After 20 months, countless hours, blood, sweat, tears, way to much money, and of course many memories, my father/son project is completely assembled and road worthy! Some up grades and some cosmetics will continue over time, but it is complete and ready for my 15 year old to drive this summer. Check out some of the pics (we actually took over 200 during the process but here is just a few).

This is when it first arrived in the garage in June 2008


This is the exterior completed


Interior before


Interior today


Of course an engine compartment pic of my son


And my self during engine installation


And my parts car after a 32" Oak tree decided to lay down on it after a wind storm in august of 2009


and the new parts car



The new parts car, is not actually a parts car, 85 SE V-6 auto that dad had to have (my son can't have all the fun!)

what an expierence this has been and I couldn't have done it with out all the info and inspiration this forum has given me & my son. While I have not posted much I have visited the forum hundreds of time for help or inspiration and now it is time to enjoy the fruits of our labor! Thanks to everyone who has posted good stuff for all to read and learn from.

Wow, the finished product is one hell of an improvement over the initial starting point!! The red one looks great and you guys did some awesome work! The black one looks pretty fine too. Did you buy it in that condition or are there "before and afters" of that one as well?

As for the parts car, I have always wondered what the aftermath would be when a tree goes across a car like that. That is truly impressive. But I have to say.... that tree was 32" in diameter and while it did pretty much destroy the whole car, I'm really surprised to see the passenger cmpartment relatively intact.


If you're going out anyway, go out with a bang. Great send-off!

Thanks Brocephus! The Black one is origonal w/82,000 miles. It has a bad paint job (you can't tell it in the pics though) but otherwise is in great condition (I just can't take another 20 month project, I would be devorced within minutes if I brought one home like that). I bought it off a small local car dealer on Dec 24th, 09 and parked it for the winter. As for the parts car, I kinda thought it would look worse my self. After cutting up the tree and 5 others like it in August, we actually still took a couple of parts out of the interior before I called the scrap yard and had it hauled off. The bottom of the dash was resting on the floor boards! The engine compartment was empty at the time, so I don't know if that had anything to do with it. Also the tree was so massive, there were no limbs on that portion of the tree that hit the car.

quote Originally posted by Brocephus: Wow, the finished product is one hell of an improvement over the initial starting point!! The red one looks great and you guys did some awesome work! The black one looks pretty fine too. Did you buy it in that condition or are there "before and afters" of that one as well? As for the parts car, I have always wondered what the aftermath would be when a tree goes across a car like that. That is truly impressive. But I have to say.... that tree was 32" in diameter and while it did pretty much destroy the whole car, I'm really surprised to see the passenger cmpartment relatively intact. If you're going out anyway, go out with a bang. Great send-off!

Don't worry it will buff right out

Very nice work!!! This is what it's all about, father and child Fiero projects. I am in the middle of one with my daughter as well, she is 14 and we have two years to finish it. She has done ALL of the work on the car, I have just been guiding her. It started as this:



And as it is now a few weeks later

Nice project! Out of curoisity, are the tree'd car's sails OK? They look it...

Also nice white car. Never seen bumperpad/gt wheels. Great combo.
However....it looks a bit flirtatious (winking). Tip: w/the car off, unplug the light motors, and use the knobs on top of the motors to crank the lights up. Theyll stay that way. I had to do it when my subframe was damaged in my sig's crash to keep the light motor from burning out (bucket could only go down like 2 inches before hitting the frame). Looks way better than having just one up.

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1988 Metallic Red Pontiac Fiero CJB T-Top Coupe, # 784 of 1252
-Needing a maroon fender and 87/88 coupe nose (also maroon) and passenger round trim front marker.
F@&$ ICE!!!

Nice work, I would have killed to have a dad like you when I was 15!!!

Cheers Beers n Gearz. Joe

Thanks for the complements Hulki. The teaching, learning, exploring and time spent together makes it all worth it. Even if they never pick up a wrench again, they will have the knowledge and expierience of doing it at least once. I think that is awsome that your daughter is interested! My 13 year old daughter doesn't have any interest and thats ok (I don't know if I have it in me to do another project like this right away!). Your daughters car looks good, keep up the good work and keep the forum posted, while I said before I don't post much, but love to read the good stories like that.

Fiero1K, no the sails were garbage (frames twisted and plastic cracked). I pulled every last good part off it before I called the local junk yard to come and get it. So if you need something, I only have a few good parts left over.

Nice work!

Very nice! I have built a few Fiero's over the last few years but none were or are more fun and rewarding than the one's that involve the kids. My 16 year old son and I have been rehabilitating an 88 Coupe with an XTC body on it for over a year now. We rebuilt it from the ground up except for the old Duke which we thought was in pretty good shape. All that was left was some body and paint work. He just got his license in December and started driving the car everyday - then the Duke died. Now we are in the middle of an engine swap. So far, we are having a blast. Congrats to you and your son! And congrats on the "parts" car too!

Here's our project:

And the current status of the swap:


Pat

quote Originally posted by Crazy 4 Red 84: And my parts car after a 32" Oak tree decided to lay down on it after a wind storm in august of 2009

Looks like you are the proud owner of a "super rare" short wheelbase Fiero! Don't worry, it will buff out.
Excellent work on the car, looks very nice.

Argh, spelling edit.
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* 97 Olds Cutlass DD
* 86 Mustang SVO Rear Ended, R.I.P

* 86 Fiero GT, Soon to be Northstar

[This message has been edited by 17Car (edited 02-14-2010).]

I started this thread to celebrate the completion of the project my son and I started a couple of years ago. I then read about Tyler today. While I was not part of his project, I was moved by his story and the forum's response. I too, pray for Tyler's family, friends and all those who he touched. It is times like these that I am thankful that I did our project, thankful for this forum. This forum has brought together people that have a common passion for Fiero's. But this forum is not really about Fiero's is it? It is about people, people helping people! Its about changing lives, like those who pitched in and helped, those who donated and those who prayed for the Tyler project. Those he touched, including me, will never be the same, will never forget. The Fiero stuff is just the icing on the cake.

quote Originally posted by Crazy 4 Red 84: I started this thread to celebrate the completion of the project my son and I started a couple of years ago. I then read about Tyler today. While I was not part of his project, I was moved by his story and the forum's response. I too, pray for Tyler's family, friends and all those who he touched. It is times like these that I am thankful that I did our project, thankful for this forum. This forum has brought together people that have a common passion for Fiero's. But this forum is not really about Fiero's is it? It is about people, people helping people! Its about changing lives, like those who pitched in and helped, those who donated and those who prayed for the Tyler project. Those he touched, including me, will never be the same, will never forget. The Fiero stuff is just the icing on the cake.

Very well said my friend!

Well it's been a few months since we got the Fiero on the road and have had a great time driving it all over. My son has his learners permit and we take it everywhere we can. Worked out some bugs, leaks ect and things seem to be operating great. We planned to take it to the Mecum Spring Classic this spring so we worked feverishly to get the car in tip top shape, Indy is about 300 miles from our place so I didn't want to break down that far away. Anyways we took our time getting down there friday night, and made it with no problems or concerns. We had a great time looking over all the muscle, took many pictures. So Sunday we decided to head back home early and take our time, when all of a sudden (while he was driving along a 60 mph) it loses power and we coast to a cross road. It started right up so we shut it off to take a look and I couldn't find anything wrong. So on ward we pressed, I am driving now and it happens another 7 times. Sometimes I could get it to gain power by down shifting, sometimes I had to come to a stop and restart, but it always restarted. So we get to within 60 miles from home and everything all of a sudden everything goes wacky, speedo does about 4-360's and it dies. It won't start and I have no power anywhere. So we open up the battery compartment and low and behold, the battery cables are melted right off the battery! So I call a family member with a trailer and that's how we finished the trip. After looking at it the next day, I find the positive cable dead shorted to the manifold heat sheild. Only about 3 strands of copper still attached, and a 1" slice in the heat sheild from the arching. When we did the work on the car I replaced the positive cable and replaced it with the exact length that was existing (36"). We ran it over the A/C bracket under the heat sheild, about 2-3" away from the exhaust pipe, apperantly still to close to the exhaust because it melted and shorted out. So I picked up a 45" cable and ran it under the A/C to the starter, but it is still close to the exhust 2-3", just not close to something that will cut it. If anybody knows this is right or wrong let me know, if not we will find out sooner or later. Anyways $125 worth of battery cables and an new battery and we are off again. We have put about 1,000 miles on it since the rebuild and my son is starting to think that it is a roadster, he runs thru the 5 gears as fast as he can, and then smiles at me! He gets his license in August and then I pray he keeps it in one piece!