Mugenn's Ghost

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Mugenn's Ghost

Postby Mugenn » Tue Jun 26, 2012 12:18 pm

So, as I'd mentioned in the newbies board, Hi, i'm Mugenn, i'm new to the boards, and new to car modding/rebuilding/upgrading in general.

That said, my plan for my 86 fiero SE 2m4 is as follows, and please, make suggestions about how to go about accomplishing this, preferably without causing me to end up having to sell a kidney, or steal a baby and sell it on the black market.....

here is what i intend to do (in no particular order)

1) Drivetrain :
right now, it's got an old iron duke with 126k miles on it, runs beautifully, only trouble is on the 5sp manual (it's the isuzu one), getting into first gear is semiregularly difficult if the car is sitting still.. thus, i'd like to change out the transmission for a "better" one, that will handle the power output of my planned engine swap, the mighty 3800SC, which i want to do for ease of swap (i've been told it's really easy as far as engine swaps are concerned)

2)brakes/rotors :
yeah, this is probably ahead of the engine/tranny swap. i'd like to make sure that i have plenty of stop before i give the car large amounts of "go".

3)suspension :
the suspension on the car is the original stock stuff. i'm amazed at how well it's held up, but, it's a little..i don't even know how to describe it. It's not bad or unsafe feeling... just.. weird.. so, that'll need to be redone at some point.

4)interior :
the insides of this car are in ... terrible shape, to put it lightly. the headliner is new, and that's nice, but the seats are in stupendously amazing horrible shape, the vinyl stuff is cracked and basically wrecked, carpeting is hideous, and i'm still trying to figure out who's design idea it was to put carpeting on the insides of the doors on the lower half... and i want to get it done in a gray with green highlights...
*shrug* I also thought i saw some full instrument cluster replacement floating around on ebay, you know, completely electronic dashes (modern guages in a fiero? that might be nice!), does anyone know anything about those?

5)body :
i'm considering (and by considering i mean planning) to see how much it'd cost to get the f355 body kit replacement panels... because i think it'd look good. I also intend to paint my car this really slick smoke-grey color.

6) door hinges :
this is towards the top of my list. i want vertical hinges. 90 degree ones. i'm 6'2", and getting into and out of the car is already semi-difficult. i'd like to simplify the process by being able to lift the doors up and out of the way... that and people really like to try and park inches away from my car. scissor doors will hopefully alleviate this issue.
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Re: Mugenn's Ghost

Postby Trinten » Tue Jun 26, 2012 4:09 pm

I hope Chug chimes in about the 3800sc swap. He and Drew-py are very familiar with how it goes.

Transmission:
Definitely go with the F23 (we've got a few great threads on it). You won't regret it, and with it going onto a 3800sc, it'll be far more simple than it was for my SBC. And I was told by a few people more familiar with other Fiero transmissions that it's much smoother. If you want to save up for it, I'd also strongly suggest getting the gear-driven LSD for it - the one from Quaife is pricey, but I had found another board where a guy did a side-by-side tear-down of the Quaife unit and one of the China knock offs... and the difference was INSANE (the China knockoff, which runs around $500, didn't even have all the same length/type bolts around the housing, inside was unpolished, lots of burrs, other issues... scared me into dropping the coin for Quaife).

Brakes:
On the brakes, I find that it's just a matter of learning to leave the "correct" room. And by that, I mean the honest-to-rules thing of the "at x-speed there should be y-seconds between you and the car in front of you". I've thankfully found no issues in braking in plenty of time with that.

Do I like doing that? Well it doesn't bother me, but if someone were to cut in front of me and stomp the brakes, it'd be an issue, so I do also plan to upgrade brakes.

My point is, you could probably wait until your engine swap is done, if you wanted.


Suspension:
Paul (L67/emc209i) had done the coil-overs for me, I bought the parts and he modified the shocks and put it all together. I also had gotten the poly-kit from Ebay, and I really liked it. After the coilovers went on, I've got a squeak in the rear-right when I hit a good dip/bump - I'm not sure if it's the spring rubbing on the seat, or if it's the poly. The good news is that the poly I got had a groove inside of them, that was apparently put there so you could tap it and put in a grease fitting. I'd definitely suggest that.

The total cost for the coilovers (250# linear springs from Summit, sleeves from another place, and shocks from Advance - I think, plus the camber bolts) was around 200 bucks.

The poly suspension kit I bought was around 75 bucks total, I had to buy two things (they had more, but one of them was for the engine/dogbone, which I didn't need).

Interior:
Seats, definitely Mr. Mike, especially now that he offers a cloth alternative. He does other colors, too.

Dash, there's a few different types of converted Fiero gauges with digital instrumentation. Was this what you saw?
http://www.tomsdigitalelectronics.com/

Can't comment much on the doors, I just know taking them apart and putting them together is a long-term losing proposition from how the panels are secured to the door.

Body:
Amida on PFF makes one of the nicest 355 noses - he has a fully converted 355 Fiero - so I'm guessing he makes all the panels, just a lot of guys like the nose cause it still works with the rest of the Fiero. If you don't have and/or don't want to setup a PFF account, send me a PM and I'll give you his email address.


Hinges:
I feel that WhoDeanie is your best bet for these. http://whodeaniecustoms.webs.com/

Good luck with the build, we're looking forward to seeing it come together!!
1986 Pontiac Fiero GT, 355 cubic inch small block Chevy putting down 371 HP and 381 ft/lbs torque at the wheels, with more to come!
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Re: Mugenn's Ghost

Postby Chug » Wed Jun 27, 2012 9:23 am

Drew-py and I can do the 3800sc2 swap, we have done it on the Getrag 5 speed and the 4T65eHD automatic. as for the swap it is relatively easy if you have the money to spend. If you plan to do a lot of the work and fabrication you can save lots of money however it can turn into a huge pain in the ass. If you get your 3800sc2 from a wrecking yard you may want to consider a rebuild. I say that as just a precaution as Drew-py and I have pulled his motor on several accounts just to "save money" to inevitably spend more.

Just to sum up the removals
#1 mishap on install
#2 junk yard engine failure (blown head gasket)
#3 junkyard engine failure (broken oil pump)
#4 engine cradle failure (poor design on home fabbed engine mounts)
#5 engine failure (spun bearings)
#6 engine failure (broken timing chain / bent valves)
#7 *pending* Transmission Failure

As for my swap i had no issues, I fortunately got a good motor/tranny from the yard and my mounts were a good design. Just be prepared to spend a little money.

I can help source parts, tuning and exhaust or I can give you pricing to do the work for you.

Chug
Yes it can be done, it just depends on how deep your wallet is!
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Re: Mugenn's Ghost

Postby Mugenn » Mon Jul 02, 2012 11:42 am

Chug, you are officially on my "hero" list. and i don't so much know about "do it for me", is "help me with it to make sure i don't screw it up" an option? i just wanna be absolutely clear i haven't a clue what i'm doing when it comes to this sort of thing... i'm a computer nut, and only recently got hooked on playing with cars, so, this whole project started as a "wouldn't it be cool if..." sort of thing.
Would it be a good idea to do the transmission and engine at around the same time? and if so, roughly how much should i be expecting to spend to do that, roughly?
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Re: Mugenn's Ghost

Postby Chug » Mon Jul 09, 2012 10:54 am

what you are going to spend is relevant to your skill level. Just for starters your looking

http://www.westcoastfiero.com/engine_co ... to-ac.html

This is a great list of things you'll need to buy to get it to work. I'll be more then happy to answer any questions for you.

I did my car for $2200 but I did all the work myself and made most of my own parts/mounts. I'll say this I'll never do one again for myself and I'll never do one for less then $3000 labor only for anyone else.
Yes it can be done, it just depends on how deep your wallet is!
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