Thanks Blooz. I'm still thinking 350 with either my low mileage 5 speed or perhaps a shiny new 6 speed.
But first, I'm going to get some measurements off that awesome 355 that our buddy Don passed our way. I'd like to get the suspension ordered and installed by the fall so I can atleast sit in the chassis while the boys push me around the block.
[This message has been edited by Yarmouth Fiero (edited 07-07-2013).]
The transverse frame with rollover hoops came back from the powdercoater today. I am really happy with the quality of the finish. The hoops took alot of hand sanding to remove the surface imperfections but as always, the end result is certainly worth the extra effort. I decided to go with no clear coat in the end. In the sunlight, the gold nugget has a nice shine that really highlights the gold flakes. The 365 Gold Nugget is listed as a super durable finish so no clear on the hoops should be fine. I think when it comes time to do the suspension components, I'll get them clear coated with a semi gloss or stain just for added protection from dirt and debris.
Now its time to get the frame welded into the chassis once and for all.
Here are a few pictures of the frame in place. I had to open up the slots in the top flange of the firewall so the weld beads at the base of the hoops would pass through. But it's fine since there will eventually be a body panel covering everything on the top of the firewall anyway. Btw, how are the pics of the new body panels coming Blooz?
Now its time to cover the hoops with some 2" dia foam pipe insulation. There will be alot of construction over the next while in the vacinity of these hoops and if they get dinged after the frame is welded in, I'm going to have a hard time fixing them. I'm pretty sure the entire chassis won't fit in the powdercoating oven.
Great progress there YF! You won't be able to procrastinate on cutting the roof off much longer. I'm getting anxious to see that. (If you're smart, you'll let one of your sons do it so you can blame somebody else if something goes wrong)
If you want, I can post some photos of the new (to us) body panels in your thread.
ha ha ha ha ha...... it's funny you mention one of the boys cutting the roof. I'll be honest... I am a little anxious about taking that step....... and I have thought about getting kirk to do the cutting. He has good hand / eye developement from hockey. Me..... I'm now wearing bi-focal safety glasses
Yes, please post the new body pics in my thread if you get a chance. Did you try mounting them on your chassis already?
Just got back from a fund raiser for my friend Fred who is battling cancer. Alot of his previous project cars and their owners stopped by for an impromptu show. I think my next project is defiinitely going to be an old car restoration...... and I mean pre 85.
I've tried taking photos of our newly acquired body panels from Don using two different cameras and different lighting, but none of the pictures do justice to Don's work so far. I'd rather not post photos that don't look right. I haven't tried installing them on my car yet primarily because I haven't had the chance to remove my old ones, but I'm thinking the best way to show how much Don changed the panels is to have before and after shots on my car (or yours!).
Well, it's been a few weeks since I have been able to work on the car. It sucks when your job interferes with your hobby. It just isn't right.
First thing to do was cover up the powdercoated roll over hoops. With all the welding and cutting to be done, I just don't want to risk damaging the finish at this point. I'll unwrap them ..........in a couple years.
Next up was to weld the new longitudinal rocker frames to the chassis. We started with the drivers side... and ran out of wire half way through the passenger side. Oh well...it was getting late anyhow.
Hopefully, we'll get the rest welded tomorrow evening as we are itching to remove the roof. Its been all winter just to get to this point. But I'm happy with the design and the fit to the chassis. I think its going to be more than adequate.
[This message has been edited by Yarmouth Fiero (edited 07-31-2013).]
"More than adequate"..........is going to turn out to be an understatement, IMHO!
That looks better in application that it did in theory, and as I said before, don't think that chassis is going to flex any way you don't tell it to.
"and ran out of wire half way through the passenger side." I hate it when that happens!
Looks great to me, and I still say you should patent that design for the frame stiffner! Really can't think of any better way to do it. Maybe you could offer up a blueprint package or something, could make a buck or two? (at least a quarter! )
Keep up the great work and don't forget to keep us updated when you get time.
Thanks Sage. I can certianly provide drawings with measurements for anyone interested in cutting into their chassis. I'm going to use a long inside micrometer on the door frame once welding is done and before I remove the roof. Then support the chassis as if on wheels and take measurements after the roof is removed and also load the chassis up with weight to see what kind of chassis distortion actually occurs. I'm curious to see just how stiff the design is in practice.
Tonight we finally got the passenger side rocker reinforcement welded. I am very happy with the fit of the new frames. So that was the go ahead milestone to start cutting off the roof. For now we just made a rough cut an inch or two from the final line. Once I have an idea as to how to properly cap off the B pillars and the windshield top frame, I'll make the final finish cuts. So, I gave Kirk the green light and the zip wheel and he went at it. His friend who was visiting thought it was pretty cool to see a car get its roof cut off.
And finally, the last photo of the day. I've dreamt of that little car being a convertible for many years.
edit: remove photos of family members
[This message has been edited by Yarmouth Fiero (edited 02-23-2015).]
Thanks Blooz. I think the next step will be to shorten the wooden supports and get the chassis to ride height. Then I'd like to flip the whole thing over and finish welding the rocker supports to the chassis on the underside as well as clean up the area where the fuel tank goes. I suspect even this clean chassis has a little surface rust under there.
I've been searching for information or perhaps even a build thread that has details on how to best finish off the top edge of the windshield frame. If anyone knows of a link to such info, I'd love to see it.
Today I'm off on the "Heart of the Valley" century ride today. After this 170 km bike ride, I may have to take a couple days off from the car project.
I will email you the detail I did to create a good seal for the windshield frame. Did it for my 308 Targa build. It uses a Firebird t-top seal cut and joined across the width. I also have a fibreglass windshield top mold that can be used as well as per a bunch of other 355 kits.
May take a couple days to get it to you though as I am eyeballs deep in extending the 308 trunk by the end of the weekend.
Great to see you get to this stage...as always..very nice job!
We also have a mold to make a "cap" for the top of windshield, though I can't imagine it's much different than what Don has available. It's part of what could be called a "kit" for helping to turn a Fiero into a convertible.
Here's a pic of the whole kit:
and here's one of just the ws cap..(this is the underside):
How are you planning to "flip the whole thing over"...is a rotisserie in your future..or do you already have one? Sure would be nice to be able to do that!
Keep up the great work, and don't forget to keep us updated!
Great to see you get to this stage...as always..very nice job!
We also have a mold to make a "cap" for the top of windshield, though I can't imagine it's much different than what Don has available. It's part of what could be called a "kit" for helping to turn a Fiero into a convertible.
Here's a pic of the whole kit:
Thanks Sage. Those are very interesting pieces. Do you have a picture of them finished and mounted on a car? I think on our car, the rear valance behind the seats might end up being a leather cover to simulate a convertible top stored underneath.
It is certainly cool to finally get that roof off Exoticse. I'm eager to finish off the B pillars and then get the transverse frame and hoops welded in place. I had to take the frame out to get the zip wheel in for the roof cut. I said earlier that I would leave the hoops wrapped up until later just to protect them........ but I think I want to look at them and take a few pictures.
Didn't mean to suggest that the "kit" would help your circumstance as I don't see how it would. Was just posting the pics to show the windshield cap, basically as a starting point. There is no provision for creating a seal or anyplace to lock on a rag or removeable hardtop, just a cap to put over the exposed metal after cutting the roof. Of course, those things (seal and pin receptacle) can be fabricated and added to/worked into the fiberglass cap, especially by someone as inventive, creative and capable as yourself. It is just a means to provide a decent looking "finish" to the new cut.
No, unfortunatly I don't have any pics of these pieces mounted and finished off on an existing car. I did have occasion to use the rear fender tops when my son was doing the fastback taillight conversion on his notchback clip. We used them to fill in the spot that was left open when combining the fastback and notchback clips. Saw the boot section installed on a car at the 30th, it was the green convertible that the man hauled in on a trailer after having driven over 5,000mi. to get to the show!
Don't know what mold Don has for the same piece, but like I said, I can't imagine it being much different unless it does have provisions for locks and seals molded into it.
Thanks Sage. I greatly appreciate your input and never felt like a kit was being suggested. For the soft top, it seems that it's always a difficult topic to address because its such a hard item to fabricate that is both functional and aesthetically pleasing. At this time I just assumed our car would not have a top as its only going to be a fair weather driver anyway. However, if I'm ever going to get it to a car show outside of Nova Scotia, I'm going to need to address it at some point.
Again, thanks for the info. If anything else comes to mind, please feel free to add it to my thread.
My cap looks pretty close to what Sage has was well. The top of my cap has a ridged/dropped section though that lowers the sealing surface down about 3/8" so the top fits level with the top of the header. It doesn't really address the latch portion though.
What I did on the 308 targa was to weld a flat plate to the bottom of the windshield header that comes out about 2". I bought aftermarket Firebird T-Top seals that I cut the centre section out of and laid these seals onto that flat plate I installed. You will need a mounting/retaining groove so I bent flat plate 3/4"x1/8"/1/4" to allow the bottom of the seal to fit. The bottom of the seal is very similar to how the Fiero door seals are mounted into the rails along the side glass area. The Firebird seals mate up to the Fiero door seals about half way down the window and get glued together. The middle of the top seal section also gets glued together.
I have pics over on my build thread on MadMechanics. I will go over and pull them off and get them up on Photobucket and link here to show what was done.
For the latches, you will need to make up some latches that mount under the screen frame so that you don't interfere with the seal. I planned on using Miata latches on my 355 convertible when I was building that. The targa will have a different setup as I have a solid targa piece to work with.
A quick drawing of what I did below and I will get the pics off my other build shortly. Let's see how that works. Hopefully I made the drawing big enough
Thanks Don. That is very helpful. I never thought of adding a horizontal piece to hold a seal like that. Thanks for the tips regarding possible sources for seals and such also.
Tonight we started trimming the top of the driver side B pillar. Looking at photos of the 355 body kit, I decided to cut a line that sloped down from the top of the firewall to a point level with the top rear corner of the door structure. I'd rather have it a little low than too high and have to lower it when we fit the body later.
Even though there is a series of structural sheet metal shapes inside the B pillar, the door has a bit of a hollow feel and sound when it slams shut and hits the striker plate. I guess that can be expected since the top of the pillar and the attached roof structure have been removed.
I am hopeful that when I cap the B pillar with a piece of 1/8" plate it will stiffen up the top of the pillar. As well, I am going to tie this plate into the end flange of the transverse frame and the upper frame rail for additional strength. As I suspected when I was fitting the new transverse frame a few pages back, the end flange was floating in mid air inside the B pillar.
[This message has been edited by Yarmouth Fiero (edited 08-13-2013).]
I got some very exciting news today. Blooz is coming to Yarmouth this weekend...... and he's bringing our new ( Don aka 355Fiero) modified 355 body. I've seen it at his shop but this will be the first time we get to see my chassis wearing something other than dust.
So naturally I've spent the evening tidying up my shop and making some room. I also adjusted the height of my chassis by lowering it to the obligatory 125mm ( 5 inch) ride height. Holy, I've looked at that chassis sitting 12" too high for so many years, that it looks totally strange tonight. So of course I had to slip a set of wheels in place and snap a few shots to post. It is weird how lowering the car 12" makes it look 24" wider..ha-ha-ha
I suspect by Sunday, I'll have some pictures to post of my car with atleast a few body panels loosely fit. Drive safe Blooz
Looking forward to seeing how the panels will fit on your car Yarmouth Fiero. Don't judge the body work. It was a work in progress...... Couple hours of sanding and it will look pretty again...... well maybe a few more than a couple hours... haha
I think the first area of conflict will be the hoops as I had a 1x2 under the fiberglass firewall plate on the rear clip and it rested completely on top of the firewall. It also had the convertible top mounting lip along that plate.
Hi Don, thanks for the heads up. Luckily, I have not yet welded the transverse frame in place yet so I can slide it and the hoops right out of the chassis for the panel test fit. One of my main goals this weekend is to set the front clip on and see where the interference will be with the chassis. I'd like to remove as little steel as possible up there. Also, I am hoping that we can get a good measurement of the required track width so I can get the control arms made to suit my wheel offset. You've done a ton of work to those panels and Blooz and I appreciate the time and effort you put into them. You have given our projects a huge boost.
Well, Blooz delivered as promised and the panels are now in my shop...and driveway. Here is a picture without the rear section in place yet. There are a few fitment issues as we knew there would be. The main items are the jumbo rockers frames I installed and the fact that I have not yet cut the front end structure on my chassis yet. I hope that I'll get the rear section sitting in place later tonight or tomorrow.
Yes, atleast that much, maybe more. There is 70mm (2 3/4") there right now. I can't find the drawing on Blooz's thread where he showed the desired clearance on the front. He'll be here tomorrow to help me with the fit so we'll fix it then.
edit the conversion to mm
[This message has been edited by Yarmouth Fiero (edited 08-17-2013).]
Here is the rear end in place... sort of. The hoops are holding the rear from sliding all the way forward. But its nice to see some panels on the chassis none the less.
Taking lots of pictures of the panels and how they interact with the chassis. One of the key areas of concern was behind the B pillar where the new rocker frame rises and meets the rear chassis frames. The fuel fill location was of particular interest. As can be seen here, it looks like the wide hips on this car will move the fuel fill well outboard of the new frames.
In fact, looking at both sides of the car and the space available, I might still be able to get a couple of those nifty little radiators wedged in there like you are planning Blooz. Who would'a thunk it?
Now THAT's a significant milestone. Completely changes the look of the chassis. Way to go! 
