Tim R. Evans, 63, of Sanford, sits on one of more than 35 Pontiac Fieros that are located at his repair shop, dealership and museum called Fieros Forever Michigan, located at 357 Saginaw Road in Sanford.
SANFORD -- With Tim Evans' love for a vintage car, a building in which to repair them and space for a museum, a new sign has appeared in midtown Sanford: Fieros Forever Michigan.
"This has been six, seven years in the making. This building had been vacant and tumble-down for years," said Evans, who owns the building and repairs and sells Fieros on the premises at 357 Saginaw. "We had to start from scratch almost."
General Motors built Fieros from 1984 until the last cars rolled off the assembly line in July 1988.
"It was the first car General Motors did with this body style. It was built by Pontiac division," Evans said.
Before Evans could work on cars, Evans had to gut the building, remove gas tanks under the eye of state Department of Environmental Quality and spend about $10,000 revamping a former gas station and motorcycle shop, located in central Midland County.
"I put my new sign up about three weeks ago. Before that, it said Bob's Car Wash and people stopped in to see about a car wash," said Evans, an architect who supervised the green upgrade of the building from insulation to lighting.
The building and next door parking lot is jammed with 38 Fieros in "various stages of running," laughed Evans, 63.
The Fieros in nearly any color await repair.
"The Fiero had a steel chassis when it came off the line, and it was drivable with no body panels. It was then built with five body parts: the front, the back, the floor, the top and the doors," Evans said.
The frames were put through a "mill and drill" machine that put all the steel parts together with screws and welds on the flat parts and then the plastic panels were put on, Evans explained. Some were convertibles.
The engine is placed mid-car over the drive wheels under a roof-top roll bar.
The car used half the steel that other cars used, angering the steel companies, and it competed with the Corvette for style, Evans said.
"Half the car is not capable of rust," Evans said.
The earliest cars had four-cylinder engines and the later ones, six-cylinder. Evans said when the cars were tested with bigger engines, they outperformed Corvettes in proving ground races. They initially cost $8,000; by the last year, they cost $12,000 to $16,000.
In 1984, Fiero built the three pace cars for the Indianapolis 500.
About 2,000 replica pace cars were built for dealers to sell to the public and 30 were given to race officials. Collectors haved tracked 271 down, Evans said, pointing at his.
Evans also stores hoods, fenders, doors and replacement parts for the cars at his Sanford building.
His museum room features pictures, posters, collectibles, and more information of Fieros, their builders, their history and their models. Halki Aldikacti, GM engineer, is considered the father of the Fiero. Evans has his signature in one of his cars.
"I have people come in here and at shows telling me they worked on the Fiero line, or 'I worked on that part of the car,' " said Evans.
The museum is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays. Evans gets five or six calls a week to show it. The museum sells clothes from the Michigan Fieros club and is gearing up to monogram clothing. Evans also expects to expand into selling kit cars.
There are a handful of Fiero clubs in Michigan and others scattered throughout the country. In July, Fiero lovers came to Sanford for a Fieros cruise.
For the museum, call (989) 687-2905. For more Fiero information, visit michiganfieroclub.com.
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