Colinb17's Little Red Rocket Build: 1988 Fiero

And thus begins the restoration, modification, and overall build of my 1988 Pontiac Fiero.

Current








I bought this car in October 2015, to serve as a daily driver, as the Tacoma is due to go under the knife for a significant build over the next couple of years. Car was purchased in fantastic shape. the only functional/drivability issue was the fried clutch. Goal is to be driving it to and from work every day by the end of April.

why a fiero? people seem to love them or hate them. the 1984s (first year made) had some pretty terrible issues, but the 85-87 got a lot better, with the 88 (final year made), received an improves suspension and some other small tweaks. I was looking for a daily driver that was both unique and fun to drive. My uncle owns two Fieros, on e of which I have driven. they are not fast cars, but they corner like go-karts. So when one popped up on craigslist about 2 hours away, before I know it, I had the keys to my first rear wheel drive, mid-engine, daily driver/project.

Now for the fun stuff......

Parts/specs list: Updated 3/22/16
all parts listed are either installed or sitting in my garage

Suspension:
-1'' lowering springs front and rear
-KYB shocks and struts valved for the stiffer/shorter springs

Brakes:
-Drilled rotors
-Hawkhead performance pads
-New parking break cable, housing, and hardware

Wheels/Tires
-15'' Rage R20s
-195/65/15 Ohtsu performance all weather
-Godsnow aluminum lug nuts

Drivetrain/Engine:
-HD clutch,
-HD pressure plate
-New TO bearing
-New Flywheel
-New front transaxle mount
-New serpentine belt
-Ocelot Performance exhaust (Catback)

Interior
-NRG type-r racing seats.
-NRG short hub and steering wheel quick disconnect
-NRG carbon fiber and suede steering wheel
-Momo leather shift knob

Stereo:
-Pioneer single din head unit (with Bluetooth since it's a stick shift)
-Carbon fiber vinyl wrapped, aluminum dash face plate
-Kenwood components front
-Polk Audio components rear

Other:
-Hella Supertones

Future:
-Fresh paint
-Remove the catalytic converter and redo the exhaust
-Oil catch can
-Projector headlights
-Rear strut brace
-Other interior and exterior aesthetic upgrades
-Suggestions?


Piktars!!!!!!!!

picked her up on a warm fall day with the wife and dog








a little fuzzy. car was extremely well kept


Loaded up on a trailer for the drive from Virginia to Southern Maryland.


2-3 car garage at the next house we move into will be a must.


with the way this car is set up, it is actually easiest to drop the motor and transmission out of the bottom, still attached to a portion of the frame (cradle) that can be completely removed. To do that, it's easiest to lift the entire ass end of the car off the ground with an engine hoist.


a little improvisation with some hardware I had layoung around, and we've got some solid lifting points.


Obligatory "shop dog".


First parts shipment. wheels, tires, and racing seats


A lot of welding later, and some custom seat brackets and sliders have the seats securely locked to the floor


The wheels provided their own challenges. Holes in the wheels for the lugs are extremely small. searched and searched form some good quality aluminum lug nuts that were small enough, but also closed ended/capped with a screw. Thank you @Torspd for the advise/suggestions. ended up with Godsnow aluminum lugs. floating chamfer washer and a plugged end.




Really really really tight fit, but they do indeed fit.




Next item to tackle was the steering wheel. Dated it may be, I love the interior of the car with its "fighter jet cockpit" feel. the steering wheel was the only part of it that I couldn't stand.
The original wheel


Bye bye!


Hub and quick release


Hub installed


quick release installed


Carbon wheel, wrapped in black suede, with red stitching to match the seats


installed




Momo shift knob. black leather and red stitching to match everything else. (also the last look at the factory radio)


little bit of new vs old.


And another big parts shipment!!!


Here we have springs, shocks, brakes, clutch, and some door seal parts not pictured.


Everything on this car is TINY. surprisingly easy to work on however.
Miniature clutch disk is a cute little thing isn't it?




Update 3/22/16


Busy as life tends to be, I've made a small amount of progress on the fiero.

installed the second seat (passenger). took a couple of pictures of the process to get an aftermarket seat bolted up without buying $200 a piece aftermarket mounting brackets.


first step is to take some scrap steel and weld a up a jig that can be welded to the factory seat mounts. I had some half inch all thread laying around that did the job.


then you cut off the mounting feet from the factory seats, making sure to note where the center line of the seat was, relative to the mounts. in this case, the upper (forward) mounts were equidistant from the center. the rear mounts are offset, son I had to go solely off of the forward mounts.



it would be a walk in the part if the sliders were the same width on the new seats as the old ones.....but they aren't. the solution is to take some 1/8'' flat bar, and weld it to the slider, giving you a weldable surface that Is the same width as the stock sliders.




no pictures of the final product unfortunately, but you get the idea.
had to be very careful that I didn't weld the moving and stationary portions of the slider together, so I had to keep my head right by the weld to see everything. end result was a toasty lens on the hood, but a slider that still moved.



starting to gather up some more toys (tools) for use on both vehicles. the first of many dimple dies has made its way into the garage. this is a 1'' die. got it with the hole in the center, so that it can be used with a press, or with a bolt, if it is in the middle of a larger sheet that doesn't fit in the press.




like a kid on Christmas morning, I had to play with the new toy. small piece of aluminum was the first thing I saw. worked well and was very clean.


Had some time to assemble the rear struts. plates on the upper end of the old assemblies were the only thing needed to transfer over.


These things are a death trap on Tacoma springs, but they are perfect for car springs with half the spring rate. they made for the easiest fiero related work I've done so far.


Final product vs stock. will yield roughly 1'' lower than stock.


back to the stereo...
after installing the new head unit, and kenwood speakers up front, I went to test it out, and was caught off guard. for having only two speakers in the front of the cabin, an '88 Pontiac fiero had the best acoustics I'd ever experienced. there was sound coming from all around me! then I found that there were some ninja speakers behind the headrest in the bottom of the b pillar.

Luckily, I had some Polk Audios laying around in the "random shit" box (I have a lot of those boxes)


with the much larger driver on these speakers, it was a tight fit, but after some cursing and kicking the dog in frustration a couple of times, they fit.


at almost 30 years old, some of the plastic trim components aren't doing so well, and like to break/disintegrate under any amount of force. speaker covers for these, fall into that category. so new covers it is. since they aren't visible unless the seat is folded forward, I didn't want to spend a lot of time and effort in it. had some material laying around from when I redid the Tacoma arm rests.




little bit of carbon wrap on an aluminum frame, and it's good enough for me......


next was the dash. the stock faceplate had a crack in one corner, which meant that it could only be held in place by 3/4 of the hardware. hand cut an aluminum replacement with the dremel.......did the job, but looked like shit.


so I took it off and prepped it for vinyl.


3M carbon fiber vinyl. very impressed with this stuff.


Wrapped


I still have some wiring to do behind the dash, so it's only resting in place right now. final install will have it recessed more, and the rubber surround pulled in tight to match its shape.




Update:4/1/2016

background info: the mid section of the Fiero is, for all intents and purpose, a unibody. the front and rear ends of the car are tube frames, similar to a Tacoma, or any other body on frame vehicle. this is actually pretty great, because by loosening the rear two bolts on the rear "cradle", the entire engine, transmission, suspension, etc, pivots down and out from underneath the car, with the front two bolts acting as the pivot points.

The downside however, is that the two rear bolts go into nuts that are contained within the unibody portion of the car, and are boxed in on all 6 sides. so when one of those nuts decides to start spinning, you start contemplating going down to the gun store, and picking up one of those fancy shotguns with a toe trigger.....

the solution to this is easy enough though, if you have a welder. see below.

The nut, while substantial, is only held in place by a thin gauge steel cover. too much torque on the nut (breaking the bolt loose in my case), will deform this thin cover, to the point that the nut spins inside of it. step one of the solution is to cut a window into the unibody, as seen in this picture.


then you have to remove the cover. a pry bar and some tin snips did the trick for me. again, you can now see that this is a pretty serious nut. it has a 3/8'' plate on the bottom, with the threaded portion covering the entire length of the bolt.


It's a pretty tight, dark space, being inside the frame, which is inside the fender well, so I apologize for the photo quality. I was limited by access for the welding gun, but was able to run roughly 2'' of 3/8 fillet weld on the nut, covering two sides of the diamond shaped nut. a little paint to prevent more rust, and it should be stronger than ever. just have to bend the window I cut back down, and weld that back up now.


New Exhaust came in a lot quicker than I though, along with a new serpentine belt. current belt looks ok, but I have no idea how old it is, so for $20, it's a good measure to take.

disassembled


Mocked up to roughly what it will look like installed. hoping to give the whole system a few coats of 1500 degree paint this weekend if rain holds off.

Stay posted for much much more!

 

Reserved for who knows what.......

 

Done yet?

 

buying parts faster than I can install them

 

In, i kinda want one of these for a rallycross car.....

 

Now why does that sound familiar? My FJ case is showing up today. Might as well get that body lift that I bought two years ago put on.

 

Good Lord, you have put in some work already! I help where I can

 

That new steering will is far better than the last one. Definitely.

 

would be a lot of fun

Haha, I remember seeing the box with those parts in your apartment, in 2014

learning a lot about the car world.....thank you for the help so far, I'm sure i'll be calling you, laying under the car with a question, sooner or later.

Thank you. functional too, since it give much better grip. needed on a car like this without power steering.

 

if you dont LS swap that thing, I will be disappointed!

 

Woohoo

 

I'm thinking turbo I4, or super/turbo V6. if you V8 swap these things, the front end becomes so light, you pretty much limit yourself to having a drag car. all about weight distribution.

 

4bt

 

LSX in Fiero?

 

On a more serious note, you should swap in a 1.9L TDI engine. Instant torque at 1200 rpm would make for a fun little rocket. The 50mpg wouldn't hurt either.

Do it!

 

MPG already ranges from 30-40 depending on how I drive it.

 

Bet you could double that with a TDI in there.

And come on... you know you want to roll coal in a Fiero.

 

dual stacks out of the rear hood vents would be pretty legit.

 

This. Hahaha

 

your car needs the fake Ferrari Bodykit thats out there