Make sure you paint the portion of the rim that will be hidden by the tire . I remember reading somewhere that GM paints that area to prevent air from seeping out thru the porous aluminum.

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

ARCHIES JUNK IS FASTER THAN SHAUNNA'S JUNK
12.3 is faster than a 13.2

Good point, I was wondering about that and was going to ask, but thanks for preempting my question.

Wheels have been masked, primed and are ready for paint/clear.

Check out these sweet centercaps, brand new GM parts:


Where'd the shine go? Bwahahah!

Wheels are painted, just letting them cure in the house before I wipe them off with a tack rag and shoot the clear. The color's going to be darker than what I expected, but I like it. I'll get pics up when I get home.

quote Originally posted by GS Jon: Wheels are painted, just letting them cure in the house before I wipe them off with a tack rag and shoot the clear. The color's going to be darker than what I expected, but I like it. I'll get pics up when I get home.

Looking good. Going to make it to the SA show in few months?

Hoping to. Of course I have no information on it, care to point out where the information on dates/places/etc might be hiding?

quote Originally posted by GS Jon: Hoping to. Of course I have no information on it, care to point out where the information on dates/places/etc might be hiding?

I don't think the info is out yet but it will be soon. It happens in SA every year around May or so. Kep an eye out for a thread on it soon.

Cool, I'll keep my eyes open. Looking forward to meeting fellow Fiero enthusiasts.

And here's what they look like when they're done:



Now, all I have to do is get the tires installed (tomorrow at 4PM) and I'll get to put her back on the road!

Kind of a stupid question, but did you paint it with the centercap on?

Stupid answer: Yes and no.

Got the tires installed, good looking tire all the way around:



215 up top, 205 on the bottom

Nice, when are we doing my wheels?

Get them sandblasted and we can figure out a time.

Where ya been? We still gotta get together sometime.

My Fiero is out of commision right now, I put new springs and shocks on the front, but I must have messed up a caliper or it was already going back to begin with. Caliper ate part of my rotor and I have new fronts on order. Still have Held Coilovers to put on the rear...I may do that on Thursday and Friday.
I was just looking at my wheels the other day and they are pretty dull and could use some refreshing. Sand blasting is pretty cheap process right?

Alamo City Soda Blasting did mine for $108 out the door and had them done in a day. Friendly group too.

Hey, like what you did with the wheels. I have a set on my 85 GT that I plan of having blasted and polished. Could you please tell me how you polished the lips/ what grit/ process you used?

Nce job on the wheels they look great!

quote Originally posted by fieroadam: Hey, like what you did with the wheels. I have a set on my 85 GT that I plan of having blasted and polished. Could you please tell me how you polished the lips/ what grit/ process you used?

The process was simple, just takes some time. Unfortunately since my wheels had some casting imperfections, I choose not to highly polish them all. Instead, I made them all look machined. I placed a wheel on the rear of the Fiero while it was placed on jackstands at all 4 corners and let the car idle in first gear. Keep your fingers CLEAR when doing this!

I used 3M emory cloth and started with the coarse grit, then moved up. It's not a difficult process, it just takes time and patience. If you want the polished look, you're going to need some 200+ grit wet or dry sandpaper to continue wetsanding after the fine emory cloth. I've heard of people going all the way up to 1500 grit before polishing the metal. When I polished, I just used a buffing wheel that was attached to my drill and some Blue Magic Metal Polish. Looked pretty good to me, but could have used the higher grits and more polishing.

So, in the end polishing metal is polishing metal. In this case you happen to be polishing a big, aluminum circle.

Hah, so I had another first with the Fiero.

I adjusted the alternator so the squealing would go away. The fix worked, so it no longer screeches in my ear like an upset housewife. I decided that it was time to man up and take it to work tomorrow, so in advance of my trip early tomorrow morning, I went over to the Zone (AH TO ZONE! Sorry, obligatory background singing) and picked up new blades for my cars. Also found out that my windshield wiper fluid nozzles don't work right (low pressure, tried a quick fix in the parking lot but it's a no-go) and wasted almost a whole bottle of washer fluid during my checks. Meh.

So, I also needed gas so I went and put in about 8 gallons and bought a simple car wash.

This is where the fun begins.

So, I get to the wash, put in the code, shut off my lights, and make sure my windows are all secured. Might as well pissed up a rope, as I probably would have had less water in the car if I had the sunroof open. Yup, so there I was, in my uniform getting completely drenched by the automatic car wash and doing my best teapot impersonation holding up one hand ineffectively catching water coming in the back left corner of the sunroof.

So yeah, the baby and I took our first bath together. ROFL.

Nice, let me know when you need me to pick you up on the way to work!

My rotors came in today, Calipers should be here any day now I guess.
I have wednesday, thursday, friday off this week, gonna try to get the rear coilovers and the front rotors/calipers done. I'm also parting out a wrecked mazda3 so I have alot of shipping quotes to do...still need to find boxes for the parts

This wrecked Mazda3 had better not be your Mazdaspeed3. Please oh God let this not be true...

BTW, I got recalled back to Brooks, so I don't get to work at Lackland anymore. Holler if you need help with your brakes!

quote Originally posted by GS Jon: This wrecked Mazda3 had better not be your Mazdaspeed3. Please oh God let this not be true... BTW, I got recalled back to Brooks, so I don't get to work at Lackland anymore. Holler if you need help with your brakes!

Nope, my friend decided he would take his Mazda3 to the autocross...he also failed to pay his USAA bill and his insurance lapsed. On the way home from autocross a wall collided with his car. After a few months sitting in my garage he decided to just give me the title since he's going to Afghanistan and moved on to the Miata craze we have here at work.

Oh no, Miatas everywhere! Hah, we both have to get our Fieros good to hook so we can show them what's up. Not saying anything bad about the Miata, I'd probably have bought one if I didn't find this Fiero.

Glad it wasn't your car though.

I'll call you if I get started on the stuff Friday afternoon. Looked at the schedule wrong, I have to work tomorrow Its next week that I have 3 days off, which will probably be jacked from me anyway since the other staff on shift is taking leave the whole week to prep for Tech test.

Still got my phone #? If not PM me and I'll get it to you again.

quote Originally posted by GS Jon: Still got my phone #? If not PM me and I'll get it to you again.

Yeah, if your the contact I put down as Jon Fiero

quote Originally posted by GS Jon: This wrecked Mazda3 had better not be your Mazdaspeed3. Please oh God let this not be true... BTW, I got recalled back to Brooks, so I don't get to work at Lackland anymore. Holler if you need help with your brakes!

Lackland Sucks Ball. Spent a year in that ghetto playing SF for the Air Force.

Both times I've been stationed at Lackland I havent actually worked on base. First time was on Medina Annex, and now I work on old Kelly. I would hate to have to try to get on that base every day.

quote Originally posted by Haggerty: Both times I've been stationed at Lackland I havent actually worked on base. First time was on Medina Annex, and now I work on old Kelly. I would hate to have to try to get on that base every day.

I worked the gates on all three. That whole area is in the ghetto. Did see some iinteresting thing while there though.

Where's the engine swap part?

This has been mostly wheel photos so far.

For those that want to see 3800 NA pics check
https://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum1/HTML/052684.html

Common sense lesson: You do your safety stuff first, then your go-fast stuff. Why put an engine into a car with shot suspension, brakes and tires?

I work in an iterative process, evaluating and modifying my plans as I go. It's worked well for me so far. The engine swap is coming, but only after I deem it's time to do so.

Nice work GS, getting the funamentals right before going nuts with an engine swap is the only way to go.

I especially like what you did with the wheels, I've been wondering how I can "restore" mine, you've pretty well laid it out for me.

Keep on wrenchin'!

Thanks buddy, it's nice to get some positive feedback for once. For all the work I've done on the car, people sure don't seem to care. For those of you who think not much has been done aside from a few pics of the wheels, I now direct you to link I had in the first post of this thread (use the links on the left hand column to navigate what I've taken pictures of):

http://s615.photobucket.com...iero%20GT%20Project/

Take a look around and think again about everything that's been done.

Got a busy weekend planned ahead of me. What's going on? Oh, just the following:

Installing:
RD aluminum cradle bushings
RD Getrag shifter rebuild kit
RD comp short shifter
RD inner tie rods F/R
Driver's side CV axle
New Rear Lower Control Arm bolts
Coolant temp sensor and sender

Checking:
Clutch hydraulic fluid, will flush if needed

If I've got time left, I'll pull the old carpet out of the interior and install my newer almost perfect replacement carpet I scored a few months back. I'd love to remedy my leaking sunroof because I really want to fix my interior. Mr. Mikes seats will probably be done instead of the aftermarket seats I've had my eyes on for a while.

Maybe I'll try test fitting a seat from my wife's '05 Grand Prix GT to see how the rails match up. I could use a bit of luxury in the Fiero...

Turns out I didn't get anything done on the Fiero last weekend. Wound up spending all my time at the range shooting my firearms, sighting in a Ruger No.1 in .30-06 (Fun!) and then going gun shopping on Monday. Didn't pick up anything, but it helped me settle on eventually buying a Savage Arms .308win in a 10FP configuration with an accutrigger.

Back to the Fiero:
I just purchased more Rodney Dickman gear - Getrag shift and select cables, two window helpers and a short shifter leather boot. Once they get in I'll be rebuilding the entire shifter and putting in the new cables. Oops, I forgot to order an aluminum slave while I was at it. Oh well, that'll be the next purchase for a little later on.

I think when I get home I'll put the Fiero up on stands in the garage and get cracking on the cradle bushings. If that goes well, I'll move on to something else. Probably the coolant temp sender and sensor.

Stay tuned, lots of work will be getting done on this car in short order!

so it won't make it to Austin??
just saw your car, the roof is red that I have. You may want to bring a can of white paint. we can spray it and while it dries, we can be taking off the top.

Oh, it'll make it to Austin. I'm just mechanically picky about the cars I drive. As for the roof being red, I'll pimp that for a while. Going to be soda blasted and repainted with the rest of the car anyways.