So a while back I picked up a 88 GT that has the PISA wrap around dash. I love the look but the stock door panels just look out of place. I picked up a set of firebird door panels and started to research the steps in converting the bird panels to fit the Fiero. I knew that it would not be easy and I think im up to the challenge. I understand that some have modified the bird panels to fit the Fiero, and others have used the bird panel parts fitted to a stock Fiero door panel. I think they both look great, but I don't have the Firebird dash, so I knew that my panels would look different. I started to modify the bird panels and soon figured that it may be easier to take one apart and see how it fit on the Fiero panel. Obviously I will have to cut the ends off the bird parts to make it work. I decided to walk around my local pick n pull and see if anything else may fit or look better. I walked the GM section and found a lot of good looking panels but as I figured, nothing was really close. I was lucky to have an 87 GT in the yard with both door panels off the car, so as I pulled a panel I could check to see how it fit. This saved me some $$$ as some that I was sure would fit did not, so I tossed them aside. In the end I discovered that a Saturn Ion Red Line door panels were VERY CLOSE. Not a perfect fit, but very close to stock size. The Ion that I'm talking about is the 2 + 2 version, the one with the large door and the small rear door. This larger door is similar to the size of ours. anyway below are some pics of the work so far.
Picked up a couple of these Firebird panels to play with
Started to mess with one of them to see what it looks like
Found these Saturn Ion panels, i'll mess with them too.
So the plan now is to work the Saturn panels for a while and see if I can make them work, either putting them onto the stock Fiero panels or using the Saturn one all by itself on the car. Not sure if this is going to work, if not i'll scrap it all and build some from scratch. I also pulled a few new gen door pulls and a few new gen door handles. I may be able to fix something up and make it look good.
Cheers.
[This message has been edited by qwikgta (edited 06-21-2017).]
Could you please post a picture of the dash. Assuming it has working gauges, what type are they? Steve
The PISA dash uses the stock gauges and they work great. I've been thinking about swapping out the stock for Caviler digital gauges, I have two of them in my parts bin.
stopped by the yard today, pulled another set of Firebird panels, actually, someone else pulled them off and left them in the back seat, so I looked them over and they were fine, I also took the mirrors, i'm going to see if I like them or not. I grabbed these in case I need another set, if not then i'll try to sell them off. I also found a couple Mitsu 3000 GT's on the lot. One had black and one had tan interior. I grabbed the black panels and walked over to the Fiero GT on the lot. Tried to see how the 3000 GT panels look. Not bad, will take some modifying but they may also work out if the Saturn ones don't. Also pulled a few misc interior parts, door handles, door pulls and some arm rests. I may mix and match a few and make my own design. Well see.
Mitsu 3000 GT panel test fit
Junkyard haul today
Junkyard haul a few days ago
cheers.
[This message has been edited by qwikgta (edited 12-30-2016).]
So with some good weather today I decided to cut up one of the Firebird panels and see if I could make it fit the stock Fiero door panel. I played around with the Saturn and the Mistu 3000 panel's and I could not seem to get them to work out as well as the Firebird one. I know its ruff, but the point was to see if I could cut up one and make it kind of work. It went really well. I cut up the one that was already broken as a test to see how easy it would be if decided to go this route. I don't know what I'd do next, I'm not the best with resin and fiberglass, and its not like the stuff would stick to the plastic anyway. I'm going to mess around with it when the weather is good and see what happens. As a fall back still have a good set of Stock Fiero panels that I can get color changed and order up a set of Russ's lower door panels if this does not work out.
WX didn't cooperate today, so I had to play on the computer and do some research on how to build door panels. Lots of interesting stuff on youtube. Anyway this post is just to put the stock Firebird panel next to the one I modified last night. I just want to see them side by side. No comments required.
After looking things over, I think i'm going to use the early Firebird panels, the ones with out the speaker pod. I think I only need to make two cuts to make the panels fit.
So the wx was better today, I spent some time reading about covering plastic interior parts with vinyl/leather and made a trip up to the local fabric store. They had a great selection of vinyl and I grabbed some black and some red. Got some professional glue on the way, the contact cement type that the pros use. Going to do my "A" and "B" pillar trim.
I also made another trip to the yard, grabbed a few items that may work. I had looked at some Grand Prix door panels and liked how modern they look. THey were already pulled off by someone needing the window motors, so I didn't have to pull them, just had to remove the inner door handles. I started to cut up the drivers side to see how they look in the car.
Not bad. I also picked up a set of door panels off a 01 Mercury Cougar. I always skip the FORD rows, I'm not a big Ford fan, but I was looking for two door cars that were more modern and I had already been up and down the Foreign cars and even tried the MOPAR rows. I really like the way they look in the car, and I'm now going to try to make these fit. Something about the panel looks really good in the car with the PISA dash. It's not going to be easy, but I'm going to give it a try.
I really like this door. Its a little long, and the top shape does not match up, but I think I can do it.
Just a hint- check the position of the speaker grill on the door panel vs where your knee likes to ride. I rented a car once, and the speaker panel was like a cheese grater on my knee. Probably doesn't help that I'm big and old!.
had some good wx today, decided to mess around with my Cougar panels. couldn't get a good fit until I removed the stock door panel, so off it came. took some measurements made a few cuts and figured out that I can't really do much more until I remove the stock door handle. So once 'I'm committed, I'll go for broke. Here is a few pics of how it will look.
still working on a few things. I have some two part foam so I may mess around with it to fill in the space between the stock Fiero panel and the inside of the Cougar panel.
Did some additional cutting and fitting. Finally got the stock door card all clean of vinyl and carpet. I'm trying something different, I cut the top off the stock door card, and i'm going to attach it to the door after I put some black vinyl on it. Then I can just deal with the straight, flat door card, either stock or made of wood. I may have to remove the stock door pull support and the next big move is to remove the stock door handle. I have not figured out how to open the door from the inside, because the stock Cougar handle uses a cable. Also, I may still put this panel on the stock stripped door card and that will make additional problems. Not sure how to install it all and get the door handle to work. Haven't even tried the door lock. And yes, with the door panel like this the vent is covered, so I plan to cut a notch out of the door panel and make a curved part out of fiberglass to "swing" the air out into the cabin.
cut and fitted.
had to add the handle and the arm rest.
[This message has been edited by qwikgta (edited 01-17-2017).]
got some more time to work on the panels. stripped off all the vinyl and carpet off both door cards and after some additional trimming I mounted the Cougar panel to the stock door panel. I just have to figure out how to get the door handle and lock to work. I have to wrap the end of the door inset or strip it all off and rewrap it in red vinyl. It opens and closes without a catch. Getting closer, still have to figure out what to do about the dash vent.
not sure if anyone is following but I thought I'd update this thread. I decided to scrap the whole "make something fit" idea and go back to basics. I'm going to make them from scratch. I decided to use the PISA dash as my template and make the doors look like they may have come from PISA for it. Using a cardboard template I traced the center console to get the basic idea of the shape. I'm going to use that as my door shape. I still have to work out the arm rest but I have a few ideas. Here are some pics of the cardboard template that I started today.
its not done yet, so I still need to play with the overall shape. I'm also gong to figure out how much I want the lower to extend out into the cabin. I have some of the two part foam, glass n resin and some SEM texture paint, so I will be making a mess soon.
The biggest thing I would do is aim the speakers at (hmm Fiero) the sunroof handle. It will give the best imaging, (sound stage) If they go straight out it will sound good at your shins. Not that most people seem to care about good audio anymore. (For my creditably, I was a trained IASCA sound quality judge in the 90s)
The biggest thing I would do is aim the speakers at (hmm Fiero) the sunroof handle. It will give the best imaging, (sound stage) If they go straight out it will sound good at your shins. Not that most people seem to care about good audio anymore. (For my creditably, I was a trained IASCA sound quality judge in the 90s)
good info, the grill was just pushed into the cardboard for the "look", but i do plan on creating a pod so i'll remember to have it tilt upward and inward a bit. thanks.
OK, so after trying to make something fit that was not designed for the Fiero, I trashed all the work, tossed all the cut up door panels and started over.
First I took the stock door panel and stripped off all the carpet and vinyl, this was going to be the base of my other idea but I decided I could start here.
After trying a few things I decided that i'd rather work with a flat surface and the stock panel would not work. I transferred the size/shape to thick cardboard and mocked up the design.
Then I transffed the pattern to 1/4" MDF. I thought the 1/4 MDF would be enough but after looking over the stock cardboard I could see I needed to have it sitting about 1/2" or so to clear the power door lock bracket. I removed the arm rest bracket to make more room but didn't think I could move the PDL bracket.
I got some 1/2" MDF and cut out the door pattern, cutting out the middle so that it could clear all the inner door shapes and brackets.
Then I glued/screwed the two together and started working on how I was going to mount the panel on the door. I tryed a few different ideas and then it came to me. Large, strong magnets. So i did some research and purchased some strong "earth magnets" in two different sizes. The large ones are 55lb and the small ones are 17lbs each. So with all 6 i'm pretty sure it will hold well enough. The door handle is mounted to the door with screws and the door pull will also be mounted to the door, so you will not be pulling the door panel itself.
So I mounted the door handle, it was easy, the ones i picked use the same type of pull as the stock Fiero handles. I had to enlarge the hole slightly and drill some new mounting holes but it was a 10 min job. I like these handles b/c they slant the same direction as the design for the door and don't require any mods to the door lock.
So i cut a hole in the door for the handle and put the panel on. it fits and looks great. For the top, I found some 3rd Gen F-body door panels and noticed that they had a separate plastic "trim" piece on top. I picked a few up and after trimming them and then turning them around 180' deg I got them to fit. I tried the stock door panel top but it was too small, I was going to make something out of wood but in the end the F body panel tops look the best. After I finish putting the vinyl on the doors, i will mount the plastic tops to the panel using some "L" brackets and hi quality Velcro. Again, it may sound low tech, but I'm sure it will work.
So next I start on the design, I call it "the waterfall". I plan to copy the design of the dash and have it "fall" off similar to the center console. I'm still working on design of the arm rest and if or how to incorporate a door pull.
Looks like you've got the magnets figured out, but if they don't work out, Mag Daddy makes products that might work for you. Here's one that is a Glue On magnet.
so after i got the main panel figured out, i painted it with primer and black lacquer paint to provide some water protection. Since i'm going to cover it with red/black vinyl i'm not worried about the runs, i just sanded it down a little to clean it up.
i knew I wanted to make a separate piece for the "waterfall". so i cut it out of 1/4 MDF and then installed some screws with blind nuts on the backside and trimmed it to fit. then i placed the speaker pods in the correct place and at the correct
now its time to start making the pod. first i used some cardboard to create the "mold" for the foam. its not that thick and it bent a little, i'll have to use something better for the drivers door panel. i mixed up the two part foam and poured it in. i used a little more than i needed, but thats ok, it was easy to cut/trim and shape and soon i had the correct shape i needed. i tried it on the door to see how it fit, and to trim what got in the way.
after checking the fit, and trimming a little here and there it was ready for the fiberglass/resin. i covered the whole thing with glass/resin and then let it dry. then i sanded it down, and put more glass/resin on as needed. took three coats to cover it until i was happy. sanded it down and tried it on the door again. fits great,
then it was back to sanding, sanding shaping and more sanding. I gave it another test fit, and its starting to all come together.
from this shot you can start to see the "waterfall" i'm aiming for. the whole idea is to mimic the dash on the doors. i plan to copy the "french seam" on the doors just like the dash.
next up, i need to finish it up with a thin coat of Bondo to make it smooth as glass, and then cover it with vinyl. stand by for the next post.
Rob
[This message has been edited by qwikgta (edited 06-18-2017).]
