quote Originally posted by Synthesis: I have to say it is looking great and coming along quite well... Had a couple of questions for you... The following image shows the upper control arms with the upper ball joints installed upside down. Sticking up from the top of the arms. Intentional or just storing them there for reassembly? Looks great otherwise. The next 2 images show the Upper Balljoints mounted INSIDE of the upper control arm, instead of through the top hole. Any concern about this being a potential weak point in the suspension? OEM and most replacement uppers are designed to be mounted through the top. If you have the adjustable ball joints, the grip surface is on the bottom of the flange to grip the top of the control arm when the bolts are tight.

Unintentional. I was hoping nobody would notice but I should know better. The upside down thing was just me too early in the morning. I think I was still half asleep while I was installing them the first time. The under the control was just me not remembering. I took a look at the parts car later that night and realized my mistake. Its OK, I am still going to replace the tierod ends and put on the new hubs when they show up so I can take care of it then. Good eyes!

[This message has been edited by Fieroseverywhere (edited 11-30-2007).]

[This message has been edited by Fieroseverywhere (edited 12-01-2007).]

Got a little done yesterday. Only had the one day this weekend with Christmas approching.

First off dad got his compressor up and running for the new garage. The motor need to replaced now though. It will only build up ~95 psi now before the motor just runs out of power. It should max at 160psi as a comparison. Its about time. This thing was built in 1951. They just dont make anything like that anymore. Almost 57 year is a pretty good life span for a 220 electric motor.


I started this trip with pulling the motor again. At this point I've done it so many times I can do it by myself in ~30 minutes. I'm sure some of you know exactly what I'm talking about.

With the motor out of the way I replaced the broken torsion bar for the decklid. Without the motor in it is a very easy job. Just make sure you put something accross the window to be safe. Don't want to lose your back window. Two 13mm bolts and the one pin is all that holds them in place.
I also temporarily mounted the starter. I need to head down to the yard and pick up the correct length starter bolts from a caddy since I don't seem to have them. The fiero ones will work for now but they are not long enough to get enough threads to hold it right. Pics will be below.
I cleaned up the rest of the engine bay with some scrubbing bubbles and a rag. Works like a charm on grease, dirt and oil.
I cleaned up and re-installed the heat shields also. Looks good now, not show quality, but good. This car will probably never be shown. Its for driving. I will be pulling the motor at least one more time to finish the cleanup and weld covers over the blower motor holes to the trunk.

Next up we got started on the exhaust.

We got out some long pieces of welding wire to mock up where the pipes are going to sit. Once we were satisfied with the mouting I headed down to the local Goofy's muffler shop with the stock under car pipe and the welding wire and had them mandrel bend up a couple of 2" pipes and a 2.5 pipe for under the car. Cost $125. They are very simple bend and will be no problem for any shop with a mandrel machine. It took a while to get it all together but I'm pretty happy with the results. I think the "Y" cat will work great. It saved space and allowed something better (IMO) then the traditional "Y" pipe. We used the stock Deville crossever tube and heat shielding for most of the main crossover piece (grey primerd part in the pics) and the mandel bent pipes for the rest. The cat is clamped into place but I forgot to get pics. We figured it was the only way to be able to remove it from the car without droping the engine. I will be wraping the manifolds and pipes to the cat also with some exhaust wrap at a later date also. Here are some shots of the process. If you want more details let me know and I will elaborate on how we built it.








This thing is strong. We were trying to tweak (hehe) it a little from some slight shifting before welding and let me tell you it wasn't easy. It will support my weight without any problem and we haven't even got the under car pipe or muffler on yet. We will try to finish up the rest on the next pass. I need to get a muffler also since I have decided not to use the stock fiero one. I'll probably go with the flowmaster they had at Goffy's since they always give me a good price ~$125-$150.


With the broken decklid spring fixed we could put the decklid back on. At the last minute we decided to do just that. It not fully alligned and we found a couple cracks that need fixing, but, its on the car.

I still think I'm going to change it to a fast back but that is a while off. Its got to run first before I even consider starting that job.

On a side note. My brake parts are in the mail from Rockcrawl. I already have the caliper adapters but now the 12" rotors, and modified from hubs are on the way. Rotors will be here tomorrow and the hubs sometime later in the week. There is also a set of 4t60 cable and one of the tranny mounts in there also for Dads christmas present. He's going to be so excited.

The reason I only worked one day is cause we had to put the parts car back together enough to be moved off of the slab so we could finally start giving the 86GT auto the attention it deserves. We got it started and moved out of it hole so work can begin. It has no reverse so it wasn't as easy as it should have been. Dads puting a 4t60 in it and still doesn't know about the brackets I got for him. Shhhh, don't tell.

Thats it for the work this trip. I did manage to grab a couple of decent shots of the engine bay so far. Still a lot more work to be done but its looking good so far.




Later.

EDIT: I finally decided on the wheels for this can but now I am un-sure about the paint. Dad really wants to paint the 86GT silver since he always wanted one. I don't want them to be the same color so I'm going with something different. I found out that we can get a couple pints of what ever Harley colors we want. They got some nice stuff on the new bikes. Just need to decide which one. You can see some of colors here.
http://www.harley-davidson...._landing&dwp_ps=wide

[This message has been edited by Fieroseverywhere (edited 01-02-2008).]

Got the rotors in today!!




They look great and will look great on the car. Finally something bigger then the stock fiero brakes and they are pre-drilled with the 5x100 pattern. Should look great behind those wheels also. I'm very excited to get everything on.

More pics to come as the parts come in. Brakes going on the car this weekend.

[This message has been edited by Fieroseverywhere (edited 12-18-2007).]

Did a little work this weekend while visiting Dad for the last time before Christmas.

First off, the garage is finally done enough to start getting cars into it to get worked on. Both Dad and I are very excited to get to work on all the fiero projects we have. First on the plate is Debbie's Gold 86SE auto. The passenger side headlight stoped working so I fixed it. It had a motor problem which we did not fix yet. Just replaced it with one we had lying around. Dad worked on replacing the tilt steering column that broke that day. I need to give him a call and see how it turned out. Also getting the snow tires on it for the winter.



Its almost time for a change. The shop I've been building my silver 85GT in is being torn down to make room for the Harley shop going up in its place. This should start soon after the first of the year so my car will have to move to a better location. Good thing Dads garage is ready to start accepting Fieros. I will be moved in the next couple weeks and work will continue without being restricted to the times the shop is open. This is a very good thing IMO. I can start working all night long or til I pass out on my feet. The lighting is much better so now I will be able to see what I am doing. Can't wait to get the garage fully set-up so we can really get to work on the serious mods. The welder and air compressor are already there along with a somewhat complete set of tools. The rest will come soon including the lathe and milling machine.

This trip I didn't spend too much time working on the car. But with the little time I worked on it I got some important things done.

First off we finished the exhaust with the exception of mounting the tips. I decided to just stick with the stock fiero muffler for now. I will probably make a change to the camaro flowmaster later once the car is running. We'll see when the time comes. It turned out pretty good. The cat to muffler pipe was replaced with a 2.5" pipe to support the extra displacement of the 4.9. The stock 1 7/8" pipe would not have been sufficient IMO.


With it all welded together and hung in place with the stock springs I then clamped it to the cat using a lap joint clamp. The pipes were also left long enough to slip inside the cat on either side. They were a tight fit so with the addition of clamp I am very sure they will seal properly. I like that they were so easy to use and do not crimp or crease the pipes in any way. The other side of the cat is clamped in also so that the complete system can be removed while the engine is in the car if needed. Or if I want to take it to the track I can replace the cat with a true "Y" pipe after emmissions testing.

Sorry I didn't get pics of the exhaust on the car. With the bad lighting in that shop I couldn't get them to come out. I will get more once the exhaust is wrapped and the car moved to the new garage to continue with the rest of the build.

Next I got started on mounting the vette rotors, new hubs, and caliper adapter brackets. Everything went very smooth. The concentric rings were perfect as are the brackets. Rotors were also perfect but the new studs that were installed into the freshly machined hubs were actually shorter then the original fiero ones. They work but I want a little more threads for the lugs to attach to. With the extra thickness of the vetter rotors the lugs are only threaded 1/2 way through. They do look great on the car but this is just the test fit and the brakes are far from being complete.


Still needed to finish the braking and front suspension...

4 - 88 caliper rebuild kits - Rockauto.com ~50 dollars total.
2 - Inner and outer tierod ends - Rodneydickman.com ~100 total
2 - Bolts to hold the front caliper adapter brackets on. Size undetermined at this point.
4 - Front inner and outer wheel bearing for an 85 fiero along with seals.
4 - 88 fiero brake pads

Once these parts come in I will complete the install of the brakes and suspension. I will also switch the upper ball joints to the correct position so ignore what you see in the pics for now.

Thats it for the work on the car this trip. I will be heading back to down to continue the build in a couple of weeks. I am now preparing for inventory at work so time is very limited at the moment.

I spoke to Don at the Harley shop just to verify that he can get a couple pints of whatever color I want from either the 07 or 08 harleys. He can but couldn't give me a price as it varies depending on color. He did say with dads discount they wont cost much. This is very exciting as HD's have some of the best colors available IMHO. Still trying to decide which color to go with. They all look great and trying to decide without seeing them on a fiero is difficult. Suggestions are always welcome. What do you think?

Later.

[This message has been edited by Fieroseverywhere (edited 01-04-2008).]

[This message has been edited by Fieroseverywhere (edited 12-26-2007).]

Ok. Just making sure I'm not talking to myself again. Doctor said if I keep it up they will commit me.

Car is getting moved to the new garage this weekend where the rest of the work will be done. No longer limited to shop times.

But... work just got extra hectic so after this weekend there will not be any progress for a little while. One of my employees managed to get himself suspended and probably fired. Since there are only 3 of us and we are right in the middle of inventory prep me and the one other person left will be pulling at least 6 days a week until someone else in hired and fully trained in the position. So until after the 18th this is it. I'll get what I can done and hopefully I can still take monday off and get a 4 day weekend to get the work done. Wish me luck.

EDIT: Can anyone see my avatar? Looks like its working but it did last time too and I was the only one who could see it.

Wanted to add the photoshoped pic of the wheels from above on the car. Not the best but gives you an idea at least. What do you think?
EDIT: Changed mind again. Edited both posts to remove the wheels.

[This message has been edited by Fieroseverywhere (edited 01-02-2008).]