As some may know, I was hit by a 73 year old woman driving a Ford Escort as I was going to work. She failed to yeild to me as I was going straight through the intersection and she was turning. Here is the car after it was brought home.

The damage included hood, fender, and door. Under the skin, there was damage to the headlight area, above the fender, the front of the door, and most visibly, the upper control arm. Here is a photo of the damage after removing the fender (what was left of it), and the wheel.

MRJ brought me a upper control arm, so I replaced it hoping it would pull the wheel back into alignment. I had to cut out the old upper control arm bolt because it was bent severely. I got one free from Pull-a-part because I was there getting something else. Here is the upper control arm after replacement.

Well, that didn't work. This is how the car sat after the new control arm. Keep in mind that the wheel had about twice the negative angle before replacing the bent control arm.

My next idea was to just pull the whole front assembly from a parts car and swap it out. After Exodus5 and I spent about an hour removing the unit from an 86 SE, here it is after a little pressure washing.

The next step was to remove my damaged suspension all in one piece like the junkyard unit. Here it is on the way out.

I found that removing the inner plastic tub in the front makes everything a lot easier. It provides more light and there some things like the heater hoses and steering rack which are much easier to remove from the top.

My goal is to have the replacement susupension in this weekend and the car back down on the ground. Hopefully, the alignment will be close enough to drive the car for a frame estimate. I'll try to keep this thread running with pictures and updates. Your comments and suggestions are appreciated as always. I really hope I can save this car. Wish me luck!

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- Matthew

Busted Up '87 GT

[This message has been edited by FieroMGDriver (edited 10-27-2005).]

ouch - she really womped on your wheel there

Matt, I'd recommend a few things. 1) The steering rack hold-down bolts tend to rust and then break very easily when you want to take it off to rebuild it or move the rack. Honestly, I'd recommend rebuilding it right now while its out of the car. I'd recommend you take those bolts out and replace them with new ones as well as a coat of anti-seize. You really don't want those bolts turning their heads off requiring you to drill them out while the cross member is in the car. 2) Sorta related to that, you might want to flip the bolts holding the lower control arms to the cross member itself. At the factory, they were installed the "wrong" way in that you need to back the bolt out towards the front of the car, but the steering rack boot is right in its way. The angle of the picture you took shows the interference really good (on the right side of your picture, the drivers' side control arm). To flip those bolts correctly, you have to remove the steering rack (while in the car, most of us just loosen the steering rack brackets and then push the rack out of the way, like me :watchout . I drew some arrows on your picture to help point out where I'm speaking of. And really, when you have the whole cross member out like that, everything would be easier to do now than when its in the car (bushings, tie rods, ball joints, steering rack, dampener, a nice coat of POR, wheel bearings).

Sorry about your wreck man, old women suck.

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Christian Thomas
87 Pontiac Fiero GT Burgandy/Silver 5.7L ZZ4 5spd
301rwhp/345rwtq

Next Mod: 88 suspension

Thanks for the tips Christian. As far as bolts breaking and rebuilding the suspension, my wrecked front end had all new parts installed only a few months before the wreck. I will rebuild the new assembly only after I find out if everything lines back up. I don't want to spend the time with bushings, ball joints, etc. if I put it in and it doesn't help or the frame doesn't line up. My short term goal is to get the unibody bent back into shape.

Well, I have some good news. After pulling the damaged suspension out of the car, I was able to take some measurements and really get a better look at the whole assembly. Both crossmembers measure nearly identical between the spring perches. When I replaced the upper control arm, I never thought to look at the spindle since it is cast and figured if it had been damaged, it would have broken. Not the case, fortunately. The upper spindle where the upper ball joint mounts should be parallel or in the same plane as the lower ball joint mount. My upper ball joint is more towards the center of the car instead of straight down towards the lower ball joint. This would explain the extra negative camber. I'll post a picture of the spindle tonight if I make time.

Since the original suspension has been worked over with cut springs, new ball joints, tie rods, and poly, I'm going to change out the spindle and go from there. Its too bad that I spent the time and money on the new suspension assembly, but it helps to have two parts next to each other for comparison to see what is different.

Quick update here. Last night I was able to swap out the old spindle for a new one. Much, much better. Here is a picture of the old spindle. If you notice the upper part of the spindle on the left is quite bent. As far as I know, the two machined parts which face the upper ball joint, and ball joint nut are supposed to be parallel with the lower balljoint mouting surface.

I haven't gotten everything connected back up, hopefully I can work on it more this week. I can't lower the car back down quite yet, but I can already see that it is much better than before. Once I torque all the bolts properly, reconnect the brake calipers, and put the wheels back on, I'll be ready for a trip to the alignment shop.

-Matthew

Matt,

Man, that was a fast recovery! Glad to see some foreward progress, maybe I'll show you the 'super secret carolina ninja project' next time your down here.

Hope you get it fixed Matthew. Just in case you may need something else , I have a 87 GT parts car sitting here with the whole front suspension intact. Good luck.

[This message has been edited by Ronnie (edited 11-02-2005).]

quote Originally posted by FieroMGDriver:

Dang kids, always cuttin' springs. Get an alignment!

FieroGT42: I thought I would heat the springs, but damn. I didn't know they would sag like that!

So I was working on the car last night and got it all tightened up. What a difference a new spindle made. I now have positive camber instead of the extreme negative I had before.

Now I have to find a tow dolly and a frame shop so I can get that front corner pulled back out. Total cost of parts used to fix the car to this point: $0. A big thanks to Matt Jackson for the upper control arm and spindle.

i'm sure you're using a new ball joint. the poly bushings might be ok.

The balljoints are Rodney's, upper and lower. I replaced them not more than 6 months ago, and they seem fine to me.

sucks that you have to replace that whole hood... it looks like it just got dinged on the front corner by the headlight door.. unless theres anway to salvage it? not sure if reglassing that area would be more work then replaceing the whole thing.

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Matthew,
You could just talk sarah into doing this to her car...
http://www.autoblog.com/entry/1234000403065140/

[This message has been edited by Exodus5 (edited 11-04-2005).]

quote Originally posted by Exodus5: Matthew, You could just talk sarah into doing this to her car... http://www.autoblog.com/entry/1234000403065140/

Sorry, that swap talks about an E36 and she drives an E46. Besides, the 2.8 is too nice of an engine.

Matthew

Glad to hear that your car is all fixed up! You never think about the little things about the cast iron. If I need any work on my suspension I will let you know. Seems like you've done it now a time or two.

Glad to see that it will be on the road. That's why I sell parts or give them away. Keep us updated!!

Matt J

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MRJ

Join www.cfogi.org

I replaced the passenger side spindle today for the heck of it. A few years ago it was hit by a teen on the passenger side. That wheel would align at stock height, but not after I lowered it. I figured if one spindle bends, they both would. Sure enough, now I have positive camber on the passenger side.

I also washed the car today for the first time since before the accident. Man, it was filthy. Its amazing how differently you can feel about a car when its clean and shiny.

I drove it over to Exodus5's house which is in the neighborhood, and it ran like crap. No power. After the accident, I had to reconnect the exhaust where I had the cat clamped on because it had come loose from the force of the collision. I also noticed that the EGR valve was loose, so I tightened the bolts about 1/4-1/2 turn to get it snug. The only thing I can guess is from the force of the accident, it might have knocked the exhaust loose and pulled on the EGR. I think my next step is to replace the gaskets under and the EGR and on both sides of the EGR tube. I have a feeling that the accident caused a vacuum leak with the way it was running.

Nice recovery! Glad you took the "before" pictures - makes it especially impressive, to see the progress you've made in such a short time.

Fieros really are tough little cars. I have had wrecks that buckled control arms, and gave them the same scary "hopeless-looking" camber. Like it'd never be the same again, ruined. But after replacing the control arm, and an alignment, all was like new again ! BTW, didn't realize until now, that the steering knuckles could bend that far and not crack... thanks for posting the pictures.

Was also glad to see that the front suspension can be removed intact (no springs flying loose, etc.). I'll keep this thread in mind when I get a chance to continue the teardown of my parts car.

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