World's slowest Fiero/Quad 4 Swap (Page 45/51)
Quadfather APR 17, 08:31 PM
That would be a good swap. Do you follow Bob Pease on YouTube or Facebook? His YouTube handle is LD9user. He’s been racing LD9s for years, but recently started building them for customers. Dude knows everything there is to know about Quads/LD9s and is willing to share his knowledge with everyone.
82-T/A [At Work] APR 19, 09:49 AM

quote
Originally posted by Quadfather:

That would be a good swap. Do you follow Bob Pease on YouTube or Facebook? His YouTube handle is LD9user. He’s been racing LD9s for years, but recently started building them for customers. Dude knows everything there is to know about Quads/LD9s and is willing to share his knowledge with everyone.




Yeah, I've always been a big fan of that motor. Thanks for letting me know, I just subscribed to his channel!
Quadfather MAY 11, 10:46 PM
It’s been an interesting three weeks. I’ve made zero progress on the Fiero because a side project took over my life.

The company I work for owns a couple helicopters. One’s a Bell 206, the other’s a Bell 407. My branch of the company uses the 206 while the other branch uses the 407. A couple months ago we had to swap the choppers and that was a problem for us because the dolly we use for the 206 is too small for the 407. Made getting the 407 in and out of the hangar a challenge.

As our pilot was describing the problem to me, I realized I had the capability to build a bigger, better dolly. I got a promotion a month ago and this kind of thing doesn’t fall under my new responsibilities, but I had a week’s vacation coming up. We convinced the boss to buy the materials and I built the dolly on my vacation and on the weekends.

We modeled it after the dolly we use for the 407, which is actually two carts bolted together.









It was too big to completely assemble in the shop, so that had to wait until I hauled it to work.



We still have to paint it and add the wooden planks, but that’s the easy part.

Now that that’s over, I’ll get back to working on the Fiero. Aside from the engine wiring harness, the only tasks left to do are small ones.
Quadfather JUN 04, 06:56 PM
Slight progress this week. I installed new rear hubs and brake pads, cleaned up the rear calipers and had to get one new spring.





Also bought some cheap outer tie rod ends for the rear end. These are not as beefy as the set that was on the car.



I’ve been thinking about Sardonyx’s suggestion about mounting the inner end to the A frame. Sure seems like a good idea, but I’m scared to try it myself. Maybe after I get the car on the road.

Still working on the mounts for the deck lids struts. I put these together and immediately hated them.





Now I’m working on mounts that fit up inside the deck lid hinge mounts. More photos when I have more progress to report.
Quadfather JUN 04, 07:05 PM
My son bought a truck this weekend, so we can retire the 2002 Grand Prix GTP he’s been driving that was a hand-me-down from my wife. The car is a 40th anniversary edition, but it was hit by deer three separate times so the body is pretty bad. It broke its steering rack mounts, so I replaced the rack and that one broke, too. I had to make a pretty redneck setup to hold the rack in place, so that’s another reason to retire it.

It has close to 280,000 miles on it but still runs great. I’ll save the engine, trans and computer, and maybe the heads up display, too. About the only other part that would be worth anything is the rear wing.



I have until August to get this Fiero running before I lose access to the garage, so now I have a deadline.
Quadfather JUN 30, 09:04 PM
Been trying to get back in the groove of working on the Fiero. The 2002 Buick Century deck lid struts I got at the salvage are so worn out they won’t support the deck lid, but I didn’t want to risk buying new ones and have them still not work. Looking through old forum threads about struts, I saw that mid-80s Buicks had small but powerful struts on their hoods. Can’t find them at parts stores anymore, but I found a pair on eBay.



These things are about an inch shorter than the Century deck lids ones, but they’re so stiff I can’t retract them by hand. I’m thinking just one may be enough to raise the Fiero deck lid.

Now the issue is the mounts. These struts don’t use a ball, they use a rod with a slot machined in it.



I think I can make my own using the drill press and the Dremel to alter a bolt.
Quadfather JUN 30, 09:10 PM
I also got ball joints for the rear end.





I’d been on the fence about whether the bushings needed to be replaced on the rear A frames, but today confirmed that the rubber is disintegrating. I’ll be ordering poly bushings as soon as possible.

Quadfather JUN 30, 09:24 PM
I know the front suspension needs work, too, but that can wait until the car is on the road. It makes sense to address the rear suspension now because it’s disassembled. Probably need new struts on the rear end, too, but they can wait.

Been crazy busy at work over the last couple of months, including a couple of stretches where I worked both weekend days. Things should calm down now, but Oklahoma’s ridiculous summer heat is here and that really slows me down,
Quadfather JUL 17, 09:35 PM
Finally figured out the deck lid strut mounts. I wanted them to be as unobtrusive as possible, so I made a piece that fits inside the hinge mount and is held in place by bolts that go through the holes that originally held the pins for the torsion springs.

I made pins for the struts by grinding the heads off four bolts and using a Dremel to machine a groove near the end.







It took some trial and error to find the spot where the strut would allow the deck lid to close all the way, while still allowing it to open to near its fullest extent.

The deck lid flange attaches using one deck lid bolt and then a bolt where the end of the torsion spring mounted.







These struts are just about perfect. They don’t take up much room and when I turn the key in the lock, the deck lid pops up about 4 inches, then slowly rises all the way open.

[This message has been edited by Quadfather (edited 07-17-2023).]

Quadfather SEP 12, 08:32 PM
Minor progress to report. I've just been so busy with work and other parts of life. I retired from refereeing youth soccer, so my weekends should free up.

My son and I pulled the supercharged 3.8 out of our old Grand Prix and I spent a couple of weeks cleaning up the engine and transmission and preparing them for storage. Turns out the transmission was a replacement unit, not the original. The engine had a serious oil leak around the front valve cover so I wanted to pressure wash all the oily grit off before I haul the engine to the storage unit. I need to weld up a couple carts, as soon as I find more castors.



Between disassembling and hauling off the Grand Prix, trying to track down a weird suspension clunk in my wife's Impala, trying to rehab an old chain saw, working a lot of hours and dealing with the ridiculous heat and humidity, I've tinkered with the Fiero just a little bit over the last couple of months. The only milestone this time was removing the engine and cradle from the car to prepare for the wiring harness work. I also got the poly bushings installed in the rear A arms and bolted on.



It's really hard to get a big chunk of free time to spend in the shop and make significant progress. I'll keep trying.