Rescuing my dads old Fiero GT 1987 (Page 1/23) Repulsiv SEP 28, 03:52 PM Hello everyone. First of all, I hope I post this in the right section.. Since I am new here I will start with a few words about me as a background. I am a guy from Sweden that love cars and motorcycles, about 20 years ago I worked with cars too, but since then i went on to technican for printers/copiers, then I worked with IT (UNIX sysadmin) for 15 years, and now I work as a service engineer in aviation, ATC systems to be precise. I have had many cars, but right now I have two Toyota Celica's, one GT (ST202, 175hp FWD with LSD), one GT-Four (ST205, 242hp turbo, 4WD LSD), and two saabs, one 9-5 SE that my girl drives, and a 9-5 Aero that I use as daily driver. I also have two old Suzuki motorcycles (GSX1100e and a GS500e) Enough about that. 15 years ago my dad bought a blue metallic Fiero GT '87 (V6), once imported from US (but it have been in sweden for the last 20 years I think), the problem is that he havent used the car for nearly 10years, and the first 8 of those years it was parked outdoors, two years ago he built a garage and wanted to move the fiero into it, and just put in a battery, started it and drove it the 50m into the garage, parked it and there it have been since then. Even before those 10 years it was hardly used for maybe 3-4 years, it was parked in a garage and he used it a few times a year or so, before this he actually used the car one summer, about 2000km. To the point. Now he is going to move from the house to an apartment, and since he own three cars he do not have any space for the fiero, I asked how he going to do it, and he said "I probably just leave it there and let the new owner of the house take it, he said it was ok", then I was "NOOOOOO" you cannot do that! I really had to save the car, unfortunatly it was parked about 150km from where I live, and it's not road legal, so in the end I had to find a guy with a car transporter to transport it for me, less than a week before "date of no return".. puh! Now the car stands here outside my house, the paint is in bad condition, the battery is dead and wont take charge, the inner roof hangs, the oil pressure meater peaks full to the right, the stereo doesnt work, all tires are crap, or well, they are "as new", except the sun have killed them, looks awful and not safe at all. So now I have to transform this sad piece of car to a road legal fun to drive car. My girlfriend (and mom of my kids) dont like it at all, and I had to do a lot of sweet-talking before I brought it home.. I was hoping that I could create this thread here and post about my progress, and at the same time post questions that I find during the way, I made such a thread when I was resurrecting my first SAAB 9-5 at the STCS (SAAB turbo Club Sweden) forum, and it was very polular among the members, and it became a great source of help for me, and a nice log what i actually did. (can post a link if someone is interested, but it is all in swedish..) Glenn Repulsiv SEP 28, 03:54 PM ..I wanted to post some pictures of it here but havent been able to find out how to do that, do I have to post on another site and link it here ? Spadesluck SEP 28, 04:18 PM First, welcome to the forum and the fiero world. Thank you for the story. Second, do a search for PIP. That is the program to post pictures that is best for this site. It will take a minute to get used to but it works just fine. fierofool SEP 28, 04:29 PM Welcome and Bravo for your taking on the restoration project and saving a Fiero. Tell your girlfriend that it's related to a Ferrari and maybe she'll ease up a little. After all, the 87 and 88 model year Fieros had a rebody commissioned by Pontiac and sold by Pontiac dealers that looked similar to a Ferrari 308GTB. It was called a Mera. Look it up on Google images. At the bottom of this page is a red, white and blue logo for Pennocks Image Poster commonly called PIP. Click on that logo and follow the instructions. It doesn't work on mobile devices, so you will need to download to a PC or laptop. You'll also need an image resizing program. Resize to 1024 x 720 and they will be large enough to see clearly but not require scrolling the screen side to side to see all of the picture. Offsite hostings have proven to be a problem with retention of pictures. Recently photobucket decided to hold everyone's photos hostage unless they began to pay a fee. Pictures in many build and restoration and technical threads disappeared, with only the text still available. Patrick SEP 28, 04:55 PM quote Originally posted by Repulsiv: I wanted to post some pictures Use PIP. Maximum image width - 1024 pixels. Maximum file size - 300 kb. Welcome to the forum. Repulsiv SEP 28, 05:00 PM Yes, I am very aware of the problem of using off-site pictures, suddenly they change the rules or simply remove all "old" pictures, or well, stop existing. Thanks for the lesson about posting pics here, I have never seen that variant before, but I guess it should work (but I have to resort to windows, I prefere linux..) First try: This is the "good side", i.e the side that was against the wall when my dad left the car standing outdoors for 8 years.. (You can also see my dads "husbil" behind it, he didnt have any space for that either, so he store it at our place for a while..) This is how the paint looks on the other side.. ..and... ..Not even mentioning the wing, that look totally awful I'm not sure if this can be saved, or have to be repainted, but I will fist try to se if it is just the clear lacquer that is destroyed.. well, the wing is probably not saveable but the rest.. Here is other views of the car.. Anyway.. the tyres.. ..Not very nice, I am in the process of get other ones, unfortunatly 215/60R15 seem to be a uncommon dimension, so I think i will go for 225/60R15 rear instead, and the original 205/60R15 front.. Well, the engine.. ..Not very clean, but after 10 years.. The interior is "ok", except the inner roof that hangs, and I know its a very common problem on all brands of cars, I used to work in a company that did a lot of things, but one was to replace bad inner roofs.. Repulsiv SEP 28, 05:23 PM I can post some thing that actually is good about the car.. - It's mine (Actually not legaly yet since my dad couldnt find the registration papers, but really soon..) - It starts (with jumper cables) - the brakes is not totally stuck (when I was restoring the old 9-5 I had to replace EVERYTHING, rotors, pads, hoses, brakelines and rebuild the calipers..) - It seem to have adjustable koni dampers - it also seem to have some form of performance chip "ADS super chip" ? ..not sure.. - No fungus inside, which is a common problem for a car stored outdoors a long time in Sweden - Now it is 2017, which make the car 30 years old, that means it is classified as "classic", and that mean no road tax (only a very small yearly administrative fee), and cheaper insurance ..And the bad things I found out this far.. - The paint sucks.. - The battery is dead - It's not road leagal, and havent been since 2007 - the oil pressure gauge does not work - the stereo does not work - the catalytic converter is removed (might be a good thing, since the swedish law only require this after model 1988 ) - the inner roof is a disaster ..My first steps will be.. - Get "new" tyres, I'm onto that, just hope that I can remove the wheels (I had that prob with the saab..) - Replace the gasoline in the tank that is 10 years old - Change oil and filter - Put it thru "besiktningen", which is the swedish yearly inspection for safety that make the car road legal again. One problem is that I cannot take it for a test drive and see how branes and other thing works without making it road legal FIRST.. before we used to have a special rule that you could test drive it after fixing the car, but since a lot of people misused that law it was removed.. As soon as it is road legal again I will try to fix the rest, unfortunatly the winter is coming and I do not have any space indoors, so when the snow come it have to pause.. also I have two kids and a full time work so.. Some quick questions.. - what kind of oil should I use ? ..I usally always go for fully synthetic, but is it wise for this car ? ..how much oil ? (No I do not have a owners manual, dad might have it somwhere..) - Does it have pushrods, camchain or cambelt ? ..I guess it is pushrods ? ..then I dont have to think about replacing a old timing belt.. - How about cooling fluid, i belive this is a all iron cast engine, even the heads ? what type of glycol is best suited for this ? can I use a normal ethylene based long life glycol ? how much ? - I also want to replace the brake fluid, but there im pretty sure I can just use a high quality DOT 4 or 5.1 fluid.. ? Patrick SEP 28, 05:35 PM quote Originally posted by Repulsiv: Thanks for the lesson about posting pics here... First try: Congrats, success! And you even knew to enter a space between images. Excellent. Some long time members can never figure out how to properly post images here. fierofool SEP 28, 05:57 PM A Blue 87. What a gift! Everything on that car is salvageable, including the wing. A decent paint shop can bring it back to beautiful. tshark SEP 28, 06:49 PM Congrats! I could repeat what others have already posted, but I'll move on to what they didn't post. You really need to check the frame rails, trunk, etc for rust. Someone already replaced the exhaust tips. You'll need to replace all the fluids. Also, check the brake lines and the fuel hoses CAREFULLY. Probably all rubber hoses need to be replaced. Make sure to clean the debris out of the heater box--this causes a lot of fires. Yes, this is a pushrod V6, with a cast iron block and a timing chain. Check for wires eaten by rodents.