Just picked up an 87 SE basket case (Page 3/37)
78_elky APR 14, 10:49 AM
Well I got a couple hours of work done Friday and I spent all day Sunday working on the car. I built a battery tray and I cleaned up and painted the rust on the passenger side. I also discovered that the passenger side cradle rail was welded and now has a plate running the entire length from the "axle" to the front mount

Most of the rust cut out.


Kind of where I want the battery to be.


The start of a battery tray; and its just junk that I had in the garage. So yay for free parts.


I think it fits pretty well for not really measuring anything...



Then I cleaned up most of the welds I could get to and painted it with some self etch primer.


Then I sealed it up with some black chassis paint.


I also cleaned, rust converter-ed, primed, and painted over the surface rust on the car.


There was one tiny rust spot on the side of the trunk so I did the same to that one as well.


Then I worked on the rear calipers because they are off the car right now.




Saturday I was able to pick up some wheels and tires for the car, at least now its not so much of an eyesore in the driveway.



Luckily its all just plasti-dip pink





I think its a huge improvement, and the center caps won't work so I won't have a Subaru logo on the car
Sunday I tackled the rear of the car...







Now I'm still short a few things but I put it back together so I could see how it all looked.


I am missing the pinch bolts for the lower ball joint; as well as the seal on the back of the spindle/knuckle I also don't have any nuts for the front cradle bolts and the vibration damping engine mount is missing the through bolt and looks trashed. I also noticed the TPS on the replacement throttle body that came with the car was missing so I need to get some new screws to hold that on.

So I'm going to try and get all the hardware today so I can get it all back together when my new rotors and pads arrive.

Then as it was getting late I decided to switch gears and I disassembled the dash and sprayed it the right grey to match my interior pieces.


I still have to spray my new door panels but I'm getting closer; but I'm sure I'll find something else wrong before I get too far.

Jessica

Almost forgot to post a picture of it with the new wheels on!

[This message has been edited by 78_elky (edited 05-01-2017).]

78_elky APR 16, 12:13 PM
I got these in the mail and should have them on the car this weekend. I decided I like having a parking brake and honestly I'll see how the stock Fiero system works before I do a bigger brake swap. I got a full set with pads so it should at least look cool


Is this common with these cars? I've not seen rust on a steering column like this before.


And I've got the dash back in and some of the other parts as well. I'm happy to report it is all very clean and less gross than it was when I took it all out.


I wanted to get the throttle body back on the engine but it had a stripped TPS mounting hole so I filled it with JB weld and I'll have it hopefully tapped and installed tonight. I really want to take this thing for a drive already; its making me a little crazy that it is just sitting in the driveway.

Jessica
78_elky APR 17, 11:33 AM
Well I bit the bullet and started to fix the console skeleton with some JB Weld. I used some duct tape to hold it together and now that I've got all the big pieces back together I'll start making it stronger and hopefully it will last a while.


I also took a good before and after picture of the arm rests. This car is a gross mess but its coming back to life slowly!


Jessica

[This message has been edited by 78_elky (edited 05-01-2017).]

tshark APR 17, 01:25 PM
Nice. What an improvement on the arm rests.

My intermediate shaft looks the same. Apparently, the ”seal” for the steering shaft doesn't do much sealing. If you look, the bracket where the brake booster bolts to is probably also rusty.
78_elky APR 17, 03:33 PM

quote
Originally posted by tshark:

Nice. What an improvement on the arm rests.

My intermediate shaft looks the same. Apparently, the ”seal” for the steering shaft doesn't do much sealing. If you look, the bracket where the brake booster bolts to is probably also rusty.




Thanks for the heads up. I've just found that anything not coated or painted is totally rusted (and even some stuff that was painted has rusted). I've got blue tape holding my rear marker light on the car because the metal clips behind the bumper fell apart when I took the old broken lens off. I'm planning to do a vinyl wrap on the car so I guess when I pull the bumpers I'll fix it. I'm planning to just buy a box of those little fasteners from Fastenal before I start.

Jessica
Carcenomy APR 17, 08:37 PM
You might say I'm pretty partial to an '87 SE in Med Metallic Red for some reason



It's always super gratifying when you do save one from what would be a reasonably permanent end, it's good to see the progress on yours is going smoothly!

------------------

78_elky APR 18, 05:24 PM

quote
Originally posted by Carcenomy:

You might say I'm pretty partial to an '87 SE in Med Metallic Red for some reason



It's always super gratifying when you do save one from what would be a reasonably permanent end, it's good to see the progress on yours is going smoothly!




That looks great! I don't think mine will be staying red because the paint has so many problems. There is a lot of fiberglass showing through in more than a few panels (plus my replacement panels I got are all white.

My "to-do" list for the day, its more of a starting point than anything.


I got the door panels back on last night before going out and it really is nice to see them looking great again


I spent the morning at cars and coffe and now I'm just taking a break. I was able to get the TB tapped for the TPS and its ready to go back on. I removed the coolant loop from the TB and I welded in the battery tray and did some other little things. I'm feeling like I've gotten ahead of most of the issues at this point but by tonight when I quite I'm sure I'll have a few new things I'm confused with again.

Jessica
78_elky APR 18, 10:16 PM
Well it was going alright (if very slow) on the car but then I was trying to put the calipers back on the rotors and there wasn't enough room for the pads so I tried to press the piston back into the bore with a brake tool, but it wouldn't budge. Then I was trying to take the parking brake lever off to see if that had something to do with it and the piston came out of the bore and now I'm not sure how to get it back in. Also the dust shield is spilt and I didn't know that until now, so I guess I'm going to be waiting for a rebuild kit anyways. Kind of a crappy way to end the day. Hopefully I can get a kit from a local store and be back at it tomorrow, and that should give me time to figure out how to put the piston back in.
Jess
78_elky APR 20, 11:13 AM
Well with the setback on Saturday I decided that I'd just take it easy Sunday. I got the exhaust Y pipe bolted back up to the manifold near the firewall so I was able to get the intake and throttle body mounted. I JB Welded a crack in the EGR pipe that is right under the manifold flange. I may remove the EGR in the future if it isn't too much trouble. Also I got the battery tray welded in and hooked the battery up and tried to start the car.

This images is larger than 153600 bytes. Click to view.

Of course I only spent a few minutes trying to start it and it didn't want to go. I'll spend some more time on it once I have a second person to help me trouble shoot it. Its kind of hard to check things and try and start it all by yourself (I should get a remote start one of these days to make trouble shooting easier).

I also started to rebuild the console frame. I think it'll be pretty strong byt he time I'm done.

This images is larger than 153600 bytes. Click to view.

I'll sand it and paint it when I'm done fixing all the cracks (I don't think there is an intact screw hole in the entire part.

And I ordered caliper rebuild kits for all 4 calipers and I should have them Tuesday and I'll get back to work on that soon.

Jessica
78_elky APR 22, 11:03 AM
I put the console back in last night; I was just going to test fit and see what needed to be done, but everything was going together so well I just installed it all. The only hiccup is the vinyl surround around the shifter plate is warped and peeling (the center stack part around the radio trim is as well but not bad) so I may have to address that soon. Also I have no idea if my HVAC controls work or if my blower motor works so that may have to come out still and I think some of the bulbs are burned out. I think I'm going to paint the ashtray covers so they are off and I haven't really attached the shifter yet. Some of this list is just to help me remember what all I have left to look at. Either way its a huge improvement and I can also see why its so common to build or buy a new dash or interior for these cars.

This images is larger than 153600 bytes. Click to view.

I also need to give the steering wheel, shifter, headliner, and interior plastic trim I didn't remove a good scrub to get the dirt and grime off of them. I also got all 4 of my caliper rebuild kits in yesterday so I'm going to start working on the passenger rear and see how it goes. I also tried to start the car again and I smelled a good bit of gas so I think the pump is working, but maybe it needs a coil or ignition module. I'll have my Dad come out and give me a hand so I can get him to crank the car while I check spark and other things.

Jessica