHC won't be slow but there's no way I'll be nearly that zippy without forced induction, better start saving haha. Nicely done sir.
What an incredible thread! It's like a great storyline from a good book or movie, all the twists and turns, the ups and downs... ...Even some good "beware" stories in there.
+ for you for sharing! Thanks!
------------------ ~Michael '85 GT 4sp white - SOLD | | '85 2M6 Auto red - SOLD | | '84 2M4 bare chassis - SOLD Crap, I'm out of Fieros! Time to buy another!! - "Your mileage may vary."
What an incredible thread! It's like a great storyline from a good book or movie, all the twists and turns, the ups and downs... ...Even some good "beware" stories in there.
+ for you for sharing! Thanks!
Thanks TRiAD. I've made some nice mods over the last few weeks in preparation for Daytona. Now all I have to do is get ready for my road trip down there
[This message has been edited by Charlie64 (edited 03-19-2013).]
Thanks Tony. It was indeed very nice to finally meet you in person as well. Thanks for the winning idea on the turn signals and LEDs. I'm still trying to convince my Northern VA Fiero crowd I'm actually down here and that the pictures I posted from the track are not Photoshop'd...lol.
Now that my car has been unveiled here at Daytona I can post what we've been doing with it over the last month. It started with a desire to change the stock park/turn lenses up front. I had thoughts of doing something like Troyboy or Curly, but that wasn't going to happen in the time we had available. I remembered seeing the setup Tony has on his car so he was nice enough to provide me with the details for the parts and where they were acquired. The guys at Maaco of Fairfax had taken my car in to "touch it up" before the show and were gracious enough to work with the additional project requirements. Colm, the owner of Maaco of Fairfax, also heavy into custom cars and paint, wanted me to be able to enjoy my car as much as possible up until showtime so the last weekend I had it was the first weekend in March. Looking back I should have brought it to him sooner because when I got to Cars & Coffee at Kohl's on March 3rd I had another mishap with my favorite quarter window and didn't find out until I got there.
That was #3 in less than 6 months. Fortunately Justin at the Fiero Store was able to get me a replacement in a timely manner.
While at Maaco here's what they did. While Bobby was making the cut-outs for the new turn/park lenses and LEDs Colm worked out a way to open up the mouth and improve cooling efficiency.
This nose clip was abandoned by a former employee. We're going to use this one for the next nose clip and blend it with the upper portion of a stock GT front facia. It would have been too labor intensive to try and get it done before showtime so this is on the shelf while I acquire another facia for this task.
Anyway, back to the cosmetic mods...in opening the mouth Colm decided to fabricate a baffle to direct airflow thru both the heat exchanger and the radiator. This involved adding a piece of sheet metal on the lower portion of the mouth to pull it down and open it up for the desired effect. In doing so it created a larger gap between the chin spoiler and the stock facia. To solve this we opted to fill in the gap and give it a "one piece" appearance so we wouldn't have to worry about the gap created once he stretched the mouth down to where it needed to be.
After some unforseen delays due to Bobby being sick...Colm and I got creative and pushed forward. On Friday the 15th Bobby had completed the nose mods and the car was ready to be painted at closing time. Steve, the painter, was generous enough to stay after hours and paint the car.
On Saturday the 16th, while the shop was closed, Colm and I worked on installing the lenses and a better mounting system for the tail lights so we wouldn't scratch the rear bumper any time I needed to replace the bulbs. When Steve returned on Monday he didn't like how some aspects of the fiberglass came out so he did some additional molding to make it more asymetrical.
And on the 19th here was the finished product...cut it pretty close didn't we???
Colm and Andy proud of the results.
I'll post more this evening from my trip down here and the show. For now it's time to get back to the Speedway!
[This message has been edited by Charlie64 (edited 03-24-2013).]
I remember seeing the tire changer and wheel alignment equipment several years back at SEMA. I haven't found a shop that has the Hunter alignment system here where I live, but just the newer tire changer. It's a pain, but I have to mount my tires here in the Bay Area and not down south.
, but the 2013 5.0 advertises 425hp with 390 tq. from the factory. We were doing that much if not more with the old engine. For me to have chased him down from 2nd gear after he had a head start.....
