Me · Sterling · Fiero(355) · Fiero(GT) · The House · Other Projects · Disclaimer
Purchase Cond.
The Rebuild
Log
Rims
Brake Upgrade
DVR
Jun-2011 I have given up trying to find high performance tires for the stock Fiero. After months of looking, I finally decided on to get 17" rims. I mounted the new wheels and got the car aligned today.
01-Jun-2011 With the help of a neighbor, I was able to install the A/C pump and get my car back on the road.
29-May-2011 I tried to install the pump, but working by myself, I could not. I was able to finish blowing out the A/C lines, replaced the o-rings, and the accumulator.
28-May-2011 I tried to replace the A/C pump. This was a long frustrating job. What should have been a 1 day job is not going well. I am too tire to write anymore about this day.
14-May-2011 The KYB's struts died very quickly after I installed the coil overs. I finally got tired of driving a car with what felt like no dampening from the struts and bought Koni struts. Wow, what a difference. If I had know how much better Konti's were, I would have skipped the KYBs all together.
13-Feb-2011 The distributor stated to leak, then it got worse. I was loosing 1 quart every 3 days. I bought a new distributor O-Ring for 50 cents and I pulled it out. The distributor was almost completely rusted. Instead of just replacing the o-ring, I bought a new distributor. Wow what a difference. The car idles better and pulls strong. I should have done this a year ago.
13-Feb-2010 I finally got around to installing the WCF rear coil overs today. With the coil overs, I can adjust the rear end to match the lowered front end. I really like the look of the car now. I am also amazed how much wider a car looks even with just 1" lower. I do not know if I like the 350lb rear springs yet. They are just a little to stiff for street driving. Next time I am at a swap meet, I will see if I can get some softer springs.
19-Jul-2008 I was not happy with the little light in the trunk so I added two white LEDs in the trunk. This was an easy project that only took 10 minutes and made a good difference.
29-Jun-2008 The car started to make a clunk sound in the front end when I backed up. I grabbed the front wheel and found that it wiggled. The guy who screwed up the alignment did not tighten the upper A-Arm bolts. So, for the past week my upper A-Arms have been free to wiggle around. Time for another alignment.
16-Jun-2008 The car would not idle well when warm with the A/C on. I found that the O2 sensor was bad. Once replaced, the car runs beautiful now.
17-May-2008 I installed the factory subwoofer. Not bad sounding for a 5" subwoofer.
11-May-2008 Applied sound deadening material under carpet and on firewall.
02-May-2008 I replaced the 20+ year old rear plate speakers today. They sound better, but I do not think that it was worth the effort.
21-Apr-2008 At my first fill up I got over 3 MPG and the car has been running better also.
26-Mar-2008 The car has been running and driving great. I still need to find time to install the subwoofer and rear speakers. I have been logging my gas milage and I noticed that I was only getting 17.5 MPG. I asked around and most people said that was normal, except for the local Fiero experts. The first question they ask was how hot does your car run. I said that it was running great because it hardly ever got about 120 degrees. I was then informed that my thermostat was not functioning correctly. Ten dollars later, I had a new thermostat installed and the car is running at a normal temperature now. Hopefully, I should be getting an extra 2 MPG for this.
24-Jan-2008 The water pump started dripping. With the help of the Golden Gate Fiero club, we were able to change the water pump and transmission mounts.
19-Nov-2007 I broke down and ordered the selector shift cable. The old one is very worn down and hard to move left and right.
15-Nov-2007 There is no sense for me to be at home sick, so I took the car in to get aligned. The drive home was a new experience. This car really handle well. I cannot believe how responsive the car is to changing direction. The only thing left to do on the suspension is changing the tires. I see that the previous owner put Coopers on the rear and El Dorados in the front. The El Dorados are very hard and do not handle well. They down right suck. The lowered front end looks great. I find it amazing that lowering a car one inch makes such a big difference in the presents of the car.
14-Nov-2007 I am home sick today. I have a bad cold. I cannot talk, my throat really hurts, I cough a lot and I have little energy. I am finding that it is hard to be home sick with two young kids and a never ending job. After being home sick for three days, I was getting crazy. This lead me to bundle up and go into the garage.
- Install rear steel braided brake hoses
- Torque front A-Arms
- Bleed brakes
- Lowered car off of jack stand
Bleeding the brakes is a two person job. I somehow convinced my wife to pump the brakes with a five month old in her arms and I walked around the bleed valves. We were slowed down by the phone calls by my work and the fact that I barely have a voice.
03-Nov-2007 I was able get the front suspension back on the car today. I was also able to finish installing the 5.25" component speakers in the dash. They sound great and fit under OEM grills.
- Installed polyurethane bushings
- Installed 1" lowering springs
- A-Arms back on car
- Installed the front steel braided brake hoses
- Finished installing front speakers
27-Oct-2007 The day started out by getting the family fed. Once they were settled, I jump into the garage. Since I have already rebuilt an 88 Fiero front suspension, I knew that this would be easier. Before noon, I had both A-Arms off, the bushing burned off, and I handed off the lower A-Arms to have the ball joints replaced. I next finished cutting out the adapter for the front speakers and I RTF them in.
26-Oct-2007 Rodney Dickman came though again. The ball joints arrived today. The plan is to get the car on jack stands and start removing the A-Arms. When I was removing the bolts for the upper A-Arm, the ball joint for the lower A-Arm broke and the lower A-Arm fell down. The fall took the brake hose with it. I guess that I will need new brake hoses now.
25-Oct-2007 After some research, I have deceided to use Frost King foil backed Buytl duct wrap for sound deadening the doors, floor board and console. For the firewall, I was worried about tempature, so I went with RAAMmat. The RAAMmat is good till 300 degrees, which is more than good enough for me. If for any reason the interior firewall goes above 300 degrees, I will have bigger problems than the sound deadening material failing. All of this came to less than $75 for the whole car.
21-Oct-2007 I started to day by grinding away a little bit of the strut to get the knuckles to fit. It did not take much grinding. I will still need to get the car aligned, but it already drives and handles much better. Next I started cutting the board for the front speakers. I am replacing the stock 4x10s with 5.25" and 1" component speakers. I was able to finish the passenger side before it got to late. I will hopefully finish the drivers side and install the speakers next weekend.
20-Oct-2007 I had some time in the morning so I decided to work on the car. I installed the short shifter, and shocks today. I really like the short shifter except for the fact that the selector cable is bad. This makes it very difficult to move the shifter left and right. The front shocks went on easy. Two bolts on bottom and one on top. Upon taking the drivers side wheel off, I noticed that the lower ball joint is bad. I will have to replace it before I get my alignment. I still installed the front shocks and took the car for a drive. I am now understand why people love this car. I attempted to finish the rear struts. Removing the old strut was not hard. I then paid to have the spring and cap removed from the old strut and installed on the KYB. I do not mind working on my car, but I do not want to kill myself and will always pay others to use spring compressors. Especially with struts. The work on the car ended when I could not get the struts to go on. I checked around and apparently, I will need to grind away some of the knuckle in order to get the strut to go on. I am done for today, and will tackle the struts tomorrow.
19-Oct-2007 The shocks, struts, and subwoofer box arrived today. The plan is to install the shocks tomorrow.
16-Oct-2007 The new poly transmission and motor mounts from Rodney Dickman arrived today. I will wait for the shocks and bushings to arrive before I start on the suspension and mount installation. The new 6x8 plate and 5.25 component speakers also arrived. I did not get top of the line speakers. Just ones that are better than stock. The Golden Gate Fiero club met tonight. Greg showed up with power coated rear vents. I would not have thought that having gloss black vents would look better than the flat black. I was amazed how they came out and bought a pair off of him.
11-Oct-2007 I was able to smog the car and made it to the DMV. The car is now in my name. I was also able to order the shocks, bushings, transmission mounts and motor mounts today. I have been driving the car around at the mounts and shocks are in really bad shape.
10-Oct-2007 I ordered replacement speakers today. It is going to be nice to have a car with a stereo again.
08-Oct-2007 Chris picked up the car from the body shop and dropped it by the detailer. He also sent me some pictures. It looks really nice. My wife dropped me off at the train station so I could pick up the car.
06-Oct-2007 The car was painted today.
02-Oct-2007 Chris called me today and said that a Fiero that he has been watching for over ten years is for sale. He would have purchased it, but it was not a good time for him to do so. I decided that I needed to get some money out of my Subaru 2.5RS and it would be a good time to get a better commute vechile. I packed up the family and headed up to Sacramento (about 120 miles) to see the car. I was impressed by the condition of it. This car has been very well taken car of and no hacking nor modifications. I pretty much bought the car and drove it around the corner to give it to Chris for a paint job.