Sept 17 2007
Ok so the car isn't electric yet! But it will be. Some of you may be wondering why in the world would I take a Fiero and make it electric. My answer...because I want to...why not a Fiero, I love them and not only are they aerodynamic, but like the doc said “if your making a time machine out of a car why not do it with style” …and I’m going to apply that to this project. Another big part of my decision to turn this car into an EV (electric vehicle) is because I hate sitting in traffic wasting gas and polluting the environment. Now I’ll be driving to work and back not spending any money on gas or polluting the air. It will cost about 30 cents a day. And the pollution produced from a power plant to power my electric car will be significantly less then the car with the gas engine.
The car wouldn't move because it sat for a long time and the rear wheel on the drivers side wouldn't turn. The calipers were seized up. We took the wheel off and tried to get it to move but it wasn't hapening. So we put it in the garage this way...
So lets get started. I just began this project Sept. 07. The Car is actually my girlfriends dads car. It has been sitting outside for 3 years and had lots of snails, vines, and crud all over it. It actually looked like that truck behind it.
When the car was taken off the road it worked just fine but needed a new clutch. Out of curiosity we tried boosting it to see if it still worked and we couldn’t get it to turn over…but with little work we could have had it going…we just didn’t care to because the engine is coming out. Here is a picture of the dirty engine.
The interior of the car is in pretty good shape but it will have to come out when we start the wireing needed for this EV to work.
I was trying to make a youtube video but I can't find the tape now. I'll work on making more. This picture I'm just talking about the car.
There were a few nests in the trunk where some mice must have lived for a short while. I had to get that in the video.
UPDATE Sept 24, 2007
Ok so we got a lot done on the weekend, but the more you do…the more you sit back and say “wow we still have a lot of work ahead of us”. Anyway I took a bunch of pictures so I’ll explain what all we did. We took off the hood and deck lid so we could work easier.
We drained the anti-freeze and removed the rad, and the rusted out rad support. We also disconnected the coolant lines connecting to the engine and I ended up covered in anti-freeze. Here is the front end without the rad, and the spare tire and jack removed. Should be lots of room for batteries in there.
And that brake calliper that was seized up…gone! We are going to have it refurbished or just replace it. We have the rotor off and the back plate was completely rusted off!
When we removed the Trunk liner (because it smells of mouse piss and needs to be washed and cleaned) and an engine bay fume extractor fan that came out of the passenger side of the trunk…do all Fieros have these?. We found rust right through the sides of the trunk. You could see the fibreglass body panel. We will have to cut that out and weld in some sheet metal.
The exhaust also came off which was pretty tough with rusted bolts spinning but not letting go. And then there are those pesty springs which wanted nothing more then to do its job...keep the exhaust on the car. I would of loved to cut it all out but we managed just fine. Here it is leaning against the parts car, and a side shot of the parts car.
There are only a few things we are using off the parts car. So far we took this spoiler and will probably end up taking the deck lid when we get around to painting the car. Only because it will be easier to paint the black deck lid red then it would be removing the rails off the deck lid we have now, patching the holes, and then repainting it.
Next step we are going to try and get the car up on a hoist and drop the engine, gas tank, coolant pipes, and basically everything else there is to do with the gasoline powered engine.
UPDATE Oct. 15th, 2007
The motor is out!
I didn’t get to work on the car for a few weeks because I was really busy. But this weekend we put the wheel back on it now that the callipers weren’t seized, pushed it across the street to where we had access to a hoist.
Once we had the car on the hoist we started disconnecting everything! That was the easy part…trying to get the engine cradle off the car was near impossible…no air tools, grease, or heat would help the bolts loose. So we turned up the heat and torched them! We only had one co-operate, but we knew we were replaceing them all. We used a forklift to lower the engine, trans, and cradle out of the car.
Next on the list is taking the motor off the frame, cleaning up the trans, cleaning up the engine cradle and making it look new!
Here are some pictures of the engine bay with everything ripped out…if it was used for the gas engine its gone! The only thing we are keeping is the trans and the wireing harness. Here are some pics of the engine bay…the last one was a bad shot but you can see where I tried to take off the purple window tint.
I took the wheel well liners out and found a whole lot more rust. We will be cutting, grinding, sandblasting, the whole back end it looks like…then rebuild it all!
While we clean up the engine cradle the car will sit outside. When we have the back end cleaned up and suspension rebuilt, we will bring the car in and tackle that rust. For now it sits its rear on a skid looking pretty sad.
That last one is something everyone has to do when their engine is out…I don’t know why but it is…so I did it
UPDATE Nov. 13, 2007
Alright so it's been a little longer then I said since last update. I try for an update a week, but I haven't been able to work on the car every weekend, sometimes every other. And we haven't actually been working on the car, we've been insulating the garage so we can work comfortably over the winter. We have a two bay garage and one of the bays has a second level for storage. So far we have the two levels in the one bay insulated and this weekend coming we will try to get that completely finished and start on the other side. I’m hoping 2 or 3 more weekends and we can get everything back in its place, and start working on the car again! Here is a picture of a little of the work we've done.
UPDATE Dec. 18 2007
The shop is taking longer then I thought it would. Turns out there was more work then we had first planned. We have most of the shop finished but won't be working on the car again until the new year. I just look at it as more time to save up for the build...Horay for Christmas money!
UPDATE Jan. 15 2008
The shop is almost finished! we only have a few more things left to finish but I will be busy for the next few weekends. I'm aiming to be working on the car again sometime in Feb. Once things start rolling again I'll have better updates and pictures to go along with it.
UPDATE April. 28 2008
Its been a long winter and not a lot of work was done on the car mainly because we were insulating the shop most of the time and finally when the shop was finished it started to get warm. a few other timing set backs and we are back working on the car again. The trans and ICE engine are now apart and off the frame. The frame has been cleaned up some but needs a little grinding to get rid of the rest of the rust. Then we will be putting it all back together and start instaling the electric parts. here are a few pics of the trans off, and the frame cleaned up a little. (nevermind, the pictures aren't upoading right now...i'll figure that out and post them later)
UPDATE June 22 2008
Never got those other pictures to work. But The Electric parts have arrived!!! check it out!
This was the skid it showed up on! I was like a kid on chrstmas!
Here is the Motor that will drive the fiero. Its a 9" DC motor
This is the motor to transmission adaptor plate that will join the new electric motor to the existing trans
Hhere is the Pot box (throttle) it will communicate with the motor controller once it arrives.
Plan on getting some work done this weekend...more to come!
UPDATE Nov. 26 2008
A lot has happened with the car since last post but i don't have pictures right now. i'll try and have them in the next week. i have taken off all the body pannels except the door skins, but they are coming off too. all the rust is going to be fixed soon i hope, the body pannels are going to be refinished, and the back suspenssion is going to be complete soon too. the fron suspenssion still needs to be taken off the car and get the new stuff on. there are a few parts on the front that we are re-useing so we will need those refinished too. hopefully in early 09 the car will be fully restored and will just need all the electric parts installed. (i can't believe i thought this car would be finished spring 08...finding the time is the biggest challenge).
UPDATE Dec. 9 2008
Ok so the reason why i haven't been psoting much news or pictures is because there isn't much to say. No real progress on the car still just waiting for help from others with the things that require skills i don't have and also trying ot find the time. I'll be trying to get a little work done this weekend and i'll try to take some pictures. but until then i have a picture of my new motor controller...this will get the message from the pedal to send more juice to the motor.
UPDATE Sept. 25 2009
Hey its been waaaaaaaay too long since i updated this page, but there really hasn't been much to update. Time is hard to come by and i was also waiting on some help for a few things...well i had a chance to get in the shop and do some work. there were some pretty solid bolts on the control arms for the front suspension, rusted just enough to lock things solid. so every time i had a little time i'd spray some WD40 on them and last time i went in there i managed to get them off with some cursing and skinned knuckles. now i just need to drop the front cross member/frame and then i will be on to rebuilding and installing all the electric stuff. still waiting on help for the rust repair...that is also one of the big hold ups. i'll get some pics of what the car is looking like now and the progress next time i get to the shop......here are some pics of the car now and the lower control arm hanging on for dear life
UPDATE Oct. 22, 2009
I did some small stuff to the car over the weekend, i rewired the stereo system, its an aftermarket deck but now it will run as if it were stock, it was working before but now it should work perfectly. i also took the rear suspenssion and tourqed the control arms so its ready to go back into the car when the rust is fixed. i also mounted the transmission but need to adjust the mounts. and since i'm still waiting for some help on other things i figured i'd clean up the rims and tires while i'm waiting. here are some before and after pics, sorry i didn't get any pics of the deck(its just a deck), or the rear suspenssion.
UPDATE June 29, 2010
I went and worked on the Fiero for the first time in a very long time. Now that the warm weather is here i am itching to get it on the road. I removed the front metal bumper so it can get cleaned up and refinished (even though no one will see it once the body pannels go back on) I took out the headlights and removed the horns and horn mounts, just trying to take off everything clean it up with a fresh coat of paint, and put it all back on after painting the frame. I am going to be working on it some more over the weekend and I will bring my camera and take a few pics this time so i have something to post on here
UPDATE Oct. 05, 2010
Sooooo I haven't been on here to update in a while but I have done alot of work, even though it still doesn't look like it in the shop. I re-did the rear knuckles/hubs, I ordered up some brake calipers and received them, will be sending back the old cores as soon as i take off any hardware I need. the new calipers are preped for paint but haven't recieved any yet. I will post the pics when I'm done. I have new springs, new KYB shocks and struts, new axels...i have everything i need to rebuild the rear engine cradle and suspension and am in the process of putting it all together. I also took everything out of the front of the car. the headlights are out, washer fluid tank, the only thing left up there is the wire harness and the brake booster. I will be painting up the space frame once the rust in the back is fixed. I did take a few pics of some of the other odd jobs I got up to. here is what was found under the seats when i took them out. before and after
and now the passenger side
I made $4.23 taking these seats out
I also tooke the grilles from behind the sails on the back of the car and re finished them
I will have to take pics of some of the other things i've done. and i will have more updates soon as I plan on spending more time in the shop soon.
UPDATE Oct. 8, 2010
I have some of those pics i was talking about. here are some before and after/old and new
below are pics of one of the old calipers, and one of the new calipers that i painted up with a duplicolor caliper kit.
now some pics of the new and old struts, I got new KYB struts
and an old CV shaft and a new CV shaft
Now the rear knuckles and hubs, the old one was so rusted and pretty sure the bearing was shot, i was going to refinish the old knuckles but i ordered some in so i knew they were straight and true. also you will notice the old one doesn't have a brake dust sheild, it was rusted right off. and i also know i'm showing a right and left knuckle. i'm not trying to put the one in the pic where the old one was on the car.
here is a pic with the door panels finally off the car. now that they are off, i can swap the scratched glass with the parts car. also a pic of some of the body panels.
as you can see lots of work left to be done...but things should move along nicely now. i'm heading to the shop today to get some more work done. if i get anything noticable done i'll take some pics!
UPDATE Oct. 24 2010
alright i have been getting alot done with the car, alot of small stuff that adds up to be big stuff. Painting parts and cleaning up stuff that needs to go back on the car. at this point, i'm still waiting for the rust in the back end, so i've been working on everything else i can...wich means when the rear end metal is all fixed up i wil have everything ready to put the car back together! anyway i have all the stuff for the rear suspension and engine cradle, but i couldn't for the life of me find rear upper spring seats. i could get strut mounts but not the spring seat. so i ended up getting used ones from The Fiero Factory. so here is one of the old seats and one of the replacements, i will post a pic of it painted up next time i go to the shop, and i'll hopefully have pics of the engine cradle and suspension all together soon enough!
I also have a pic of the parts car. I took apart the back end to see if there would be any metal engine bay walls i could use if need be. and it is in alright shape, better then the rear on the read fiero. so i will probably cut the trunk out and a few other panels
UPDATE Oct. 30 2010
I got alot of work done and this time I took a little video i hope this link works
http://www.youtube.com/mypontiacfiero
I will have more updates next week!!
UPDATE Feb. 25, 2012
So it has been a long time since i have posted on here...over a year...thats because i haven't done anything to the car in over a year. It kills me that I haven't done anything and that the car has taken soooo long and still isn't finished yet. there are alot of things that have held back progress...time and money is a big one...the other is the Rust...the favor we have called in has been a waste of time...it was actually a working rebuilt engine in exchange for the metal work on the car and painting the body panels. oh and the furnace in the shop...not working, so the winter months are off the table for working on the car. I now have more time on my hands and am pooling together some money...I pl;an on getting into the shop when the weather gets a little more mild or if i can get the furnace fixed. but I plan on paying somone to fix the rust and i will try and tackle the body panels myself. so i don't have any real recent progress updates but i did have an update video i put on youtube that never made it on this site...so here it is (about a year old)
UPDATE Dec. 6 2012
I have some info on the car! A lot has happened since the last update. I have sold my house and moved cities and also had to relocate where i work on the car. I will be working on it in my Dad's garage (which i'm sure he is thrilled about) but i have also found a guy near my parents that is going to fix all the rust on the car. He is a licenced michanic and is doing a great job in his home shop. So i have some pictures! Not sure if you remember what the font of the car looked like, the control arms and front cross member, you can see it in the videos. Well here is what it looks like now, just needs the springs, and the shocks.
The rack and pinion steering which was also in one of the videos up the page also has seen some blasting and new paint.
Here is a shot of the car in its current state
And here are a few shots of the new upper frame rail that has been repaired/replaced. you can see the old ones in some of the pics and videos further up the page. Also there is a shot of the rail that still needs to be installed on the other side.
I will try and get more updates sooner, which hopefully won't be too hard since the car is being worked on and is moving along. it is costing a lot of money but finally this project is getting somewhere. I know its more then this fiero is worth, but its a cool project with a cool car and i really enjoy it.
UPDATE: April 26 2013
I am getting the car back from the mechanic! Here are a few pictures of the work done to it!
Also here is the video i made for the mechanic to show him what needed to be done to the car. and so he could decide if he wanted to even get involved haha
I am planing on doing more to it mid may when i get back from traveling around for work. more updates then!!
