The Ghost In The Machine

[Raydar]

It's an 88 Western Edition coupe. Comes with tilt, delay, and air, and not much else.
Has 153 K on the odo, and drives about like you'd expect a 150K base coupe to drive. (It pretty much wallows.)
The headlight motors need rebuilt, the parking brakes need adjustment, it has the usual "Duke drip", and the fuel pump sounds like a Cessna.
But it's mechanically quiet. No funny sounds. Clutch is good. Shifts like buttah!

Now the fun begins...

[f85gtron]

Is it for sale?

[Raydar]

Is it for sale?

I just bought it. Haven't even got it tagged yet.

[Roger]

You and your Cessna. Get away from me.
 

[Fierofool]

I just read your plans for it.  The Isuzu should hold up just fine.  It isn't the engine that frags them, it's the driver. 

Are the wheels as nice as they appear in the picture?  Someone might give a good dollar if they want to do an OE restoration. 

[Raydar]

The wheels seem to be quite nice, but I haven't looked at them (or much of anything else) very closely. The tires look almost new, too, although there seem to only be two of them alike.

[Raydar]

Update...
The suspension rebuild is essentially completed. SensaTracs on all four corners. New lower ball joints. Poly everywhere except the sway bars and trailing links.
Also did the Corvette brake rotors on the front. Still have to do the rear, and tighten up the parking brake, but that's not a big deal.
All the strange thumps and tail wagging are essentially gone. It still needs an alignment, but that's just "a thing".
I have a rear sway bar, but apparently a lot of the "fast" builders are doing without. Haven't made up my mind. We shall see...
Also added my spare set of 17s.
Next I need to address some minor cosmetics, and swap in the V6 gauge setup I acquired.
(Rebuilding the headlight motors was the first thing I did, because I was attempting to procrastinate the suspension stuff.)


Edit - Since Charlie mentioned it, the stock 14" wheels are probably a 7 of 10. A little bit of curb damage, and a little bit of clear coat peeling. They look really decent from 5 feet.
The tires have good tread, but one of them has a slow leak. Anyone need them? They won't fit over my new brakes.

[Roger]

Sway bar not so necessary if you always drive in a straight line.

It's better to have one if you take tight or fast turns though.

[Raydar]

I think it's not cast in stone.
This car, if I remember correctly, does NOT run rear sways.

Not like it will ever be anything like that, but just gives me food for thought.
Now that the suspension is done, it still doesn't feel as tight as my gray car. Although that could be the alignment (or the lack, thereof.)

[Raydar]

Update.
Took the rear apart, again. Had to replace a damaged axle, and installed the rear sway bar, while I was "in there". (I mentioned that the car in the video was running without a rear bar. It appears he thought better of that, and reinstalled it.)
 
This is what the suspension looks like with the poly. This was before the sway bar was installed. (Getting the sway bar through the space between the cradle and body ended up being a non-issue. With one strut removed, there was almost enough room to "toss it through" and have it land in place. The only thing I had to be careful of was not tearing the CV boots with the ends of the bar.)



While it was apart, I installed the 12" Corvette rotors and caliper brackets. Don't have any pics of those, yet. All that's left to do is hook up the parking brake cables and adjust. Oh yeah... and the swaybar end links.

I also cobbled together a set of "almost coil overs". It involved flipping the top strut mount over, for more strut travel with a lowered suspension, and having a piece of 3" tubing welded to the bottom of the strut mount, to locate the new spring.
The "new" spring is actually an 88 front spring that has had one coil removed. This will allow for a lower ride height, slightly higher spring rate than stock, and a smaller diameter spring (for whatever THAT'S worth.)



The strut bolts are held in with zip ties in the pics. Figured it would be enough to hold the bolts and allow the nuts to be threaded on and tightened. Worked great on one side. Not so much on the other.
Ended up drilling slightly countersunk holes on the bottom, for the bolt shanks to fit into, and epoxying the bolts into place.
Should have done that from the beginning. If the other strut ever has to come out, I'll do that one too. As it is, it's not going anywhere.




The rubber insulator at the top of the spring is a piece of fuel line, split lengthways, and wrapped around the coil.
The bottom insulator is the stock Fiero insulator.

This is the exact same setup I have on the rear of my blue car.

[Raydar]

Teaser...
Going to look at this, Sunday.

[GTRS Fiero]

 

That is a great engine for a Fiero.

[scottb]

You suck

[GTRS Fiero]

LOL!  Jealous, much?

[Raydar]

You suck

The good news is that the "package" comes with a spare crate engine. (I'm probably buying out a "project" that has gone in a different direction.)
Once I am satisfied that the one in the pic isn't going to frag itself, I'll probably sell the spare.