I've been searching for last minute things to do before painting (hopefully) begins in earnest next weekend. One project that presented itself had developed because the factory riv-nuts, used to attach the wing stands to the wing, had all come loose. I had installed new ones, but was never really confident that they would stay put... and it did look a little crude under there with those exposed screws and the gaps around the stands base........ so I permanently attached the stands with body panel adhesive (and the screws) and then filled in the remaining gaps with kitty hair bondo. The screw heads were ground down and filled over, along with the rest of the surrounding irregularities.


I had just shot the first prime coat here, so it does still need a bit of minor touchup, but I kind of like the new "clean" look, and it sure is a lot more solid now !!

There was a minor setback in the paint process over the weekend.
It's very unusual to snow where I live. sometimes once a year an inch will fall and melt by days end.... It may take longer for this to melt .

Power was out for two days, etc., etc.

I need a hot shower
Russ

[This message has been edited by Russ544 (edited 01-09-2005).]

I have been following the progress and just wanted to say it is coming along beautifully!

Russ:

Looking great, as usual.

Looks like you got our snow! We got some more rain, which we needed like a second mother in law. Been flooded out of the shop since last Wednesday. Did get back out to it yesterday, (Sunday), for a while. Believe it or not, am working on another nothchback wide body kit. Will be taking some of the things you encountered and reported here into account during the lay up. Thanks!

You've done a FANTASTIC job with yours, as I suspected you would from our initial discourse, well done!

You may or may not be happy to know, I will be offering the wing stands again, but the price is going up, so I don't expect many takers. As a footnote and the reason I mention it at all, is I have changed the lay up process so that the top end, where it bolts to the wing, fits pretty much the same way as the factory stands, one of the reasons for the price hike. Never was really satisfied with the previous method, but it worked. Looks like you've found a great way to deal with it, at least providing you don't need to change them anytime soon!LOL

Am looking forward to seeing your finished kit, and also curious about the next "Russ style" project!

Keep up the great work.

HAGO!

quote Originally posted by Sage: Russ: Looking great, as usual. Looks like you got our snow! We got some more rain, which we needed like a second mother in law. Been flooded out of the shop since last Wednesday. Did get back out to it yesterday, (Sunday), for a while. Believe it or not, am working on another nothchback wide body kit. Will be taking some of the things you encountered and reported here into account during the lay up. Thanks! You've done a FANTASTIC job with yours, as I suspected you would from our initial discourse, well done! You may or may not be happy to know, I will be offering the wing stands again, but the price is going up, so I don't expect many takers. As a footnote and the reason I mention it at all, is I have changed the lay up process so that the top end, where it bolts to the wing, fits pretty much the same way as the factory stands, one of the reasons for the price hike. Never was really satisfied with the previous method, but it worked. Looks like you've found a great way to deal with it, at least providing you don't need to change them anytime soon!LOL Am looking forward to seeing your finished kit, and also curious about the next "Russ style" project! Keep up the great work. HAGO!

Seems like you get flooded out a lot out there. you may want to move to higher ground

Great to hear you have another body kit going together ! What part of the country is this WB going to? is it going to a pennocks member? It would be great to see how his goes together. do you know what his intentions for the car are? show, race, driver, etc?

I really didn't have any problem with the way your "old" stands mounted, it was just that my wing wasn't in the best of condition to begin with. Regardless...... I am glad to hear you'll be making them again as I do like the look of the 5" variety a lot.

Cheerio,
Russ

Russ,

Not sure how I have been missing this thread till now but WOW! I love your ingenuity and the care you are paying to the details. Few would have the talent you have to accomplish what you have. You are going to have one spectacular Fiero when you are done. Keep up the great work and thanks for sharing.

------------------

Red 88 GT T-Top 3800 INTERCOOLED SUPERCHARGED
White 88 GT Stock
Please give me a rating if you appreciate my contribution.
Click here to read the History of Skitimes Car

Russ:

Yep, the whole town's been flooded twice since Sept.! (Not literally, but the river was 10ft. over flood stage the first time and 9 the second, so there WERE many flooded streets, vehicles and buildings.) My shop has never taken on water, but the only roads to and from it get covered when the roads flood. Kind of "to be expected" when you live in a river town.

Don't know the man's name. Was only told that he has a Fiero with a V8 putting out nearly 900hp! I believe he is in Indiana, and I don't think he posts here, but again, I really don't know.

That's what I was told.

I usually don't get directly involved with customers, yours was a special situation, so most of the time, don't know who is getting what. All I NEED to know, is what to make, and that's generally enough.

HAGO!

quote Originally posted by skitime: Russ, Not sure how I have been missing this thread till now but WOW! I love your ingenuity and the care you are paying to the details. Few would have the talent you have to accomplish what you have. You are going to have one spectacular Fiero when you are done. Keep up the great work and thanks for sharing.

Thanks for the high marks Ski. Brings up a point as well: Wile I may agree that I'll have a nice car when I'm done, I really don't think I'm any more "talented" than a majority of the folks here. I may be a bit more stuborn to admit that I don't know what I'm doing some of the time , but then that's how one learns. I've long been of the opinion that just about anyone can do much more than they think they can if only they would make the attempt.... stick their neck out and try . Fieros are a great tool to learn on in fact. heck.... if one gets screwed up you can always just toss it in the dumpster and go buy a couple more . If nothing else, I'll be happy if someone on the list sees my build and decides to tackle a project that they previously were afraid to try.

Cheerio,
Russ

quote Originally posted by Russ544: IMSA UPDATE:Russ.......

OMG... That looks freakin sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet!!

------------------
Happy New Year 2005... :wtf:

posty

Can't let this get buried on page 4 and higher. I have been watching this with an unusually high interest. The discontinuation of the widebody kit was the single thing that halted my plans to get another Fiero. Now...........

Russ,

How's that 4.3L running for you. Did you ever change the exhaust? My 4.3L will be back from the shop for cleaning and honing this week. Then the rebuild starts. Standby to flooded with install questions.

------------------

quote Originally posted by bonzo: Russ, How's that 4.3L running for you. Did you ever change the exhaust? My 4.3L will be back from the shop for cleaning and honing this week. Then the rebuild starts. Standby to flooded with install questions.

Hey that's grreat Bonzo. glad to hear it's coming together.
Because of the bodywork and winter I've only driven the car with 4.3 ~20-30 miles total, so I can't give you a great deal of feedback. I have had a heck of a time getting the air out of the cooling system on this car for some reason however. my sbc, and even the stockers, were never a problem for me, so I don't know what's up with this one. I may eventually either flip the water pump "rightside up" again (there is plenty of room and really no need to have it reversed, except for hose routing, in retrospect). or I could leave it reversed and plumb in a small water line to replace the steam hole function. I don't know that that's an issue here, but it may be worth a try. The reason I know it isn't "burped" is that the temp guage swings wildly as the air and water alternatly hit the sender. I don't think it's actually ever overheated, but it could I supose.
I haven't changed the muffler yet either, but that is high on my list of things to do after body/paint. it just doesn't sound "right" with that Flowmaster.
My computer has been giving me fits for a week or so, and it may be down most of next week to have it "wiped" and reloaded, but keep trying and I'll get back to you on anything I can help with.

PS: My painter postponed again this weekend, so now we're looking at next weekend for the IMSA at the soonest.

Cheers,
Russ

Mostly a bump so I don't get Archived, but to update the project:

The IMSA finally went in the paint booth for the first time yesterday. This round is just for primer/surfacer, but it's a start. The masking is pretty extensive on this car becaue it's being painted assembled, except for the front and rear decklids, so that took several hours even for a guy that does it every day (and I don't think he likes masking Fieros anymore ). He wasn't sure if he would have time to shoot it yesterday or if he's wait till today, but I'll be checking on it later this afternoon and try to grab a pic or two. We'll be block sanding by mid-week, and perhaps be able to shoot color next weekend. (It'll be white with dark gray Gfx, to match the rims).
I also got the vinyl overlay for the in-dash switchplate done and installed last week, so I'll try and get a pic of that when I go ck on the painter later today. it came out nice, and I was shocked when the gal told me the price. only $10.00 .

I shall return,
Russ

MAN! this is sweet!
thanks russ.

It mush be nice to only be 25 years old . the painter had the primer shot and was pulling some masking off when I arrived this morning at 7:00 am .

We're using a tintable primer (K-93), so he shot the first coat dark gray, and two coats on top of that in white. then when we get to the block sanding, any irregularities will show up right away.

later,
Russ

I wish I was ready for paint...
Looking top notch!

------------------
"EuroSmooth Fiberglass Products"

quote Originally posted by NotAFieroAnyLonger: I wish I was ready for paint... Looking top notch!

i wish you were too!
btw, when are those sideskirts gonna be ready?

Russ, great thread, keep it going. how much longer ya think?

any thing new to report? I love this thread!

------------------

Archie's Choptop conversion #11

quote Originally posted by madcurl: any thing new to report? I love this thread!

Not much. The guy that's doing my paint work, after hours, works for a body shop next to my business so I see him just about every day. the car is in a spare stall at the body shop also, so whenever he gets a slow time at work he can work on mine. As noted last week he shot the primer, and has been doing the block sanding, in 10 minute installments, in preparation for the top coat. Actuall he told me just today that he has no cars to work on tomorrow so he thinks he'll be able to finish blocking mine out and be ready to shoot color by this weekend.

This is precisly why I've learned to do the vast majority of body and mechanical work on my own. I'm not a patient person when it comes to my toys, and this wait is driving me nuts.
I did, however, buy an LT-1 (92) Vette last week, so that's given me some diversion

I hope to have some new pics of the IMSA by late in the weekend, so stay tuned.

Russ

Man this needs a bump. Russ are taking a trip to Daytona for the show. Cmon it's just a hop, skip and a jump from Oregan.

Bonzo

I spent yesterday afternoon helping the painter prep the car. he was just finishing with the final wet sanding of the primer/surfacer when I arrived at noon or so, so we knocked down the jams and chashed down the last of the edge pinholes and dings. As you can see, he took the doors off before I arrived also. We had discussed this a few weeks ago, but I told him I wasn't gona take those bloody doors off again for anything, and he needed to just deal with painting the tight areas created by them any way he could................ which he did .
This final masking job needs to be as near perfect as possible, so when I finally left for home around 7:30 we had deemed it so. Ryan (the painter) was planning to stay and shoot the sealer, and then the black trim and GFx portion, so it has time to kick before he shoots the white tomorrow. I doubt that we'll get the front and rear decklid, doors, and other misc small parts all painted and reassembled tomorrow, but I'll post a pic of what we do get done by days end regardless.
It's finally coming together and looking real good. I'm excited !!

BTW:
I know not many of you live near me here on the left coast, but for anyone who does, or is willing to drive a bit for some truely high quality paint and/or body work by someone who takes the time to do it to the best of his ability, I highly recomend this guy. contact me and I'll get you in touch with him.

pics of painted car due later today!!

later,
Russ

quote Originally posted by bonzo: Man this needs a bump. Russ are taking a trip to Daytona for the show. Cmon it's just a hop, skip and a jump from Oregan. Bonzo

Oh absolutly. I'll leave here just as soon as you send me the plane ticket and travel expenses

any progress on that 4.3L project of yours Bonzo?

I got a custom grind cam from CranCams and installed it about a week ago. I talked to a guy at Crane and he helped me out a bunch. I told him what I was putting this motor in and he seemed to get pretty excited about the project. He said that the 4.3l is a torquey truck motor but with some cam work and the carb setup I'm doing I should be able to run some high RPMs and get about 220 to 240 HP. The motor rebuild has come to a halt until after Daytona. I'm entering it in the custom daily driver class. I'm paint preping some of Archie's IRPs right now. All my time is on cosmetics right now.

------------------

It's good that I have other toys to play with, or I'd be a total wreak by now with these paint delays. Ryan stayed very late last night and shot the sealer and then the lower GFx and trim. The paint we're using has a very heavy silver metallic, and one small area behind the drivers door went nuts on him. The only cure was to wait until today and scuff and re-shoot that area, which he did today, but now it will be tomorrow before we can tape it to shoot the white. The good part is that he has no "real" work to do tomorrow so even though it's Monday he should be able to work on mine (it's nice that he has an understanding boss). As you can see we've decided to shoot the mid-line trim, as well as the mirrors, the same charcoal/smoke color. I don't recall the name of this color but it is AWESOME.
So OK.... tomorrow I'll have a pic of it fully painted....... no no REALLY I will .

damn pictures aren't showing up! I need to see how this turns out, its awesome

quote no no REALLY I will

Oh really?

hehe, just messin with ya, keep up the good work!

------------------

The lack of new pics is not due to a lack of trying . The server I use to host pics (Picturetrail) is temporarily unaccesable wile they do some "upgrades". I took a pic of the car as it looked right after we rolled it out of the paint booth, but the message on the server says it won't be back on line until late tonight PST (Mon).
We pulled the car out of the paint booth today with the main body finished. it really looks awesome. The white we used is a late Corvette color and it looks great against the charcoal trim. Work has begun on scuffing the doors and decklids, with plans to shoot them tomorrow.
We may try a little experiment on the color scheme by shooting the wing and the inset portion of the front decklid vents in the Charcoal color just to see how it looks. we have plenty of white to shoot over it if it doesn't look right, but it might actually look pretty sharp..... we'll see.

use your imagination

Russ

What a tease! (J/K )

Can hardly stand the suspense, but I already know how it's going to look.....fantastic!

Are all the motor heads in Oregon as skilled as you and Guss? You guys together could reeeeeaaally build a "SUPERCAR"!

Oh, BTW, the pics seem to be working now................

HAGO!

LOL.

existing pics from Picturetrail are working fine, but I can't add any new ones until they finish whatever their doing to the server.

patience grass-hopper.

You can email them to me and I'll host them for you

------------------
http://www.raceme.cc/helmet/

Hey hey...... why is everyone looking at me like that?...... and what are you doing with that rope in your hand?
all right all right... If my server isn't up by the time I get home from work tonight I'll see if someone else will host a couple pics here for me.

what a rowdy crowd
Russ

Russ,

If the server is not back up email them to me and I will post them with PIP for you.

Aaron

The doors, front decklid, wing and mirrors got the charcoal portions sealed and painted today. We expect to shoot the white on them tomorrow and begin reassembly. yippie !!
In order to suppress a riot ,here are a couple pics of the way it looked when I left today.

I'll try and get more pics tomorrow if all goes well in the reassembly.

Russ

That's one MEAN - GORGEOUS looking Fiero!

But....you already know that. Just wanted to be one of the first to say congratulations on a fine, fine job.

Personally, I never had any doubt. Russ is a man of his word and anxiously welcomes new challenges.

He certainly met this one head on and it's fairly obvious who came out on top!

Thanks for the thread Russ, looking forward to seeing the completed car. Did I say that is awesome?

That is awesome!

HAGO!

Nice. What size tires are those on the rear?

Bonzo

Yummy! Thanks for the pics to tide us over... definitely looking forward to seeing the finished product - I love the charcoal with the dark wheels!

quote Originally posted by bonzo: Nice. What size tires are those on the rear? Bonzo

Thanks. it should look even better with doors and stuff. LOL
BTW: the rear has been lowered by 1/2 coil already, but will be going down another 1/2 in the future. the front is down 1 coil and will most likely stay put.

275-40-17 rears and 225-45-17 front

Russ

[This message has been edited by Russ544 (edited 02-16-2005).]

Not a big fan of white Fieros, but I have got to say, that is one mean looking machine. Very nice, and can't wait to see it done!

Well ok.... now we're getting somewhere. We got the doors and decklids painted and back on today, but kinda forgot to paint the eyelids and the trim for the doors, so those will have to be done later. The dark wing and hood vent were kindof an experiment..... but I do like it, so it will stay this way.... for now anyway.
I have lots of little detail stuff to do now, so I'll wait until it's fully assembled to post more pics after these.

I think the Fonze would approve

Russ

------------------
"doesn't matter where you've been....... doesn't matter where you're going...... just how cool you look gettin' there."
Fonzy

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAY! Woa.

quote Originally posted by Russ544 I think the Fonze would approve

I'd guess a big correctamundo on that.

Lookin good.

HAGO!