Capt Fiero's new 87GT Project Car

Yep I may pull apart a small section on my 87GT to find out if there is any buildup in there.

Ok todays pics.

It was near freezing cold and raining, they are forecasting 4-8 cms of snow over night, So we took the day off and went shopping.   I picked up a really nice degreasing gun.  Think paint gun but for solvent.  Hooks to my air compressor and has a 2nd feed like that it pulls solvent through to clean parts.    Sorry I did not think about getting pics of that until just now.  I'll try to snap some pics when I am down in the garage tomorrow.

Well here are the little things that I have picked up over the years and never put on a car as they just didn't seem to fit the style of my car.

First is a sick on chrome V8 this will go either on the Deck lid or on the Trunk Skin next to the GT emblem on the rear skin.

I bought this years ago and never installed it on my V8 as it just didn't suit the "Rat Rod" style of the car.  With the semi Bling Bling of the car.  It will be put on it.

Lisa bought this for me for one of out anniversary's, it really does fit my driving style.

This is the Replace the Fiero Factory decal that has been on my 85 for over 10 years.  Its not the exact same one, but Ed has helped with so many questions, I almost feel like I have been there.

MSD Superconductor wires.  I have used them on every build on every engine and to this day, never had a failure.  When I damaged one , (wire caught lowering the cradle) I was able to go to the parts store, buy a new end for 5 bucks. re-crimp it on and I was good to go.

One of our Club cards will go on the dash over the Vin Plate.    Not that it really matters, but I'd just prefer to not have strangers able to see the vin on my car.  However I do want, Fiero enthusiasts to see the card and join the local club.

Another thing Lisa bought me.  I normally buy the little Tree shaped ones that hang from my mirror, but this was kinda car guy ish, so it'll end up in the car.       

I need to find a current club decal and post up what that looks like.    I also need to find out whoever is selling the PFF Window decals as I want to pick up one of those.

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85GT Soon to be 87GT,93 Eldorado 4.9, 5spd Dual O2 Custom Chip, Custom Exhaust.  MSD Everything Capt Fiero --- My Over View Cadero Pics     Yellow 88GT 5spd Full Poly Suspension, Lowered 1/2" in front, Corner Carver.
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That looks like an excellent candidate for a choptop !

Car-looooooooooooooo !  hehehe

Wow Dave I am very impressed that you are finally moving on man! The New project is looking pretty good! Cant wait to see it on the ground rolling down the street in one color!!!!

One problem with your battery cut off..... It won't pass tech a mission if you do decide to run it.  I found out the hard way as it has to be a all metal one as plastic can brake :(

Well I wasn't sure if I should start another thread for this, or just make a blurb in my build thread.  So you guessed it, here it is, I AM IN LOVE WITH POP RIVETS.   I didn't do a darn thing to my car as I have been spending all my time sorting and moving parts around between the storage and here, and in general getting things organized before I make the final stretch long haul to get the 4.9 done. 

     In all my time playing with cars I never once owned a pop rivet gun and don't think I ever even installed a pop rivet.  Well my father sent me up with a pop rivet gun and 1500 pop rivets as well as a nut-sert gun.   I haven't played wit the nut-sert Yet, but I found you can pop rivet first loves two Vin tags together, then drill a tiny hole in the Vin tag, then drill a tiny hole in your tool box and rivet the Vin tags to your tool box.  I was so happy with the result, I started thinking of what else I could fix.  Well for the last 6 months my big garage heater would make a kinda metal vibration noise.  I tried tightening up the screws and nothing would get tight enough, so I had just started putting a torque wrench, steel pipe, brick wheel chalk anything heavy on top of the heater to keep it from vibrating and driving me nuts.   I damn near ran to the heater with the rivet gun eager to try my new toy out, and after some experimenting to get the right size and length rivet, I popped in 2 rivets where the front screws would normally go and SILENCE, only noise you hear is the whoosh from the burn and fan forcing the heated air out like a jet.   

   The only problem I had was after the first one, I squeezed it till it went POP and then I spent a good 15 mins trying to find out how to get the left over rivet shaft out.  I tried pulling, twisting, opening the jaw more, tried pushing on what might have been a release and no mater what I did that damn thing would not pull back out.  Then in frustration I pushed on it and it went in, so I grabbed a second rivet and used the 2nd rivet to push the first rivet through and it merely popped out the other end of the gun, not sure if that is the way you are suppose to do it or not, but it worked for me.  I am going to be laying in bed tonight, thinking of all the things I can rivet together tomorrow.  All the stupid things that for the last 20 years I was buying small nuts and bolts for when I could have just been Happily riveting along for 1/10 the cost.   Well good night all, I am off to watch House and then catch some Zee's.

BUMP!

I think a lot of us want to see this on the road soon, Arlington???????

Ok so it’s been a few days since I updated this thread.   Today was so suppose to be my big push to getting the car on the ground.   Just one thing turned into another, then when I really through I had all the little things done and I could get working on the car, my compressor died.  So I spent 2hrs trying to get that working, finally at 9:30 tonight I got it up and running.  
Well here are the pics from the last few days.

One of the big things that always bothered me was the crappy way I had the upper rad hose in my V8, it was darn near 3ft of rubber hose and joints and just looked bad.    So I went to Dr.Fiero’s place and got an 87 or 88 coolant pipe, and started measuring and cutting.   Here is the raw pipe.

Here is the start of getting my ideas.  I was almost tempted to remove the filler neck, and get someone like Blair or Dr Fiero to chop it and rotate it.  Which I may still at some point, but being as it was only a slight angle I made do.

Here is a slightly longer view.  Note the very IMPORTANT, heater fitting near the bottom.

Again showing down to the heater pipe.

Ok jumping topic for a second, all the alternator wiring is now attached, one wire goes to the battery and the other goes to the junction block for the main car harness.

Still not sure how I am going to do this.

Thinking maybe pushing all of it back over to where the battery would normally sit then make a nice plastic cover over it all.

You can sorta see the battery cable housing dipping down, the grey wire.  It’s all attached to the starter and ran into the correct location I just have to pull it up tight so it does not droop at all.  The toughness of the housing, I did some tests with it.  It’s unbelievable.  I hit it with a hammer, a 5spd sledge, even put a chisel down and try to cut it with a chisel and a hammer.  Just kinda like trying to cut through a steel pipe with a butter knife.  I’d bet I could support the entire car dragging across a speed bump and not damage it.  

Starter hook up.

A different angle towards the firewall exhaust.

Ok Back to the Pipe stuff.

The caddy has a similar Heater Hose fitting on the coolant fill cap as the Fiero, only problem is that the coolant fill cap is on the driver’s side rather than the passenger side, so many people have a heater hose running all the way around the front of the engine, or over top of the motor to connect, that is the way I had it done as well.      Then I started thinking seeing as I had to re-do most of my coolant hoses and get this to work on the new 87 car.   I started looking at that pipe I got from the Doctor, and realized hey wait a min.   I can run a small 1” steel  pipe along the firewall, and have it hook to the driver’s side pipe and not need any upper heater host at all.  I started with the pipe cutter, doing a light flair on the end, then scuffing up the pipe so the rubber hose could grab it nicely.

Scuffed Pipe

Pipe with angle hose on it.

Sorta installed in a test fit

You can sorta see the metal heater line, it goes along the firewall to the factory 87 heater hose.

There is the area that it will be in the wheel well.  I am really happy with the layout.  I am trying to replace as many rubber areas as possible with stainless pipe, to reduce the chance of failure points.  I am using the nice red high tack spray on sealant.  (Think industrial grade hair spray, lets the hose slide on easy, and then dries into almost indestructible bonds.  After it is dried, you can damn near remove the hose clamp and it will stay sealed.   I found that out by accident when a hose clamp did fail at some point and during a routine check of things, realized there was no clamp.  Don’t know how long I had been driving without it, but its great stuff.

Since these pics were taken I have removed a bunch of wiring, am slowly cutting and soldering different sets.  Really trying to clean up the engine bay.   Every hose or wire that I can remove or shorten is getting changed.   I want this setup to be bullet proof, which is almost Capt proof.   

So today was another wiring day.   WOW, and I am still not done.   I removed an amazing (well amazing to me) 60ft yes Sixty Feet of wiring from the harness today. One by one, I cut, shortened then soldered, then shrink tube over each wire, then shrink tube each set of wires into a group. I had to cut out sections from the intake temp sensor, both the O2 sensors, and the injector harness.   In the case of the larger connector below, each wire got a shrink tube over it, then into batches of 3 with the exception of the 2 larger wires that got there own group, then a really big shrink tube to cover them all into one solid harness.   

        I am going to have to read over the schematics a few more times to decide on how to re-wire the oil pressure sending unit.  I have been running dual oil pressure sending units.  (one for the Fiero gauge and one for the Caddy ECM)  I just picked up an 88 oil pressure sending unit so I can eliminate the Caddy sender and just use the 88 Fiero sender to supply the signal to the Caddy ECM.   I can't wait till I can fire this engine again, oh I so miss driving it.   I know I could have taken a bunch of short cuts and been driving it by now, but I really want to do it right this time.     I have a nearly bullet proof clutch and trans.  Perfect suspension, and with the re-design on the mounts the motor should stay put.   Only last things I have to install is the rear sway bar, to keep wheel hop to a minimum, and once its all together, sort out the exhaust changes.  Its so close I can almost smell the burnt rubber and tire smoke bellows.

Well here are the pics.

After I unloomed a few of the harness bits

Main injector harness with 10 wires.  I took out 48"s if wire from EACH wire.

All the harness side wires cut and stripped and all 3 levels shrink tube stuck over it all.

Twisted up, the pic did not show it very well, but yes they are all separate and nothing is touching

Soldered and first layer of shrink tube on.

Second layer of shrink tube.

Third and final layer on.  Nice and neat tight harness that with any luck won't get any corrosion or water in it EVER!

The 60ft of wire that I cut out, and I still have more to remove.

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85GT Soon to be 87GT,93 Eldorado 4.9, 5spd Dual O2 Custom Chip, Custom Exhaust.  MSD Everything Capt Fiero --- My Over View Cadero Pics     Yellow 88GT 5spd Full Poly Suspension, Lowered 1/2" in front, Corner Carver.