'86 Fiero daily driver - nothing exciting

[BuddyP]

No it's not my main project, but it was a "project" and it is an "update"! But anyway, I picked up this Fiero a couple weeks back for a daily driver to keep the miles off the Avalache (and to save gas money to put toward the '68 Camaro!!). '86 V-6 4-sp manual. The motor and tranny had been all rebuilt, but it had a miss in the motor. I went back a week later, took my chances and brought it home. Ended up just being bad wires. It runs good at speed but doesn't idle good right now, got a EGR tube leak, but will be an easy fix. Other than that I ended up putting on new shocks/struts, new brake pads, new caliper and rebuilt the other 3, turned all rotors, painted the ground effects silver, new tires with matching wheels and detailed it up a bit. Got $1500 into it with all the new parts.

Here's a couple "Before" shots...

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/noimg.gif

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/noimg.gif



And here's a couple "After" shots...

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For a "no frills" PT car I think one of these would be pretty neat to do up for track. But I won't be waisting my time with this one since I have a LOT of work to do on the Camaro.

Just thought I'd use up some bandwidth and share.

[curly]

V-8 conversion in the future :bananna2: ? That's a very clean Fiero, looks like it would be alot of fun to drive!

[dhardison]

Wow, that little bit of silver makes a HUGE difference! Nice looking DD you've got there. I had an '86 Fiero back in '86. It was just the 4cyl/manual, but was a lot of fun to drive.

[69TAPoser]

My best friend has one in high school when they 1st came out. It was a blast to drive. We beat the bag out of it. :drive2:

Looks really clean, the wheels cleaned up nice! What did you use to repaint the rocker molding? It looks great!

Now get working on that V8 conversion. ;)

Phil

[BuddyP]

Nope no plans of a V8 (an LS1 would be cool though!), that money needs to go into the camaro for the LS1 conversion. It's just a daily driver, and will probably sell it by next spring. Depends what happens with work.

Yeah the silver made a BIG difference, along with the tires. As far as paint... heh, spray bomb! Just a couple cans of Dupli Color paint from Advance Auto lol! But came out quit nice considering the paint source.

[Rubes]

Pretty cool DD for that money...except ya cant haul camaro parts to/from the shop...LOL. the silver does make it look MUCH better.

I bought an '84 4cyl/4speed when they first came out. I still have it and its only got 24kmiles (spun a bearing). I wanna put in a Buick Turbo V6 or the spare 305 TPI I have. An LS1 would be cooler though. I also have a bunch of the 4 cylinder Super Duty stuff (head, intake, cam) so I got that option too. Its already got all the Koni suspension stuff on it with 16" wheels...yadda...yadda...yadda. Maybe some day.

[BuddyP]

Post some pics Rubes!

[Rubes]

Post some pics Rubes!
Aint got any digi pics...I'll see if I can scan some and post latter.

[Rubes]

Hey Buddy...finally dug out the only (crappy at that) pics of the fiero and had them scanned. That last one was before I lowered it with the Koni kit;
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[HILROD]

I put an alternator in one of those long ago. It sucked. I think I had to drop the subframe. Actually I blocked it out of my memory!:bananna2:

[6camaro9]

very nice car BuddyP and Rubes. i, myself have 3 fieros. hope to put an ls4 into one of them someday after my '69 gets done.

[Jim Nilsen]

I see a call to V8 Archie in your furure:)

V8 conversions are so easy and cheap that it will constantly tempt you to put the old engine out of the Camaro in it.:bananna2:

[Roadrage David]

If GM didnt pull the plug on the 89 Fiero then today there probely would not have been a corvette! around . upto this day its the only mid engine usa sport/muscle car that hase been bild. in 88 pontiac finnaly had it right and the hick ups where eliminated!.take a look at the 89 Fiero that GM killed off, ad a imagional 18 years of divelopend with it and wel you know what i meen ...........

[Beige]

If GM didnt pull the plug on the 89 Fiero then today there probely would not have been a corvette! around . upto this day its the only mid engine usa sport/muscle car that hase been bild. in 88 pontiac finnaly had it right and the hick ups where eliminated!.take a look at the 89 Fiero that GM killed off, ad a imagional 18 years of divelopend with it and wel you know what i meen ...........

A Fiero is barely a sports car and definitely not a muscle car.
The "89" was just more plastic tacked onto the original car.
So it would probably have 3 times as much plastic added to it by now.

They're fun to drive, but that's about it.

[Roadrage David]

mmm strange that this car sold just as good if not better in europe then in the usa !! and this plastic car was known to be as strong as a tank!!!, tell the Fiero Factory in europe that the Cobra, and other race/sports cars they make out of the Fiero are not strong and is not a good platform to bild there cars on......... http://www.fierofactory.com/donor.html .... in the usa http://www.v8archie.com the 89 platform was build to take the v8!! and plastic,s today are found in every car (name me 1 usa car you can leave outdoors for 20 years in the rain and not fall apart because of rust besides the Fiero) . funny thing is that 20 years afther GM pulled the plug the car refuses to die. and lot of small companys in europe and in the usa are still fooling around with them .sais enoughf about the potentional that GM killed of... the fiero factory cars where good enoughf to be in top gear!!......... fackt is the Fiero sold VERY good the world over, but as usual Pontiac was not alouwd to be a chevy competitor in this case with the 89 model(witch was bigger) with the corvette.... the fiero started out as a comuter transport car (pontiac had a hidden agenda just like they had with the first muscle car ever the GTO) witch was the perfect platform to lanche a serius sports/ muscle/ race car from GM saw the potentional and the thread in this car and killed it off like they did manny times .... and belive me pontiac didnt get caried away in the disign of the Fiero that the Fiero factory wrote down!!!!.... http://www.v8archie.com/stinger.htm

[MonzaRacer]

Well as for me i want the 88 my nephew has, he has pulled the engine for a clutch change,
I also want to swap in a Aurora 4.0 (small version of the Northstar)that a local yard has I can get for a $175.
A Northstar/Aurora swap is a basic bolt in except for one bellhousing bolt.
The neat thing is its not hard to do and the starter is under the intake so it doesnt get cooked by headers.
Bad thing is that a flywheel would cost $250 from CHRFAB, they make a lot of parts for N*s aand such, but think even a 250hp DOHC V8 in the car would be sweet.
Always good to dream.
Lee Abel
AFTERMARKET PERFORMANCE

[Beige]

(name me 1 usa car you can leave outdoors for 20 years in the rain and not fall apart because of rust besides the Fiero)
You've apparantly never owned one so I'll ignore the rest of your rant.




MonzaRacer, don't forget about the computer. Expect to use an aftermarket system.

BuddyP, nice car. The GT-like Silver rockers look a lot better than the SE's black rocker panels.

[Roadrage David]

You've apparantly never owned one so I'll ignore the rest of your rant.. what no comend on the rest what i wrote??:bsjerk: ........

[Beige]

I didn't want to bring down BuddyP's thread by commenting on things you wrote.

If you think that Fieros don't rust, you obviously know nothing about the cars. So the rest of what you said was just pointless ranting.

[Jim Nilsen]

Isn't that Ford GT 40 replica really nice, and it even actually is dimensionally correct.
:cheers:

[zman1969]

Originally Posted by Roadrage David
(name me 1 usa car you can leave outdoors for 20 years in the rain and not fall apart because of rust besides the Fiero)

my 87 ta has been outside all its life and aint rusty of course the orig red paint faded to purpleish but no rust
maybe its where you live?

[Beige]

The Fiero and GT40 are pretty close dimensionally, and the Mk1 kit that Archie sells does look like one. I believe his kit uses molds taken from an actual car. You end up hacking away most of the fiero frame to stick the body on, though. One of the bodies would be a really nice start for a tube framed car with a porsche transaxle and a good suspension.