NS F355 Project (Page 43/73)
Bloozberry JUL 24, 12:13 PM
Man, that car is clean! See you tomorrow evening.
Yarmouth Fiero JUL 24, 12:21 PM
Clean ? After I took these pictures and downloaded them on my computer, my OCD got the best of me and I ran out to the garage to ArmorAll the frame...again, before taking the pictures over. Unfortunately I forgot to take the new pics off the camera. So I apologize for the way the chassis looks here.
Yarmouth Fiero JUL 30, 10:59 PM
As noted by Blooz in his thread, the rear bodywork of our 355 body is going to clearly interfere with the stock location of the Fiero rear bumper structure. It then becomes a matter of deciding just how far forward to move the stock bumper and trying to minimizing the intrusion of the bumper into the trunk space while maximizing the use of as much of the stock bumper as possible. As Blooz had mentioned, moving the bumper structure forward 50mm or 2 inches seems to be a good compromise and allows for the stock chassis crumple zone to remaining mostly intact. The plastic 5 mph honeycomb bumper will likely have to be trimmed back prior to fitting the body but that is a minor sacrifice.

Here is a detailed drawing completed by Blooz and snatched shamelessly from his build thread. This shows a 50mm move forward of the rear bumper structure and how it will clear/ interact with the 355 body.



For my project, I will proceed to move the bumper structure forward 2 inches and secure it to newly fabricated flanges on the lower frame rails. As I plan to remove the stock strut towers, rework them and move them outboard atleast 3 inches per side as well as remove the majority of the trunk sheet metal, I need to get the rear bumper relocated and secured soon because it's pretty much the only thing holding the lower frame rails in position at this point in the build.



Here are a few pictures from my model showing the rear bumper in its new location
Bloozberry AUG 03, 08:58 AM
The graphics are amazing Graham. As we discussed when you were here, I think I'll be removing the thin webbing that holds the four parts of the honeycomb together and installing just the blocks. That webbing seems to contribute nothing except it was probably a convenient way for the production line to slap on the honeycomb in one step.
Yarmouth Fiero AUG 04, 04:57 PM
I agree Blooz. I will proceed with moving the steel bumper forward 2 inches and get my lower frame rails secured prior to removing my strut towers. I had planned on making new strut towers but I think I will try to reuse the stock towers and try to retain that OEM look in the engine bay as much as possible.

[This message has been edited by Yarmouth Fiero (edited 08-04-2014).]

355Fiero AUG 05, 03:11 PM
Yarmouth;

This back end is starting to scream longitudinal engine an trans. You have the extra 3" needed and engine man is showing us how to build an Audi V8 with an 012 trans into a Fiero......

Wouldn't it top off all the other great work you and Blooz are doing to open the enine lid and see the intake boxes going into a nice throttle body sitting longitudinally??.......

Keep up the great work guys.
Don
Yarmouth Fiero AUG 05, 10:45 PM
Don.... that exact thought crosses my mind every time I look at that big open engine bay.. ha ha ha ha
355Fiero AUG 06, 12:31 PM
Well then that would be an easy answer for me..........

I will have an adaptor for a Chev V8 (not sure if it is SBC or LT) to a Porsche G50 soon when I swap in my BMW V12 into the Countach........ Expensive transmission though. (came with my project or I wouldn't be using it either.....)

You would be better off to go with a setup like engineman where you use a fully complete engine trans already built by Audi. I know Jim Dinner did a Haltech engine management conversion on a BMW V12 in his Diablo build so it might also work well on the Audi if engineman can't get his sorted out. I think he is pretty close though from reading his thread. You would want want a better engine/trans frame mated to the cradle though. I personally believe engineman will have problems with is 1x2 trans cross bar. Look up motoracer838's build here or on Madmechanics and see how he did his back end frame. You could easily adapt what he did to the Fiero frame as he did a great job on his cradle updates.

Motoracer's thread: http://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum1/HTML/086876.html

Now is the time to do it though as you have everything cut away and ready to adjust the bumper so fit the engine/trans in and make sure everything fits..... (and this is why our projects take years..... upgrades and scope creep....haha)

Cheers
Don

[This message has been edited by 355Fiero (edited 08-06-2014).]

Yarmouth Fiero AUG 14, 08:43 PM
Just got home from two weeks of vacation on the road and had a nice surprise waiting for me.........two rear brake rotors, hats and bolt kits for our project.
As described above, they are Wilwood 13" SRP rotors with aluminum hats. Here are a few pictures including a comparison with the stock 85 Fiero rotor and the rotor located behind the rear 18" wheel.
Bloozberry AUG 14, 09:59 PM
Oooooo... pretty. What calipers are you planning to use?