Mossy white rescue, 85 2m4 (Page 1/3)
DangerDook JAN 23, 01:35 AM
Let me preface with, I have no idea what I'm doing. I enjoy learning, and I've got a couple cars I've done work on with friends. Feel free to step in and tell me what I'm doing right, wrong, dumb, whatever. I just want to keep a log of what I'm up to with this thing, so I figured this is the spot to do that. I'll start it off with where I'm at so far.
.
.
.
I picked up this 85 from a Pennocks post, http://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum4/HTML/078296.html




I had some parts with me but had no luck getting it running, had it towed back home to the other side of the city.




Next day pulled it out into the 40 degrees of rainy goodness and gave it a nice hot water bucket bath




Cleaner and happier



Next to play with getting it running, decided to look at plugs and check compression while playing with things. Ended up with 1:135 2:130 3:140 4:135 which seems pretty darn good.
looking at the distributor decided to just replace it assuming the pickup was dead, this luckly ended up working and I go the timing close enough to run happy right off the bat (after realizing I had installed it on TDC the wrong stroke and rotated the engine around again anyway) Totally some worn and disconnected wiring I need to resolve here but it's running so that will happen after the cleanup on the rest of the car.



Also pulled the insulation out, it smelled like musty potatoes and had moss growing in some spots. Battery tray is gone gone, not sure how extensive this rust is, I'm kinda worried on it.



Video of it idling, checking to see if it warms and runs the fan and all that goodness. It got up to ~180 and no fan kicked on, ran for 20-30 mins or so before deciding to pack it in.

Oil pressure looked good, RPM gauge pegged at max though so idk how reliable the gauges are.
I picked up some brushes and a little extractor to wash stuff, popped the seats out, threw the headliner out, and started scrubbing everything.






Last one is odd staining? Mold? The spots are all over the back side of the seat fabric against the foam. Washed the seat a couple times and it's not really changing color or anything but smells way better.

GIF of extracted...mess




Thanks for sitting through all that, I'll keep posting as I do more things.
turbo86se JAN 23, 06:46 AM
Glad to see the Fiero is on its way back to the street. The battery tray rust is pretty common. Perfect excuse to move the battery up front under the spare tire. Or, Fiero Store sells a very nice replacement tray. Keep the updates coming!
Vicophine JAN 23, 08:06 AM
That .gif of the fluid pouring down the sink made me physically ill! Keep up the good work! Looks like a fun restoration project!
Patrick JAN 23, 09:18 PM

quote
Originally posted by DangerDook:

Battery tray is gone gone, not sure how extensive this rust is, I'm kinda worried on it.



Welcome!

Not to be a downer, but before you invest a lot of time, energy and/or money into this Fiero, check the critical area(s) for rust. Pull off (or at least loosen) the plastic rear wheel well liners and inspect the rear upper frame rails. If they're shot, you might have a parts car.

[This message has been edited by Patrick (edited 01-23-2020).]

bjc 350 JAN 24, 11:31 AM
Pull your trunk carpet first, to get an idea if any rust is present in the trunk corners. Our Northwest cars are usually not rust through candidates, but often you will find some surface rust. I had an 84 with a rusted out battery box, but no other frame rust. Looked very similar to your situation. Good luck on the refurbishment.
Flying_Dan JAN 24, 01:27 PM
Looks pretty good so far! Agree with others hoping the rust isn't bad.
DangerDook JAN 24, 06:51 PM
Thanks for the heads up! I'll be watching through that video and checking around the car this weekend =)
I pulled door cards off to look at the seized up locks and not working inner door handle on the drivers side, I can't figure out how to remove the manual lock but clearly someone else has tried because it's half broken off. Door handle is toast but cheap to replace, same with the lock cylinders.



The jute smells pretty bad, probably just going to peel it off and think about replacement later.
pmbrunelle JAN 25, 01:18 AM

quote
Originally posted by DangerDook:
The jute smells pretty bad, probably just going to peel it off and think about replacement later.



If you can deal with the odor, you should probably keep them as templates to cut out replacements later.

Or, make paper patterns before tearing into pieces.
DangerDook JAN 28, 12:03 AM
Digging in around the rust a little, going on tangents in other directions, cleaning up my garage, all this and more on this episode of DangerDook makes poor life choices™
.
.
So rust, I pulled out some interior, found the extent of rust in the firewall and it's not ideal but not like, totally gone. I still need to pull the trunk liner and the inner wheel liner back here, decided to start up front because I'm afraid of bad news or something, I'm not sure.



This one is firewall before I tapped on the rust to see how flimsy it was and knocked some chunks out. Below and above this ~8" area is strong and seems clean though.

.
looking fairly rust free up front, but I need to figure out how to remove these damn plastic tabs



.
.
.
Replaced the damaged door handle and lock cylinder, I'm wanting to pick up some CLR and rust converting paint (I think?) to clean up the surface rust in here.

.
.
.
Looked through the wiring for the aftermarket stereo and cleaned out some mouse nests.






.
Interesting repair job on the center console piece

.
.
.
Got a shelf for all this stuff coming out

.
.
.
Replaced the broken connector for the seat rails too


.
.
.
That's it for now, I'm going to keep doing small things after work.
Patrick JAN 28, 01:36 AM

quote
Originally posted by DangerDook:

I need to figure out how to remove these damn plastic tabs



Pull the center piece out a bit, then the whole shebang can be pulled out of the holes in the plastic wheel well liners.


quote
Originally posted by DangerDook:

Digging in around the rust a little, going on tangents in other directions, cleaning up my garage, all this and more on this episode of DangerDook makes poor life choices™

So rust, I pulled out some interior, found the extent of rust in the firewall and it's not ideal but not like, totally gone. I still need to pull the trunk liner and the inner wheel liner back here, decided to start up front because I'm afraid of bad news or something, I'm not sure.



There's no valid excuse not to inspect those rear upper frame rails next. You can chalk up everything else you're currently doing as "experience", but the sad reality is that this vehicle may no longer be safe to drive! Check out the critical areas and know for sure what you're dealing with.

Hopefully, this isn't what you find after you remove the rear wheel well liners...

[This message has been edited by Patrick (edited 01-28-2020).]