2007 ..... Wider is Better ;) ....

January 2007

Please forgive the short summary of 2007. Getting the quarters has been my main goal and much work has been done on a communication level to get them but most of it is boring, so I'll skip most of the details.

Over the past few months a fellow IMSA Fiero owner, (Dave) and I have discussed many items about our two cars. I had mentioned that I wanted to get the wide body for the back of my car due to the limitations it causes to the suspension travel and correct setup. As it turned out, he was looking for body panels as well and had located some of the original molds. To make a long story short he and I placed and order for several panels. The only panels available were fast back widebody panels. That ment I wold need to get all new panels rearward of the doors. So the order was placed. Keep in mind that may of the parts for these cars come from "a friend of a friend" type of dealings. "Ordering" parts is a loose term.
Due to the high HP of my motor and limited rubber I want to increase the size of the rear tires to 14" wide. I need panels that will cover 76" wide tires (outside to outside). Dave has the wide panels I need on his car. It is our belief that these quarter molds will produce the same quarter dimensions as his car.

May 2007

Still no body panels but I have been told that they will be making them soon. The molds have been taken to the fiberglass shop (two hours from their current home) and are waiting to be used to make panels for both Dave and I.

July 2007

The panels FINALLY ARRIVED! All of them looked good except for .... you guessed it.... The QUARTERS! They only make the car measure about 68" wide. It turns out that this is the '86 version of the fast back wide body before the wider quarters were used on the '88 / '89 body.
The goal was to get this modification made before the 25th Anniversry Fiero Show in July of 2008 (in Detroit). Not sure it that will be possible now. A lot of time and money went into these body panels and now it looks like they will just sit.
I have considered modifying this set, but it would take so much effort and would most likely not look correct and weigh too much.

September 2007

Dave talked to the gentleman who he got his quarters from. He sill has the molds and could possibly make a set for me. I will persue this direction.

November 2007

As far as the quarters go, I have confirmation that the correct quarters will be fabricated for me. I also was lucky enough to be contacted by a gentleman (Chuck) who had some original DGP panels that he wanted to sell. I was interested in the roof and knew that Dave would be interested in ther body panels (namely the doors and the hood).

I the mean time, I started some projects that I had planned on doing even before the car was complete in 2003. One of the goals was to install a thottle position adjustment. My plan was to put a screw shaft on the back of the accelerator pedal that would move the throttle linkage pull point up and down the side. This would change the pull ratio and hence change the amount the carb would open at full pedal. I wanted to do this to give better control at autocrosses (Solo II) and other low speed events. Effectively this would take several hundred HP out of the engine while increasing the "finesse" of the pedal. The pedal still has full stroke (actually more stroke) when the ratio is decreased. I have it set so that the minimum HP will be 1/2 open carb. By twisting the dash knob, the driver can adjust the stroke so that full pedal will once again be a wide open carb. The pull position is infinately variable.

Mechanisium on the back of the pedal. Notice the pullpoint and the threaded rod to run this point up and down the pedal.

A close up of the pull point.

This shows the assembly. Notice the cable has to pivot to make this work. I recessed the fuel cell cover wall to make this happen correctly (keeping all parts in alignment). The Duzs fittings make it easy to take apart and change/fix. Teflon tape was used to make pars slide by easily an provide support without the use of bearings.

My shop with the SS.

December 2007

Chuck and I have agreed on a price for the roof and he will get it packaged. I expect I will see it some time in January.

I spent a lot of time working on improving my brake/clutch tanks under the hood. There has never really been a good place to mount these on an IMSA Fiero due to the height of the hood and the need (desire really) for these to be gravity fed. Once the system is primed it is not necessary for the gravity feed, but priming the system is a pain. All of the bottles must be moved to a point higher than the master cylinders.

The other problem is the hose. Typical hose will not work for a feeder line. Over time (a month or less) it will start to seep through the hose itself. This causes two major problems. 1. The fluid gets on the frame paint, peals it off (very effictively I might add) and then the metal starts to rust. 2. If fluid is getting out, air and (worse yet) moisture are getting in. Water in a system ment for high temperatures is NO GOOD. Trying to shut it down from 150 mph is not the time to find out too much moisture seeped into the brake system over the winter.

There are special hoses that can be used for this application, allow flexibility for system fill, and are easy to use, but still this is not the best option. The best option is metal tubing. Aluminum works well. With all of these things in mind, the pictures show my solution. It is a gravity feed system and still barely fits under the hood. Furthermore, hose is minimized. Big Plus. Teh aluminum tubing was cut and rewelded at a 90 degree angle to make the gravity feed work. Then the 2 mounting rods (attachment bracket) were painted silver to match the aluminum. now it looks like 5 clean bars coming through the fire wall when actually 3 of them are actually carrying fluid.

The other thing I did (not pictured) is to change the master cylinder size for the rear. I decreased the diameter to (78" to 3/4") to put less force on the rear calipers. This will make dialing in the brake bias a little more centered and easier to control.

Notice that the minimal use of hose is for connection only and is of the correct type. Acutally it is undersized slightly for a tight fit. Difficult to assemble, but worth it in the long run since this piece will not often be removed.

I also relocated the front sway bar. I moved it forward slightly to allow for clearance of the fire wall and easy removal of the master cylinder cover. This will make maintenance MUCH easier.

I spent a great deal of time remaking all of the upper panels for the front fire wall. They had to be remade to accomidate the new brake fluid lines. I made all of them to be attached by Duzs fittings for easy access. There is a cover for getting into the front side of the master cylinder area for maintenance. White plastic was drilled and slit to provide a tight fit around hoses with out causing chaffing or cutting of the lines. Notice that the support bars are painted silver to match the aluminum. I thought this was slick (small pat on the back). That's just my opinion. : )

Next year I'll try it again..... GETTING THE CORRECT QUARTERS.

So here we go: Wider is Better - Take Two. ; )

INDEX:
Page 1 = Overview, Vehicle Summary, History 
Page 2 = 2001 - The Dream
Page 3 = 2002 - Getting Going
Page 4 = 2003 - It's ALIVE!
Page 5 = 2004 - Making Improvements
Page 6 = 2005 - Here's to a better year...
Page 7 = 2006 - The Story Continues...
Page 8 = 2007 - Wider is Better ; )
Page 9 = 2008 - Wider is Better - TAKE TWO ; )

ON TO 2008! --------------->