Lets start off with an introduction. My name is Alex owner of AW autoworks https://www.facebook.com/AWcustomAutoworks/ which is just a small individual owned custom body and paint shop. I work in partnership with SCHWA Motorsports who specializes in tuning and custom engine swaps (not just Fieros) We have done a few cars for each other but never a Fiero in partnership. We both have owned and loved these cars for quite some time and I personally have owned many in my short lifetime.
So let me introduce you to the car. This was originally an 88 CJB Coupe converted to a GT with a 3800 SC. Chris was unfortunately in an accident with a Semi, he originally thought the car was a goner and began to part ways with the car. Once I looked it over I decided that the car was salvageable with a good amount of work. After long discussions with Chris we decided to build an OEM+ designed car. Taking bits and pieces of other cars we like, adjusting the design a little and combining all of them to create a masterpiece. The following are our ventures in this build I hope you enjoy
Originally posted by AWautoworks: ...the owner just thought I was going to section the t top car out and put in my car. That is not the case. Being a rare original CJB car I decided to repair the frame and get it back on the road. The following story and photos are my ventures with the T-top Revival.
Thanks for reading
You're a better man than I. Or at least more determined.
Don't see the story or photos. Are those to come, later?
Regardless... good luck! Welcome to our obsession!
Sounds like Chester & Elvira's Formula. Many years ago they hydroplaned on the highway and drove under a semi and were dragged for quite awhile before the trucker saw them and stopped (they were hung up in front of the rear trailer axle). Not sure if this is the same car, but how many CJB Formulas were in accidents with semis?? Either way it'll be nice to see this Formula resurrected.
Sounds like Chester & Elvira's Formula. Many years ago they hydroplaned on the highway and drove under a semi and were dragged for quite awhile before the trucker saw them and stopped (they were hung up in front of the rear trailer axle). Not sure if this is the same car, but how many CJB Formulas were in accidents with semis?? Either way it'll be nice to see this Formula resurrected.
Is it this car? Hopefully yes. Many of us said it could be rebuilt.
I parked behind it at Daytona a few days before it was wrecked.
Here are pictures of the accident. This happened back about 4 years ago. After the accident the owner decided to part ways with it and he started to part the car out. The 3800SC set up went into a Mera for one of his customer and the rest of the car parts went into other various cars. He then ended up giving me the bare frame. No suspension, cooling, engine, trans, or any body panels for that matter. I did have an 87 coupe that ended up being so rusted that it became my donor car for body parts and some odds and ends. Picked up the cooling tubes and such from the local junk yard and pieced it together just to get it roll able.
[This message has been edited by AWautoworks (edited 01-09-2018).]
Hmmm.....for some reason I thought this was a Formula. Not sure why, since you never mentioned the model. It looks very fixable....I know you just have a naked frame, but the damage doesn't look too terrible (unlike Chester's old Formula!).
Good luck with it and keep us updated on your progress.
A quick question....is this an '88 GT? It looks like it was modified (different seats, repaint, etc.) so it's hard to tell what it started out as originally. Just curious.
[This message has been edited by mrfiero (edited 06-20-2017).]
A quick question....is this an '88 GT? It looks like it was modified (different seats, repaint, etc.) so it's hard to tell what it started out as originally. Just curious.
It was originally a basic coupe, that was "converted" to Fastback
[This message has been edited by AWautoworks (edited 01-10-2018).]
This isn't my first rodeo with a wrecked fiero. Here is one I did for a customer a few years ago. I wish he had the funds for me to do a complete paint job but he didn't have them available at the time. Here are the photos from the other wreck. It was hit pretty hard in the passenger side and shoved the whole front end over and down.
[This message has been edited by AWautoworks (edited 01-10-2018).]
So apparently after digging through my phots I couldn't find any starting photos of what I started with. I did some digging around from the local junk yards and fellow club members and took a big chunk out of my own parts stash to get it to a rollable chassis as shown below.
I have to get the body on first so I can know just exactly what I'm working with as far as frame damage. doors and quarter parts are in the process.
[This message has been edited by AWautoworks (edited 01-10-2018).]
After the initial frame pull this is where I am. Its not too far off but still quite a ways off. now that I have the doors on I can start to fine tune the adjustments. Now keep in mind most of the parts on this car probably wont be used mainly just using them for mocking up purposes. I did swap the wheels and tires over from another Fiero I own which turned into a parts car because of the rusty frame.
[This message has been edited by AWautoworks (edited 01-10-2018).]
I have done my final Frame pull and ready so cut out the old and bring in the new. I sectioned out a B post from a donor car for replacement, A plasma torch does wonders to the donor car. (muahahahah Fire). So time to start grinding and cutting on this frame. and get the crunched up outer off the car. Once the outer was off I was able to make final tweeks to were the post needed to be. The door fits and lines up perfect with the outer skins. Being a body guy I have a stash of visegrips as you can see. This allows for precision cuts and fitment. Once I get it fit into the perfect spot I take some sheet metal screws and screw it into place that way I can take it back off. Prep all the metal for welds and come back to the exact same spot. Once prepped I put the panel back on and started welding away. I lapped the upper section and had to sleve the lower rocker for a butt weld. Welded all my spot welds up and brushed some seam sealer over my welds to bring that factory look back. I prepped the post and sprayed in some por15 to etch into my bare metal and give it that flat factory frame paint look. Those pictures are to come. I forgot to grab some pictures last night.
I do just want to brag a little about how these welds just sank right in Minimal grinding needed
[This message has been edited by AWautoworks (edited 01-10-2018).]
So now its time to start thinking about body engine and suspension combinations. We are for sure going with the fastback and 87/88 coupe bumpers. I do like a stock look but subtle modifications. We are planning an aluminum head 2.8 turbo swap for the time being but always plan on something bigger down the road so More tire is always a plus. That being said Custom wide body is what I'm leaning towards but I want a stock look. This is about the closest thing I can find out there to what I want but its just not stock enough.
I am also planning an integrated lip spoiler as well
Few more process photos. I went ahead and prepped the roof and all the t top parts and sprayed them black. Hopefully it looks good with the blue once complete. Also have some pictures from SCHWA Motorspots with the engine. We are going to run a 2.8 aluminum head turbo engine.
[This message has been edited by AWautoworks (edited 01-10-2018).]
As the owner of this car I wanted to jump in. Some of you guys know me from Dells years ago, or the 30th anniversary with the Tube Chassis Fiero and the corner scales I was having people weight their cars on
Anyway, over the last few years I am been growing my performance shop Schwa MotorSports, SchwaMotorSports.com <-quick plug we build crazy custom cars and do custom t shirts of a stylized drawing on your car, anyway back on subject here
So years ago I started my fiero life with this 88 fiero coupe ttop car. 4 cylinder automatic:
When the water pump started to leak I proceeded with a 3800sc swap and fastback swap:
The car treated me well as a kid just out of high school, but as my first project it had problem and slowly but surely I got most of them worked out and thats when the pictures Alex already posted happened when I met a semi truck changing two lanes at the same time without seeing me. Luckily the fiero is tough and although I thought it was done, Alex has brought it back to life and it is once again sitting in my shop
So story time over lets get to what you all want to see/know about the engine. I am going to be running a gen2 60v6 aluminum head 2.8 with pivot ball rockers and a flat tappet cam. But I will be upgrading the intake manifold to the late gen3 3400 parts for a hopefully nice increase in upper rpm flow. Along with this I am going to be installing a Designs 1 turbo kit. When i got this motor the fiero exhaust manifolds had already been adapted to the heads as the engine had been previously installed in a Fiero. So with the turbo kit on the shelf and having a love for boosted cars I decided it was a good time to put the parts to good use
So here is the 2.8 engine with the aluminum heads and the 3400 intake test fitted with the gen 2 valve covers still in place:
Now one thing that needs taken care of when swapping intake is the fact that the gen2 intake actually has the oil fill cast into it. Simple enough all the aluminum head motor valve covers fit on the different generations even to the fact that I swapped on valve covers off a gen4 3900.
Since we are now working with a 2.8 with 3400 intake and I will be controlling all of this with a Microsquirt stand alone computer, which sadly can’t handle SFI, nor does the engine have the cam sensor needed for SFI, I decided to remove the casting marks. I also removed the EGR valve, extra vacuum fittings and a couple mounting bosses that were no longer needed:
Vacuum fitting removed:
EGR flanges removed:
Mounting bosses and such removed:
Now that I knew it all fit it was a matter of seeing if gaskets lined up. While they do line up, i wouldn’t say they line up well enough to recommend this, and honestly it might all crash and burn due to this The ports on the gen 2 head are a little lower into the valley than the gen 3 intake, its fairly close, but could be better. Since this is a quick build to get the car on the road, and I didn’t want to swap to the 3400 heads I had on the shelf I added a little silicon and we will see the results before too long:
You can also see in the last picture that the ends of the stamped rockers need clearance for the larger intake manifold.
For belt routing, using the gen2 AC compressor set up and timing cover, I Low mounted a fiero alternator and made a bracket to hold a gen4 3900 belt tensioner. Added a lower smooth idled and tapped a hold from the power steering mount for a upper ribbed idled and ended up with this, simple but pretty good belt wrap on the important parts:
Since I am going to be running a stand alone ECU I am able to run what every ignition set up I want, and even can waste spark fire LS1 based ignition coils. So modifying some left over brackets from my turbo vr6 vw rabbit I made some coil mounts and used the ls1 coils and plug wires:
Also you can see some color going onto the engine, well black:
I repainted the intake manifold adding a decal stencil for some fun and hopefully today I will be test fitting the motor, need to clean/paint some more parts and swap the oil pan over that has the turbo drain welded into it.
And hopefully if its running this week I will be taking back to Alex’s shop to get the newly painted/modified body panels installed
Having bought this car in 2006 wrecking it in 2012 and not even having it in my shop for the last 4 years I am super excited to have my first Fiero I ever bought back!
[This message has been edited by eph_kay (edited 01-16-2018).]
Before the car left my shop and went back to Chris I was able to finish the body work to the upper quarter. Our ultimate goal was to keep this looking as stock looking as possible, something where just walking by one wouldn't notice it's wider than your standard fiero. I will post photos here shortly With the process of the body work.
As I stated before I was able to get most of the actual wide body done before Chris took the car back to his shop for the engine swap. as far as the wide body goes our goal is OEM plus. Keep it as stock looking as possible but improve upon the design a little. We were aiming for 2 inches wider on each side but ended up just a little shy of that. To start out with I had to build most of this on the car so I could keep my gaps and body lines with the doors, bumpers and quarters. I started with 2 stock fastback clips. One was junk and all cracked out so no sad faces when you see how the process works. So to start I separated the outer skin of the junk clip with the inner structure, This gave me a skin that was flexible and able to overlay the existing quarter. After some trimming up I was able to get the fitment that I wanted. Now the task was to attach the new panel to the stock quarter. With my experience in the body shop I know of some good products for this operation. 3m makes an SMC panel bond 8219. I got all of my panel prepped and ready to make the step to attach the panels together. With a bunch of clamps and sheet metal screw (temporary) here is was I ended up with
Once the Panel bond was 100% dry now I could come back and start the glass and body work. I had to grind back down where the panels met and grooving out a little bit of material in order to get proper adhesion with the thin layer of fiberglass. (SMC resin not traditional). once the glass was dry I went back over with standard body filler to do my final coats. Every step I get closer the more excited I get to see the end result. here are some photos of the body work
I had to get some comparison photos just so see the difference just a little bit better.
[This message has been edited by AWautoworks (edited 01-11-2018).]
The next step is to attach the mounts for the bumper, quarter and fuel door. Back to the same product I used before. I prepped the inside of the panels and used the mounting points trimmed off of the inner structure.
[This message has been edited by AWautoworks (edited 01-10-2018).]
Next on our list of things to tackle is the rear lip spoiler. the goal with this is to keep this small and follow the oem lines with the tail lamps and with the decklid I found a few photos of what I'm aiming for
I will keep you updated with the progress start to finish
I've been able to make a little more progress this week on the rear lip spoiler. Getting the profile just right and the engineering to make it durable. My worry was making a wing that would crack out after constant use of pulling the deck lid down by the lip every time it was closed. So I decided to go with a rib style wing where there is a support ever 2 inches. The key to this was to make all the supports the exact same, and they had to fit the deck lid just right. every support got fiber glassed into place then I but a light layer of balsa to skin the supports. the internal cavities were filled with pillar foam for extra support but to keep it light. Now that the structure is built and shaped its time for a few layers of fiberglass.
I will be getting a few more photos of this process later on in the week
[This message has been edited by AWautoworks (edited 01-10-2018).]
Being a body guy I have a stash of visegrips as you can see...
I tweaked it a bit, but I thought that was such a unique photo of all those vicegrips.
I've been doing mechanical work on my own cars for 45 years, but never body work. It's a voodoo science I never learned.. but I love seeing what other people are able to accomplish. You do fine work!
This is the engine bay before brackets and battery tray were removed, and I got the bay painted and insulated:
Now for the in-depth crazy part that hopefully will help somebody down the road
In my shop I specialize in Megasquirt and Microsquirt stand alone computer installs, anything from a VW VR6 with 6 throttle bodies, coil near plug ignition, and a turbo to a VW W8 with twin turbos, I have also installed Microsquirt on a 3900 in a fiero with fully functioning variable cam shaft.
What I haven't done is run a Microsquirt off the GM 7x crank trigger wheel found in the 60v6(until the last few models with a 60-2 wheel) and in some Ecotec 4 cylinders. Well fast forward to the engine wired and 6 LS1 ignition coils installed. White setting ignition timing I found that the coils were firing roughly 120 degrees advanced. With some crank trigger wheel options in the MS world you can adjust the crank trigger angle offset to whatever you want. Sadly the GM 7x wheel only allows 20 degrees advanced or retarded, just not quite enough So I had to get creative, since v6 even fire engines fire every 120 degrees I got an idea that if I reordered the coils to effectively give a 561234 firing ordered as compared to the crank angle that I could get this 120 degree offset lined up. So before I did any wiring I grabbed the cylinder 5 plug wire and shot the timing light while cranking and it was spot on! so with a quick rewire of the coil trigger pins on both sets of coils and the car fired right up!!
I am currently working on getting interior back in and some tail lights set up for test driving, then the car will be going back to Alex's for the body to be installed!!
[This message has been edited by eph_kay (edited 01-16-2018).]
Finally got the brakes and clutch bled and replaced the alternator that was off my shelf and wasn't working.
Ended up grounding my map sensor to the chassis and not the engine, and it started acting up without a good ground from the engine to the chassis. I try hard to put a good ground from battery to block when I do the front mount battery, I just forget that you really need a chassis ground too
Got it sorted and motor is running pretty good, still needs lots of tuning.
Right now I have no muffler and the turbo noise is amazing, waiting for a body before it gets on the road to do real tuning, but a little concerned about it being too loud, lots of fun right now though
Working on wheels and tire set up for the wide body and I am leaning towards a weird mix I have a set of 3 good Enkei RPF1 17x8.5 5x100 wheels:
Now where it gets weird is I am trying to find some really wide rear wheels, 18x11, now the Enkei doesn't offer that wide, or in the set up I quite need, so I found some knock off Enkei RPF1's in 18x11 10mm offset and 5x114.3:
Conveniently I happen to have 5x112 hubs made up years ago for my gt set up with 18x8.5 and 19x9.5 and with some wobble lugs I can run the 5x114.3 on 5x112 and should be golden on the offset and width
So I should end up with a double staggered 17x8.5 with a 235/45r17 in the front and 18x11 with a 295/30r18 in the rear, hoping for a perfect stance with a good amount of rubber
I will try and update periodically to let you guys know what is going on, but I have Will Hammonds Fiero in the shop to replace the LS4 and another Fiero coming in for a microsquirt stand alone install on a 4.9 caddy swap. Also got to finish up a Microsquirt install on a cammed 3.4. But as the body gets finished up and parts come in its gonna be on the road
In the area next week and interested in what you are doing with the wide body. Mind if I stop by?
By all means come see us. We are working in two different locations right now. chassis is with Chris and the body is with me we are about an hour away from each other, but we are open to visitors as long as we are available.
I was able to get down to the shop this Sunday. I was able to get most of the body work completed on the main part of the spoiler. This was completely built out of scratch. It has a very common structure to an airplane wing, individual ribs keep the rigidity, It was filled with a cavity foam for support, Layered over with a balsa, fiber glassed over the balsa and into the deck lid its self with a final coat of body filler to make it straight. I still have to create the spoiler caps that are molded into the upper quarter but that is going to have to wait until I get the car so I can assure perfect alignment.
Being at a stopping point with the spoiler I decided to move ahead to the extractor hood. I went out to my car to get proper measurements where the radiator ends and able to start the actual scoop itself. If I remember right it was something like 11.5 inches from the center point on the hood to the back of the radiator fan. I had to keep the scoop small enough to fit between the main supports of the hood where the hinges bolt up. it is as wide as it can go without major modification. The front edge of the scoop is parallel with the front edge of the hood and not just straight across, Its just a minor detail but really adds to the profile. I found and old wing stand and cut it up for the center support, Using that saved a lot of time and again adds a uniqueness to the scoop. I started to make the uprights to the sides of the scoops, the first attempt I went straight up and down. It didn't look right at all, it looked to homemade. so just adding a bit of angle allowed me to create more of a flowing look to the scoop. Here is a tip that helped me keep that upright placed when I glass it in. What I did was take my cut off wheel and create a notch for the upright to sit in so it would stay in place and not slide about. When clamped it puts the pressure into the notch as opposed to just folding the upright.
[This message has been edited by AWautoworks (edited 01-10-2018).]
I like your hood mods. I would like to do my own but I'm very hesitant, a little afraid to do it from scratch. I think i'll just get the preformed scope from Archie and them glass it in
I like your hood mods. I would like to do my own but I'm very hesitant, a little afraid to do it from scratch. I think i'll just get the preformed scope from Archie and them glass it in
ill flip the hood over and get some photos of the inner and how I cut it. It really wasn't to bad at all. The hardest part was cutting the side pieces to the curve of the scoop, but once one was made I had a template for the other side. It was all in a good days work. I had everything initially glassed in to but it is all clamped up at the moment so I didn't get a photo of that
everything has been bonded and a bit of sanding done. I had to do just a little more glassing but all is good. I did flip it up to show where the cut was made to allow the skin to flex downwards. There is a factory notch in all the bracing and that's where I stopped the cut and finished notching out all the way to the outside skin to allow the flex. I will be building the sides up and glassing the inside as well but that's to come shortly
[This message has been edited by AWautoworks (edited 01-10-2018).]
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The ports on the gen 2 head are a little lower into the valley than the gen 3 intake, its fairly close, but could be better. Since this is a quick build to get the car on the road, and I didn’t want to swap to the 3400 heads I had on the shelf I added a little silicon and we will see the results before too long:
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