Suspension Upgrades for a 87 Fiero

[79TransAm]

I'm looking at getting a 87 fiero gt with a 2.8L 5spd. They're asking $1900, i hope i can go with like $1500 cash and they'll take it. I am gonna ask to borrow money from my parents, if they cant loan it to me ill try taking a loan out. Anyway.... What upgrades would you reccomend for suspension. at www.fierostore.com (http://www.fierostore.com) they have an upgrade kit: koni 4way adj shocks/struts, front & rear sway bars, Eibach 1" lowering springs, and poly bushing mounting kit. Its $1,100. Is this kit worth it? Also what would you suggest instead of, or along with?

[Beige]

If you shop around you can get all the parts cheaper. But Fierostore usually seems to get everything to you quickly. I bought the same kit with different shocks for my Fiero, but never got around to adding the rear swaybar befrore losing interest in Fieros. Here's a few things I noticed, though.

If you're lowering the car for looks, (face it, you are, they sit way too high stock,) the 1" springs won't do it. You'll want to lower it more. With the 1" springs, the bottom of the nose will scrape on curbs (be careful parking) but you will still be able to clear most speedbumps. The ride will be firmer, and the car will bounce back and forth like a rocking horse when going over smaller bumps due to the short wheelbase. I personally feel Eibach could have gotten the spring rates better to fix that. If I had it to do over again, I would probably get a set of coilovers since it's easier to find different rate springs for plus you can set the ride height the way you want.

As far as polyurethane bushigns go, you'll want at least poly in the rear suspension and engine cradle. You might want to go with aluminum cradle bushings to make sure nothing moves, and you might want to look for delrin or del-alum bushings for the rear control arms. The diamter of the bushings there is so large that even poly will still flex and move the control arm back and forth under heavy acceleration and braking.
Along those lines, try to keep the rubber bushings in the front lower control arms, as poly will bind them because of the bushing locations on the arm. The uppers are okay as they're inline with each other and won't bind with poly.

As for the swaybars, there is a way to just get the bigger front bar, and use the original front bar on the back. it's the same size as the Fierostore one and you already have it. People have been known to get a front swaybar off of an Astro van to replace the front bar as well. You should be able to search the internet and find the procedures for both of those.

Other than that, make sure the ball joints, tie rods and motor mounts are good. And check for rust on the rear framerails. A clue to finding rust in other places is to look at the bars running from the core support to the front suspension crossmember. They weren't galvanized like the rest of the frame was and show rust first. If they're rusty, there's at least a little rust somewhere else.

I know there are other fiero owners here and most of them will probably say something different, feel free to listen to them instead of me.

[79TransAm]

thanx for the info man. Hopefully it will turn out nice. I've been thinking bout taking out the 2.8L and dropping in a 301T engine from my 80 TTA i had. Think that would be pretty nice, V8, turbochraged, and still about 200-250lbs lighter than a 400 and bout 150lbs lighter than a 350.

[Beige]

I thought about that at one time too. Here's a few considerations.
You'll need to get an adapter plate made. You'll have to look at the overall length of the motor, and probably have to shift the engine and trans to the drivers side of the car. Since this is done with some SBC swaps (lt1 swaps, usually), those parts should be available (different length axles, mainly) It also involves some notching of the framerails of the car for engine and transmission clearance.

[6camaro9]

if your parts from the fierostore tell them your a member of "Pennock's". they will discount all NON-GM part 10%. go over to the Pennock's fiero forum, there are
thousands of people that can help you out. another place to look for fiero suspension
stuff is west coast fiero (www.westcoastfiero.com), held motorsports (www.heldmotorsports.com) and RCC (dwayne9.addr.com). if you need info on V-8
conversion get in contact with V-8 Archie (www.V8archie.com). i think now he has
a kit to put an LS1 into a fiero also, Loyde of Fast Fieros (www.fastfieros.com) is
working on an LS1 kit.

thanks...