Just as the topic say's:
If your from the North.... Do you have rust?? Wierd topic already...LOL

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SmoothFieroGT@Yahoo.com
Have you RATED me today??

Depends on the amount of salt used on the roads and how much of these fiero's have seen these salty roads. Most Fiero's around here are junk because the the rear frame rusting out on them. Glad mine are good

I think it depends on how well they were taken care of.

If you drive it in the winter yeah. Im afraid if I hit a big bump that the whole frame and suspension will fall off. There's always a little pile of rust flakes that falls off from underneath when I shut the engine compartment hood. My 1986 is pretty much rust free since I don't drive that one in the winter. It's that god forsaken salt. If you drive your car in the winter in Minnesota might as well write it off as scrap. Imagine buying a $20000 plus car and watching it fall apart after 5 years not to mention accidents due to ice and snow. Automakers must love the Northland, we go through cars like Taco Bell through my intestine!

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Rick D

86GT
84COUP

http://home.attbi.com/~dslize

Yes
(my 84, so rusty that it ended up with a bent frame)

and NO
(My 87, stored at room temperature over the winter)

Tina

Clean as a whistle and no its not stored in room temps I was in Illinois at Dave Gunsul's place he jumped underneath and was amazed.. guess it was worth taking pictures.

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-KC

1988 Formula, 3.4 modified 5spd, 14.9@92 w/o NX
100% polly, 75 NX (Nitrous) 3800 SC coming soon...

quote Originally posted by Dslice: There's always a little pile of rust flakes that falls off from underneath when I shut the engine compartment hood.

That doesn't sound good !! My 87 Gt is in pretty good shape for being 15 years old. The only part that has any amount of rust is the upper corners of the trunk and the very bottom of it which basically just carpet now I'm this car saw only one winter of driving.

However my 85 GT has been driven in the winter forever and has sat for the last two years and it isn't totally rusted. Still in nice shape IMO.

Its all in how they are taken care of.

No rust here but then again none of mine have been driven in the winter.

So in other word's .... Are most 'Southern Fieros' rust-free??? I know that when I started with Smooth GT... When I started stripping panel's off... I was amased that it was rust-free!!!

Smooth!!

My 85 was BC "born and raised" and there isn't a spot of rust that I can find. We mostly have rain in the winter so salt isn't an issue. When I lived in Nova Scotia, we lost a mustang in 4 years from new to salt.

Trev

I live in California, and our cars basically have no rust.

I've been thinking about getting into the business of selling California cars to people in the north and east.

Mine was a daily driver, but, was stored in the garage when winter came. God I'm glad that guy had a civic for the winter. Southern Ohio winters can be harsh sometimes, but, not always. Nothern Ohio by the lake is awful during the winter though.

Put it this way, I bought my 88 in Florida.

It is the same condition if not better than a 1 year old new car would be up here.

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1988GT T-Tops, 5spd, Loaded

This was supposed to be my 'project'. A pic of its good side.

quote Originally posted by fierobear: I live in California, and our cars basically have no rust. I've been thinking about getting into the business of selling California cars to people in the north and east.

There is a guy here who has a yard in AZ and one locally. He brings rolling chassis/body units up for restorations. The muscle car guys keep the mechanicals nice and suddenly find that the rest of the car has been quietly disappearing. It is a lot easy to rebuild the US cars than try to rid the locals of rust damage.
Gary

Finding a rust-free Fiero up here in MN is like finding a rust-free S-10 (which is what I'm looking for, if anyone has one.) They use so much salt up here that it isn't funny. It hasn't snowed in a few weeks, and there's still piles of salt and sand in the centers of the roadways. The difference between Fieros and S-10s is that you don't know the Fiero is rusty until you start losing body panels or your groceries fall through the trunk and spill all over the highway.

lol rust free s-10 thats a joke it was hard but mine is almost almost rust free but i got it from jersey at least the frame isn't rust out just a few body panels good luck finding that though and al my fieros have very little rust guess no one drove em in the winter

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My Formula has a little bit of surface rust on a few spots, but no major rust and the trunk is not rusted out. My father has an 85 SE that is spotless underneath! Neither is driven in the winter... The 85 definately has never seen any winters, and my Formula wasn't originally from this area, so if its seen winters it hasn't seen road salt like it would have around here.

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John
AOLIM: Fformula88

1988 Fiero Formula
2002 Jeep Wrangler Sahara

well Mr.Smooth...i'd have to say that most Fiero's up here in ontario need a frame rebuild. If you ever saw the progress on mine...it was dead and it had major surgery to bring her back to life...
_{you can visit Bubba Joes website to see the progress}

If the frame rails are rusted enough all of the pressure will be put on the rear clip and in 1 extreme case that i've witnessed...it snapped the rear clip right at sail panel area..terrible thing to see.

So to answer your questiomn...i'd have to say that most Fiero's up here do have a lot of rusting problems because of all of this darn salt...the best way to prevent that is to make sure that your weel wells are totally sealed and that no water can get thru.

...anyway...Smoooth...hows the smooth-mobile comming along? PM or e-mail me with some progress reports...i'm always interested

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Steven Rossi
2M4 Cadero Converted to Aero Fast Back
Visit my website at http://members.rogers.com/jrossi
E-mail me with any questions at steven.rossi@rogers.com
Please vote for me if you appreciate my contribution to the Forum

:mental note to self: - In the spring, buy new fastback from someone in the South.

Both of mine had little to no rust on them though. My 84 only had 62,000 miles and never saw snow, the 86 was from Georgia until 1 year before I got her.

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Rachel and Jessica Ann are sadly no longer family members and will be replaced hopefully in the Spring by a Fastback.

I don't think i've ever seen any rust on my car... and its always been in PA. Of course our roads kinda suck and they don't usually plow them... so maybe thats why.

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• Email: dday98m@netcarrier.com
  
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Red 86 SE 2.8

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quote Originally posted by LoW_KeY: Clean as a whistle and no its not stored in room temps I was in Illinois at Dave Gunsul's place he jumped underneath and was amazed.. guess it was worth taking pictures.

His formula is just plain and simple clean. Seeing all the poly and the difference's between the 84-87 models and the 88's was intersting too. I'm used to seeing the earlier models so jumping underneath low_key's car was really interesting.
I was impressed with the top and here the bottom of his car is equally impressive.
Funny thing is, he doesn't think to much about his car. He definitely needs a slap upside the head.

In Illinois the Fiero's that i've seen are either in really nice shape or really bad. There's rarely an inbetween as far as rust is concerned.

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N.I.F.E. Activities Director

quote Originally posted by Dave Gunsul: In Illinois the Fiero's that i've seen are either in really nice shape or really bad. There's rarely an inbetween as far as rust is concerned.

Do you guys think there would be a market for California cars (and/or frames), shipped back east?

quote Originally posted by fierobear: Do you guys think there would be a market for California cars (and/or frames), shipped back east?

Hell yea, man people would be exstatic for california cars, heck even the rear part of the frames (Cradle, and the frame rails like the one you saw in that picture with the rustout. My 85 GT is half eaten alive by rust in the back, so even if you could cut the back frame rails out wrecked California cars, and ship them here for cheap, and if they can be welded back into our rusty fiero's we'd be set. Another thing us northerner's could do is after the frame repairs are done, coat the whole frame with many layers of POR 15 paint, you won't be dissapointed, it'll stop rust as long as its prepared right, and it doesn't peel off.

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Silver 1985 Pontiac Fiero GT
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I guess it would depend on cost as to whether there'd be a market for cali frames.
Since Fieros don't command high prices the market might not be that big. Unfortunately a lot of people consider them throw away cars so they'd rather move on to another car then pay a lot of money to repair the frame. I'm not saying there's no market for cali frames though. You already have one person above interested so you just never know but i would think it would depend greatly on price. This wouldn't be a bad question for a thread on it's own. See what kind of response you get from here before jumping into anything.
One thing's for sure, as they age the interest for rust free frames will grow.
Just my thoughts, your mileage may vary.

There may be a market for rust free cradles, suspension components, and space frames. The problem will be shipping charges. Which could easily be as much as or more than the cost of the part.