Hey all. I'm relatively new to Fiero's. I wanted a car that I could insure and enjoy as a "classic" (i.e. affordable insurance) and wrench on as a hobby car. After looking around for a while and quite mistakingly stumbling upon what is now my car it was like it was meant to be.
Here's my toy at the end of last year right before putting it away and starting give it some real attention.
It has 73,xxx kms and is original paint. It's a great looking 10 foot car, but shows its age in spots up close. I'm ok with that, I think it adds to it's charm. I liked it because it was unique, sporty, sounded good (engine/exhaust sound) and to my surprise it got immediate wife approval.
I got to drive it for about a month or so last fall after I bought it. I am the third owner, it's never been wintered, and it became obvious that the second owner did not drive it very much. After getting into it I've found a few quirks, and have had a few issues come up that I've been taking on one at a time. I've come to find that's the beauty of a toy car - there isn't that stressful mad rush to finish the job and you aren't necessaruly completely screwed if it doesn't go as planned or you run out of time and have to step away.
Things I did last fall to safety it and fix it up as problems came about.
- Replaced rear left caliper (was seized), machined rotors (rear) and new brake pads (all 4 corners)
- New e-brake cables installed (all 3 were seized)
- Drain and fill transmission fluid
- Standard oil change (first thing I did)
- Replaced front shocks (seals must have rotted out, they were leaking and dead after 2 or 3 drives)
- Replaced heater core (started leaking after driving a few weekends)
- Holley side intake cover
- DIY built an adjustable clutch banjo & installed a steel/recall clutch pedal
- Removed aftermarket spoiler installed by previous owner. DIY plugged the holes in the deck lid for now. (Not a permenant fix, but will have to do for now)
- Re-installed OEM wheels and tires, sold the weird setup that the previous owner had on there (huge back tires and tiny front tires).
- Re-foamed OEM sub (surround had rotted out and gave way on a cruise, I wanted to keep OEM stereo so I repaired it myself).
- Changed fuel filter
Currently I'm in the process of trying to finish up my winter project that I started in the fall, which is pretty-ing/cleaning up the engine bay a bit and taking care of a little bit of surface rust on the frame (sand/grind/cut & prime and paint as required). Happily the only really bad rust spot was under the battery which is typical from what I understand, I cut some of the metal out there. Amongst a few other things the engine bay is getting refinished valve covers and an 88 engraved intake plenum, new plugs, cap, rotor, wires, coil, re-finished OEM intake to replace a chrome thing from the previous owner, and other minor/subtle engine bay tweaks to reduce clutter where I can. I know the 2.8 isn't anything special, but I was hoping to be able to generate a few nice reactions when I popped the deck lid this summer.
One thing is for sure, I'm really looking forward to getting back out on the road and enjoying it - and I'm very much hoping that all this work irons out a stumble/miss-fire and bouncing tach that I had when cruising at low RPM with partial throttle. It still ran fine under hard acceleration so fingers are crossed.
To break up my wall of text here's a photo that was on my phone of the newly refinished plenum in all its shiny red glory
A long intro, but whatever. I'm sure you only looked at the photos anyway
. I'm in Cambridge so if anyone is in the Cambridge / K/W area and wants to meet up sometime let me know.
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