Time to update this. I'm posting from Thumper's (William's) place right now and he currently has dial-up so I won't be able to upload pictures right now. Maybe tuesday...
Anyway, I drove up here from Joplin on Saturday and then we went and picked up the car from Todd Saturday night after the tow vehicle was fixed (carb issues). The car is really in wonderful shape and Todd was really cool to meet. I got to see his Indy, his shop, and his various parts piles laying around. Too bad I wasn't able to see it a few years ago though when he was in full swing but its allright. Its weird to say, but the first time I've ever sat in a Fiero/moved in one was when I was guiding the car up the ramps onto Williams trailer... I've just always knew I'd like one without having to sit in one
The car itself is in really decent shape. The seats are amazing... I'll post pictures in a couple days but if anyone needs some original tan seats for a restoration then hit me up for a trade because I've never seen seats in this good of shape on any other Fiero. I haven't found any major rust other than the battery tray so thats a plus and I"ll know for sure just what kind of shape it is when I get it up on a lift for dropping the cradle on Tuesday. Todd happened to have a set of meaty BF 14 inch tires that I bought from him too. I know the stock GT rims are 15 but I know a certain someone that really wants them and has good tires on their 14" rims. Otherwise, the car has the standard issues like sun-faded paint, issues with warping in the center console, questionable headliner condition, cracks on the dash corners, cracked marker lights, etc.
Needless to say the car passed my inspections and so we towed it back to Thumper's place and went to bed.
Today the plan was to take the car to a shop at Whiteman to work on it but the shop was closed. We hauled the car back and decided to take the extra block and my transmission to swap in and clean them up and start building them to prep them for when we do drop the cradle. The motor and trans was power washed after being soaked in degreaser and then we started work.
First was the trans. We pulled all the old Bonneville mounts off, swapped in the new governor cover (with a bit of trouble from a broken bolt), screwed in my pressure sender (we will need an elbow BTW), and started hooking up the FieroAddiction mounts (super good quality and fit!). After that, we started work on the motor. We were going to try to change out the timing set but the lower gear wouldn't budge even with some creative rigging of a puller. We'll have to rent one to get it off tomorrow. Then we started work on the top end only to find out that we're short the lower intake so we called up Todd and he's going to try to find one for us.
We had to make a few more errands so thats about all we got done today. The plan for tomorrow is to pull the heads off the old motor and pull it out of the GT from the top so we can get the oil pan and front cover off. Then we'll get a puller for the gear, swap in the new timing set, and put the oil pan and front cover together. Also, we'll be replacing the oil pump, water pump, rear main seal, and main seal on the transmission. After that, the trans is ready to be bolted to the motor.
Then William needs to pick up a truck and (hopefully) pick up the last dab of parts we need from Todd so we can finish up the top side of the motor. The plan for now is to prep the motor and have it ready to drop in as soon as the shop opens on Tuesday and we get the cradle dropped. Hopefully the car will fire up and move under its own power Tuesday or maybe Wednesday if we run into issues.
I have been taking lots of pictures so I'll try to post some while we're in Whiteman and have access to faster internet. In the mean time I present you with my observations:
-Why did GM use weird E16 bolts for the upper intake??
-Why did GM use Torx bolts to hold the TB to the upper intake... they're a pain to get out! Hex head drivers don't break nearly as easy as Torx drivers do
-Gunk makes a great working (and smelling - citrus!) degreaser
-WD - 40 works well as a cutting fluid when drilling out broken bolts (only 1 so far!!)
-I never thought I'd need to pay attention to 56K warnings again
-So far everyone Fiero-related have been awesome people!!
More info and pictures as I have time/fast internet