Finished using the Camaro seat material for the door panels, put the panels in the car and decided I didn’t like them, so off they came.



As I’ve mentioned before, one of the seat covers was badly faded and you can see that in the photo. The material is difficult to work with, since it’s three or four layers, including fabric and padding. The seams also make it tough to handle. It was difficult to get it cut to the right shape and to get it to wrap around the panel. I ended up with some differences between the two panels.

On the plus side, I like the texture of the fabric and the thickness it adds to the panels.

[This message has been edited by Quadfather (edited 02-09-2020).]

My wife and I were out shopping a couple weekends ago and made a stop at Hobby Lobby, so I looked through the fabric department for something to use. I found some grey fabric that I like a lot. It’s very rough, almost like burlap, and it was cheap. I got two yards for about $16.



The stuff is easy to work with and since I didn’t have to worry about seams or any designs, cutting it was a breeze.

I wrapped the top edge around a piece of cardboard, glued the cardboard to the panel, then glued the fabric to the back of the panel. Doing it that way caused the fabric to be loose on the front side.



My plan is to pull this off, then glue the fabric to a piece of carpet padding, then glue the padding to the panel. Might get to it today.

[This message has been edited by Quadfather (edited 02-09-2020).]

Yesterday I spent about three hours in the shop, but only spent a small amount of that time actually working on the car. The rest of the time I was moving parts around and organizing spares. The shop is so full of STUFF it’s hard to stay focused. It’s also hard to find parts and fasteners, which I know I have, when I’m ready to put them back on the car.

For months I’ve been set on wet sanding the car one more time, then carefully washing it, then installing all the trim. That changed when I got fed up with the lack of workspace. So now I’m installing everything I can and organizing the spares so I can get them out of the way.

As a result, the car looks like a car now. I’ve installed most of the molding as well as the mirrors. I also installed the deck lid lock so for the first time in years I can actually close it.



Today I hope to finish up painting the sail panels and installing the door sills and quarter panels. We’ll see.

I also have a new heater core to install, and then will focus on the wiring for the power windows/locks/mirrors. After that, it will be finishing the dash and reinstalling the skeleton.

[This message has been edited by Quadfather (edited 02-09-2020).]

Not much progress to report. I just haven’t had much time in the last several weeks to get over to the shop. When I do get over there, I feel overwhelmed by all the work I still have to do.

I’ve been upholstering the door panels, sanding and painting the sail panels, trying to fix the cracks in the dashboard and preparing to reinstall the sill plates.





They came out OK, but I’m not satisfied. I think I’ll get a set of door panels from the Fiero Store, but they’ll have to wait until I get the car on the road.

[This message has been edited by Quadfather (edited 03-01-2020).]

I had to cut my heater hoses to remove them so I could change the heater core. Turns out heater hoses for 1987 4-cylinder AC-equipped Fieros are hard to find. Rodney Dickman says his ‘88 hoses will work, but I wanted to see if I could find another option. I went to Advance Auto Parts then to NAPA and asked the guys if I could look at their stock and find hoses that were close enough to work.

NAPA had a whole ROOM full of heater hoses, but the closest one I could find to the larger hose was one with just a single 90-degree bend. It won’t work, because the turn to the tube under the car is just too sharp.



At Advance, I found a hose that was pretty close to the smaller Fiero hose. All it needed was about four inches cut off one end. This is the part number.



I ordered the larger one from Rodney Dickman today.

[This message has been edited by Quadfather (edited 03-01-2020).]

This week I tried a little experiment with the leftover Camaro upholstery. I used some of the light-gray material to re-cover the front speaker grilles, and the darker gray for the rear grilles.

I didn’t have pieces of the light gray big enough without a seam, so I just made sure the seam was the same on both front grilles.

[This message has been edited by Quadfather (edited 03-01-2020).]

[This message has been edited by Quadfather (edited 03-01-2020).]

Really struggling with this project. I spent part of both weekend days in the shop but got hardly anything accomplished.



Probably should have expected to be hit with this frustration right as I’m on the verge of finishing the paint and interior and ready to move to the engine.

[This message has been edited by Quadfather (edited 03-16-2020).]

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86 GT built 2.2 ecotec turbo
rear SLA suspension
QA1 coilovers on tube arms