Thanks for keeping us up to date on your work. The rust on the frame rails don't look too bad. You're doing a good job
Thanks, I figure if I put enough information here someone in the future can see it and maybe it'll help them as well. There is some more serious rust near the firewall but I just don't want to tear the whole car apart to fix it. I sprayed it with paint and converter and I may put some seam sealer on it to further seal it up. Short of cutting that rail off and rebuilding it and the sheat metal under the battery tray from scratch its just going to have to be a simple repair.
I'm starting on the wiring this weekend (if I have time). I also got a crossover so I can use stock manifolds for it and save my trunk. Then if I have time I'll also work on modding the thermostat housing.
I actually found it in my garage. I think it was on a hose end of an a/c condenser or evaporator I bought for my S10. Sorry I couldn't be more help. I'll likely remove that recall hose and the other unused stuff in the near future. Jessica
This was my view Saturday morning and afternoon. I've got everything removed I don't need (or at least that I know I don't need so far). The only issue was the document I read said to remove the tach signal wire from the PCM. I have a tach and want it functional, so I'm thinking I keep it. I may need to do more research to figure this out but its looking good.
When I get out there again I'll start to decide where I want to route the wires, and maybe install my exhaust manifolds and belts for clearance checks. Then I'll worry about adding wires for my ignition module and the C203 and C500 wires, as well as if I need to add any to get the PCM into the cabin.
Things are looking a lot better this week! I got a ton of the wiring sorted out and was able to get answers to a few of my questions on what to do with some other parts I need to get some manifold gaskets and extract a few bolts before the exhaust goes on for good. Then I'll need a new alternator and I can put the cradle back in the car.
I'm going to be working on the wiring the rest of the week and I hope it'll be ready to go and get loomed by the weekend. Jessica
Big stuff Monday night! It took a lot of struggling and a good 2 hours to get it in there and attached to the body. Just last night I was able to spend around 3 hours and I got the whole rear suspension back on the car as well as the brakes. I'm going to get the e-brake adjuster on and adjusted tonight then I'll deal with a bunch of other little items and drop it on the ground. I'll do the axle nuts then I can easily lean into the engine bay and finish up the fuel pump and A/C relays and C203 and C500 wiring. Then its onto the "harder" stuff like the cooling lines, fuel system, trans cooler, battery cables, intake tube, and all the stuff I forget Jessica
You are making progress. Glad that wiring process is yours! Keep it going.
Yeah, I agree. I did a stand alone harness for my LS engine swap for my El Camino and it was easy and straightforward. Plus I could do it on a table and it all works and is loomed and nice before it goes into the car.
This one with the harness having to go through the firewall, the engine and trans changing, and the C500 connector on the fender it was too much to guess. So I decided I'd leave some undone until I know if I need to add or remove wire. I'd much rather have it complete before putting it in the car.
I think I've got about as many wires as a car stereo left to attach so I hope it goes fast Jessica
Well I spent a night last week organizing the tent area. I put the old 2.8L on a stand and pulled the hoist out of the tent completely. Then I went ahead and set up a nice little work table to do the wiring on. Don't worry all that wire is extra and just sitting there in case I need to make a splice. Friday I was focused on routing the wires away from spinning or hot things, and I think I did pretty well. One thing I will say is that if I'd been in my garage and had access to put the engine in the car while building the harness it would have come out better. Because I didn't really know exactly where the hole in the firewall was in relation to the engine cradle I've got some slack in a couple spots. Its not worth ripping the entire loom apart to fix and its up under the window so it'll never be seen. The interior wiring gave me the most trouble, but I figured it out Sunday and I've only got a speedo buffer to build and some power and ground wires to attach now. Sunday was also the day I did the "hot wire" mod to the fuel pump relay and wired in the A/C relay. The C500 connector is all done and taped/loomed. The wiring under the hood is complete minus the cruise control wiring. It was getting dark and I figured I'd finish the rest this week. I also decided to try out my modified engine cover, I'm not sure I'm sold on it just yet but maybe with some more trimming it'll look OK. I also grabbed a couple old aluminum intake tube pieces and made up a short ram style intake that will work until I build something to go into the fender. I guess I didn't get a picture of that though.
Next on the list will be the shifter, intake, and all the hoses in the engine bay (I'm trying to do all the stuff on top of the engine before I lift the car up again).
Trying to make progress every day on this little bucket of bolts haha Jessica
I got sick of wiring and started to make the car look a little better. I couldn't find a green I really liked so I've decided to go ahead and go with blue Its called Lagoon Blue from Oracle and it looks pretty cool when its not in the dark with a flood light on it. I'll let you all know how it goes but so far I'm really happy with it, and can't wait to get the car back in one piece and push it out into the sun (I'd say drive it into the sun, but I don't want to get my hope up too much). Jessica
Blue looks good. Looks like you did a good job painting. And you will drive it out. I said so
I wish I had your confidence haha Also I forgot to say it in the last post but its vinyl wrap not paint. I've wanted to try wrapping a car for a long time and the design of the Fiero with the moldings and modular body panels made me think it would be easy. I don't really like the maroon color on my car and although the paint could be much worse its not in great shape and no amount of polishing has helped. So the wrap gives the car a new color and I don't have to do too much body work (I will have to fill some cracks/holes in the roof) This is a huge plus because I'm running out of summer weather and time to get the swap done and prep and paint a car. Jessica
Decided to shave the Pontiac logo on the headlight door. I also started working on the damage on the roof. So its coming along, should be in primer soon. Then I took the hood and deck lid inside, so I could work later and get the large pieces wrapped. The deck lid gave me some trouble on the raised part so I think I'll be doing it in two pieces. I got these off craigslist for $30, they need work but I'm pretty excited. Things are coming along nicely and the wiring is all done (except the cruise control module on the console). I need to mount the ignition coils and finish sanding the filler on the roof, then I'll lift the car up again and start on the bottom stuff.
More body work Primer Paint I'm going to cover the roof in vinyl anyways but it needed to be repainted and repaired so thats why I spent the time to do this all. Onto more wrapping in the next couple days, then the car goes up in the air to get more work on the swap done Jessica
More work on the little monster. Removed the sail panels, so I can replace or fix these. I also fixed some surface rust behind them. I also took the damaged door off and swapped a good one on. My donor door came from an 85 but so far seems to be OK. The new door is kind of on the car, but I think I'll need to pull the fender to get the front hinge bolts. Its nice to not have a dented door though Taking the night off, but I'll be hitting it hard on Friday and I hope to have more panels off and covered. Jessica
Well I had to do some major reworking to get the door on. I'm starting to think there is a difference between the 85 and 87 doors, nothing major but still something wasn't adding up. So I had to drill out the holes on the hinge a little (about 1/16") just so I could get the bolts started, and I had to partially remove the fender. In the end it worked out great, even if it looked a little crazy for a second there. Then I was able to start removing all the rivets and get the rear 1/4 panels off. The new ones are going to work, I'll just have to do a lot of work on them first. This one is in the worst shape of the two, there is a piece of cedar fence board resin-ed onto the back side to hold a repair together The front is very wavy, but I think I can save it. The next day I did more wrapping, now that the trim and panels are out of the way I can overlap the wrap and it'll hold on nice and tight. I decided to do the rear in 3 pieces, because I'm working by myself and its hard to manage a large piece and I could use less material this way. I'll get that drivers door top once I can get the mirror off, but for now I can't really get the door open far enough. Pulled the gas tank and put the new pump in, once I get my wires for the battery I'll run those then put the tank back in place. I decided to wrap the sills of the hood and trunk with some extra material I had, and I also painted up the bolts on the fenders. It made a huge improvement! I added a remote battery terminal to the rear by the C500 connector, the cable isn't run its just dangling so it'll be less stretched when I'm done with it. Kind of ran out of vinyl and parts for the swap yesterday so I decided to finish up some little things including the vacuum lines. I'm not sure what to do with the charcoal canister so I've blocked it off for now...I deleted the solenoid valve from the PCM so I'll do some more searching on that topic. I finished up the night trying to straighten out the scoop a little better, I'll block sand it tonight and see how close I can get it. The nice thing is that most of the problem area is covered by the aero side trim so I just have to get it pretty close.
Right now I'm on a mission to get this thing mostly done before the really rainy weather sets in (its already raining, but its not all day every day yet). Jessica
Edit: I pulled all the wood off the back of the panel and fixed the fiberglass correctly. This way I can go ahead and sand the outside down to the shape it needs to be and not run the risk of sanding through the panel or making things worse.
[This message has been edited by 78_elky (edited 09-21-2016).]
Looking good, when you use the three pieces for the back, what does it look like where the pieces meet?
I'm not sure yet exactly how it will look. I tried it with a few scrap pieces while I was practicing covering the scoops. The vinyl lays down pretty well and the color blends well on the seams, I'm not going to try to do a butt joint, I'll just overlap it. I did order some knifeless tape that should give me a good straight seam. I'll also be doing the bumpers in pieces and if I decide to cover the A-pillars and front roof section I'll likely do that in 3 pieces as well.
I'll be sure to post a picture when I do try all this, and I'll let everyone know what the final tally is for amount of material used :-)
I'm getting closer on this quarter panel. I'm temped to buy a DA sander, but every time I do body work I think this and don't do it. I put a quick coat of primer on them just to make it easier to see how level the passenger side is.
I was also able to blow out the transmission cooler lines and hook up new lines to the transmission. I put the battery in the front box I built and started to run the battery cables. I'm also going to add the evap purge solenoid back into the engine harness and mount it near the charcoal canister. I think my lists are finally starting to get items marked off and not added to at this point :-)
OK I got my deck lid finished this weekend, and I covered the spoiler. This is the seam, and to be honest I'm perfectly fine with it. I may paint the car years down the road but for now this is cost effective and it looks a million times better than the old faded red paint. The spoiler was a little trickier, but its done and I really like it. I finished the drivers side 1/4 panel this weekend and sprayed it with some satin black paint. I'm going to let it cure a few days then wrap it. The passenger side is still a mess, and I even had to pull out the angle grinder to get through the bulk of the fiberglass. From looking at the repair, I'm pretty sure the folks did it while it was on the car, and all from the outside and it wasn't on a car with side trim. There is no way I can mount my side trim on them yet so I need to drill a few holes in them before they go on the car as well. I also finished covering the rear clip and it looks pretty great, the seams aren't too noticeable. Mostly I'm just happy my first attempt at wrapping a car has gone this well. I finished up the weekend trying to find a short in my wiring, figuring out where to mount the evap purge solenoid and I also made a mount for my cruise control module. I also swapped the door lock tumbler on my new door so I can put the panel back on. I'm pretty annoyed with the wiring at this point so I'm trying to do other things until I feel like diving into it again. I put my new fuel pump in and replaced all the rubber lines on the tank so that needs to get lifted back in this week (after I try to replace some coolant hose for the heater pipes). Jessica
Thanks for keeping this post going. I like reading about your progress
No problem, I'm not sure how much longer this will all take but I'll keep posting. I really want it done before it gets to be winter and crappy weather.
Got the cruise mounted and hooked up, as well as the throttle cable. I also found all my parts for the transmission brackets from all the transmissions so I should start on a shifter linkage. I also got my other rocker panel painted and I'm all ready to drill trim holes and then I'll wrap them and reinstall the screens. I also finished wrapping my drivers side door (had to pull the remote mirror so that took some time). The parts on the space frame are now blue, with the exception of the panel above the tail lights, but I'll do that tonight.
Worked on other things this weekend, I've finished getting the brakes working on my Dually so it can drive :-) I also spent my evenings welding the frame of my El Camino and I flipped it over to finish welding the bottom. I decided to cover the sail panels I pulled off my car, there are some small differences between the 85 ones I had and my 87s. I went ahead and pulled the acrylic off because it was cracked, and I wrapped that section with matte black and carbon fiber on the vertical sections. I am going to buy some new clips (one on each side was broken) and a set of arrow heads before I put them back on. I hope I'll be working on the car more this week so there should be more updates! Jessica
So I've almost got the gas tank back in the car, but my wrist has been killing me lately so its slowing me down. I replaced all the coolant hoses on the rear of the car, and I plan to do the front ones before the swap is done. I also finished drilling the trim clip holes and wrapping the 1/4 panels. I decided to do the wrap in a few pieces but I think they turned out looking great! I'm going to paint the screens tonight and then I'll put them back in the scoops for good. This one is the one that needed the extensive body work and you can't even tell how bad it was.
I guess its time for me to place an order with The Fiero Store and get some clips for all the panels I pulled off and broke. I'm also going to get new emblems for the bumper and sail panels so it'll look nice and new with the wrap.
The only other things are the exhaust components, tuning the PCM, and the fuel lines and fittings.
The bumper is getting covered next and the grilles for the scoops are painted! I test fitted the really mangled quarter panel the other day while I was out wrestling to reinstall the fuel tank. I'm waiting on some clips and hardware and then I can fully install these things. Tonight I'm going to raise the car up a little higher and start to work on the coolant hoses on the front of the car. I still need to put the drivers side door panel back on and ground the engine, when its dark out I'll head into the garage to wrap the bumper. Jessica
I'm really impressed with how this is turning out! Great job!
Thank you, it was touch and go there for a while. I almost sold the car, I also almost parted it out, but I'm glad I stuck with it. Having a color I really like also helps a ton with the motivation to finish it. Jessica
Done wrapping the car! Well unless I decide to wrap the roof (I'm waiting to get the car mostly assembled before I decide if I like it black or blue).
I spent the rest of my time working on the car doing tedious stuff I should have done sooner. I mounted the OBDII diagnostic port in a more accessible location, and I wired the performance shift wire up to a switch on my switch panel. I also finished wiring the evap purge solenoid and mounting it. I did a bunch of other little things as well, like drilling a hole in my intake for the IAT, and fixing rust on some brackets for the front facia. In fact I only have 23 items left on my check list The big items are exhaust, fuel lines, welding a patch panel in the trunk and cutting out the rust, and modifying the thermostat housing. Jessica
Well I tackled the one item on the list I knew could get out of hand; fixing the trunk rust. It could have been worse, and I could have probably just left it and dealt with it in the next few years. I did that with the floors on my El Camino when I was in high school and then I did a bad repair after college. I just finished welding a new floor pan into the car, so needless to say I hate rust and decided to fix this the first time. So without further delay here are the pics. There were only 3 little pencil sized holes when I got the car, the rest had paint on it. I sprayed it with rust converter and black chassis paint last year, but a couple seconds with a wire wheel and this is what I had. I think it goes without saying that the area to work in is pretty tight so my cuts are a little rough, but I should be able to fix it all. I started on making the patch panel last night, and tonight I'll fit it and maybe get to welding. Luckily the support only had a slight amount of surface rust, and I cleaned that off and sprayed some rust converter into the rail. I plan to get this all welded in and then I'll seam seal the outside of the repair and the inside. Jessica
So my week is totally filling up and the weekend isn't looking much better so I've only got a little bit done, but I think its going to be OK So here we go I was going to mount the front bumper but it was getting too dark by the time I got to that. Putting the front bumper on has really boosted my excitement for the project; I can't wait to put all the parts back on and see how it looks!
[This message has been edited by 78_elky (edited 10-12-2016).]
The weather here was not cooperating to say the least. I did have some time between the torrential rain and the high winds to work on the car a little. I love when you're tight on time and things just fall into place and you get a ton of stuff done. I got my order from the Fiero Store so I have all the clips I need to put stuff back together. I also got new sail panel emblems The I measured and welded up my shifter cable bracket. I still need to modify the arm, but I ran out of daylight today. I spent the morning working on the trunk rust issue, and its all done now! I ended up painting the entire trunk just for good measure and I decided to throw the rear bumper on before I called it a night. Tomorrow my plan is to fully install the front and rear bumpers. The rest of the week I'm going to put the hood and lights back on the car; finish up that shifter lever; and reattach the rockers and quarter panels. I also have all the coolant hoses for the front of the car so I'd like to do those as well if the weather cooperates. I'm hopeful that by the end of the week I'll have a mostly assembled car again and I can focus on getting it running again. Jessica
Mid week update! I've been fighting weather, a broken daily driver, and some family drama so things have really slowed down. I should have Saturday and Sunday to work on the car, but we shall see how the weather turns out and what all I can accomplish. Anyways I'm making great progress on putting the car back together, and the wrap really looks great (compared to the paint). I'll also be wrapping the roof at some point, I've decided it'll look better blue than black. I also started ordering/receiving/finding the parts for the exhaust system, I've never built an exhaust before so this should be fun.
If its dry tonight I'll work on finishing up the air damn and bumper install, and the front coolant hoses. If its another soggy evening I'll work on getting the rockers and quarter panels installed. Jessica
Well this weekend was really productive! I got all my clips and fasteners and attached the bumpers and all the other body parts on the car. I replaced all the o-rings and retainers on my injectors and I did a bunch of other little things I had been putting off. Unfortunately I'm still chasing some electrical problems in my harness so I'm going to probably pull it all out and start over again. It doesn't fit well so this will allow me to remedy that and make any changes I need so it'll work. I get my exhaust parts this week and I'll keep plugging away at all the big parts of the swap to make progress. Hopefully I can figure out what I did wrong with the wiring and fix it and make it fit better under the hood. I just keep telling myself its all part of this crazy hot rodding hobby :-) Jessica
**EDIT** I received all my exhaust parts a day early!
[This message has been edited by 78_elky (edited 10-25-2016).]
Well it didn't leave the tent under its own power, but it did roll very nicely! The weather here is being very cooperative for a change so I decided to paint the frame of my El Camino before it got too nasty and cold. I've pushed things like that off in the past and I end up waiting all winter till March or April to get back to work on it. So I primed the frame today and I'll paint it tomorrow. Then sometime next week the Fiero will get pushed back into the tent and I'll continue working on it
I really can't describe how much I love how cool this litte car looks in blue, I wasn't 100% sold on it because in the tent it was never getting direct light. Now that its outside I really can see it and I can't complain about any of it. I know I could do a better wrap job in the future, but this looks great from even a couple feet away. I'm also going to wrap the roof in black vinyl, I'll leave the rear clip blue but I like how the black looks now so I'm going to keep it basically that way.
Getting a lot done on the Fiero now that the El Camino frame is painted and back in my garage. I mounted my coils. I also started on the exhaust, I can't believe how little room there is to fit everything. I think it'll work though I haven't decided which exhaust tips to use but have a few options. I've got some crummy looking stock trumpets and a set from a Camaro SS and some Magnaflow singles. I was leaning towards some C6 tips but haven't liked the prices I've seen them going for so far. I'm just going to keep plugging away at the exhaust and buttoning up little things. Next weekend if I'm done with the exhaust I'll be pulling the wiring to find out why its shorting and also reroute some of it. Jessica
[This message has been edited by 78_elky (edited 11-03-2016).]
Busy with my grandmothers funeral the end of last week and this weekend so I didn't get much done. Sunday was beautiful but I decided to just hang out instead of crawling around working on the exhaust. I pulled the interior trim and did something different with it, I wanted to change up that brushed aluminum look. I love the black instead of the silver, it gives the interior more contrast, it was kind of too much grey in my opinion. I'll be working on the exhaust all this week (well with daylight savings time that may not be too much). Jessica
I had a set of stainless Magnaflow tips I took off my S10 so I'll be running those for the time being. I really wanted to use a set of C6 Corvette style tips but its not in the budget right now. I still need to install a hanger to the subframe on the passenger side; but its pretty level without it. I'm going to work on the thermostat housing next. Jessica
I got a lot of little things done this weekend. I put up some Christmas lights, and cleaned up the leaves in my yard. I modified the thermostat housing, and its ready to be TIG welded. I just tack welded it so it would be in the right orientation. I also pulled my wiring back out because I found 3 wires that were grounded that should not have been and I couldn't fix it in the engine bay. Then I got really frustrated and found a couple more problems. The biggest of which was the 2 or 3 large gauge wires running from the starter to C500 for no reason so I decided to streamline the harness some more. I also wasn't happy with how I had to route the harness because I built it on the engine but not in the engine bay. So a lot of the wires were either stretched or bunched up for no reason other than I'd guessed where the firewall hole was located. It made it almost impossible to get to the oil dipstick so I'm going to fix this and make it a lot better this time. I also installed the rear inner fenders that came with the car but were never installed. I got them mostly done, but I didn't have any hardware so I have some more to do once I get the right screws. This week I'm going to focus on the wiring and maybe the fuel lines and extending the intake into the quarter panel. I should have some free time with the holiday this week.
