quote Originally posted by michhiker28: Wow, I don't know what to say. Thanks for the great response everyone! I'm going to start work on the thread and then once I get it up to date, I will share it with Kathryn and give her access to comment on there as well. Once Kathryn decided to move forward with purchasing her car we had a couple of decisions to make. Once of the first was how much money she would like to spend. The easiest thing to do, would be to have her save her money and in about 4 years buy a really nice, well maintained car off of one of the forum members. :-) After all, we all know it is cheaper to buy something already built than to replace a bunch of parts yourself. Besides, thought I, this bug might wear off in a couple of weeks or months and then I won't have a derelict car. Nope! She wanted to learn how to rebuilt something, so my easy way wasn't going to work. Instead we had to start the search for a car. Now, not being a fiero expert we started to read up. We realized pretty quickly that she wanted an '85 or later (88 prefered) car, would prefer a V6, it had to be stick (5 speed preferable) and she didn't care if it was a GT or SE....she liked both. After a bit of saving, and a lot of looking we came across an add on craiglist that was about 40 miles from our home. We drove out to see it and took along Uncle Bob. Looking at the car, I was horrified. I could see a lot of cosmetic work etc. that was going to need to be done. We had warned Kathryn before we left to see it that she didn't have to buy it if she didn't like it but that it would be her decision. Here is what we saw: --MH

Reminds me of my 1st fiero......only my 1st fiero was a basket case that was riddled with problems and issues. keep up the good work. I'll be watching this thread.

Plus your already a head of the game. Every Fiero. And i mean every one of them never made it the 1st ride home. every one had to be towed. I thought my formula was going to be different........ no it broke a shifter cable on the way home.

BTW you got duped a little on your good on gas argument there a little. the 4 speed (at least in my experience) is horrible MPG wiase for the size of the car. my stock 4 speed was an 86 GT that ran great and was pretty fast for a small 6 but it was a bit thirsty. My formula with the turbo 3400 and 4 speed drinks like a college student with expensive taste (premium only).

All in all though the 4 speed is a good transmission. it is a very strong transmission as well. he car seems like a very good base to build off o. keep up the good work.
------------------

Better to be judged by twelve than carried by six.
(88 formula 3400SFI turbo) Made the kessel run in less than 12 parceks b****
(84 IMSA) garage queen
(84 base) big orange firecracker
(06 solstice) my vert Fiero

[This message has been edited by pontiackid86 (edited 04-20-2011).]

------------------
I'm the original owner of a white ' 84 2M4 purchased Dec 10, 1983 from Pontiac. Always garaged, no rust, 4-wheel drifts are fun!

Not much to update in one day, but I will share the progress from last night.

One of the things that we noticed early on was that the sail panels were beginning to show their age. The black plastic frames were showing some fading and both of the pontiac emblems were gone. The lexan windows themselves were stared and cracked in a couple of places, so they were going to need some work. We looked online the a couple of weeks ago when we were down working on the car to figure out the best way to get them off....unfortunately, wrong directions. Sooo, it was a good opportunity for Kathryn to learn a valuable lesson. Sometimes it is better to leave it and live to fight another day than it is to try to force something and break it.

After a bit more resaerch we found some better instructions for removal than we had originally and off the panels came. Yippee!

For Christmas Kathryn had recieved the new plexiglass panels in a dark tint and with custom lettering. Instead of putting SE panels back on the car hers will say Kathryn's Fiero in yellow script on a deep tint background. She was pretty excited about these, since it keeps with her yellow and black color scheme as well as making sure that no one will mistake that it is HER CAR!

Last night she worked a bit with dad on removing the old glass and tape. The glass came off relatively easily......the tape not so much so. After watching her struggle for a bit with a putty knive and some sand paper, dad introduced her to the wonders of acetone! A lot of elbow grease, a small mess, and some time later this is what we ended up with.



They are now ready for paint and here is a question for the group. We have a couple of different options. Once they are painted it looks like we could order the emblems from the fiero store for abotu $26. Some others have suggested a grinding and sanding down the raised section and using a pontiac emblem from the grand am, cost about $20. Another option is to repaint the frame black, and then mask off the arrowhead and spray it yellow to contrast and leave it. Cost is effectivly $0. What would everyone do, since the car isn't going back stock anyway? Or do you have other suggestions? Fire away!

One last thing for the update. Kathryn does not yet know that this thread exists. Mom and Dad just recently ordered her MRMIKES seats for her birthday in yellow and black, a yellow firewall cover and some other goodies. She will get them in June. So dad will continue to update the thread until then, and we will let her see the thread for the first time for her 13th birthday. Then she will have 3 years to finish the project and can also enjoy everyones comments and suggestions.

-MH

[This message has been edited by michhiker28 (edited 04-20-2011).]

------------------
'86 2m4 - Ternunda : In Progress
'86 GT - Mad Max : Coming Later

------------------
'86 2m4 - Ternunda : In Progress
'86 GT - Mad Max : Coming Later