I don't know what to do here, I'm at a bit of a personal crossroads.
Over the holidays I had received a job offer and after much deliberation I have decided to accept the position. I believe that this is the right thing for me to do from a personal standpoint as I've been wanting a change for a while but had never received an opportunity that we could really make work. That's the good news.
The bad news is that the new job is a much longer commute than where I am right now. My current beater/daily won't cut it anymore as a daily. It's falling apart too quickly and in too many places and it's not worth putting the kind of money it needs into it. It was ok for my current 10km commute in town because if something broke it wasn't a big deal to get home and work on it, but now the lack of reliability won't be good enough on a 65km one way commute plus travel for work. The kicker is that 4 months ago we just bought a brand new car for my wife to commute to her job (100km... the opposite direction) because we didn't think this car was reliable enough for her to drive on the commute. I expected to be keeping this thing for 2 years to use around town and then replace it, but those plans have been erased.
Making a long story short I need to replace my car and we only have so much in savings. We don't want a second car payment but I also don't want to buy another piece of crap that is going to need a ton of work in 3 months. As a result I am placing my beloved Fiero up for sale in an effort to raise some funds on top of our little bit of savings to get a decent daily driver.
For those who have met me and seen the car hopefully they can vouch for it a little bit. I've put a lot of love, blood sweat and maybe even a tear or two into it. I am the third owner. The car currently has approximately 76,000 original kms on it, about 6,000 of which I have put on since buying it a year and a half ago. Other than the items I've listed below it is all original and in excellent condition for the age. The car has always been garage stored and never winter driven. It's condition and lack of rust issues confirms that. I don't even drive it in the rain unless I'm caught in it. In the time I've had it it's probably been rained on twice, only other time it got wet was when it was washed.
The car is solid, no major typical rust issues. There was some rust under the battery tray which I cut out last winter. Nothing else major was found on the frame (trunk and wheel well liners were pulled). The tail lights have no delamination and both headlights work flawlessly.
Since I've owned it and started driving it I've done the following:
- New heater core
- New Monroe shocks up front and struts in rear + alignment
- New brake pads up front, pads and one caliper in rear (one was seized from sitting)
- New ebrake cables
- New NGK spark plugs
- New / custom Taylor Spiro Pro spark plug wires
- New MSD cap and rotor
- New MSD Coil
- Refinished valve covers and '88 engraved intake plenum with all new gaskets
- Removed all plastic vacuum lines and installed hand/custom bent aluminum vac lines
- Replaced rubber vac lines
- Cleaned throttle body/intake plenum and fuel injectors
- Synchromesh transmission fluid
- New Rodney Dickman clutch master and slave cylinders
- Installed 4 newer tires (were low mileage used)
- recall steel clutch pedal and new clutch pedal bushings installed
- "re-coned" the stock subwoofer: working perfectly now
- ford door striker installed.
These items were on the car when I bought it and didn't know that they weren't original. They remain on the car as it sits.
- ST Lowering springs
- modified "short" shifter: It's a stock shifter that's modified to have a shorter shank.
- The stereo is original and although the radio works and sounds perfect the tape player does not work. It did, once, for one song, then nothing else.
- Power door locks get a bit sticky in the cold.
- Could use a valve seal job. If the car is warm and you shut it down, then start it back up after sitting for a bit after it's warm it will give a puff of smoke at startup. The smoke does not continue and only appears as described above.
The bad, because there's always some bad:
- Outer dew wipes can use some attention, although not crucial
- Paint is original. This is a plus and a minus but I love it. Some people have trouble believing that it's original but it is. I have put a lot of work into it, claybar, buffing, waxing (twice) but there are still a couple of spots where the clearcoat has hairline cracks in it. My guess is from bird droppings sitting on it.
- There is a bit of "spiderwebbing" in the rear bumper where it was tapped prior to myself purchasing it. It's not obvious until you know to look for it.
- Rear deck lid is original but was drilled into by the previous owner to mount a horrid looking spoiler. I have DIY'd a repair which I considered temporary to go back to the original spoiler-less look, however I do have a full spare original decklid with spoiler that will go along with the car.
Basically the entire engine bay was my last years winter project to make it "show-able" and I did have a blast showing it off last summer. The rest of the repairs were things that I encountered as I drove and enjoyed the car because, well, I wanted to drive and enjoy the car.
The car will come with tons of spare parts that I have accumulated. Seriously, bring a truck or trailer... At least a few bins of misc interior and other parts + a whole spare 4spd, like new clutch and pressure plate, coolant tubes, etc, etc... You will get everything I have.
Also included will be the printed service manual, maintenance manual and owner's manual that I got for my birthday last year. If you wish you can have one of my "FYRHZZRD" custom license plates that I got for last season if you want to use it at shows or something. The other one I want to keep for myself.
Sorry for the sob story and long post. If you have any questions or are interested shoot me a pm for my email address and/or phone number. I don't know what else to say, I feel like I can type forever here. As I said above I don't really want to do this but I think I need to.
Asking $4,600 for absolutely everything. Higher end of the Fiero spectrum I know, but it's still less than everything I've got into it and it truly is a great driver.
Note the photos show the Holley scoop installed. That was the first part that I put on the car but I have since removed it and but the stock grille back on. I prefer the original look, but the Holley scoop will come with the car as well.
Zoom in of isolated trouble spot in the paint. There are 2 or 3 spots like this on the car, I think 2 of them on the rear decklid and one on the hood.
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Actually it's been gone for a little over a month now but I never got back on here to say so. I've been kept very busy helping friends plan 3 weddings (and associated events), dealing with family health issues, and getting ramped up in my new career path.
