So a few months back I spot a Fiero on the local auction site. Very very vague description, sounded like an '86 base coupe. I emailed the guy for more details and received an email back with some pictures:
To which I was mortified - it's an '86 2M4 5-speed T-top w/ 65k miles. Looks like it's had a few hatchet jobs done on it over the years, but it's definitely saveable from what I can see. The dude was asking 4000 dollars - not out of the question here, given another bloke wants 4500 for a bog standard '84 coupe, and I paid 5500 for my '87 SE V6. I dismissed it as a pretty nice example. Then he emailed me again... 2000 dollars. That's less than I paid for my '84 ten years ago...
Help me out guys. There's some glaring issues - mostly, it's in Auckland, I'm in Invercargill... there's an island and thousands of kilometres between me and the car, so I can't see it up close. Much as the guy claims it's good to go, it's got all kinds of hallmarks of rough ownership...
There can't be too many t-top Fieros in your area. Too bad it would be hard for you to go look at it. Its a real good deal if there is little to no rust, but it looks to be in decent shape. Pretty funny someone drilled holes in the center console bezel. LOL. I say go for it. How many 86 Base Coupe T-Top Fieros around?
Considering they are pretty rare in your part of the world and what they usually sell for I would day that it sounds like a pretty good deal if its sound and rust free, which it probably is. If I had the money, I would jump on it!
Its nice that someone added the wing, but its too bad they didn't take measurements before mounting it, what appears to be, several inches too far forward. Nevertheless, I would jump on it if I were you. Duke 5spd gets good mileage and gas prices aren't coming down anytime soon.
I would request pictures of the ttop glass and seal corners, not to say you are planning a daily driver out of this, but the corner of the weatherstripping we can see kinda scares me, but if you want it for a good day driver and have a covered spot for it, it shouldn't stop you.
Originally posted by fieroguy123: Its nice that someone added the wing, but its too bad they didn't take measurements before mounting it, what appears to be, several inches too far forward. Nevertheless, I would jump on it if I were you. Duke 5spd gets good mileage and gas prices aren't coming down anytime soon.
Yeah I noticed that, and it did make me chuckle. I've got a decklid for an '85 GT sitting in my garage, I would likely end up swapping them eventually to get the wing back where it should be.
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Originally posted by eph_kay: I would request pictures of the ttop glass and seal corners, not to say you are planning a daily driver out of this, but the corner of the weatherstripping we can see kinda scares me, but if you want it for a good day driver and have a covered spot for it, it shouldn't stop you. Chris
That's the thing that worries me - I have friends with T-Top MR2s and they all have sealing issues. On the upshot, if I sell off my Corolla coupe there'll be room for the T-top...
I'll be talking to the guy tonight, see what can arrange, but you guys have sort of confirmed what I thought - it's too good to pass up.
Good job!! You will have a very unique example of a t top fiero! Hope it is as good as it seems. Hey I just noticed you are from the same little town that the guy that set the speed records on an old Indian motorcycle at Bonnaville salt flatts back in the 70"s!! Watched that movie several times.
Good job!! You will have a very unique example of a t top fiero! Hope it is as good as it seems. Hey I just noticed you are from the same little town that the guy that set the speed records on an old Indian motorcycle at Bonnaville salt flatts back in the 70"s!! Watched that movie several times.
Yeah same place as old man Munro. The movie is good, it only shows his pleasant side, not his angry drunk side that came later on hahaha!
I'm not sure what direction I'll be taking with it, got a 3800 Series I NA sitting on an '84 cradle that could go in... front and rear '85 GT fascias... hmmmmm. We'll see how the mood strikes when it's in my driveway next to the SE I guess. Cheers guys, you really did confirm to me that I needed to possess this car. After having a chat with the bloke, his only list of faults is 'the temperature gauge needle seems to have broken off', 'the fuel gauge reads quarter when it's actually empty' and 'the drivers side headlight doesn't go up properly'. All sounds fairly standard fare for a Fiero of this age, in a land where there never was proper support for it.
It's now sitting in my driveway. It'll be a little more work than I was thinking...
The seats are out of some form of hatch and are too high and too far forward. Interior trims are near total writeoffs. Right T-top glass has been replaced with a piece of plexiglass. Keys for T-tops missing and drivers side has been locked (probably by the transporters when they were trying to get in it). T-top seals leak like a sieve.
Battery was flat and starter sounds like it's not engaging correctly. Wiring has been desecrated. Instrument cluster is loose. Left sill looks like it's taken a knock. Paint is oxidised. Spoiler isn't fitted correctly and the torsion rods hadn't been changed. Front air dam torn off. Right headlight not popping up.
BUT, the Duke looks like it's had, hmm, 'changes' made, and the suspension looks like it's been lowered. Will get some pics up tomorrow, going to give picking the locked T-top a go.
The pen-written fields are 'Paul', 'Fiero' and '2/14/1986'... Definitely have my work cut out for me. The more I look the more terror belies me - the interior is a wreck, the floor has been crushed upward on both sides, the tacho doesn't work, cold idle is rough as guts... but I love it to bits!
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[This message has been edited by Carcenomy (edited 12-16-2014).]
As well you should. Congrats on a nice purchase, I have a sweet spot in my heart for T-tops, so much that I cut my roof off and installed them in my car a few months ago. They may be a little more work to seal up and maintain, but the ride is so worth it. 68 degrees (F), clear night, stars out, moon shining in, gentle breeze coming in the car, just cant get that same open feeling even with a sunroof.
It's a shame what sorry state some of these get into, but for $2000 that's a nice price in our part of the world. The cheapest (and only) Fiero we've got for sale in Australia is this one and it's in pretty shocking condition.
Hah! The one Fiero for sale in Australia is very similar to my hardtop, but for the wing versus luggage rack thing.
Know of anywhere in Australia I can pick up any body spares James? Bigger spares are the problem in our part of the world, and I'm going to need a few bits to get the new toy looking the way I want
Great find. some of the ttop parts are still around new. Glass, trim, rubber etc... They are expensive, but new. Do a search of the mall to see who is selling them. Also, post a note in the mall about the parts you need, some of us have extra that we may sell. Not sure of the cost, and im sure its not cheap, but getting all the parts you need is possible.
The C&C sticker is a good find, they sold a lot of kits, but this one may have been converted by them by the original owner back in 86. That is a good indication that the conversion was done right. My 88 coupe is a CJB ttop and the sticker is not in that good of condition, so I am envious. It may be a long restro, but in the end, you going to love it.
The next step in lieu of some parts acquisitions is to sort out the headliner - or lack thereof. I have an old '84 headliner in average to good condition, so I'll probably use it as the donor to sort it out. At least as it sits I can confirm there's no leaks around the T-top frame, all appears to be tight as a drum.
Know of anywhere in Australia I can pick up any body spares James? Bigger spares are the problem in our part of the world, and I'm going to need a few bits to get the new toy looking the way I want
Not sure that he has anything to do with these cars anymore. He did have a lot of parts listed on his web page though, so they must have gone somewhere.
Yeah his listed email address isn't valid any more either. A bit of a shame, I'm looking for a pair of GT rocker panels and the front GT fascia reinforcement/underside section... bits that he has, and would be far too pricey to send from the States. Never mind, baby steps first - replace the dodgy plexiglass passenger glass and get the roof leaks under control. Nothing as annoying as driving around with a wet butt.
The weather's not really conducive to the T-top getting any attention at the moment, and it's really not cooperating either. I went to take it for a run a few weekends back only to discover the fuel pump won't run. I'm hoping its something easy like the relay, but alas I haven't had time to perform further diagnostics. We ended up taking the SE out instead that weekend.
Otherwise, I did check the headlight that won't pop up, appears to not be getting any power so again, I'm suspecting a relay. Going to have to go for a rummage through the spares pile to see if I can locate some parts. The roof leaks worse than first anticipated, and with the dank climate in Southland it's smelling quite vulgar. Luckily benjamin.long has come to the rescue with a pair of roof panels with hardware, so I'll be taking both existing panels off and replacing them once the new ones turn up.
Finally, sounds like I've found a home for the Toyota, so the T-top will be getting a garage to live in which should solve the damp! Once it's garaged, I can start on the hard work - at the very least, it needs the electrics looked at (engine bay pic, notice the wiring at the back? Baking foil... and the ignition doesn't work as designed either...) and the bodywork corrected. But the wife is also talking about how it's silly to have two red Fieros and how one should be painted... I'm feeling awfully tempted to paint the T-top white...
The Corolla finally left the garage, off to a gentleman from Gore who intends on installing a Gen1 3S-GE with ITBs. Best of luck to him on that endeavour, and hooray I now have somewhere for the T-top to live!
Since we'd been all productive and got that out of the way we pushed the T-top indoors and decided to start figuring out why there was no fuel. Checked the relay, it's working. Checked the computer, it's triggering the relay correctly. Good, this is all good signs. Check for noise... none. Not so good. Check the line to the TBI... dry as a bone. Very not good. Fuel gauge was badly out anyway, so we decided to drop the tank... nobody took into account however that it was still half full and without the pump, we couldn't drain it. Dropping the tank officially sucks.
Once it was out it was immediately apparent what was wrong... the wiring has been butchered. Badly.
For whatever reason has possessed the guy, he'd ripped out the stock fuel pump wiring, crimped bullets on at both ends and used a piece of five-core trailer cable covered in, of all things, household tinfoil. I bench tested the fuel pump, and it still spins over fine. I've also tested the tan/white wire at the bullet connectors and there's 12V present for two seconds on key on, so the voltage is present and the pump is accepting - it's a fault in this abortion of cable. But the fun doesn't end there! Remember how I said the floor wasn't flat?
Neither was the tank. Neither's the heater line...
Originally posted by stickboy: I'd make sure the frame is straight before you put too much more work into it.....
No point worrying too much, all the panels align correctly and it tracks fine, even if the frame was crooked in some way not terribly much I can do about it. There's simply not enough Fieros here to be able to choose to stop working on it and scrap the frame, if it were bent I'd just have to straighten it!
So somewhere during its tenure in Auckland the PO's mechanic converted it from the stock seatbelts to some form of local version. In the process they found the stock GM receiver bolts were too large, so instead of getting different receivers they drilled out the mounts in the floor and put nuts on from the bottom. To correct this we ended up having to cut open the seatbelt rail inside the car, then drilled out the spot welds holding the mounts on. Sadly most of these were already damaged, which made the job even harder. Once the mounts were off we repeated the job on my old '84 frame and extracted its mounts, then welded them to the frame. One issue fixed.
Then onto the fuel tank. I've reterminated all the wiring with new 5mm core cabling and Delphi-style Hella SuperSeal connectors on the firewall end, then covered it all in loom tube. Perfect, now the pump runs.
Got the tank back in, plumbed it back up and tried to start the car...
Flooded. The injector is leaking like a sieve. Soon as the fuel pump runs it pours out fuel. Bollocks.
Wow, I'm an awful forum user who hasn't kept anyone up to date on how the poor little T-top fared, so without further delay, let's catch up on the last 30 months!
Last time I posted I'd just completed work on the seatbelt anchors. A friendly member who's name is evading me right now hooked me up with a full set of grey belts with receivers and bolts. I cut the old anchors from my wrecked '84 and ended up doing some pretty serious surgery to install them in the '86, mostly repairing the pre existing damage to the floor.
Once that was sorted and the wiring to the fuel pump was tidied up, the injector leak was found. I had a complete spare TBI from my old '84 which I swapped in to save time in shipping parts from TFS. I did get a new gasket though. I also sent the old seats packing (they were from a Toyota Paseo it turns out) and installed the old tan ones from my '84. They're exceptionally scruffy but at least they fit correctly! They'll get tidied up and some Mr Mikes installed some time down the road.
Not long after I got that work done, the wife left and I had to shift house. The poor old Fieros ended up living outside, which certainly didn't help the T-top's situation.
It really didn't help with getting any work done on the car either, since my tools were packed away. But then... I bought my first home! I only had two requirements in a house... a reasonable shed for the Fieros and the ability to get decent fibre internet
With a new home there was a renewed drive to get some work done, especially since the poor old girl was spawning cobwebs.
Summer was coming so I ran it down to the garage for its' six-monthly safety inspection and got given a long list of issues to deal with. More floor welding, handbrake issues and a few other bits. It was incredibly rewarding to get the sticker in the window after all the hours spent!
Since then I've been chipping away at it every night for the last few weeks. I've repaired the wing and installed it with proper wingstands (the old ones were Firebird parts held on with... wood screws?!), replaced the thermostat housing, repaired the instrument cluster mounting, replaced a bunch of sensors, adjusted the handbrake, upgraded the headlights.
Having passed inspections I could actually drive it - everyone's right, it's a riot to drive! It's certainly down on power compared to my old '84 which was an LN3 3800 or my '87 with the L44 2.8, but it doesn't feel the worse for it. However, getting to drive it also reveals things you wouldn't have noticed otherwise - the cooling system had been badly neglected by previous owners. I hadn't remembered to do anything about it until it began overheating. When I drained the coolant... I found pumpkin soup.
I ran some radiator flush through and got the cooling system running clear, then filled with water and some RMI-25 to finish the cleaning. Now it runs extremely cool and I'm stoked!
In summary, I've finally gotten off my arse, the car has had heaps of work done and is now able to be enjoyed the way the engineers originally intended it. There's still plenty to do - the interior is a mess and missing many parts, I have a Cavalier digital dashboard to install, a headliner to create, a suspension to rebuild, a brake system to upgrade, a body to prep for paint... it never ends, but I would not change the experience for the world. Best hobby ever and the community is the best there is
The Corolla finally left the garage, off to a gentleman from Gore who intends on installing a Gen1 3S-GE with ITBs. Best of luck to him on that endeavour, and hooray I now have somewhere for the T-top to live!
Love the wheel chocks! AT-format computer power supplies?
[This message has been edited by KurtAKX (edited 12-16-2014).]
Love the wheel chocks! AT-format computer power supplies?
Hehehe, yep! I had plenty of them lying around at the time, but having moved house a few times I've had to scale down the computer parts stash a wee bit. I've kept a couple of ATX units for just in case I need chocks though
What a great rebuild story - glad to see you got her back on the road & looking decent. Love the notchie/t-top look!
That's pretty high praise from the man with the gorgeous green fastback
There's still plenty to do to the car - lots of parts are missing in the engine bay that need replaced and a large amount of the interior was damaged beyond repair or outright missing. I've rummaged up a backing board to sort out the missing headliner, so that's going to be a job for a free weekend soon - might stop some of the strange looks that passengers give me when they look up and see rivets!
Oh bother... I took it for a drive yesterday, come back and discover a puddle. It appears I've got a leak in one of the endtanks now... I think I should get Falkor as a plate 'cause this car is the neverending story.
That explains the puddle. Got my old '84 radiator and the '86 radiator in the back of the work car, taking them down for strip and rebuild tomorrow morning.
Hey mate nice to see another fan here in nz. Knew there were a few scattered round the country. I knew of only six but always thought there might be more. I had an 85 gt that I brought back in 1991 and had to convert to rhd (sold it when our son was born, no good with only 2 seats). Always wanted to get another and have started the search, hence coming across this forum and your post. I also may be able to help with some parts ( know of a wrecked 86 se but not sure if owner is prepared to part). Myself I am pretty sure I have a pair of 85 tail lights and sail panels and engine grates. Cheers.
