Just saw a Fiero for sale listing on the Yahoo Fiero forum for a GT with a $9,000 3.4 crate motor from West Coast Fiero's and lots of other upgrades. The Minnesota owner is asking $60,000.
IMHO, this dude is trying to take advantage of someone with money who does not know any better. A 3.4 with all the bells and whistles from 60* performance tops out at just over $4k if I remeber correctly...
The seller invested over $60k in the car. I can sympathize with him, he states that he is 71 now and he needs the money to put new exterior walls on his house because the builder used particle board and it has all absorbed water and gotten ruined. Sounds like he put too much money in the Fiero.
West Coast Fiero, Than in Marina Del Mar CA.USA. All Parts and the Purpose Built Crate 225hp Camaro 3.4L Motor was done by them. Thanks Chris... Owner.
The Fiero Store, Stanford Springs, CT. USA. 90-95% of all OEM Parts are from them. Now Most out of Stock or Re-Pops. All of the Fiero GT Parts from the Stock of 2003..
Owner: Fontana, CA. All Body Mods, Body Work, Primers, Undercarriage Painting, Under Hood, Under Motor Compartment, Door Jams.
White Gauges.net, Salt Lake City, UT. USA, Dash Gauges.
5Star Powder Coating of Redlands, CA. USA, Value Covers-Intake Manifold.
Fontana Auto Upholstery, Fontana, CA. USA, Complete Upholstery.
House of Kolor of Brimhall Rd, Bakersfield, CA. USA, all Paint Products Used in Build.
Manuals Back Yard Paint and Body & Kustoms, San Berdo, CA. USA
LaSierra Tires & Wheels, Fontana, CA. USA,
UNDERCARRIAGE: A complete Paint Job. Fun with Jack Stands and about 8 inches under Car with Room to Paint. Color Hammer-tone Dark Gray. Cost. $75.00
PRO-THANE Hi-Tech Urethane Polyurethane Bushings Kit & Dog Bone. All New Trans & Motor Mounts and Cradle Mount Kit. KBR Shocks & Struts, Pro-Kit Lowering Springs. KYB Shocks & Struts. Cost $758.75
ENGINE: Built Crate from West Coast Fiero of Marina Del Mar. CA. A Purpose Build Crate V-6 Camaro 207ci 3.4 @225hp. Hyper-tech Off Road Power Chip, Low Temp Thermostat, Low Temp Fan Switch, Kustom Funnel K&N Air Filter, Air Supercharger Kit w/10 lbs. of Boost, V6 Performance MSD Ignition, Increase Low End HP Belt with a Power Pulley Kit, Undersized Power Pulleys, E3- Spark Plugs. Sprint V6 Performance Headers, Borla Cat Back Performance Exhaust, Ocelot V6 Header Pipe, Big Bore Throttle Body, Comp Racing Performance Cam, Fuel Pressure Gauge. Performance Fuel Pump Kit. All New Engine Sensors were put in the New Crate 3.4 Engine. Cost $9,000.00
ENGINE POWDER COATING: 5 Star Powder Coating of Redlands, Ca. Value Covers & Intake Painted Sunset Pearl Orange. Headers Chromed Powder Coated Cost $375.00
TRANSMISSION: TRANS is a Rebuilt Stock 5 Speed Muncie with a Short Throw Shifter. Cost $1,000.00
CLUTCH: Is a RAM HD Clutch System. New Slave Cylinder & Clutch Master Cylinder. Waiting to put a Positraction Unit in the Rear-end. The 225hp Spin's the Wheels to Bad. Cost $600.00
BODY MODS: No Rain Gutters, a 67 to 69 Chevy Cowl-Induction IROC Hood Scoop with Air Holes by the Radiator to Help Kool the Engine, Molded Into the Stock Fiero GT Hood. New Fiberglass Rear Quarter Panels w/Air Scoops, They have Orange Neon's & Strobes in them. New Fiero GM Factory Tail Lights, New Factory GT Quarter Windows. OEM Items. New Complete Factory Moldings. Complete Over 25 Strobe & Neon Orange Lights. On the Undercarriage, Under Hood, Side Scoops, Engine Compartment, Behind all 4-Wheels, Strobe & Neon's in Orange. Kool at Night. Body is Missing the Rain Gutters. Headlights are a No Longer Made Kit. No Pop-up Headlights. Fit Flush with the Body Design. Takes 4 Camaro Lights. Headlight Kit is Made off of a 1997 Camaro Unit Made over to fix. Hate Pop-ups. Ugly Looking. for this Part's. Labor was Free. Cost Over $6,500.00
INTERIOR: New Orange Carpet, New Headliner Kustom Done, New Seats w/ Orange Accents, Kustom Orange Dash and re-due Dash Corners. Complete Black & Orange Trunk Upholstered, Orange Steering Wheel. All New Switches, Door, Mirror, Window Switches & Engine Sensors. White Faced Gauges. Also a Windshield Pillar Gauge w/ Temp and Oil Pressure. I Hate Dumb Warning Lights. Plus More Neon's & Strobe Orange Lights. New Radio, Alarm, A Pillar Gauges. Cost of all Interior work was $3.700.00
TIRES & WHEELS: Mags are XXR Wheels 16 inch, Tires are NANKANG EX-500 XR-611, 195/60/R16 Polyester. Cost $2,300.00
BODY'S PAINT: Over $5000.00 Just in Material. House of Kolor Sunset Pearl with a Blend of House of Kolor Tangelo, White Base Coat. Over 9 Coats of Paint w/5 coats of House of Kolor Show Clear. 8 Month Restoration. Under Body was Painted Lt. Gray, Hammer-tone. Cost $5,100.00
Have over $60,000.00 in the Build. Parts & Love & Labor I Have over 60K Invested & all Paper Work, Bills. $60,000.00
TOTAL AWARDS: 35 So Far. Best Engine, Best Paint, Best Kustom
Selling my Baby due to my OLD Age. 71 and a Lowered Car is Hard to get in to. Never been in Snow. Stored every Winter In MN. It's a SoCal or California Car. I'm the Second Owner. Has a Kustom Car Cover, Lots of Extra Parts, 2 Fenders NEW & Painted, Complete Steering Wheel assembly Complete. Lots of More Yes Orange Neons & Strobes, Orange Loom & Ties. It's In Storage already.. Gas Millage is about 19 to 20 mpg if you Don't get on it. 2 New Rear Tires. Serious Buyers Only Please. Call me NO E-Mails Please... Will Take a Serious Offer. I Sold my Kustom Ford F-150 for a New Roof. Now I need new Outside Walls. Some Builder Used a Particle Board for Siding. Oops. Not Water Proof. Can Put my Finger into my 2x6 walls Outside. Thanks for L@@KING Ron
I saw this car 2 years ago at 2 different cruise nights, the hood said supercharged but there was none on it, I asked him why it said supercharged on the decklid, he said he was referring to the cold air intake....maybe that has changed now. Also the guy said he moved here from California, said he ran a Fiero shop out there. Some of those pics of the car painted orange are 6-7 years old. When I saw it, it was dirty in and out could probably be cleaned up if it wasnt already by him. It also has alot of orange undercar and interior lighting. I'm sure he did spend alot on it. I told him about the forum but he must not have ever logged on.
Pictures show a cone filter on an aluminum tube, direct to the intake. That doesn't make 10 PSI of boost, and sure as hell isn't $9000. Even if it had a supercharger on it making 10 PSI, I still don't see how that would be $9000. There's no way a built 3.4 with 10 PSI of boost is only making 225 HP either.
From what I can see, the owner just doesn't know what he's talking about.
All that work and $$ into the car and still has the stock brakes. All that orange inside, either a buyer will like it or hate it. It's always harder to sell cars when they have that kind of customization.
I can't imaging spending money on customizing an obsolete 1980's economy car if my house was falling apart and needing repairs... Bizarre priorities...
$60 k spent on a Fiero? You can buy a real sportscar for less than half of that.. WOW!
Something about that car tells me to run away, far away. Interior looks kind of hacked together (and ugly) with mismatching trim pieces, what else is hacked together? In my opinion this guy is in the same category as the kid that slaps a "Type R" sticker on his base Honda Civic. If he thought spending $60k on a Fiero instead of fixing his house was a good idea, what else did he think was a good idea??
I can't say I believe the claimed $60,000 invested. I looked at all the pictures in the CL ad, and even if all the work was done by shops I still cannot see the price adding up to 60K. On top of that there are some pictures that appear to have been taken at the owners residence. If you live in a dump like that, you do not have sixty thousand dollars of disposable income to spend on anything. Seriously, if you did have sixty grand to spare, I doubt you would continue living there. It just does not add up for me.
There are expensive custom Fieros but the one referenced isn't worth it. If you take a look at Troyboys Perfect union big block Fiero, it easily has $60,000 of work in it, possibly even more. A $9,000 3.4L has got to either be a gross exaggeration or a very poor investment. I own a 3.4L that has everything on it and it cost almost $3800 to build but it also has a turbo. Labor to swap in a 3.4L P/R engine is about two to three days
------------------ " THE BLACK PARALYZER" -87GT 3800SC Series III engine, custom ZZP /Frozen Boost Intercooler setup, 3.4" Pulley, Powerlog manifold, Northstar TB, LS1 MAF, 3" Flotech Afterburner Exhaust, Autolite 104's, MSD wires, Custom CAI, 4T65eHD w. custom axles, HP Tuners VCM Suite. "THE COLUSSUS" 87GT - ALL OUT 3.4L Turbocharged engine, Garrett Hybrid Turbo, MSD ign., modified TH125H " ON THE LOOSE WITHOUT THE JUICE "
The console panel and the gauge panel don't look like they fit very well and I don't see the point of the raised center section on the hood or the overly large wing on the back, I guess that's a matter of taste. I would expect the interior to look much nicer than it does for the money spent.
Originally posted by Dennis LaGrua: There are expensive custom Fieros but the one referenced isn't worth it. If you take a look at Troyboys Perfect union big block Fiero, it easily has $60,000 of work in it, possibly even more. A $9,000 3.4L has got to either be a gross exaggeration or a very poor investment. I own a 3.4L that has everything on it and it cost almost $3800 to build but it also has a turbo. Labor to swap in a 3.4L P/R engine is about two to three days
I'm pretty sure Troyboy has over $100K in his car. (And it's not a big block.)
As for labor, if it's three eight hour days, then that's 24 hours, and at $120/hr that's almost $3000. If it takes 24 hours to do the swap for someone who has done similar work on the Fiero plenty enough already, I wonder what the book time is. If the book time is twice that, it's almost $6000 in labor. Add in any possible mark-up on the engine itself and any other parts needed (gaskets, etc…), cost of fluids, recycling fees, storage fees, etc… and $9000 isn't an entirely unreasonable estimate of what one might have paid to have an entire such swap done by someone else, including cost of engine itself and all parts, especially if it was done 10 years ago when some of those parts might have had higher prices.
Everything is certainly cheaper to do when you have your own shop and do everything yourself.
Originally posted by Csjag: I don't see the point of the raised center section on the hood
It's a cowl induction scoop. Some people like that style. On the Fiero if you cut holes in the hood just behind the radiator, it functions as an extractor vent rather than a scoop. Some people just prefer that look to an obvious vent hole in the hood.
Ok, after reading the rest of the story, it's making a little more sense. I could see $9k with labor (at West Coast). Cost of everything is high in CA. Probably would have been cheaper to ship the car to Huntsville to have that install done. That said, based on the pics it is not supercharged and if it was you would not put a pulley kit on it anyways (unless you were trying to induce "turbo lag" from a vortec/paxton). $12k seems a little more reasonable starting point than $60k though. Still too high when you look at what is available right now IMHO. $8k would be a fair offer for it even in CA. My $.02 anyways...
Ive had several custom built engines done by a Nascar teams engine shop for some of my projects. The most I paid was for a Corvette V8 that cost half of that. While a lot of people do put more money in a project car than they should, it happens all the time and you will never expect to recover much of it. I had over $30K in my Ferrari kit that I sold for under $10K. My V8 car had over $20K invested and sold it with less than 4,000 miles for $5K. I had over $40K invested in restoring my SuperBee that I sold for 1/4 of that.
Originally posted by rogergarrison: Ive had several custom built engines done by a Nascar teams engine shop for some of my projects. The most I paid was for a Corvette V8 that cost half of that.
Carbed SBCs are not a great comparison for a full EFI engine swap in a street car. And $4500 for an SBC engine only, is not a particularly wild build either. Add on labor for installing it into a Fiero, with everything working properly, and price jumps up.
Hell, for $9000, I could just go buy a C5 Corvette, too.
I'm pretty sure Troyboy has over $100K in his car. (And it's not a big block.)
As for labor, if it's three eight hour days, then that's 24 hours, and at $120/hr that's almost $3000. .
$120 hr at 40 hr week = $4800 per week. I sure wish that I made money like that. That's almost 2 months salary for the average person. .As for Troyboy I do not doubt that he has $100K or more invested in his custom Fiero. I thought that he had an LS7 engine not a small block. He has been quiet of late. .
------------------ " THE BLACK PARALYZER" -87GT 3800SC Series III engine, custom ZZP /Frozen Boost Intercooler setup, 3.4" Pulley, Powerlog manifold, Northstar TB, LS1 MAF, 3" Flotech Afterburner Exhaust, Autolite 104's, MSD wires, Custom CAI, 4T65eHD w. custom axles, HP Tuners VCM Suite. "THE COLUSSUS" 87GT - ALL OUT 3.4L Turbocharged engine, Garrett Hybrid Turbo, MSD ign., modified TH125H " ON THE LOOSE WITHOUT THE JUICE "
$120/hr is pretty average for mechanic work here in Sacramento. Some of the dealers have crept up to $140 or $160, some of the indys undercut down at like $100. In San Francisco or uppity parts of SoCal it's even more expensive. The shop that works on my MIL's car in a less nice part of SoCal is $128/hr. When you've got governmental regulations to meet and $5000 Tech IIs to buy just to work on modern cars your hourly rate is not gonna stay low.
Edit: Four years ago I had a shop in a small town in Colorado do some work on my '67 Cadillac and the labor bill came back at somewhere around $40/hr. It had never occurred to me shop work could be that cheap, and I regretted instantly not having them do a bunch more work. I don't make enough where I can pay someone $120/hr to do anything, but $40/hr I can stomach!
[This message has been edited by thesameguy (edited 09-11-2014).]
Originally posted by Dennis LaGrua: $120 hr at 40 hr week = $4800 per week. I sure wish that I made money like that. That's almost 2 months salary for the average person. .As for Troyboy I do not doubt that he has $100K or more invested in his custom Fiero. I thought that he had an LS7 engine not a small block. He has been quiet of late. .
Well, $120 hr being what the shop charges, not what the mechanic doing the work is paid. I don't know what WCF charges now, or what they charged when the swap was done, i just used the $120/hr number as a common example. Higher end shops and dealerships tend to charge more.
As for troyboy's car, he does have an LS7 in it. But the LS7 is a small block (all 1997+ LSx engines are small blocks, including the Vortecs in the trucks). 427 CID is plenty of displacement, but it's not a "big block" engine.
As for troyboy's car, he does have an LS7 in it. But the LS7 is a small block (all 1997+ LSx engines are small blocks, including the Vortecs in the trucks). 427 CID is plenty of displacement, but it's not a "big block" engine.
Correct. I should have said "big bore engine" not big block. That high of a displacement 427 in a small block style engine is simply amazing. I believe that it puts out 505 HP.
------------------ " THE BLACK PARALYZER" -87GT 3800SC Series III engine, custom ZZP /Frozen Boost Intercooler setup, 3.4" Pulley, Powerlog manifold, Northstar TB, LS1 MAF, 3" Flotech Afterburner Exhaust, Autolite 104's, MSD wires, Custom CAI, 4T65eHD w. custom axles, HP Tuners VCM Suite. "THE COLUSSUS" 87GT - ALL OUT 3.4L Turbocharged engine, Garrett Hybrid Turbo, MSD ign., modified TH125H " ON THE LOOSE WITHOUT THE JUICE "
Just a little off topic here, but... that's not much of a home builder who would use particle board on the exterior. I'm not much of a handyman, but even I know better than that. I watch the DIY shows on TV.
Originally posted by Dennis LaGrua: Correct. I should have said "big bore engine" not big block. That high of a displacement 427 in a small block style engine is simply amazing. I believe that it puts out 505 HP.
Stock it's 505 HP yes. Though troyboy has the supercharger now. Not sure what his engine makes now.
With the Darton MID sleeves, the LS2/3/7 block could be taken up to 4.200 bore, and with a 4.25" stroke, will take it out to 471 CID. An aluminum 468 small block would sure be fun to have in my truck.
I just looked up his wheels he claimed to spent $2300 on there about a $110 - $150 each depending who sells them online and the cheap tires are about $300 for all 4 of them. ------------------
2010 Pontiac G6 GT 2009 Chevy HHR LT 1989 Pontiac Sunbird LE coupe 1985 Fiero GT 3800 N/A ...3800 S/C II still in donor car 1985 Fiero SE 3.4 V6 4 spd - wifes 1984 Fiero Indy #1098
[This message has been edited by KEV (edited 09-13-2014).]
I just looked up his wheels he claimed to spent $2300 on there about a $110 - $150 each depending who sells them online and the cheap tires are about $300 for all 4 of them.
Today, yes. How much were they 10 years ago when he bought them?
I can go buy a C5 Corvette for less than $10K, but it doesn't mean whoever I'm buying it from didn't pay $40K for it.
Well, I didn't look up the wheels and see when they were available, because I really don't care, since I'm not dumb enough to pay $12K for a riced out Fiero. Just trying to give the guy the benefit of the doubt that maybe he did spend a bunch of money (even if it is because he's an idiot, can't do simple math, and got taken to the cleaners in the process). Or he's just full of crap about how much he has in the car.
But if you want to buy an otherwise stock Fiero with a bunch of orange LEDs installed all over it, go ahead.
Originally posted by dobey: Well, I didn't look up the wheels and see when they were available, because I really don't care, since I'm not dumb enough to pay $12K for a riced out Fiero. Just trying to give the guy the benefit of the doubt that maybe he did spend a bunch of money (even if it is because he's an idiot, can't do simple math, and got taken to the cleaners in the process). Or he's just full of crap about how much he has in the car.
But if you want to buy an otherwise stock Fiero with a bunch of orange LEDs installed all over it, go ahead.
9000$ for the engine? must be because of the
quote
Hyper-tech Off Road Power Chip
------------------ Ben 87 GT / 88 GT 84 Indy #1863
