World's slowest Fiero/Quad 4 Swap (Page 8/51)
Quad Raider JUL 02, 05:14 PM
Quick update. I'm in a holding pattern because I can't get my homemade outer dew wipes to fit correctly. The outer edge of the dew wipe is supposed to fit over the top edge of the door. I must've drilled the mounting holes in the wrong location, because my wipes are too low.



I used the old wipes as patterns, so I have no idea how I messed this up. I figure my options are either biting the bullet and buying new wipes from The Fiero Store or drilling new holes in the door, unless someone knows a secret I'm missing.

While dealing with this process, I learned the small section of body trim has to be applied to the door skin BEFORE the skin is installed.



I searched all over the shop for that section, including my big Fiero parts bins and extra boxes. I finally found it, in the plastic container I used for all of the parts of the door when I originally took them apart last summer. I was so disgusted with the whole process I just left.

Summer has arrived in Oklahoma in all its humid grossness: Temps in the 90s with dew points of infinity. That means pretty much any excuse to stop working and go home to the AC is a good one.
Quad Raider JUL 04, 09:47 PM
I spent a couple hours in the shop today trying to get the passenger side dew wipe to fit up over the door skin. I carefully checked it with the OE wipe and confirmed that I drilled the holes 1/16 to 1/8 of an inch too high. I also noticed that the OE wipe is cupped along the length, with the concave part facing the door skin.

My plan is to buy new raw material and an industrial hole punch and start over.
Quad Raider JUL 04, 09:54 PM
Also today, met another Fiero family. My wife and son and I were out for a drive when I took the scenic route home from Collinsville, which is about eight miles from home. We were surprised to see a silver Fiero sitting in the driveway of a very nice home. I stopped to take a photo and we saw the homeowner mowing the lawn, so my family urged me to get out and say hi.

We spoke to the gentleman for about 20 minutes. The silver Fiero is an ‘88 coupe. He also had a black ‘88 in the garage. He had bought the black one for his 16-year-old son and discovered it has more issues than the seller admitted to. He bought the silver one because it was drivable and he got a good deal on it. He got into Fieros specifically because his son wanted one. How cool is that?
Quad Raider JUL 17, 09:37 AM
Haven't done much to the car recently for a variety of reasons. I'm trying to source dew wipe material locally but haven't had time to do a thorough search. In the meantime I can demonstrate how I fixed the sag in my front fascia. I tried using a piece of aluminum but it seemed too heavy so I worried it would cause more problems than it solved. I ended up using a ceiling fan blade and riveted it to the fascia. The fascia still had some sticky fiberglass resin on the back side from where I tried to attach the aluminum plate.



I will probably use a Dremel to trim the stiffener back even more, but no one but me will ever know it's there.



I learned during this process that the fascia can never be, and probably wasn't meant to be, perfectly flat everywhere. But this fix was easy and I'm satisfied with the result. It looks so much better than it did when I got the car home.



The Pontiac emblem in the photo is just resting there. I pulled it off the trunk of a G6 in the salvage yard on a brutally hot day last week. I've seen other forum members use one but wasn't sure if I liked the look. I do.

[This message has been edited by Quad Raider (edited 07-17-2018).]

Quad Raider AUG 07, 09:21 AM
Work on the car has been at a standstill for a variety of reasons, one of which is my annual early August vacation. Something Fiero-related happened on the trip and I posted it in a separate thread:


quote
Originally posted by Quad Raider:

"Fiero guy?" the security guard asked me. The question surprised me so much all I could say was, "What?"

"Fiero guy?" he asked again. I just started laughing and finally said, "Is it that obvious?" He smiled then said, "You're not the first."

My wife and I had made a detour to the Detroit area on our yearly trip from Oologah, Oklahoma to visit my sister in southeast Pennsylvania. On the afternoon of Saturday, August 4th, 2018, I parked our rental car in that little side driveway outside the old Fiero factory at 900 Baldwin Avenue in Pontiac and got out to take pictures of the sign.

After a few minutes I moved the car to the north end of the building and was snapping more photos when the security guard finally walked up to me. I told him I'd bought my Fiero in January of 2011 but still hadn't gotten it on the road. "You will," he said. I laughed again and thanked him.

I took some more photos then got back in the car and headed south on Baldwin to resume the trip. About a hundred yards south of the factory a red GT in excellent condition passed us headed north. My wife and I started laughing at the serendipity.












Quad Raider AUG 27, 05:49 PM
I'm slowly getting back into the groove. Still planning to make a new set of outer dew wipes, but haven't gotten around to ordering the raw material. In the meantime there's always more sanding to do on body panels.

The last part to be primed and sanded is the wing. I didn't realize how big the wing is until I tried to sand and prime it. I came up with this mount to hold it. Anyone else have a better idea?





We're back to our usual August weather in Oklahoma, which means highs in the mid 90s and high humidity, and that makes it even tougher to get over to the shop to work. Here's to cooler, drier weather in the next couple of weeks. Of course, the arrival of fall means I'll be busy refereeing soccer again.


Quad Raider NOV 19, 10:07 PM
After almost three months, I'm back to work on the car, sort of. I'm on vacation this week so I have some time, but I picked up another project that I need to finish. My best friend's 2005 Ford F-150 needs new timing gears. He already bought a replacement truck so when I get this one fixed he'll sell it and share some of the money with me.

I ordered another set of dew wipe material and bought an industrial hole punch.



I'm a little nervous about punching the holes because I don't want to screw these up again. On the other hand, while moving the passenger side door skin around I got it to fit tighter to and lower on the door.

A couple of weeks ago when I had a few spare minutes, I tried to use the ratchet strap method to adjust the deck lid torsion springs. I'm adding a wing to my car, so I was browsing the forum one day and came across the instructions:

http://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum9/HTML/000041.html

Looked easy, so I gave it a shot. Somehow I managed to pull one of the springs completely loose.




The spring is supposed to fit inside that C-shaped flange.


Here's the other spring still nestled in its flange.


Classic example of me turning a simple task into a lot of extra work for myself. Glad I have a shop manual now.
Habanera Hal NOV 20, 02:05 PM
After reading through this whole thread, I could only thing I could think of was your name must be Murphy. I know I wouldn't have your patience to see this through. I admire your perseverance!

When you finally get your DIY dew wipes finished, would you consider posting a how-to thread with resources and all?
Quad Raider NOV 22, 12:25 PM
I redid my passenger side dew wipe and I'm still not happy with the results. The wipe sits up high enough for the rubber flange to fit over the top of the door, but there's still a gap. It appears tightening the screws is bending the wipe and forcing the rubber flange inboard so that it doesn't seal.



It was a very laborious process taking apart the first DIY dew wipe and getting the inserts and felts ready to be used for the second go-round. Buying the hole puncher was a good move, but it took me a few tries to get the hang of it.



The key to using it is being very careful when positioning it on the material. I used its guide on the OE wipe to get the placement of the holes.

I also used two sizes of rivets. Ace Hardware calls them tubular rivets. The smaller size is 1/8" by 1/4", the larger one is 3/16" by 1/4". The smaller size is for the mirror flange and the felts, the larger size is for the inserts.



I used a chunk of plate in a vise as a backer and a punch to start spreading the end of each rivet. I flipped the punch over to finish flattening them. (This photo shows pop rivets in the mirror flange, but I removed them and used tubular rivets instead.



I thought I had posted a link to the thread where I learned about making my own wipes. Here's the link in case I didn't:

http://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum2/HTML/129107.html

I ordered the raw material from Convertible Top Specialists in Florida.

http://www.topsdown.com/
Part # WEAWW408
$40 for two four-foot sections

I may take the wipe off again and put some thin washers between it and the door to see if that helps. If it doesn't I'll buy new ones from the Fiero Store. For now I'm moving on to other tasks.

[This message has been edited by Quad Raider (edited 11-22-2018).]

Quad Raider NOV 22, 12:39 PM
I spent some time in the salvage yard this week looking for parts for my wife's Grand Prix. I noticed a couple 90s model Firebirds with these non-functional hood-mounted heat extractors. Has anyone ever used these on a Fiero?





Since they're plastic it would be easy to cut an opening into them and glass them into/onto the hood. The yard charged me only $8 for both and there's another set if I need it.

My Quad tended to run hot when it was still in my GTZ so I'm concerned about keeping it cool in the Fiero. I've looked at a lot of different hood and decklid vents and only seen a couple I like.

I think these would be perfect if the edges were more parallet, like this:



I'm no expert at fiberglass or body work so this would be a massive amount of work. It's tempting to follow this tangent now as I prep the car for paint, but there's also a good argument for painting the car, finishing the other tasks and getting it on the road, then going back and doing tweaks.

[This message has been edited by Quad Raider (edited 11-22-2018).]