World's slowest Fiero/Quad 4 Swap (Page 20/48)
Quadfather JUN 21, 11:03 PM
I’m working on building the courage to mate the Quad harness to the Fiero harness. When I first started researching the swap, I know I was confident in how to do it and knew the details, but it’s been so long I’ve forgotten all that and the self doubt has grown tremendously.

I know I have to unpin some of the big connectors, but do I put the Fiero pins in the Quad connector or the Quad pins in the Fiero connector. Does it matter? Throughout this whole process, this is the part that has always worried me. I have no problem welding up engine mounts, rebuilding the Quad, or even painting the car, but this wiring stuff is way out of whatever comfort zone I have.

When my brother first gave me the donor Beretta GTZ in 2008 and I pulled the engine to replace the head and head gasket, I had never worked on that type of engine before. I put it all back together and it started right up the first time I turned the key. Maybe I’ll get lucky and will have the same experience this time.

[This message has been edited by Quadfather (edited 06-21-2020).]

Habanera Hal JUN 22, 10:19 AM

Pretty much the whole car has orange peel now, but the worst is the wing. It was the last thing I sprayed and was in a hurry to finish.

As frustrating as the paint/clear coat is, it is still a good looking car. It’s also a dust magnet.

Same thing happened to mine. Surfaces were clear, smooth, and shiny for about a month then found that the paint shrunk as it cured. With all this down time, I should go out and wet sand and buff it, but I'm too lazy.
Quadfather JUN 24, 05:46 PM

quote
Originally posted by Habanera Hal:

Same thing happened to mine. Surfaces were clear, smooth, and shiny for about a month then found that the paint shrunk as it cured. With all this down time, I should go out and wet sand and buff it, but I'm too lazy.



Man, I understand. I may try a wrap this fall or winter, if I can get the car running by then.
Quadfather JUN 28, 09:52 AM
Well, summer has arrived in Oklahoma. Maybe it’s an age thing, but my motivation is inversely proportional to the temperature/humidity level.

I haven’t done much directly on the car, other than to try wet sanding that one bad spot behind the driver’s side sail panel. It looks much better, but now the clear coat is gone from that spot.

[This message has been edited by Quadfather (edited 06-28-2020).]

Quadfather JUN 28, 10:05 AM
I’ve mentioned before how I’ve discovered overspray in unlikely places. In this case, what I thought was overspray is a symptom of another issue.



Yup, the door hinges are worn out, so the bottom of the door panel is scraping the sill panel when the door is opened or closed.







When I open the door and lift up on it from the back end, I feel at least an 1/8-inch of play. So add this to the list of tasks that need to be completed.

[This message has been edited by Quadfather (edited 06-28-2020).]

Quadfather JUN 28, 10:18 AM
A couple weeks ago my wife and I stopped at an estate sale and I bought an old squirrel cage HVAC blower for 5 bucks. I wired it up and it worked, but since it didn’t have a capacitor I had to start the motor by hand. The ID plate was missing, so I took the motor to my local HVAC supply place to try to find the right capacitor. The guy at the counter, and a customer who was also an AC repair tech, recommended a 7.5, which cost me all of $10.

They told me if the capacitor is not the specified rating for the motor that the motor will burn up in a day or two, but I said for an investment of $15, it’s worth the risk. I will use it as a shop fan. I have a big pedestal fan, and a smaller fan my dad hung from the ceiling years ago, but the shop needs another one.



YouTube is full of videos for how to turn one of these into a shop fan, and this one blows a tremendous amount of air.

The guy at the supply place said he had another one in his truck he was going to throw away, so I took that one, too. It’s a little bit bigger than the estate sale one.

[This message has been edited by Quadfather (edited 06-28-2020).]

Quadfather JUN 28, 10:42 AM
My wife actually suggested I rent a storage unit for my extra Fiero parts. My shop is actually the garage of my mom’s house. My dad died in 2003, so when my wife and family moved back to Oklahoma in 2005, I agreed to clean up the yard and garage at my mom’s request. Over the years she let me convert it to a shop, as long as I kept one stall open for her car. In the process, I became the caretaker of the whole property. I did this so my mom could stay in the dream house she and my dad designed years ago.

I won’t bore you with the legal details, but when she died in 2018, another brother moved into the house, against my wishes, obviously. From time to time he’s a real butthead, including the time he was burning some brush, and threw the spare sunroof panel on the fire. A couple weeks ago he gave me grief about “that junk metal” stacked behind the garage. That “junk” is a 1988 engine cradle and the two doors I used for power windows/mirrors. I don’t have room for them in my garage, so I’ve been carrying them around in my truck. When my wife saw them there yesterday, knowing the reason they’re there, she suggested I get a storage unit, and then actually started looking for one on the internet.



I have a lot of non-Fiero parts that can go to the unit, including the engine out of my old pickup, a lawn mower engine, a spare Getrag transmission, my two spare Quads... all kinds of stuff.

What’s going to come as a surprise for my brother is when I get my own shop and move all of my tools and equipment out of Mom’s garage.

[This message has been edited by Quadfather (edited 12-24-2020).]

FieroWannaBe JUN 28, 06:35 PM
I know years ago I had you grab some 88 coolant tubes for me. You had them in your attic while i got my life together.

Any chance you still have those?

Keep us updated on the build too.
Habanera Hal JUN 28, 07:15 PM

quote
Originally posted by FieroWannaBe:

I know years ago I had you grab some 88 coolant tubes for me. You had them in your attic while i got my life together.

Any chance you still have those?

Keep us updated on the build too.



If he doesn't have them, check with Larry Hubert on here. I know he has them.
Quadfather JUN 28, 07:29 PM

quote
Originally posted by FieroWannaBe:

I know years ago I had you grab some 88 coolant tubes for me. You had them in your attic while i got my life together.

Any chance you still have those?

Keep us updated on the build too.



Ah, man, it’s great to hear from you. Yes, I still have those tubes. If I recall, I had to cut them to get them to fit in the box, but I marked them carefully so they could be welded back in the right orientation. The box is still in the attic and I think it has your name and address on it.

I’ll get over to the shop in the next day or so and get up there to make sure the box is still there.

[This message has been edited by Quadfather (edited 06-29-2020).]