was this her first car? i have a daughter about to be of driving age... thinking about getting her an older analog car for her first. possible something she can use some tools on herself. just not convinced a two seater will do it yet , although that does prevent car loads of friends.
was this her first car? i have a daughter about to be of driving age... thinking about getting her an older analog car for her first. possible something she can use some tools on herself. just not convinced a two seater will do it yet , although that does prevent car loads of friends.
Hi, it is! I told her when she was 13 that I'd buy her a car when she was old enough, but that she'd have to restore it. I basically told her it needed to be something where parts were mostly affordable and relatively safe. The Fiero is pretty safe respectively... but I wouldn't really want her taking it out on the highway. All the roads around here aren't any faster than 45 miles an hour, and it's perfect for her to go to the movies with her friends and stuff like that.
I figured a manual is good because she won't be inclined to user her phone, and the 2-seater worked because she won't be driving everyone everywhere... so it'll just be her and a friend. The other option was a classic Mustang... but she actually picked this car.
started diving into the usual maintenance and tune up stuff. of course when you start doing one thing , 10 more tasks present themselves. i ended up pulling the whole air intake system , cleaning repainting. replacing the MAT sensor , vacuum lines that are suspect. i dont think the air filter was touched to 5 years so that led me to start cleaning the throttle body (tons of grime in there) , changed the vapor cannister filter material which led to removal / repainting brackets etc etc. i gunked and degreased the engine compartment best i could. and finally THE PLUGS ! jeez... the front plugs ! so i remembered somewhere i read you can access them through a port behind the ECM.. so i pulled the console , and no such port. so i did it the next way from the top. the 2 and 4 were tight as hell. after a couple of hours of gymnastics, i got them done. i pitty the fool who had to do these every day at the dealership back in the day. so as to the noise originally comp[lained about , there is something loose with the exhaust, like a heat shield or something,,, so i think its a combo with that and an ac compressor going bad. lastly , does anybody know what color paint to touch up the valve cover? looking to just take a brush and fix it up a bit... even spraying some paint in a cup . i did super glue the insulation material that is peeling back... looks much better now (not shown in these pics)
[This message has been edited by domer94 (edited 08-17-2025).]
sorry all , for some reason i didnt realize i wasnt on the right thread when i made the post before this! dont know if a moderator can move it to "87 gt sunburst orange - new owner"
Originally posted by 82-T/A [At Work]: Hi, it is! I told her when she was 13 that I'd buy her a car when she was old enough, but that she'd have to restore it. I basically told her it needed to be something where parts were mostly affordable and relatively safe. The Fiero is pretty safe respectively... but I wouldn't really want her taking it out on the highway. All the roads around here aren't any faster than 45 miles an hour, and it's perfect for her to go to the movies with her friends and stuff like that.
I figured a manual is good because she won't be inclined to user her phone, and the 2-seater worked because she won't be driving everyone everywhere... so it'll just be her and a friend. The other option was a classic Mustang... but she actually picked this car.
sorry i mis-posted my update on the GT in your thread by accident. so do you mind me asking why not on the highway? is it an airbag thing? or due to the speed of traffic? i havent had my GT on the highway yet , so i cant comment from that perspective , but i used to drive my 81 vette on the highway , with similar era tech , and was never worried.
sorry i mis-posted my update on the GT in your thread by accident. so do you mind me asking why not on the highway? is it an airbag thing? or due to the speed of traffic? i havent had my GT on the highway yet , so i cant comment from that perspective , but i used to drive my 81 vette on the highway , with similar era tech , and was never worried.
I can't speak for AJ, but my sister's just starting to drive, and especially when she's in an unfamiliar car, or otherwise distracted, a high speed road is not exactly the best for the adults supervising haha, I had about 5000kms driving experience before doing any real driving on a highway, and that was still in the country, it was a lot longer before I got good enough to be confident driving on a freeway and through cities, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, etc. I would imagine it's something like that, just being cautious and slow with what a new driver is allowed to do and learn. If it's safety related, I 100% trust my Fiero more than any other car I've driven, the good visibility, nimbleness, and consistency has prevented damage several times (Kamikaze animals, massive new Brunswick potholes, other horrible drivers pulling out in front, etc.) the only negative I have for highway driving is that it's too hot in the summer for the windows to be up (no AC), and with the windows down and sunroof off, my ears aren't so happy after a day on the road.
Hi! Can I ask, where did you get the sticker that's on your air cleaner? Would you mind very much taking a really good picture of it? Is it original to the Fiero (e.g., do the part numbers listed on it reference the Fiero?)
It looks really nice!!!
quote
Originally posted by domer94:
does anybody know what color paint to touch up the valve cover? looking to just take a brush and fix it up a bit... even spraying some paint in a cup .
I don't know what others use, but I ended up using Ford Engine Red... which seemed to match almost perfectly. But I ended up repainting everything though...
quote
Originally posted by domer94: sorry i mis-posted my update on the GT in your thread by accident. so do you mind me asking why not on the highway? is it an airbag thing? or due to the speed of traffic? i havent had my GT on the highway yet , so i cant comment from that perspective , but i used to drive my 81 vette on the highway , with similar era tech , and was never worried.
I used to drive the Fiero all the time on the highway as well... at 18, I'd take it from South Florida to Northern Virginia and drive straight through without stopping (which was brutal even when I was 18). But the cars on the road have changed. Everyone drives an SUV now, and there are almost no cars on the road anymore. Almost everyone has a really tall truck, and my concern really is for a high speed crash and getting run over, literally...
Originally posted by 82-T/A [At Work]: I used to drive the Fiero all the time on the highway as well... at 18, I'd take it from South Florida to Northern Virginia and drive straight through without stopping (which was brutal even when I was 18). But the cars on the road have changed. Everyone drives an SUV now, and there are almost no cars on the road anymore. Almost everyone has a really tall truck, and my concern really is for a high speed crash and getting run over, literally...
i poked around on ebay for it... the filter it references is similar, but i pretty much bought it because it looked good on the can and gave a bit of an OE feel to the engine compartment. artistic license i guess...
Yeah several gm vehicles had a similar computer, likely the Pontiac rally computer would have had more functionality, but the design wasn't entirely scrapped.
My dad's 1989 Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera had the "driver information system", 10 button keypad with fuel economies, range, a trip counter (punch in how far your journey is ahead of time and it gives a running countdown on ETA and miles left), time, date, temperature, most engine data, oil life, speeds, etc. definitely was a fun/cool thing, and very useful.
[url=https://www.ebay.com/itm/135907981360?_skw=driver+information+system&itmmeta=01K3S3RHQN3J3TJ0X67GPN90EQ&hash=item1fa4bf3830:g:I-oAAeSwWJdoPPW5&itmprp=enc%3AAQAKAAAA8FkggFvd1GGDu0w3yXCmi1cM55NG7XhlERutYweQ6qGSncWcZiUdxaFtzIOb%2FEBlTz0nWfRm8MXLe9IRDo5om 4hUTOa%2BfOWARtJRM6ddVc6TwvcPUpPvwWUk%2FB%2BpZxjesAgmYFgGKIlPns3TdvzKVb8qGALuDxKHyyv6gKAgfzmD4JWTdImmyQI1FOpqoBTdzVH4qkvmIJDWsiM40vaiXVztnNA8fv3tIvFA2k9TGwFQPwB9ldgxVVLV9iu6Nn0zUBMFIHSowH3f0GGrVJvvWVYXBc58jJ0e%2B0zWFQPRymVvCHOijIuFigRInjs1rgvTKA%3D%3D%7Ctk p%3ABk9SR5Cc4qOeZg&pfm=1]makes you wonder[/url]
... that is pretty sweet. I'm really tempted to pick it up. It would be pretty awesome in the Fiero. I'm going to think about it... my daughter still has the older dash too, so we could mess around with how it works.
Her car is an 85, so it doesn't have the cable, and apparently the feed isn't provided until the 87 year (oddly enough)... but I'm sure I could make something work...
