Phlebmaster's 86 Fiero GT Evolution- full of pics and win! (Page 1/5)
Phlebmaster DEC 05, 07:29 PM
I decided to start a project thread... since this car is definitely going to be a project to get it going as a daily driver first, but also taking it beyond that to what ever my imagination decides to do with this amazing car.

So here we go, I have recently purchased a good looking and fairly clean 1986 Fiero GT with ~143,000 miles. The only mods right now are some cool looking sails and an attempt at gold paint. It is a 10 foot paint job for sure, but not a hack job or rattle can. It needs a clay bar and polishing to bring out the intended gold. The original color was silver (I think). In this thread I will be posting my progress as I work through the car to get her into shape, with pictures of anything of value... which others may find useful if they are working on the same issues. This thread will be pic heavy with descriptions for each one, because I am a visual person but it will help if I have questions about a specific issue to "show you" what I am talking about. This car sat for several months before I got her, but was a 2 owner car and both people were related. I am owner # 3, and trust this car was well maintained based on what I have seen so far and what I know of the previous owners.

My goals:

1. To Make her a daily driver, I need to fix the electrical gremlins keeping the car from functioning as intended. These issues will be addressed and documented here.
  • a. I was able to get the headlights and motors back on line and actuating up/down. When I got the car only one side would intermittently work and I had to manually raise and lower them. I cleaned up the wiring in the dash area and front clip, reset the grounds etc...
  • b. The power windows are sloooow to roll up/down. They both work but I don't count on them working properly for long without some intervention.
  • c. The radiator fan switch needs replaced, I am using the A/C to run the fan when needed now (not ideal) but that rules out the relay.
  • d. The ECM is throwing 2 codes- 21 (TPS high volt) and 32 (EGR). I have replaced the vacuum lines in the EGR circuit so I hope that helps. I need to order the TPS. No other engine codes or engine mechanical issues I am aware of.
  • e. Last week my car stopped running (no spark). I ran through the recommended tests for the electrical connections and signals but I am not that great at reading my multi-meter but I narrowed it down to the pick-up coil or ignition control module...or both. The distributor is a lot of rust on the coil pick-up tabs. I just purchased a new distributor, plug wires and ICM just the be thorough. those should be in my hands by next week, then I'll start sharing that process.


2. Look at possible body kit options. I am not going to do anything crazy, but maybe find some tasteful side scoops and possibly a front bumper. But who knows!? It depends on what is available and when I am ready to tackle that. It will be down the road a bit. I really like the chopped look.

3. Look at potential engine upgrades- The 3.4 is my first choice, but again... this is down the road and who knows what will come along.

Here are pictures of the car as it sits now..... More to come when I get the distributor and other goodies! Sit back and enjoy.... Thank you for the support on this forum. There are some good peeps here.





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Aaron H
1986 Fiero GT 2.8- A dream car of mine since childhood- Stock now, but looking for creative options to upgrade this wonderful car
2000 Caddy Deville- Has the Northstar- possible donor engine

[This message has been edited by Phlebmaster (edited 12-05-2018).]

rice.1 DEC 06, 11:33 AM
Awesome, Phlebmaster!

Those sails do look pretty neat. Good luck! I look forward to seeing the progress!
copperhens DEC 06, 05:09 PM
I like your goals! I'm following.

My Fiero died on me at an intersection a couple years ago. It had no spark, and it was because of the pickup coil. I got it a whole new distributor; the upgraded type.
Phlebmaster DEC 07, 09:38 AM
Thank you both. This will be fun!

Unfortunately yesterday my Cadillac decided that it was done for life. Which means that I am going to start project cannibal Cadillac for the Fiero. I guess when life hands you a pile of crap it’s time to plant a garden. lol The sad part is that leaves me with no running driving vehicle at the moment until I get my distributor on the Fiero. Keeps life interesting for sure.... let’s see what we can do with this opportunity.

It looks like my Fiero is going to get heated seats at some point and a self dimming rear view mirror. And anything else that I can salvage off of the Cadillac. Unfortunately I do not have a place or the means to store the Northstar so that’s going to go to the wrecker. But I am going to pull as many things off of it as I possibly can in an attempt to set myself up later if I decide to go that route. Things like the wiring harness, the computer etc are coming out.

Both front and rear seats in the Cadillac are heated so I’m going to pull the foam off and re-purpose those inside the Fiero later. The winters here pretty cold lately and it would be an added feature to the car that wasn’t there before. Pics to follow when I pull the goodies out of my caddy.

Copperhens..... do you have any special requests? I know you’re building up a Northstar for your Fiero. Let me know if you need anything soon. the HOA in my neighborhood is not mechanic friendly so I’ll have to get what I can in a day.

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Aaron H
1986 Fiero GT 2.8- A dream car of mine since childhood- Stock now, but looking for creative options to upgrade this wonderful car
2000 Caddy Deville- Has the Northstar- possible donor engine

copperhens DEC 07, 04:02 PM

quote
Originally posted by Phlebmaster:

Thank you both. This will be fun!

Unfortunately yesterday my Cadillac decided that it was done for life. Which means that I am going to start project cannibal Cadillac for the Fiero. I guess when life hands you a pile of crap it’s time to plant a garden. lol The sad part is that leaves me with no running driving vehicle at the moment until I get my distributor on the Fiero. Keeps life interesting for sure.... let’s see what we can do with this opportunity.

It looks like my Fiero is going to get heated seats at some point and a self dimming rear view mirror. And anything else that I can salvage off of the Cadillac. Unfortunately I do not have a place or the means to store the Northstar so that’s going to go to the wrecker. But I am going to pull as many things off of it as I possibly can in an attempt to set myself up later if I decide to go that route. Things like the wiring harness, the computer etc are coming out.

Both front and rear seats in the Cadillac are heated so I’m going to pull the foam off and re-purpose those inside the Fiero later. The winters here pretty cold lately and it would be an added feature to the car that wasn’t there before. Pics to follow when I pull the goodies out of my caddy.

Copperhens..... do you have any special requests? I know you’re building up a Northstar for your Fiero. Let me know if you need anything soon. the HOA in my neighborhood is not mechanic friendly so I’ll have to get what I can in a day.




That sucks about your Northstar! Did the head gasket take a crap?

I like the plan for those heated seats. Makes me tempted to do something like that in mine lol.

That's a nice offer, but I don't think there is anything I need right now, thanks. You may want to check out the Fiero Facebook page and post about that Caddy. There could be someone interested, and maybe they'll give you something for it? Ay least if you take the engine harness and computer from your car, you could always sell it to someone in the future if you don't go the Northstar route.
Phlebmaster DEC 07, 04:45 PM

quote
Originally posted by copperhens:


That sucks about your Northstar! Did the head gasket take a crap?

I like the plan for those heated seats. Makes me tempted to do something like that in mine lol.

That's a nice offer, but I don't think there is anything I need right now, thanks. You may want to check out the Fiero Facebook page and post about that Caddy. There could be someone interested, and maybe they'll give you something for it? Ay least if you take the engine harness and computer from your car, you could always sell it to someone in the future if you don't go the Northstar route.



You guessed it.... oil in the coolant tank was my clue. Really does kind of suck at the moment but in the end the Fiero is going to benefit from it... so I’m OK with that.

Thank you for the suggestion about posting it up on the Facebook page. I might just do that.

Maybe I’ll just do this with the caddy.... this bike belongs to a friend of mine. Quite inspirational haha but not practical




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Aaron H
1986 Fiero GT 2.8- A dream car of mine since childhood- Stock now, but looking for creative options to upgrade this wonderful car
2000 Caddy Deville- Has the Northstar- possible donor engine

[This message has been edited by Phlebmaster (edited 12-07-2018).]

Phlebmaster DEC 12, 09:28 AM
She is back up and running again!! The new distributor was an upgraded version and it came with the new ICM and cap/rotor. No need to post pics of what everyone else has done here, but I want to send out a special THANK YOU to Buddycraigg for his post here http://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum2/HTML/045528.html and Youtube videos on the distributor replacement and timing. I had some high end thermo paste so I gobbed that under the ICM and used dielectric grease on all the connections

I also replaced the TPS while I was in there...

The only code left is the 32- so I will follow Buddycraigg's information when fixing that next.

The distributor went in with very little fuss....except the oil pump drive got moved a bit when taking out the old distributor. :-( So that added a little fun last night when it was monsooning. The deck lid got blown down on my head more than once. LOL time for tylenol . I got soaked and a headache, BUT the car runs and drives now and that makes it worth the effort. I still need to set the timing however. My timing light gave up the ghost and I have not been able to borrow one for this project... time to buy another one now that I have a car that will be needing it.

Next thing- I have started pulling (cherry picking) parts off the Northstar Caddy that died last week. Here is my list that will likely be assimilated into the Fiero at some point.

1. Heated seats! and maybe add a little more foam in the buttox area. I will re-purpose the foam from the Caddy seats with the heating elements in the Fiero. I will also pull any relays needed for this to work.
2. Self dimming rear view mirror- specifically the Onstar with digital compass so I don't get lost. haha
3. switches- lighted power window, headed seats, and anything else that I can easily pull as spares. I know I can make some of these work if needed.
4. ECM wiring harness, intake, with injectors/fuel rail, coil packs and as many sensors as I can get from the Northstar- I may use this later but if anyone here needs these for a swap I will have it.
5. bulbs- inside and out- these are cheap to buy but when you need a spare...and they don't take up much space.

Then the Caddy goes off to the wrecker to help another person needing anything left. The head gasket and starter failed and I have limited space which is why I am not pulling the motor and tranny out myself.

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Aaron H
1986 Fiero GT 2.8- A dream car of mine since childhood- Stock now, but looking for creative options to upgrade this wonderful car
2000 Caddy Deville- Has the Northstar- possible donor engine

[This message has been edited by Phlebmaster (edited 12-12-2018).]

Phlebmaster DEC 19, 11:01 AM
The Caddy is gone... but it went to a friend who wanted to try and fix it, so I left it mostly intact. I still got the rear view mirror and rear heated seats. :P Glad it went to help someone out.

On a good note- I discovered a fairly complete 85 SE at the local pick-n-pull so I'll be a regular there while I get parts off that.

Anyway, I have been working on the Fiero and trying to sort out a vac leak. It's running super rich right now and the EGR code comes on when I step on the brake hard. There's a vac leak somewhere, so as I work that out I'll share what I find.... if I find it. It will get all new lines soon and hope that cures it.

I also took a hole saw to the inside section of the air intake vent where it gets restricted access- I read that was a thing to do somewhere here- and it has helped with throttle response and it sounds amazing! I am sure I'll pay for that later somehow. LOL

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Aaron H
1986 Fiero GT 2.8- A dream car of mine since childhood- Stock now, but looking for creative options to upgrade this wonderful car
2000 Caddy Deville- Has the Northstar- possible donor engine

[This message has been edited by Phlebmaster (edited 12-19-2018).]

Phlebmaster DEC 20, 02:38 AM
When I said this thread was going to be full of pics and win...I was not intending to mean from fixing things in desperate situations. LOL Tonight on my way home from work the thermostat housing sprung a leak and I was on the side of the road trying to sort out where the leak was. Apparently it's "a thing" for these cars to rust in the thermostat housing. I didn't have many tools with me in the car other than a screwdriver and a knife, but I had what I needed to get this bandaged enough to get back to my shop and fix the problem tonight.

It was the metal hose piece leading to the heater core return line. I wasn't sure how I was going to get out of this one without leaving the car overnight, but then I remembered I had a spare spark plug and guess what!? It just barely fit inside the heater core return hose enough to block it and just fit inside the thermostat nipple enough to seal and stop the leak long enough to get me back to work where I could fix it. I pulled the thermostat too as a precaution and to reduce pressure in the system. It was not a fun drive....But I made it with no problems.

This was the culprit.... the small lower hose was metal version of swiss cheese




Glad I had this spark plug with me, it was so random too!





Oh my! a good wine with this cheese would be great! it was toast!



So I went to work on it to see what I could do... I mean I still have to get home after all. I bead blasted it to see the extent of the damage and it was pretty grim. I had to use my resources and noggen to find a solution.



Most of the holes were pretty small, but some parts were in bad shape so I needed to fill in the metal where I could. I had solder..... so here we go!



Obviously solder was not the best solution and was not going to last so I got out the goop... the solder will help reduce the pressure on the JB Weld and work with it to strengthen the repair long enough for me to get a replacement.



I filled it in in layers so I could build it up enough to allow for sanding it into the right size/shape for the hose later...



After several layers and some set time I filed the pipe level and sanded the tip round to ensure the hose seals...



Lastly.... some paint. I mean, what the heck, it is out and the paint will protect it even more as a temp fix. It looks almost new! Chances are this would last for quite a while now but I'll be looking for a new one as insurance regardless. Thanks for reading... It has been a fun evening! Time to go to bed.



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Aaron H
1986 Fiero GT 2.8- A dream car of mine since childhood- Stock now, but looking for creative options to upgrade this wonderful car

Patrick DEC 20, 04:15 AM

quote
Originally posted by Phlebmaster:



I am owner # 3, and trust this car was well maintained based on what I have seen so far...



Still feel that way? Kind of looks like battery acid has been used as coolant in that car!

[This message has been edited by Patrick (edited 12-20-2018).]