I wasn't sure if I should put this in Build Threads or Members rides or General, so General gets the win.  Well seeing as it is a new purchase and not yet a build, I figured this is where I should put it.

The car is an 87GT V6 5spd.  Full load.  Power windows, Power Mirrors, Power locks, A/C interior is an 8 out of 10.  I think with cleaning and minor repair to the drivers bolster it could be a 10 out of 10. 

Front body damage is cosmetic only.  I have a different hood to go on, different fenders and other misc parts for it.

          This is the car that I am going to build to (makes me sick to say this) replace my 85GT which frankly needs to much chassis work to make it proper.   

I am going to take the interior out, wrap all the parts in plastic and put them in storage.  The 87 is going to get my full black interior from my 85GT, shifter, stereo, amp, seats with speakers.  When I climb into the 87 I want to feel like I am climbing into my 85GT. 

I am going to move the entire rear suspension from the 85GT and move it to the 87GT cradle included.  The 5spd Getrag will be the only drive train part being kept in the 87. 

I am going to install my black cowl hood on the 87, along with a black deck lid, possibly my black doors as well. Black Fenders, too.  Pretty much the only body panel staying on the 87 is the fastback clip.   Which will be sanded and painted black.  The entire trim will be painted white same as my 85GT.     The 3 spoke wheels will also be moved to the 87GT.

     If you are a member of the chat list, you will have a good idea of what is going on.  I love my 85Gt and never wanted to ever give it up.  To be honest, I said, when I die, bury me with the steering wheel from my 85GT.   

           Because of the stress fractures in the chassis of my 85, as much as I love it, I have to let it go.  However the heart of the car will be saved and moved into the 87GT I just bought.

  Now for the bad things with this car.  There are no keys.  The owner locked the keys in the car, and before he was able to get them out, someone broke into the car, and tried to steal it from the parking stall it was in at his apartment.  Little did the thief know, the clutch was totally gone.  The car would not move.  Apparently the thief got out of the car, took the keys and left.   The battery is dead, but I ran a jumper wire into the cabin and tried to pop the trunk, I can hear the relay fire, but the trunk is not moving.  As much as I hate it, I may have to drill the lock to get the trunk open.  I don't have keys so killing the lock is not the issue, I am worried about damaging a good deck lid. 

I am going to sand around the nose, then fill in any cracks. To be honest its worse in the pics than it really is.  For the most part it is just paint missing from being towed.  I don't know what he did to the fender, but the metal under it is perfect.

Well enough talking here is the car.

Edit to add in fine print.  I paid $300 for the car and $95 to have it towed to my house.

This car will make a fine looking V8 Fiero GT.

Congratulations on the purchase, Dave!

    Due to the really low purchase price of $300 for the car, the owner asked if he could keep the rims and I said that seeing as I won't be using them, he could have them back.    They are just a plain jane 17" wheel with bald tires on all 4 corners.   If I end up keeping them, and then selling the, I'll let you know.

looks alot better in the day light I can tell you

Fire451 wrote: looks alot better in the day light I can tell you

LOL, glad you made it home in one piece.  Chris was with me when we went to look at the car and do the sale papers and such.  We were outside in the pouring rain, freezing our buts off for an hour.  When we got there the brakes were frozen up from sitting, the steering would not turn as their were no keys.  Chris had the great idea, to hook a strap to his Truck and loop it around the engine cradle and drag the car out into the middle of the parking lot.  His truck barley went off of idle while dragging a complete Fiero in a semi 45 degree angle.  Was pretty impressed with his truck.  Chris had brought a flat deck car hauler that we had planed on using, but this Fiero sits way too low and it would have torn the nose right off.  Really kinda sucked, but DNR Towing was able to pick it up and arrived in 10mins, hooked up the car we were on the road in 20mins. 

Its going to be a long process, ah Hell who am I kidding.  I want my V8 BACK.  I am going to throw a party over here and anyone that wants to learn about Fiero mechanics can come bring tools and we are going to go to town on it.   I figure if we get an early start, we can damn near swap everything in one day.  As long as I have everything pre-prepped. 

Well we finally got the deck lid open today.   Had to drill the lock, as the solenoid would not fire, even hooking my jumper box up to the power wire for the solenoid.  Chris aka Fire451 was carefull not to even crack a tailight.   I really hated to have to drill it, but we did not harm the deck lid.

Now I have a question, can anyone recognize the cables.  The previous owner told me they are brand new and said he paid almost 500 for them. (not sure if that was installed or just the cable cost)  However I know they are not GM Originals.  They look to be fairly new and strong.  

    Thanks for tip Chris I'll probably email Rodney and ask him

fourpoint9 wrote: Capt Fiero wrote: keeping the nose, just going to mod it a bit.  Need any help?  I've got some fiberglass mat I'll donate to the project.

     Steve I think between yourself, Car2Lo and Clynt, you can explain this to me, I went out today just looking over the nose to see how much I am going to have to do to fix it up.  I noticed something.  The leading edge on both corners feels like foam rubber.  Squishy.  Maybe like wet Styrofoam.  Not really sure how to explain it.  But thats why the paint is so chipped.  The nose flexes but the paint does not and eventually just broke off in places.   I remember someone once saying you need to use extra flex agent when painting Fiero panels, and this is much softer than a stock panel.

        As for the offer of fiberglass mat I'm betting, the gas to go and get it will cost more than buying locally. LOL.  Unless I am totally out to lunch and fiberglass mat is really expensive.   I had Car-2-Lo at my house during last summer and showing him the fiberglass work I want to do to the hood on my 85GT.  I really think this combat nose will look good with the cowl hood.      At the very least it will be an interesting combination.  Old School Cowl, with new school body kit, and old school V8 with a stick shift.    

So any idea what the nose foam stuff is?  In the beginning I thought it was just fiberglass and I was going to sand it and re-paint it, now I am not so sure what to do with it.  I'm probably going to pull it off the car to repair it.  I can't even lift the back of the car high enough to pull the motor with the nose on the car as it will scrape badly.

Steve aka fourpoint9    did some tweaking on the nose.  Here are the 3 variations we came up with.

i like the last one the best

I just gotta add my comments on this nose.

I think the nose is quite distinctive as it is. I like it very much with the black rib continuing around the front. It looks more "finished" this way. When the rib is removed from the nose, it looks odd where the rib just suddenly stops on the sides of the car at the front wheel wells.

Here's an Aero nose on which the "rib" has been added. Looks very sharp to me.

And here is how I'd keep the nose if this was my Fiero, although I might try and do something with the way the license plate mounts (and the bottom leading edge could be altered as in the examples posted above).

I really like the look of this nose, never seen another one like it.

Well since everyone else is havin a go at it, I'll jump on the PS bandwagon lol

PS those cables look identical to the Dickman ones i picked up earlier this year.

Austin, I like the extended indentation between the turn signals.

The only problem (as usual with these cars), where should the front license plate go?

I love Austins extended indentation look.  However making that would be a nightmare.   I think a cross between Austins and Steve's would be really awesome.   I am working on getting an overhead Crane setup in the garage to make the swaps easier and faster.   My boss has a 2 ton chain hoist that he said I could have, and even offered up all the metal to build a steel A-Frame.  Just he does not have time to build it and I am about as useless as Tits on a Bull when it comes to welding.   The nose is going to come off the car during the swap as it would be crushed on the ground if we lifted the back high enough to pull the engine out.

thanks for all the Photo Chops guys.  It gives me a lot of info to play with.

Oh a question, for all the guys that know about fiberglassing.  What are the expensive chemicals that a person would need.  The reason I asked is my boss / client, made a special request for me to come out to a job site today.  It was a bankruptcy of a place that happen to do fiberglass cockpits and stuff.  There are literaly pallets and pallets of 5-10 gallon pales and even 50 gallon drums of chemicals, the ones I saw quickly were, Resin and Gel Coat.  Acetone, and a few others.  I asked about them, and he told me to take whatever I wanted.  It was actually a problem for him, as he has to dispose of hazardous chemicals.  Which is fairly costly.  I'm not going to be grabbing any of the 50 gallon drums, but a couple of the 5 gallon pails might come in handy if I knew what to grab.

Hmm i'd definately be interested in some resin too if there's some available.

I've seen different types depending on application waxed & unwaxed.  Unwaxed is ideal if you are building multiple layers you dont need to sand/prep between layers.  I think waxed gives a smoother finish when dry?  Dont forget they need hardeners/catalyst to dry and cure properly.  Acetone is like a reducer and used as cleaning solvent. 

Capt Fiero wrote: There are literaly pallets and pallets of 5-10 gallon pales and even 50 gallon drums of chemicals, the ones I saw quickly were, Resin and Gel Coat.  Acetone, and a few others.  I asked about them, and he told me to take whatever I wanted.  It was actually a problem for him, as he has to dispose of hazardous chemicals.  Which is fairly costly.  I'm not going to be grabbing any of the 50 gallon drums, but a couple of the 5 gallon pails might come in handy if I knew what to grab.

It seems to me that club members who do a lot of body work such as Clynt and John Carlo would know what to do with this stuff.

It would be a shame to simply throw it all away if someone could make good use of it.

Well I meant to post these last night, so you guys new I wasn't kidding.  The bad news is all the small containers were either contaminated, or expiried or just unsure of the quality, so I left it behind.  The huge 50 gallon drums were for the most part still sealed.  Several were full and the seals had not been broken yet on the drums.

     However at 220kg (500lbs) per drum, and techniclly I am not even allowed to transport them, due to Hazardous matirial labels, and Frankly I had no way to offload them once I got them someplace.  As much as it killed me, I had to leave them behind.   It would take someone with a Hyab (Small truck with Crain attatched) to move them.     Well here are the pics.

Here you go had to give it a go too  I like the light

That looks awesome.

Thank You.

As soon as I locate an engine hoist or overhead crane, I am going to set the date for the tear down.

Gonna need several buckets to sort parts into.  May even get an airline splitter so we can have multiple guns plugged in at the same time. (I know only use one at a time, but will be easier than passing the airline around.)

Oh MAN I have waited for this day for too long.  Been over a year since the car was licensed as a driver.  I was close 6 months ago, however during testing of the replacement trans axle, I blew the diff in the alley behind my house.   

           For those that help, I'll even supply Beer, Pizza, and if you need an odd Fiero part I might be able to find it in my storage for you.

The 19th is my birthday (I'm old so birthdays don't matter anymore), but I could probably make myself available on the 20th if that's going to be the big day.

This is the hood treatment it will get.

So Nigel dropped by yesterday to have me look over his light conversion.  Well if you come here you never know if you are going to get put to work.  LOL.  He helped me swap the black hood and black decklid onto the 87.

I think his exact words were, "Its Horney Looking"   I think the cowl flows nice with the nose. 

Dave,

My exact words " WOW, that looks freaking HORNEY." I also said that it says, "Don't mess with me," to every young suped up acura/civic driver when they slowly pull up next to you at the traffic lights, having noticed you are a Fiero from the back, but don't really get it till they see the hood-scoop and realize that you most have a MONSTER  engine. This gets them so confused because they start to internally challenge themselves. Isn't the engine supposed to be in the rear??? By that time the lights turn to green, and its all over -
ha ha.

FieroZen 

Mr Zen you actually bring up a good point that I think I should clear up.  I get asked "WHY" do I have a cowl hood on the front of a mid engine car.  Well their are 2 reasons.

1st being performance.  At speeds exceeding 180-200kph, (which happens every few days when I am driving my V8) The front end of a Fiero gets really light.  Due to excessive air pressure under the front radiator compartment.  To the point that the air pressure can actually snap your headlight doors open and in extreme cases snap them off.  So the cowl allows air to escape.

2nd is the sheer style of it.  My 85GT has always been a "rat rod" As anyone that has met me or spent any amount of time with me, I'd rather have a beat up, spray painted car that I can put up against a 40,000 Mustang Cobra in a street race any day of the week.  Spending $150 on sail panels makes me think 3 or 4 times over. "Do I really need it" however dropping $300 on a new ignition system for the car that lets me get a few more HP out of it, or spending 16hrs working on the engine, I don't even think twice.  

The other side benefits to the hood vents, especially a cowl like this one, is the windshield now gets a steady blast of heated air over it, which keeps ice and frost off, and even helps to burn off water just that much quicker.   My car runs cooler, faster and performs better at freeway speeds.  To me thats really all that matters.   Now making it look cool in the process and maybe even spending a bit on dress up, it cool with me too.  I just won't ever make the #1 issue on my car the looks.

Well my goal of getting this done before the first snow just didn't work out.  I do have a heater garage, but its not big enough to get both cars in, plus the engine hoist and still have room to move around, let alone play mix and match with cradles.  I am going to work on small bits when the weather permits and I will send out a big email when I think there is going to be good enough weather to attempt this.

I did start taking parts off of the 85 yesterday when it was sunny.  Finding things that I had done over the years like wire in Computer Molex plugs into the harness so I could run Computer 12" neon tubes under the dash, and wiring for the 3 plug 12v DV outlets, and T-Taps my god T-Taps, there must be 100 T-Taps in the harness all over things.  Waylon introduced me to T-Taps a few years ago, and I went nuts on them.

David

A HUGE THANK YOU to Car-2-Lo, as we struck a deal that he would have my stock 86GT Black deck lid with stock spoiler and some trim parts in trade I took his modded primerd black decklid with rear scoop. I made the drive out to his place this morning with trailer in tow and we swapped parts.  My original plan was to stash the parts till spring and install them.   However me being me, I just HAD to see what they looked like on the car.   He had removed the spoiler and filled in the holes, but gave me excellent instructions on what bits to use and how to re-drill the holes.  I took my time mounted everything measured about 6 times to make sure it was perfect and drilled the holes.  Spoiler dropped right into place without me having to even enlarge the holes.  I think this is the first time I have drilled 4 holes and not had to enlarge them to make up for a wrong measurement, LOL.

       Well there she is, all mounted and solid.  I don't have a trunk lock with keys yet, so I did not close it all the way.  I have steal a spare 4 plug connection from another decklid later and wire up the power trunk.   Man this baby is looking good.   This is the first time in the history of me owning a Fiero that I have done body mods before performance and suspension mods.

David,

You could of course add a little Latin flavour yet with the same functional theme of "Back Draft" and perhaps name it:

"Validus Ventus"    

Well I spent some time today out with the 85.  Forgive me for being a bit emotional on this post.  But here are some memories I came up with while taking things apart.
My Dash I painted Gloss Black over 5 years ago.

A computer Blue Neon Tube I installed to give a cool under dash glow.

3 in 1 power outlet I wired up, so Lisa and I charge our cell phones and laptop on long trips, which we did many many times.

I actually forgot about that sticker, I stumbled on them when I was new to BC at a cash converters.  Knowing they were normally 100 bucks a set, I grabbed these really quickly.

When I was 17 I installed my first stereo into this car.  Being a kid that did not know better, I had chopped all the wires.  Years later, I spent the time to solder and shrink wrap on a complete new harness to make it factory looking again. 

The end had broken on the dash plug, so I grabbed my dremel and was drilling a small hole in it, when all of a sudden the earth started to shake, stuff started falling off my shelves in the garage, I was like WHAT THE HECK.  It took me a second to realize we were having an Earthquake.  I don’t remember the year, but it was about 6 years ago when I was living in Fleetwood part of Surrey.

Thanks to Waylon showing me T-Taps, the little red wire taps you clip into a harness, I got quickly addicted to them, I was like an addict, always buying more, there must be over a 100 of them installed in the cabin alone.  Everything got installed with T-Taps, MORE T-TAPS.   Ehheheheee, T-Taps All Day Long.

More T-Taps

How do you install speaker wires without cutting the factory Harness, T Taps to the rescue.

I see a blue dingy thingy.  I would go a month having it out, then put it back in for a week, then pull it out, and around and around.  Putting it behind the carpet made it easy to find when I wanted to put it back in.

More T-Taps

Alarm Brain that Waylon installed probably 8 years ago, and still worked like new.

More T-Taps

Ever wonder what the Servo looks like that controls your A/C vents, this is only in cars that have A/C and eliminates the need for a slider to change vent locations.

Man what a mess.  But it’s all coming apart.

Wheels off, struts un-bolted, and hanging loose.


Rear bumper skin off, tail lights out.

Still a fair bit of snow on the ground here, thankfully we cleared the driveway really well, which gave it a head start on melting.

Good place to store body panels, tossed it down and just kinda when Whoosh, plop.

Blair made this steel mount and plate that goes on the trunk wall to keep the V8 from ripping itself out.   Before he made the mount, the engine would torque over so far that the alternator would hit the strut tower.

Hood Off, and started taking things apart.

Radiator removed, and will be put into Lisa’s car as hers is a brass/copper rad that is leaking.

Glad to see you've been able to get going, that snow and cold weather was fustrating to say the least.

March on - cheers Dave

I am probably going to go out and spend an hour or so on it today.  See if I can't get the entire body off of the car.   Minus the doors, as the doors won't be swapped until the last possible min.  The 85 is covered with the Wolf car cover, however its not completely water tight.

I'll try and post a few more pics later on tonight.

It,s sad to see an icon of WCF be dismantled but I know it's time. I have no doubt that most of it will live on in the new car. Keep up the good work.

ps- I call firsties on the test drive :)

Well worked on it for a couple hours today.

Both front fenders are off, both rocker panels, both rear lower 1/4 panels.  Un-hooked all the wiring and coolant lines, fuel lines and assorted bits.

Then jacked it up and supported it with stands on the frame, and proceeded to drop the engine/trans/cradle/exhaust.  The entire assembly is now on the ground.  I left it under the car with the cover over the entire package so the weather won't get to the exposed engine.  I am going to take the hoist and lift the back of the car up about 6ft and drag the cradle out probably tomorrow, then wheel the engine into the garage and start tearing apart the bits to be removed. I am going to use the cradle from the 85, however I am going to use the trans, cables and trans mounts from the 87.  I'll probably pressure wash the entire assembly and put on a fresh coat of TremClad then leave it to dry in the garage for a few days.    Depending on what the weather does, it might be another week before I get to start on the 87.     When I do start on the 87, I'll post up the date. 

Well here are the pics from today.

Well here are the pics from today.  Managed to dislocate my shoulder while moving the cradle/engine/trans assembly into the garage.

        I'll see how I am doing tomorrow after I go see the Doc.

A few notes, That section where the muffler is, that is the ENTIRE exhaust for the car.  Exits out the side of the car.

You can see the belt wrap on the alternator pully.  That bugger will never squeal. 

There are a lot of things to clean up before the engine is ready to go into the 87.   If my arm is buggered up, I'll probably start on the little things like rebuilding the headlights in the 87.   

The chrome wrap is called a starter blanket.  With that exhaust setup, I was cooking the starter if I got stuck in traffic.  The blanket is heat reflective.  Once I installed it, I never once had an issue of starter heat soak.  I think it was 20 bucks at Mopac in Langley.

wow, sorry to hear about your shoulder, any update from the doc? 

If you want another pair of hands or some extra muscles I have quite a bit of spare time thrursday though Sunday. let me know if you want some help. 

Ryan

Ryan, on the forum email chat list we've been describing our various injuries. If we were horses I figure a couple of us would've been shot by now.  

Well I am getting into a time pinch here.  The weather has been crap on every weekend, Glen is going to need his hoist back in 2 weeks,  so I am taking advantage of every sunny day.

I have a person coming over Wednesday Morning to buy a few of the extra parts I won't need.    So Tim, (with a broken arm) My with a bad shoulder and tweaked back, got to work on the car today.   Got the entire front cross member out and on the ground, got both headlight motors pulled, and a lot of little things yanked out.

The doors will be the last thing pulled from the car.

I am also looking for ways to remove the rear window.  Then get 2 pieces of clear Plexi stuff that will sandwich the window then hang it in the garage as a final memory of the car.

Well enough with the chat, here are the pics from Today we only spent about 2hrs.

This is the car on JackStands

Front Crossmember dropped as a unit.

The only un-repaired damage from a 60kph hit broadside into a Honda Civic.  I had to replace the impact beam, and use a pulled to straighting out the sheet metal under it.

What a shock Tower is suppose to look like.  (Right Side)

Hmm Whats Missing here.

Ah There it is, it really should be on the car. 

Ok so today was the day to pull the old engine out of the 87 and start prepping it for the V8.
             I got one hell of a surprise, I went to remove the wheels and there are wheel locks on, with NO KEY.  I called the previous owner and he informed me the key was stolen.   So I had to do it the long way.  Leaving the wheels on the car while removing everything.   (All you have to do is reach around the wheel, remove the 10mm calliper bolt for the brake hose and remove the 13mm bolt for the brake line to strut bracket.  You can leave the E-Brake lines on the callipers and just disconnect the Main E-Brake cable from the assembly on the rear of the cradle.    I am liking the new hood and decklid every time I see it.

Well enough chat, here are today spics.

Sorry I did not take any Pre jacked up pics. 
So the first pic, is the rear of the cradle lowered.

This is my ASSUME THE POSITION pose for all my engine swaps.

Nose getting a little close to the ground

Hood just seems to look good on there

At this point, I removed all the trim bolts in the side of the nose to let it flex a little bit.

Yikes,

Time to get down, err, UP to business

Man that was easy.  Into the garage it is.

I always use 2 hyd jacks under the cradle to skate it into the garage.

I think I need a bigger garage.  You can see the Caddy motor on cradle in the background.  I have to swap the Getrag onto the 4.9. 

Naked

The top of the taillight section is just over 6ft off the ground

I can’t wait to get this back into the car and start driving it.  Its going to be so nice to have a V8 burbling behind my head again.

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

Well the previos owner came by tonight and with the use of a large hammer was able to get one locking lugnut off, he will by with friends tomorrow to try and get the remaining 3 wheels off.  The deal was I got the car for $300 but he wanted to keep his wheels. 

As promised here is today’s progress report.

I had to get that damn suspension out of the way.  So I removed the Toe Link, then popped the lower ball joint, and yanked it off.  

Success, the Trans is coming away from the engine.  Until the dam thing got stuck on the frigging inspection plate.

Used the hoist to keep the motor high enough to simply lift and slid the trans off of it.

You can see the massive heat scoring on the flywheel.  He said the car would not even move.

Sorry I did not take any pics of the Isuzu removal, but here it is off.  You can see the nice awesome Clutchnet clutch again.  Man it bites hard.  I love it.

That is the entire exhaust on my 4.9  Custom 2 piece Y-Pipe, into a large stainless bottle muffler and out to an old Camaro low profile tip.  It is really quite at idle, but LOUD as hell, when you wind the motor up.

Getrag Trans DIRTY AS HELL, That won’t do for my car, after 3 cans of engine degreaser and one can of Paint stripper it came clean.  I did screw up, the Paint stripper can, had a busted nozzle, so what does any idiot do when he is tired and frustrated, GETS A BIG HAMMER.  I stuff a nail in the top of the can, drappped a towel over the can and the nail.  Hit the nail down into the can, it didn’t hiss or anything.  So I grabbed the nail through the rag, and slowly started to pull it out, that’s when the can decided to start shooting.  I had my jacket on with my hoodie and my glasses and gloves.  Well the crazy spray managed to get onto a bit of my wrist where the jacket and sleeve were not covering.  Instantly started to burn.  But I was standing there with a can spraying stuff and I needed to get “said stuff” onto the trans housing.  I gritted my teeth and continued spraying down the trans with the paint stripper, as soon as I was done, I ran into the house to the sink and soaked my arm then washed it a few times.  Got a bit of a rash, but no major problems.  
I went back out, gave it a 2nd coat of degreaser and fired up the pressure washer.

Before

 
After

Anyone recognize this shifter linkage, is it one of Rodney’s.  I don’t think its stock.  Looks way to well done to be OEM.  Machined bits, with what looks like Rodney’s Oilite bushings.  I took lots of pics of it.

Even the clutch fork looks like it might be a newer one.  OEM style though.

I promised a shot of my garage computer work area.  I have everything I need out there.  Computer, smokes, fridge in other corner of garage.  
 Can you guess my desk chair.

 
There I peeled back the seat cover to give ya a hint.  You can see my main heater in the lower left corner of the pic.  It’s a 40,000 BTU Forced Air, Jet  A, Kerosene / Premium Diesel fuel heater.     It was just over 0C (32F) this morning, but in my garage it was a nice 23F (75F)

Matt wrote: Dr.Fiero wrote: Make sure you slip the release fork up a bit, then lube the area of the shaft that rides on the bushings. lol

Can I quote a quote, ya that might sound a bit dirty, however I do know what he is talking about.  I did not even think of it in a dirty way until you posted the LOL.

I have my grease gun loaded with a tube of synthetic grease all ready to go.  I always lube the shaft at both ends, then fill the release bearing up really well.  Hell I even put a dab of grease in the external clutch release arm where the slave pushrod presses on it.    I plan to also put some grease in both axle seals to help seal against any leaks and aid in installing the CV shafts so I don't tear a seal.

      Ok here is the painted, cleaned trans.  I use a hot paint method to give it a baked on finish.   I use my 40,000 BTU heater to heat the trans case, rotating every 10mins until it is hot enough that I can't really touch it with bare hands.  Then I warm the spray cans until they are just barley warm.  (not so hot that they risk blowing up, but hot enough that the spray comes out fast and smooth)

After several coats, and heating the case again between coats.   As the trans cools the finish gets really nice and glossy.  The paint actually soaks into the cast case.    I usually paint it with everything installed, then take off what parts I want back to natural colour and run them on my wire wheel.   I usually don't paint the inside of the bellhousing, but in this case I did, just to make it easier to clean when I take the trans out.    Grease and dirt have a much harder time building up on the trans once it is painted.

This is not to everyones taste and some think painting the trans is a waste, but I personally really like the look of it in the engine bay and it is just kinda "My Thing" I myself like to open the deck and see it all nice and red. 

Feb 17th Update and Pics

Ok first pic, its Tremclad, Gloss Fire Red paint.

This is the only real shot I got of the heater.  The exhaust temp on it is enough to light a cig with. Will burn leg hair and attempt to ignite your pant leg if you are not careful.   It takes between 20-30mins to get an entire trans hot.  

All installed on the engine, with all the mounts bolted in place. 

Here you can see a little bit of my exhaust issue.

A little closer

Yep in the perfect place to shut down my build.

There is just no way to tweak anything to get enough clearance.

Slightly lower angle

I have got no choice, I am going to get a buddy that has a mobile welder to come over once it is in the car, and try cut the existing pipe, then add in a section to push the flange out a bit.  I'll wait till its in the car so we know exactly where everything will lay.     

Well here are todays progress pics.  For being nearly a month behind schedule on this build, I think today progress made up for a lot of it.

Sorry I did take any shots of us moving everything around and getting it into place.  First thing we did was moved the V6/Cradle and suspension out of the shop.  Then moved the hoist out of the shop, then did a quick clean up, so we had a straight shot with the V8 / 5spd cradle to under the car.  I set up my 2 floor jacks like skates to roll the assembly out.  We got everything out of the way and started moving.  That is where the pics start.

Engine into rough location

First pic of the 3 spoke wheels on the car. Just just seem to fit nice.

Another side profile shot sorta showing the engine under the car.

Car lowered down and crane removed.  The Blue paint is because I ran out of black Tremclad and I did not want to skip out on the anti rust coating.  The area won't be seen, or I would have went and bought some more black.  The next time I have the skin off, I paint over the blue with some nice gloss black.   Whenever I have a car apart, it always gets a good spray down with anti rust paint on all the metal surfaces.

Another shot from the side.

See It FITS.

I figure another couple days of tinkering and she will be on the ground.    :)

   I didn't get a whole lot done the last 2 days, as I had to do some doctors appointment junk and some shopping.   However I started (emphasized "started") some of the cosmetic work on the car today.  I got rid of the busted left front fender and replaced it with a black one, I also removed the right front fender and replaced it with a black one.  The doors will be my next project.  Still not sure if I want to just swap the entire doors from my 85GT or, swap out the locks, inner and outer door panels leaving the door frame and motors in place.    There are no keys for the doors on the 87, well, no keys for anything on the 87.  I had to put my 85's steering coulomb in the 87 just so I could steer the car and check the electrical out.  I also put on the black GT bumper.  I am really regretting not washing it before I took the pics.  I almost said to heck with posting the pics and waiting until tomorrow.  However anyone that knows me, knows that cosmetics come 2nd, drive train is always my first priority.  Well here are todays shots.

Right Side

Left Side

Rear

This is my favorite shot.  Man that nose and hood are going to look so cool together after paint.  Then the roar of the side pipe exhaust, its going to be one hell of a complete package. 

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

David

what flywheel and clutch combo did u use

as i may keep the 4.5 caddy and put into the 85 coupe

M

Here is the clutch I used,

check out the Hooks going to the metal plate on the inside of the pressure plate.  I have never seen that in any other pressure plate I have ever bought before.    Another note is that the rivets are massive in comparison to other clutches I have used.  Plus the springs are 80% enclosed in the disc, so I doubt I will be popping those out any time soon.

This should be interesting.  This super heavy clutch and the torque of a 4.9 hooked to another Isuzu.  (an Isuzu that I have noted is not in perfect shape to begin with, diff is making noise)  If figure if it lasts long enough to get my hands on a 3.32 4spd (about 2 months)  I am going to be happy.  

Enough with the chatter here are the pics.

I will be posting a scan of the invoice to show price, address, contact info and part numbers tonight.  Just don't have time to run it though right now.

Clutch invoice and installed,

I have tried in vain to find the address and phone for LSC Performance, and I can't find it.  Spent half an hour going through old threads on PFF and just don't seem to have it anywhere.   I can email you a copy of an excel spread sheet with ALL the part numbers + locations and prices to do a 4.9 5spd swap.  Just let me know what email addy to send it to.

Read over this thread, http://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum3/HTML/000015.html - http://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum3/HTML/000015.html

LSC Performance Flywheels came through with my NEW not redrilled 4.9 flywheel.  Made from billet steel weights 15 lbs is custom made for the Fiero / 4.9 standard trans swap.  They are in California. 

Here it is, sorry for the bad pics. But you get the idea of it.

First pic is front, 2nd pic is back.

We have Target Locked and ready to go,

This is the flywheel I am using.
LSC Performance Flywheels:
Tom Johnson 1-951-245-6367
18975 Nichols Road Suite C
Lake Elsinore, CA 92532

New billet steel flywheel for the caddy bolt pattern for $245 shipped. Weighs only 15 lbs.

             Ok so the day started out kind of late, on top of working on the 87 I needed to replace the radiator on Lisa’s

(aka FieroChick on here)  85 V6 car.  We struck a deal, that I would do the rad and resiviour swap on her car while she got

started on the interior stripping on my 87GT.  The first set of pics is showing where a nearly stock engine bay will have

clearance issues on a 4.9.  I’ll explain as I got.

Idler pulley is less than ¼ inch from stock battery box.   It’s no big deal as I am going to remove the battery tray and do

a front mount battery install. My motor is in the exact same spot as any other 4.9 however it sits a little higher due to

the mount design I used.

Coiler cooler pipe and related vacuum lines on the firewall are getting yanked.

Its close, but everything clears, the open hole gets a K&N breather filter installed there.

Another odd mod, I found, when I pulled the Fiero ECM out, it has a Mr. Gasket Chip in it.  It’ll get tossed on the shelf,

and going to have Watts, (another forum member) hook it up to his rom burner and see just what was changed.  For the record

these chips offer nearly Zero real performance gain, only reason to have one is if the EGR is disabled and the Rev Limit is

removed.

Nice Find Kenwood 160w (peak) 4x10’s.  I checked on a few sites, they are listed for about $100 USD.  Considering I only

paid $300 for the entire car, it’s a cool find.

Lisa pulled the dash, and we are getting close to ripping the interior out.

Perfectly good 180 speedo, I am going to use my other cluster as it’s already modified for the V8 tach input.

The mess of wires in the center was fed through really slowly and will all get sorted out and hooked up for the caddy fuel

injection.

Carpets out.

Little bit of rust on the plugs

I removed the floor pan plug as it was really rusted on the passenger side, and gave everything on the floor pan a good

shot of TremClad.

Wow I did not know these things were even still kicking around, worst Alarm on the planet.  Found it tucked up under the

passenger side dash.  It’ll be removed and garaged. 

Nearly perfect seats, they will get wrapped in plastic bags, with moisture removing tabs then put into storage

I can’t get over how nice the seats are, the passenger side looks like new. 

  After getting rid of all the pine needles it looks much better up front

Red Trans kind of peeking out from the side.

We took a few more things off the 85 today as well. 

It’s kind of sad to see the 85 being stripped, however most of the parts that come off it, are ending up in the 87 and the

parts that don’t go onto the 87 will find their way onto Lisa’s car. 

The black carpets will be cleaned, and re-dyed black before they go into the 87GT.  I have not driven the car as a driver

in over 18 months,  so hell knows how old those frys are.   The pile under the carpets are pieces removed from the 87

today.

Well that’s it for today, hopefully I can do a little more outside tomorrow before it rains, then I’ll spend the next week,

with the interior parts in the garage, cleaning, prepping

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

Well its 80% emotional, when I climb into the cabin of the car, I want it to feel like my 85GT.

The rest is because I have a weeks work in making the interior custom black. 

I prefer the 84/85 seats with speakers in them, so I want those installed for sure.  My 85 gauge cluster is setup for a V8 so unless I want to mod another Tach I have to use my 85 Cluster.  (cluster is formally from a CDN 88GT so its a plunk in for the CDN 87GT. 

Keeping my 85 Parts is keeping part of my teenage years.  (I got the car when I was 17 still in high school.  I lived my teenage years in that car, and even met my wife while driving it.  I learned auto mechanics on that car, and it has been a huge part of my life over the years.  Even started the Fiero club while driving that car.

That's why so much of the 85 will live on in the 87GT.

Every now and again, someone that feels they are an expert at working on something, has a moment, that makes them sit back and go WOW.  I just learned something totally new.    I had been fighting with myself over the issue of moving the 85GT doors to the 87GT or, skinning the 85GT and 87GT and swapping the inner/outer door panels and locks.

From work previous to dozens of Fiero's doing work on the lock rods can be a frustrating, time consuming task that leaves me with bloody cut up hands and tool throwing fits of rage.   I talked to a few people that have done lock swaps in Fiero's and they gave me the same story, one of the biggest pain the butt jobs going.  I was just about ready to say screw it and just swap the entire doors.

Then again after talking to a few more people that have done complete door swaps, gave me yet another horror story to think about.  The doors over the years kinda mold them selfs to the cars.  Getting a 20 year old door to line up perfect on a different 20 year old car, can be from difficult to near impossible. 

Oh great so do I spend agony over the locks or years of frustration over doors that won't open/close perfect or have a major gap when closed. 

I turned to the great knowledge base call PFF.   Thanks to a couple helpful members pointing me to a thread that had a most awesome step by step on how to skin the doors, I decided that skinning would be far better than doors that don't seal.

I got the tools together and went out to the car.     I had my Air-Punch to remove the pop rivets, and got started.   Removal on the 85 is where I found the new piece of knowledge that made me go WOW.

The lock is CONNECTED TO THE DOOR SKIN,  not part of the door.  Once you get all the skin screws off and rivets out, all you have to do is unhook two rods and the lock/tumbler pulls away with the door skin.   I just about fell over with this piece of knowledge.  I DON'T HAVE TO FIGHT THE LOCKS.    Just pop the skin off the other door, slide this one on, hook up the 2 rods and its done.  A job that I had planned for 2 full days of monkeying around, is only going to take 2hrs.  WooHoo.   Well here are todays pics.   I was only able to spend about 2hrs on the car today as it started raining.  So I did not have time to get the tools out, then get one door done, then get the tools put back away before I was soaked. 

Inside of 87 door, was pleased to find the OEM paper was still on the inner door.

Insider of my 85 door.  Paper has been gone for 10 years, and always had a bad draft

Impact beam, on the 85 door.

Skin removed on the 87 showing the 87's impact beam

All back together.  Man that really changes the look of things.

 

Well most of the stuff today was non photo stuff.  Swapped out the passenger side CV as it was toast, and a few other mechanical changes.  The good stuff was I got the passenger side door skin on, and got the rear skin to finally line up with the aid of some heat, so know the marker lights are properly installed in the back.  Also got the metal clips moved around so the front marker lights are installed.

Of note, the 85 Power windows use a different connector and even different colour wires than the 87 power mirrors.  So I went ahead and used the 87 mirrors.