Ecotec, Fastback, T-Top Build. (Page 14/22) Will SEP 07, 07:30 PM Did you weigh the stock one and your replacement? Lunatic SEP 09, 05:29 AM quote Originally posted by Will: Did you weigh the stock one and your replacement? Ah, a weights and measures question. Indeed I did weigh them. The stock front bumper, which is made of 20 gauge steel, weighed in at 11.8 lbs. My 1/8" (11 gauge) aluminum unit came in at 12.96 lbs. Will SEP 09, 09:04 PM 1.1 # increase? At the very end of the car where it will have the most effect on moment of inertia? What are you DOING? Lunatic SEP 13, 05:43 AM A minor update. As you know, this was a notchback car under going a fastback conversion. When looking down the side of the car at the belt line, the line itself didn't seem straight, like it should. This is not right and I didn't want to live with ugly body panel gaps. I had to see what was not quite right and the cause of this dilemma. I seen two issues that would easily fix this. One, after I installed the T-top H frame, the drip rail was sitting a little too low. This was interfering and causing the fastback to not sit low enough at that point. The front did indeed have to come down a little. While not easy to see, here I massaged the drip rails and hammered them up to fit in the pocket of the fastback. A little spray paint as required. The result is a better fitting fastback. It now sits lower in the front, where it should, and it lines up a lot better. The second part to address was raising the rear of the fastback slightly to level everything out. Several well placed laser cut aluminum washers did the trick. Voila, a straight body line. I'll have to raise the rear bumper as well, just not today. On another note, the wiring has been coming along nicely. This was very easy to wire up and interface with the Fiero harness. Now it's not all done, but it's close. I'm not too worried about adding all the BCM functions at this point, but rather focus on engine management. In reality, if I was to install the fuel tank, it would start. Here's the ODB2 diagnostic port in the stock location. El cheapo scan tool at work. No diagnostic trouble codes. Nice. That's all for today, I've had enough. Lunatic SEP 27, 08:51 AM I'd like to thank WFTB for taking the time out of his busy day to drive over and assist me. I'm one step closer thanks to him! Since I had to raise the fast back up some 6 millimeters, I ended up with a gap between the bottom of the tail lights and bumper. So off came the bumper and I raised the upper mounting pad. This was easy since the holes were slotted in my favour. I know, I'll have to recondition the tail lights. While the bumper cover was off, I also trimmed the aluminum bumper mount a little for clearance. I chose to repair the corner of the trunk since everything was exposed. Lunatic OCT 17, 12:41 PM I decided to drop the cradle in order to make room to work. I never liked the look of the stock hinge boxes and they've already been removed. I was thinking of bullet hinges at first but why not use what's already there? A couple pieces of 1/4" steel, and re-purposing the original hinge, you can end up with something nice. Kudo's to Fieroguru for this tip. Take the original hinge, and cut it off at the bend. Tack weld the two parts together. Lay down some welds. Grind both sides smooth. Drill some holes through the spreader plate. 3/8"-16 nuts on the backside. Tacked in place and you end up with assembly. Place weights on the decklid to keep it in place. Add spacers as required to keep the decklid centered. 1/8" was a perfect gap. Note: I added an 11 gauge reinforcing plate earlier on as an added precaution. (I thought the factory sheet metal in that area was too thin). From the bottom, you can see how this is going to fit. If you look closely, you can see that I have to taper the end to match the contour of the firewall. This is the spreader plate. There are two rectangular slots under the rear window ledge and these just slide into place. I chose to silicone the spreader plate in place. Just in case I need to remove the hinges, the plate will stay put. While the silicone was curing, I wanted to temporarily bolt it down. Here's the new passenger side hinge, painted of course. I can't leave the driver's side out. The firewall looks way nicer without the ugly, stock hinge boxes. Decklid closes well without binding. The louvered vents fit well and the gap is nice. I still need to install the hold down bracket though. wftb OCT 17, 11:07 PM It was fun to see all the work you have done , everything looks great ! I see you could use some of Rodneys decklid struts .Next time you are up this way , let me know and I can give you my set up .I don't need it since i traded my spoiler away .... Lunatic DEC 14, 05:39 AM quote Originally posted by wftb: It was fun to see all the work you have done , everything looks great ! I see you could use some of Rodneys decklid struts .Next time you are up this way , let me know and I can give you my set up .I don't need it since i traded my spoiler away .... Thanks Steve. I just might take you up on that deck lid strut offer! I've been occupied with some other Fiero related stuff (Northstar and F23) and haven't really touched my car lately. So here's a little progress report. I installed polyurethane bushings into the rear control arms. Here's a simple tool to pull the old rubber bushing out. Bushings installed and control arms painted black. At this point, I'd like to give a big "thank you" to Pete, aka cam-a-lot. He found a fuel tank from an 88 and let me know about it. I just had to go for a drive and check it out. It was very solid and complete too. What a score! All I really had to do was hit it with a wire brush and give it a few coats of Tremclad rattle can paint. Since I have the sending unit out, I decided to check the resistance of the fuel level sender. Of course it's old and not accurate any more. I'll need to address this before I reinstall it. Oh, and a more suitable fuel pump is in order too. That's all for now, the paint fumes have gotten to me! Note: For those following, yes I laser cut the material to build an aluminum fuel tank. This will still happen but for now, I'll use the 88 tank. Lunatic JAN 08, 10:30 AM As mentioned earlier, I knew I needed to address the Fieros original fuel sending unit. Lets face it, I'm working on an older car here and parts deteriorate over time. I had options though. 1) Use the original sending unit. There was no way I was going to just clean the original rheostat and hope for the best results. 2) Buy a new sending unit. That's a viable option. 3) Get creative and make something newer, and better, fit. I chose option 3 of course. Here's the stock Fiero sending unit sans fuel pump. Remove all the old parts as most won't be reused. I will however keep the float arm and float though. Here's the bare fuel return line. Yes, I removed the original Fiero sending unit bracket as I'll use one from another GM vehicle. One the left, the Fiero. On the right, 1989 C1500 Suburban. Why the Suburban unit? Simple. A) The rheostat and wiper are made of stainless steel. B) The range of operation is 0-90 Ω, just like the Fiero. C) Because I already it. Recycling at it's finest. Here's the Suburban rheostat. Removed from the fuel line. I removed the C1500 bracket. Then TIG welded it onto the Fiero sending unit fuel line. Onto the other modifications required to make this work. The Fiero float arm needs some minor grinding. This clearance is needed to fit the Fiero float arm into the C1500 plastic pivot. Here's a close up of the upgraded design. I had to slightly enlarge the inner diameter to allow the Fiero float arm to fit. Factory float installed. Now lets assemble this Frankenstein. Onto the fuel pump now. Walbro GSS341 to the rescue. This is a high output pump that will flow 255 litres per hour and utilizes a proven gerotor design. The end result of my efforts, see for yourself. Close to 0 Ω indicating empty. Float around the half way point. Float at the full mark or real close to 90 Ω. Lunatic FEB 20, 12:02 PM In today's episode, I'll hack up a new set of rear struts to make a pair of coilovers. Monroe strut in it's virgin form. This end cap is too large in OD and must be removed. Note: I kept the strut shaft in the retracted position in order to avoid damage. Using a zip wheel, score the offending material. Don't go too deep! A little difficult to see but use Vice Grip locking pliers and fatigue the metal by rocking it back and forth. When done correctly, you'll end up with four little stubs. Just grind those off flush. Onto the spring perch. Lightly score the perimeter, just above the weld. 1) Using a hammer, give the spring perch a whack. It'll come off quite easily. 2) You can see the parts that have been removed from the strut. 3) My struts were powder coated. Despite the fact that the outer diameter was smaller then the threaded sleeve that I plan on using, I still had to strip the paint. Using a sanding disk, this made my job easy. Here's one threaded sleeve installed. These are 2" ID x 5" long. I have many of these laying around but you can find them at your local speed shop. Remember some struts are thicker, Koni perhaps, and might require a different inner diameter. I also have several adjuster's here as well. I'm not liking the fit of the gold one. It's a little too loose for my liking. The small threaded holes are there to keep the sleeve secure to the strut and keep the sleeve from turning. Short set screws will find their way into there. The two piece silver adjuster's fit way nicer and I think I'll use them. Strut bodies painted. The springs are used and they'll need to get sand blasted and painted. They are 300 lbs, 12" long and have an ID of 2.560". The poly ring fits into the top of the spring to avoid squeaking. To those swapping an 88 cradle into an 84-87 chassis, this is for you. As you may or may not know, the 88's have the strut towers closer together. When installing the 88 cradle into the 84-87 cars, one should position the struts to match the location of the 88. Since these measurements may be difficult to obtain, I mapped them out for you. Note: I measured a friend's 88 to get my measurements. When looking "DOWN" from the top of the 84-87 engine bay, (and standing behind the rear of the car facing forward), the new 88 strut shaft location will be: INWARD 1.750" (44.45 mm) FORWARD 15/16" (23.81 mm) These measurements are "per strut". You'll have to move both struts! With this information, I drilled holes in their respective locations. Knowing the dimensions, I also made a pair of these. The small ring will secure the upper strut bushing. The larger ring will locate the spring and keep it from moving. These need to be welded but first I'm opting to install the cradle and make sure everything lines up as intended. The red bushing is the one I need, four actually. Since I didn't have four good ones, I went to Napa and got a set of poly end link bushings. They're almost the perfect outer diameter. The inner diameter is too small and will be opened up with a drill. To end my day, I'm now going to sandblast the rear coil springs and get them ready for powder coat.