I've been lurking in the shadows here for about a year, I should probably introduce myself. Also, I finally took some photos of my Fiero, which is why you really clicked on this thread anyway.
In February of this year, after driving to visit several Fieros throughout Ontario (from Windsor to Barrie), I finally found one the one I wanted, a 1987 Fiero GT.
This is an interesting project car as I'm starting with essentially zero practical experience working on cars. The only thing I've done myself is swap tires, but I've decided I'm going to try to do everything on the Fiero myself (actually -- that was the original idea behind buying it in the first place).
I've been reading PFF regularly for about a year, following along with other projects on the go to at least get a feel for what I need to know. First up, I figured out that I have an MSD coil, and thanks to the misfortune of others, picked up a spare ICM and driver set to keep in the car.
The first week I had it on the road, my brother and I went on a 500km round-trip to Toronto to visit family. His words: "Four hours in your 27 year old car, that you're not remotely familiar with, that has no air bags, and the heat doesn't turn off? Yeah, sounds good".
There are a few issues I need to fix.
There is some surface rust. The trunk was fine, the engine cradle could use a sand blast, the battery tray area looked okay (and passed the thumb test) and by feel the upper frame rails seemed solid. I'll really find out when I start pulling it apart this year. The PO didn't drive it in the winter, and I'm guessing the original owner didn't either. That, or he had one hell of a good spray done regularly. I am in Canada, after all.
Mechanically, it runs rather well. Idles at about 1100-1200 when cold, but when warm it bounces between 800 and 1000. I haven't looked into that yet, but was thinking of starting with the EGR tube, which seems to crack and cause idle issues from what I've been reading on PFF.
Cosmetically, the paint could use some work. Most of it looks like a good wash/polish/wax will help, but the spoiler in particular is quite bad. There is also a paint chip out of the rear bumper where the PO was bumped in a parking lot. The body itself isn't broken or cracked.
One quarter window is cracked, and I've ordered replacement windows from Chris Cook (gtfiero on ebay). They arrived, and I've commented on a thread about that already.
I ordered some Dew wipes from seajai. Mine are missing chunks. Haven't really looked at them yet -- the packaging was intact, and a brief inspection showed they were present. But I don't know enough about them to learn anything by just looking at them yet. I'll tackle that when I attach them.
I also ordered a new radio from FieroTom. I took the wife to the drive in this weekend as a "thank you" for letting me get the car. Found out the speakers are broken and don't really like to play loud sounds (it's okay -- Captain America wasn't a loud movie... ). Also, the tune knob just bounces between static and the station you were already tuned to (the seek button works). The display also seems to cut out whenever you need to change the station and/or see the time. (go figure that during the movie, it comes on full-bright for the whole show).
FieroTom was actually great to work with -- I emailed him the part number for the specific radio I wanted - #09390782, and he just happened to have picked one that he hadn't posted yet. That's the Pontiac Monsoon CD w/ eq, with an aux jack added by FieroTom (bypasses radio), and the 9-pin Remote CD port in the back. I tokd him the part number I wanted, so he can't vouch on the 9-pin port functionality (that's all on me). I also grabbed one of these aux adapters, this adapter cable, and this bluetooth thingy (I have the same one in my other car, and wanted to keep that the same). Hopefully this all works as intended. I'll post back on that when I everything arrives, as I'm sure others would like bluetooth without exposed cables.
Also, since I figured I've ordered enough stuff to make my wife angry, I might as well get all the angry out at once. So I ordered the shop manual reprint and Mr. Mikes seats.
After this week, one thing at a time. I promise.
I'll post more as I do work, but I'm excited to be starting finally.
Full photos are in my imgur gallery, at least until I get my personal gallery going again (or throw in the towel and move to G+)
I took the wife to the drive in this weekend as a "thank you" for letting me get the car. Found out the speakers are broken and don't really like to play loud sounds (it's okay -- Captain America wasn't a loud movie... ).
I didn't know what you were talking about at first... until I realized you were referring to a drive-in movie theatre. Didn't think they existed anymore!
Nice GT. I understand you've been lurking for awhile, but welcome to the madness.
Almost a completely wasted weekend in terms of fiero work due to rain, issue with my other car, dead battery in the Fiero (left lights on), and the first Cruize-in night of the year at my local Canadian Tire.
However, I did get my FieroTom radio in. Radio fit like a glove. Lots of folks complain about the triangular metal piece. Not sure if it's different in the 87 than other years, but this radio fit fine. I had to lift the end of the unit so the pin fit in. It looks great!
I connected the cable for the 9-pin aux input, but don't know how I'm going to get power to the auxiliary unit yet.
I put the tails on my Rodney Dickman speakers today, but didn't have time to install them, so my sound quality is still poor.
This was the old unit. Does anybody know if this was actually original equipment, or somebody else's switch. I'm curious because it doesn't have grey knobs, like most of the fiero radios I've seen.
The dew strips were one of my least favorite items to replace. I enjoyed pulling the motor more than replacing those, but maybe I was just having a bad day or two. I tried to do it with Rodney's tool ( http://rodneydickman.com/ca...h=27&products_id=131 ) and when that failed, I had to order that and things went a little better.... well I got it done at least.
Mr. Mike's seats were much easier to install than I actually expected.
I'm really liking the new radio. I just saw those posts on here, but I can't justify buying one since mine works fine.....but that Aux in would be niiiiiiiice. haha
I will warn you though, and I don't think I'm the only one that has had this problem..... it's hard to pass up buying a parts car, for just in case. haha
Keep up the good work.....and don't make the wife tooooooo mad.
The dew strips were one of my least favorite items to replace. I enjoyed pulling the motor more than replacing those, but maybe I was just having a bad day or two. I tried to do it with Rodney's tool ( http://rodneydickman.com/ca...h=27&products_id=131 ) and when that failed, I had to order that and things went a little better.... well I got it done at least.
I have the tool from Rodney already.
quote
Originally posted by msrservices:
Mr. Mike's seats were much easier to install than I actually expected.
I'm glad to hear that!
quote
Originally posted by msrservices:
I'm really liking the new radio. I just saw those posts on here, but I can't justify buying one since mine works fine.....but that Aux in would be niiiiiiiice. haha
I was out late tonight. Finally saw it with lights on. So much better than the blue GM/Delco radio that was in here before.
quote
Originally posted by msrservices:
I will warn you though, and I don't think I'm the only one that has had this problem..... it's hard to pass up buying a parts car, for just in case. haha
I don't even have a garage currently. Between my utility trailer, Fiero, my regular car, and my wife's car, I doubt the neighbours would like me parking my parts car on the lawn
Swapped out 5W30 from the transmission, installed synchromesh as per TSB 88-7-17. Detailed in another thread.
Installed Rodney Dickman's front speakers. I didn't have time to do the rear speakers today. No photos of the new speakers, but I did find out why the old speakers sounded like crap. Apparently they were a bit light on the foam after 27 years:
I'm going to keep updating this thread with everything I do, even if I covered it in another thread. Sorry for bumping, but it will make it easier for me to compile the timeline of my work if I only have the one thread to track.
I had some steering wheel play, that was eventually causing the key to turn off while driving. I disassembled and re-assembled the steering column to apply loctite and re-tighten
Been a while since my last update, and I've done a bit of work. A lot of these upgrades I purchased a while ago, and either hadn't installed until recently, or simply hadn't posted the photos.
We'll start with Seats. I took my old, busted seats out:
Regarding the process, it took me a few days. I made a bit of a mistake on the driver's side, and my seat is slightly overstuffed on the sides (bolsters?). I'm not too worried about it. The passenger side came out fine.
The only downside of expensive, light-colour seats is I'm sometimes too worried about them. I try to not slide my butt around on them, and I've caught myself changing my pants before going for a drive because I may sat on the ground earlier. Meanwhile, I had just been sitting in my regular car without a second thought.
I'm very, very happy with the cupholder. I've had it in for a few weeks. When driving around, I can only use the passenger-side cupholder, as anything in the driver-side blocks comfortable access to the shifter. It's fine for occasional shifting, and you probably won't be bothered if you have an auto. The only time I've had a passenger *and* drinks was when we drove to Rochester, NY. Simple workaround was to have my wife hold my drink until we got to speed on the highway. Then I don't need to touch the shifter for a while.
Don't take this as criticism of TxGood's design. There isn't a single suggestion for improvement I could make. As I said, I'm very happy with it.
My dew wipes were pretty much EOL.
I put on Seajai's new dew wipes. Unfortunately I couldn't really get a good picture of them.
The dew wipes are a real pain to install. Rodney's tool is a must. They are hard to photograph well. The old ones looked obvious and horrid when just looking at the door, but these are not even noticeable. It's like drywall and taping: Nobody ever notices a good job, but everybody sees a bad one. The craftsmanship on these wipes is really good, and nobody will ever notice them.
Since I had the doors all apart, I started cleaning all the crevices you can't normally get in to. But why stop there, I ended up doing the whole interior:
I also finally installed my Chris Cook (ebay gtfiero) passenger quarter window. For comparison, my original cracked one:
And the new window:
I did make one mistake, however. I was really, really careful to make sure the front edge was positioned correctly.
However, after lining it up, I started sticking it down. I didn't verify the window was still lined up correctly on the back end, thus it is slightly skewed
I ordered both windows, though I'm going to leave the original driver-side on for now (I didn't know what sort of visual difference to expect). That means I have enough 3M tape to pull the passenger window off and re-attach it while checking both sides. To be honest, it hasn't bothered me that much yet.
One thing quasi-visible in the above photos are my new floor mats. I just realized I didn't take photos of them specifically. I believe they are from the Fiero Store, with the Pegasus logo embroidered on them, but I can't be sure. I picked them, but my wife actually ordered them as a gift, so I can't confirm that right now.
Last, but not least, is Infinitewill's trunk seal. My previous seal was torn in multiple places. I'm very impressed with his seal, especially since it fits without glue or adhesives, so it can be rolled off the front edge when doing engine work.
I think that's it for upgrades for a while -- My wallet hurts, and my wife is getting jealous of the car.
Nice GT! Those are some great choices of upgrades you've done there.
It's really easy with these cars to go crazy with buying all sorts of different parts, especially when there is such a wide variety of members producing top quality items for these cars.
I recently bought FieroTom's radio too, it does look and work very well while keeping the factory appearance. Hoping sometime later this year to purchase some Mr Mikes covers identical to yours, and possibly the cup-holder too.
Looking forward to seeing the progress on this one. Keep us updated! ------------------ James
I ordered some parts from Rodney a few months ago, and I've finally gotten around to installing a few of them.
Short shifter has been in for a few months, I'm very happy with it.
But I've noticed that when I get stuck in traffic, my temperature gauge climbs toward red. This was particularly notable during the 30 minute crawling line to get into Plunkett Cruise in with the 5500 (!!!) other show cars. I had to keep shutting the car down, running the heat, coasting where possible. I don't have A/C to force the fan on. It tended to run hot last year, but I've been more comfortable driving it on more occasions now, and generally try to avoid stop & go traffic during the day.
To solve the above issues, I ordered Rodney's 180°F (82°C) thermostat, and 195°F/185°F (90°C/85°C) fan switch.
Installed the thermostat. Had to use an oil-filter wrench to get the cap off, but the new thermostat appears to have gone in without any problems.
While manoeuvring to get the fan switch connector off, I noticed the cold start injector's connector was loose. I applied some dielectric grease and pushed it on until it clicked.
The fan switch connector was also loose it seems...
If you look very closely, you might notice one of those fan switches looks slightly damaged...
So I installed the new fan switch, and went for a drive. Simply due to the lower thermostat, my engine temperature stayed quite cold. So I stopped by at my parent's place and idled in their driveway while talking to my Dad.
After heating the car up, the trunk fan came on. I understand it is on the same switch. When the car was Key-On Engine-Off, I actually got up to check the trunk fan, as I didn't recognize the sound. So this tells me the old fan switch probably wasn't working, and the new one is.
However, the rad fan never came on, even as I approached the red zone on the temp gauge.
Next step is checking the relay, but I'll do that tomorrow after work.
I just filled the tank, so hopefully I can see if I have any negative fuel mileage hit due to the lower temperature. Sample size of one trip will be non-reliable statisticall, but it's my daily commute, and I'm very familiar with it. (I also log every tank of gas, so I've got an average to compare with). I'll have more data going forward (including the Fiero show in Kingston, Ontario in just over a week).
Started misfiring slightly about a week ago. It was mainly audible from the exhaust, not too noticeable while driving. I recorded a brief clip, but forgot to turn my mic on, so it was less than useful video.
I had put some fuel injector cleaner in the last tank, and thought maybe it was related. I put in a fresh tank of gas, and decided to see how it sounded. Wasn't too bad, so I drove it to work. bad idea, I didn't think I would make it all the way home. Stumbling, misfires, almost stalling when I let out the clutch. Embarrassing, since it was such a nice day, and there were lots of other older cars on the road.
Anyway, I didn't hear anything "bad" from the engine itself, so I crossed my fingers and hoped it was ignition related. From my reading, it sounded similar to the ICM failures others have reported.
I have a spare ICM on-hand already, ordered a new cap & rotor. I've never changed the plugs or wires, so I decided to get those.
Pulled the cap off to have a look:
Cap:
Well, that doesn't look great. Looks like the rotor has been gouging the pins on the distributor? Lets check the rotor...
Rotor/ICM/Distributor:
Dirty. What's that white chunk sitting behind the rotor?
Rotor:
Oh. How did I even get home?
Pulled out the ICM. Not sure how bad it may or may not be at this point, but whatever paste may have existed previously is just dry crusty flakes. Decided to throw on the new one I have just to be safe. Used "Arctic Silver" CPU thermal paste.
Re-assemble and... No spark. No tach when cranking. Son of a...
Went back out today. Cleaned and re-installed the old ICM. Starts right away, no problems, no stumbling. So my old ICM was (probably) good. New one was bad right from the box. Ordering an AC Delco to have on-hand for the future.
Going to go for a drive around town to ensure I'm running well so I don't get stuck 50km in the country on my way to work tomorrow.
Haven't done the plugs and wires yet. Didn't realize I ordered wires that needed to be cut and crimped. Need to figure out how to do that.
). Also, the tune knob just bounces between static and the station you were already tuned to (the seek button works). The display also seems to cut out whenever you need to change the station and/or see the time. (go figure that during the movie, it comes on full-bright for the whole show).
Didn't think they existed anymore!
