Hi there, this weekend I flew to Wisconsin to purchase my second Fiero, a red Formula! It was a long day, woke up at 2am on Friday to drive to the airport, and got back home around 2am on Saturday. It's been a long time coming for this, my neighbor picked up a manual Formula and let me drive it, needless to say I got hooked and had to get my own. I will be keeping my auto 86GT (my very first car) and adding this to the garage. It'll be fun going on a drive together in our Formulas. I wish NC had an active Fiero club. I certainly miss the NIFE club back in Illinois!

Onto the car, it's red, has an L67, Getrag, and T-Tops. It has had a lot of work done to it already, and I am going to do my best to finish up the small things and I will take very good care of the car. Right now it is waiting to be picked up and shipped to NC. I hope to have it in my garage by the end of the week so I can get started.

I wish that I made a worklog for my 86GT, unfortunately I didn't so I am starting from the beginning with this car to document everything that I do to it.

First things first, the photos!










Some photos of when the previous owner picked it up:



Here are some old photos from a car show (maybe a dedicated Fiero show?) a long time ago:



Even have a flyer from 1998 too!


The list of work that needs to be done to it, in no particular order:
- Install my automatic headlight module, this is already made and ready to go. If you want to do this yourself, here is the guide.
- The seat upholstery needs some attention. I don't really like the 88 seats, a little boring for me, luckily I have my 86GT seats laying around from the 987 seat swap into that car and I will put those GT seats into the Formula. I just installed heating pads into the seats today to extend the T Top usage a little bit into the fall and spring, it still gets cold here.
- Install the AR digital cruise. I already have the module and wiring diagrams. I also plan to make a Cruise light in the dash. Here is the link.
- Replace the dew wipes. I ordered a set from the Fiero Store.
- Install Rodney's short shifter and metal headlight gears, this is on the way.
- Install the Sunbird boost gauge, luckily I grabbed one from my local yard when I had the opportunity.
- Temp gauge fix.
- Install an autodimming mirror with compass and Homelink, I did that in my GT.
- I have an idea on how to better store the T Tops. Allegedly, they can fit behind the seat, but I'm 6' and I couldn't figure that out. I also don't particularly like the straps that came with the car.
- The ECU needs to be mounted securely. Currently it is retained by zipties, I need to get that squared away.
- Fix the power locks. Probably needs new switches. I may see about installing more powerful actuators.
- HVAC's Speed 4 is not working.
- Repaint the hood, roof, and decklid.
- Get A/C lines and a compressor and get the A/C working. Not really needed in Wisconsin, but it's definitely needed in NC.
- Horn isn't working. Not sure if it's the buttons or the horn, but regardless I am installing a Firebird horn in the car.
- Power trunk release. Link here.
- Install my old Firebird radio and bluetooth module. Currently it has the AM/FM radio.
- Potentially install a Firebird BCM. I have the BCM and shock sensor, but this is lower on the priority list.
- Maybe add a low coolant light to the gauges as well.

I think that about sums it all up to start. Stay tuned!

[This message has been edited by rbell2915 (edited 07-20-2025).]

Just got picked up and it's southbound now.

Sweet. Nice find...

Bob

Very nice! Congrats on your acquisition. Looks amazingly clean for a "northern" car.

quote Originally posted by Raydar: Very nice! Congrats on your acquisition. Looks amazingly clean for a "northern" car.

I'm from Illinois originally and the car is clean, just a little surface rust in some areas but nothing to be concerned about. It's not going to get any worse down here.

The car should be getting delivered today. Unfortunately I'll be out of town for reserve drill but I'll have a nice surprise in the driveway when I get home.

Nice find, decent shape and it sounds like you have big restomod plans to upgrade.

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" THE BLACK PARALYZER" -87GT 3800SC Series III engine, custom ZZP /Frozen Boost Intercooler setup, 3.4" Pulley, Northstar TB, LS1 MAF, 3" Spintech/Hedman Exhaust, P-log Manifold, Autolite 104's, MSD wires, Custom CAI, 4T65eHD w. custom axles, Champion Radiator, S10 Brake Booster, 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 "

Car got delivered on Tuesday night and I've been thoroughly enjoying it.



The T Top locks were rattling like crazy and not working, this evening it fixed that with some screws and locking nuts and now the T Tops are secured. The passenger lock is a little picky, but it's an improvement over not locking at all.

I think this weekend I will install my auto headlights and Firebird radio. I'll try to compound and polish the paint to see if that improves any of the trouble spots. The decklid doesn't look too bad, I hope to get away without having to paint that.

Today I just got my shifter from Rodney and got that installed. I think my clutch pedal is bent so I ordered a replacement. I like it much more than the factory shifter and the install was extremely easy.



I also followed the guide here from fierosound but I also incorporated the flashing unit from Cravenspeed located here in between the LED panel and the bulb connector, all I did was cut off the ends and solder them onto the panel and the connector.

[This message has been edited by rbell2915 (edited 07-25-2025).]

Got the horn working this morning. I picked up a Firebird horn from the yard and took the old horn out. I tested the old horn, it worked so that meant the horn wasn't the problem, and I noticed the mounting/grounding screw and hole had a lot of corrosion and I cleaned that up. I used a ring terminal on that screw for the ground as the Firebird horn has wires for power and ground, unlike the Fiero which has the ground built into the mount. I used a blue male spade connector on the positive wire and input that into the Fiero's female horn connector to maintain the stock wiring, perfect fit. I had to cut a bit of the Firebird horn's mount off to make it fit, but after hooking everything up it works again. I certainly need a horn driving a tiny car surrounded by squatted trucks. Drive defensively and always assume someone will do something stupid!

[This message has been edited by rbell2915 (edited 07-28-2025).]

I've been quite productive lately.

I replaced the inner and outer dew wipes, that was desperately needed. It looks and feels so much better. I figure that while I'm in there I may as well replace the felt guides and the lock actuators, haven't done that yet.

I've also completed the wiring and mounting for the digital cruise. I got everything hooked up, and it didn't work. I think that is because I'm using the "AR" module when instead I should have a "V8" module because of the cruise inhibitor signal from doing a bit more research. Nothing a trip to the junkyard can't fix. I'll probably work on that again next weekend when I can get the module.

i replaced my horns with a pair from a full sized Olds from the same era (84's are wired for two horns). They were plug and play. Sounds a lot better

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Astronomy says we will find a coded signal from outer space. Then we'll KNOW that life exists there, for coded signals aren't by chance.

Biology says there are coded genetic signals in every cell, but we KNOW that no intelligence created life.

I'm the original owner of a white ' 84 2M4 purchased Dec 10, 1983 from Pontiac. Always garaged, no rust, 3800SC, 4-wheel drifts are fun!

Today my neighbor (he has the white Formula) went to the yard to grab some parts for his car and he grabbed me a V8 digital cruise module to replace my AR module. I swapped my mount and the throttle cable onto it, plugged it in, and it worked flawlessly. I'm extremely pleased finally having a Fiero with cruise control. I have decided that I am going to forgo installing a cruise light in the dash, I would if the module was still used in the stock location, but I am really not wanting to deal with running a wire from the digital cruise module all the way to the gauge cluster for a little tiny light.

Here are the links to the how-to's that I used, I combined them together for my installation:

Click on "Articles" and then find "Installing a digital cruise in the Fiero" by Oliver Scholz

I mainly used this one for the inspiration, getting the 4000ppm signal from the speedometer to the module without running another wire, wiring in the clutch release switch, and walking me through where everything was located.

I found out that my install wouldn't work because of the Formula taillight design, so I switched gears and went this route with instructions from Darth Fiero at GM Tuners:

File Index

quote Originally posted by Darth Fiero here: I have had some issues with some of the GM electromotive cruise control units (even those marked "AR") in Fiero swaps not wanting to engage at all. This is when they are NOT connected to the PCM on the cruise inhibit and status circuits. I believe the problem is some of these cruise control modules want to see the cruise inhibit input change state at a certain speed (perhaps?) and that won't happen if you just ground that wire. If you are using a manual transmission in your swap, the PCM may never ground the cruise inhibit wire to enable cruise operation because there is no electronic auto transmission present. Since the discovery of this problem, I have been building my stockpile of 96-99 Cadillac Northstar cruise control modules (they look identical to the ones used on the 3800s; except the Cadillac ones are marked "V8"). Every single 96-99 Northstar cruise control module I've gotten from a Cadillac has worked fine without having the cruise inhibit and status wires hooked up to the PCM. All you'll need to do is permanently ground the cruise inhibit input to the cruise module. Cables can be easily swapped out on these cruise modules so you can use any cable you need to match your throttle body. -ryan

To make this work I used the following:
- V8 digital cruise module as Ryan said
- Grand Prix throttle cable and mount
- I bought my relay from Napa here

Once I had the parts, I used the instructions from both links and it was pretty easy to accomplish.

Finished product, I opted to route my throttle cable down and around the driver side of the engine bay, the throttle cable length was perfect:



Relay location, there was a mounting position right below the cruise module that was perfect:



I do need to figure something out with the throttle cable mount, because I have no idea what is going on with this and I needs to be cleaned up. The previous owner pointed it out to me that he wasn't too happy with it, neither am I, but it's working for now. Maybe next weekend I can find a suitable bracket to fix it. It looks like it was snapped or broken somehow:

[This message has been edited by rbell2915 (edited 08-04-2025).]

Went to the yard and grabbed a new throttle cable bracket. I see why zip ties were needed, the throttle cable doesn't fit in there perfectly. I was able to put the cruise cable in though and trimmed the throttle cable moment some and made it work with minimal zip ties.



This is the current interior. I took out the gauge cluster and did the temp gauge fix. I also replaced the trip stepper motor and hopefully it starts working again. I'm nearly done with the Sunbird boost gauge as well, I need to replace the battery and calibrate the tach to a V6 and hook it up to the ECU on Pin 25. Note that the Fiero tach needle is a little shorter on the mount than the Sunbird's so I couldn't swap them over. When the key is on start then I'll put the needles back on pointed at 0 and then I can proceed with calibration.



While everything is out, I'll also do my auto headlight module and replace the radio. I've already done everything needed for the trunk release, that'll be very nice to have.

I have replaced the passenger seat, I'll do the driver seat soon. I found out the clutch master cylinder is leaking, so I'll replace that and the clutch pedal at the same time and then do the seat. I think I'll need all the space I can get.

Finally, I have received my rubber glue in the mail. There are a few nicks and small tears in the T Top seal that I'll be repairing.

Got the boost gauge working! Now I just need to put everything back together and take it for a spin. Fingers crossed the new trip stepper motor is working too.