85 gt fixer upper

Soon after, I ordered a set of locks, and installed the used ignition lock cylinder.  Those side door locks are a royal pain!  Thankfully I did them last, or I wouldn't have bothered with changing the other locks in the same day.  I took some pics of the trunk lid lock getting changed.  I had to patch up the holes with some epoxy because I had to punch out the old screws since the heads were stripped and badly rusted.

Plate and cylinder were out at this point, just waiting for the epoxy to harden so I could drill new holes.

Here's the old lock



And the finished result, along with the picture of the first time the trunk latch has been closed in who knows how long.

I was busy that day, gave it a tune up as well, which took care of my low power problem.....what a difference!  I also figured I'd see if I could get that exhaust tip back on.  It had an old clamp on it, so I thought I'd try and see if I could reuse it first, rather than having to leave and go buy a clamp right away without knowing.  It was an extremely tight fit because the end of the old piping from the tips was nowhere near round.  Also remembered I had some metal polish, so I tried cleaning it up before it went on.

Before:



After:



Here's how it looked with the tip out.  You can also see the nice puddle of ATF on the ground from my leaky trans line, that ended up just being a loose clamp, which was a nice break.



I have to mention something funny that I noticed as well.  This very same care was owned by someone else who was/is on these forums.  I was searching through the "old members rides" page and noticed "Vlad's 85 gt" and saw the wheels on his car right away.  They look just like the ones on my car..... appear to be mkIII vw gti rims, so I doubt too many local grey 85 gts would have them.  I looked closer and saw the difference in paint colour from where the bra on the car used to be as well.  The big kicker was the battery though.  On his personal webpage link there's a shot of his rear trunk mounted battery.  Well look at what's under the trunk of mine.....



I just thought that was kind of neat.  Does anyone know if he's still around?

Eventually, I brought it over to our pit (I've been keeping the car at work since all my tools are there and I'm allowed to use the shop on days off as long as I don't get in the way of the mechanics on duty), changed the oil and had a look underneath.





It looks so much better with the tips on both sides!  Underneath looked ok.  Rad support is rotting away, but still holding fine, just needs a patch on the bottom.  Everything else looked decent, it was $650 remember? 

Next post will have a few pics from when I had it on our hoist to check the brakes and then the few pics I took when I finally got to take it out on a permit to see how she drives on actual streets (my friend drove it back from maple ridge because I wasn't going to let him drive my dad's brand new truck, which we took to haul the extra hood.....I'll take some pics of that soon and try to get those up too).  Before the day with the permit, I'd only driven it up and down the yard at work really.  I'll hopefully have the next post up within a day or two.

Oh I almost forgot the coolest thing about the car, the REAL selling point..... THE MIGHTY TYPE S CUP HOLDER!  Even my friend said I had to buy it just for that hahaha.

fierowned wrote: Hi, I'm a new member, been looking for info on here since I bought this car back in early may, and figured I should register and share some pics of my progress and frustrations. So as the title says, she's an 85 gt automatic.  Got it for $650...

Excellent first post and introduction to your recent acquisition.  Sounds like you got a great deal.

Hope you consider coming to the next club meeting (this Saturday) to show off your  '85 GT!

 

fierowned wrote: I don't really want to take it out on the road without an emergency brake though...

If the truth be known, many (if not most) people don't have a problem living with a car with an automatic transmission that doesn't have a parking brake. (Just put it in Park when parked and it's not going anywhere.)

The '86 GT (automatic) that I bought over a year ago has never had a working parking brake since I've owned it. However, I have to admit that I don't like parking a manual tranny car, especially on a hill, without a properly functioning parking brake.

 

 

       Oh forgot to add, I downloaded and installed ICQ and actually remembered my ICQ number.  I had him on my ICQ list, so I have sent him a message and asked him to pop in over here.    Kinda funny side note, out of 160+ ICQ contacts only 15 were online.    I am pretty sure he still uses it though through an multi client app.

fierowned wrote: And I just like knowing I have something in an emergency too.

I'd really be interested in knowing how many people have EVER used their "emergency" brake in a true emergency. I'm referring to a situation where out-of-the-blue their perfectly working brakes all of a sudden failed completely while driving at speed and the driver had the time (and presence of mind!) to use their emergency brake before bouncing off something.

I bet the percentage of drivers in this scenario rates right up there with million dollar lottery winners.

I've been driving for 37 years and have never used an emergency brake in an emergency, nor have I won the lottery.

 

looks like a decent fiero for $650!
this forum is great, great people too, i dont know where i would be without it....

Patrick wrote: fierowned wrote: And I just like knowing I have something in an emergency too. I'd really be interested in knowing how many people have EVER used their "emergency" brake in a true emergency. I'm referring to a situation where out-of-the-blue their perfectly working brakes all of a sudden failed completely while driving at speed and the driver had the time (and presence of mind!) to use their emergency brake before bouncing off something. I bet the percentage of drivers in this scenario rates right up there with million dollar lottery winners. I've been driving for 37 years and have never used an emergency brake in an emergency, nor have I won the lottery.

Ken Block would be heart-broken to hear you bashing on his favorite toy.

Patrick wrote: Romeo wrote: Ken Block would be heart-broken to hear you bashing on his favorite toy. Who the heck is Ken Block?

http://www.google.ca/search?q=ken+block&ie=utf-8&oe= utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client =firefox-a

Patrick wrote: 92rsrskyline wrote: http://www.google.ca/search?q=ken+block&ie=utf-8&oe= utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client =firefox-a Are you trying to supply a link to This? I may not know who Ken Block is, but I know how to properly post a link. So, what's This guy got to do with parking brakes?

haha thats hilarious! the one we are talking about is a popular rally driver/crazy person sponsored by DC shoes. many of those darn young peoples seem to like this guy..

yes yes, in my hurry i forgot to properly post the link..

Oh man that's awesome!  It still has the dodge neon floor mats!  They're horribly stained now though, so they're gonna have to go :).  The engine in it definitely has lots of power now that I did a tune up on it.  And it just sounds awesome too!  I had this car in our shop and my co-worker's 72 continental with a massive 460 v8 under the hood, and this fiero sounded so much meaner! 

I appreciate the comments about the brakes, if I find that the stock ones are terrible, I'll look for another option, but as they are now anyway, I put my foot to the floor as hard as I can, and I can't lock any of them up......which I would be fine with if it was actually stopping quickly, but my daily driver stops better with half pedal travel than the fiero with a full brake application.  It seriously kinda scares me.  We checked the calipers out, all seem to be working, and we bled the 3 calipers that had working bleed screws.  The brakes do start to make contact right away, it's just that they don't do a whole lot until you really put a lot of effort into it.  The booster is working as well.

I'll get the pics of when I was checking out the brakes in a little bit here.