[This message has been edited by Trinten (edited 09-22-2019).]

Okay! It's been a while, I have some updates.

The easy stuff first. As Mike dug into the wiring (messy crap from the aftermarket stereo and speakers, radio harness), I traced and removed the wiring that was left from the aftermarket alarm system. It was pretty amateur. Twisted together and bound with electrical tape. Nothing was even soldered. Mike said that some shops will even do crap installs like that because it's fast.



While on the topic of speakers - I went to put in the new 5.25" speakers that Crutchfield said would fit the B-Pillars, they even recommended a set of adapters. The adapters didn't quite work as intended. Some of the holes are cut almost like they're for keyholes, but not orientated right. This is NOT the final setup. I'll try to find a screw with a 'shoulder' so I can get rid of the washer, or trim it down, on the side with the shroud.

My question is... does anyone know if the B Pillar cover will fit properly over the speaker if I leave it's shroud on like this???





With that shroud, I'm guessing it adds almost 2 inches to the width. Because it extends past the adapter, I'm guessing it won't fit under the pillar. Thoughts?

On the other side, I removed the shroud... admittedly by dropping the speaker when trying to get it out of the plastic. It looks like it fits better. BUT I had to put washers between the back of the speaker and the adapter plate, or the adapter flexed and wouldn't mount flush to the b-pillar!!



Should I (more carefully) remove the shroud on the first one and set it up like this?


Onto other things!


Mike had me get a particular type of wiring harness connector - two sets of them, one for the front firewall and the back. They are pretty nifty, you pin them, wire them, and they press together and have a screw-down sleeve. Plus, they fit almost perfectly int his space! With a rubber grommet, they'll be snug.



I also pulled out the brake pedal from one of Mike's other Fiero's and installed it in mine, and put back the S10 brake booster.






Mike has been busy doing mock-ups and modifying things. My awesome new radiator had to be tweaked, and will require one more tweak. The filler cap made it SLIGHTLY too tall, and it wouldn't clear the hood. He had a small piece of aluminum that was the right thickness, but had two small holes in it. He filled in those holes, removed the filler cap, and welded it over. He also modified the lower tube to clear the sway bar so it can connect up easily.



We also discovered that the windshield washer tank on the 84s are smaller than the 87. I might get one of these to buy us a little more space.




Mike has planned out where the EHPS pump will go (he used my idea of bracketing it to the steering rack and having the reservoir come up through the new "floor" he's making).
Where the battery will go (we're forgoing the under-the-passenger-light idea).
And roughly how big the water tank for the intercooler will be.

I also found I need to get some more of this foam stuff to go around the vents before the new dash goes in --- anyone have any suggestions on where I can get this?




And lastly... the darn carpet!! I tried to make "relief cuts" so it would fit flush/better around the compound curves and such... I'm just really not happy with it. The passenger side is not nearly as bad as the driver side. I'm trying to find an auto-interior place that will come out to the car and either fix my mess, or just install a new set of carpet. I'm leaning towards a new set. I'm also sad that the molding on the floor was not as good as the pictures on ACC's website.

[This message has been edited by Trinten (edited 03-24-2023).]

Thanks Amida! I did try using jute from the old carpet to 'bolster up' the dips in the floor pan... the results were so-so.



I ultimately decided that it was insane to put all this effort and top-quality parts into a Fiero with a carpet that didn't look it's best. To that end, I asked Mike if we could arrange our attack plan in the following order:

1. Finish up the stuff under the hood (updates on that below with pictures! And maybe some jokes! Maybe not! I haven't typed it up yet!)
2. Finish the rear suspension so the car can sit on it's wheels and be rolled around.
2a. Maybe also finish wiring repairs and modifications now, too.
4. We'll trailer the car to a professional auto-upholstery place and have them put in a new carpet. I have found one and let them know I'd like them to do it same day, so we'll coordinate with them.
5. Start finish mechanical work in engine compartment
6. Awesome new interior goes in last (less risk of any damage or staining to the leather this way).

With the weather getting colder, and days getting shorter, working in Mike's driveway is gonna be tougher. So next weekend he is planning on finishing up another customers GNX clone (he was waiting on axles to show up), so that can be rolled out of that garage bay, and we can move my car in there. His garage has a heater and ample lighting, so it'll make working on it easier.

Recently Mike has been focusing on stuff under the hood and coolant tubes running under the car, while I finished goofing around with the new B-Pillar speakers.

I grabbed a stock B pillar and fit it in the car, and checked around on all sides, (and through the glass in the back), and it appears it'll clear around the speaker with it's "shroud" in place. When we go to put the interior in and get to the B-Pillars, we'll use this stocker as our test fit, as I don't want to risk damaging any clips on my leather-wrapped ones with a test fit that might need to come back out.

So here is what the new speakers look like:



Mike discovered that the coolant tube on the driver side had been crushed (we all know how that happened). Since these tubs have been empty for so long, he wormed the coolant tube out, cut out the crushed portion, had some aluminum of the right wall thickness and I.D., and welded it in place.









Mike is a master fabricator, so the weld bead was awesomely done, and not all "globbed" inside of the tube. I couldn't get a good picture.

On the topic of cooling... he is selling me one of his old air-to-water intercoolers. It's a Spearco unit.



This thing is a monster. I want to say it was around 12x12x6. The reservoir he's going to put up front is going to hold around 4-5 gallons of water, and have a big enough neck to drop ice into.

He's still thinking about a solution for the tubs to go from the intercooler to it's reservoir. his first one was a double-box tube - super resistant to damage, but have to powdercoat it to protect against rust, and heat transfer from the tubes being side-to-side.

For transmission coolant lines,he had me buy copper-nickel tubing, so I'd never (reasonably) need to worry about rust.

We did finish mocking up the radiator hoses. I apparently only took a picture of the lower side test fit.



"Do you know what tool a fabricator can never have too many of?" "No?" "Vice grips."



That above picture is the frame to the "removable floorpan" that'll be under the hood. It will bolt in place. That box with all the vice grips is where the battery tray will be attached. You can see the outside part of that frame in other pictures, as it's been installed for test fitting things for a while.

Speaking of test fitting! We connected the Z06 power steering cooler to the EHPS pump. The hose that came with the cooler was the correct size for that return connection. Originally, that connection was turned about 45 degrees to the left. Mike loosened the metal band (screw/worm style), and after making sure the reservoir for the power steering unit wasn't "keyed", he very carefully clocked it to where he wanted it, with the comment of "You are so lucky. Usually when people get into doing crazy mods like this, there's a lot more obstacles. The way this is all going together, it's almost like it was made for it."

He was commenting not just on the clockable part, but that the mounting points of the pump lined up with mounting points on the power steering rack, and cleared my brake booster!



When the "floor" up there goes in, it will have a cut-out that the reservoir will peek up partially through it, to allow easy checking and filling if necessary.

Mike also had me get a brake proportioning valve. Since we were doing brake lines up front, I brought over an unopened 25' spool of stainless steel 3/16ths brake line, and a partial spool of it. I've had this since 2008, when the hard line on my '94 town car blew out, and the auto shop had to hand bend/fabricate new brake lines, because prefabs weren't available anymore.

One of the original pieces we actually were able to reuse, but it looked so lousy next to the really nice new stainless, that Mike fabbed up a replacement.

Testing fitting the bracket for the valve and one of the lines:



And it's "final" assembly:




I also did manage to get an '84 Windshield washer fluid tank super cheap on ebay, so took out the higher capacity one and put this one in for now. This is to give more room for the intercooler water tank up front.



And lastly, in the back Mike finished removing the rest of the unneeded strut towers! There is SO MUCH MORE ROOM back there now! Mounting the turbo and other things don't seem to pose any problems now (it was possible before, but would have made some repairs/maintenance a pain in the butt -- and I'd like things to be accessible for just those reasons.)







I also ordered an LT1 Cruise control unit, so servo driven but doesn't need all the other inputs and such that came on some LS cruise control systems. This will be a "simple" matter of extending and matching up wires, and tapping a 4000 PPM feed to the unit (either from the speedometer or from my 0411 PCM).

Right now I'm chasing down cables and such to connect the automatic shifter to the 4T80 transmission (I started another thread on that, because I was having some trouble finding the info I needed. Thankfully a member here replied with the majority of the info I needed!).

[This message has been edited by Trinten (edited 03-24-2023).]