The new life of the formula fastback

[NoMad]

Been looking since I got the car but no luck finding a spare set of the hairballin projector setups. With a low beam not working on the right headlight I finally bit the bullet and ordered a set of Rigid Industries 55003 LED headlights. The pair delivered after tax was under $350 so I went with them rather than the nearly $500 for a pair of the JW speakers that seam to have a slightly better beam pattern.

[Fierofool]

A few pictures:

[GTRS Fiero]

The cowl is looking better.

[GTRS Fiero]

Does the driver's door have bad hinge pins?

[Fierofool]

Hey, Zack, you need to get your order in for the new GT taillight replacement lenses.  They're just about to go on the market.  They are first come, first served and there's supposed to be a limited run of 1000.  You can get custom or stock decoration, or clear or no decoration if you just want a black panel where the PON TIAC goes.  Sold in pairs only.  kgoodyear on Pennocks in the General Fiero Chat section.

[Raydar]

You've done a nice job with that car. Amazing what a bit of elbow grease will do for oxidized paint. (Or is that because it's wet?)
And that's not to mention all the mechanical repairs/upgrades that you've done.

And yeah... The taillights. The new lenses look to be really nice, and are even endorsed by GM as a "replacement part". Keith is doing it up, right. I've already got my pre-order in.

[NoMad]

Ya, the drivers pin and bushing are bad but I have a new set to install. I have also started to test paint a few panals to see if I like the color I am planning.

As for the tail lenses, I am still up in the air on my planned route there.....

[NoMad]

Been a crazy busy couple weeks between both jobs and having some scuba students to teach. But I have managed a few hours here and there to work on the car.

Biggest thing was that in adding power I just managed to find new week spots.  No, not horse power. Stereo power.... The new head unit install quickly turned into all sorts of fun. The amp ended up needing a relay added to the wiring to make it function. Also the new head unit is not a particularly strong one, but apparently the old speakers had been on their last legs.  In a few days time I lost three of the four and the last was doing a bit of a death rattle.  So a combination of 50% or so off new 4x6 three wayspeakers for the back from best buy and a little Amazon-fu.... I now have new pioneer speakers throughout. I also went ahead and installed foam speaker baffles in place of thw carpet stuffed in the dash and the jute paddinf in the B pillars. Took a bit of doing but the sound is a million times better. My audio books sound great now too.

Also fixed the leaking rear spoiler with new gaskets from TFS.

Almost done with the reverse camera set-up as well. Mirror and camera is in but I still have some wiring to finish.

Also trying to decide if I should keep at doing the paint myself or look into having Tha Driver or a different pro handle it. Lots to decide still but getting much closer.

[GTRS Fiero]

Carpet in the dash?

Where did you place the backup cam?

[Fierofool]

Carpet in the dash?

Where did you place the backup cam?

I put foam speaker baffles into my 87.  Makes a big difference on the front.  Carpet was an owner-installed thing.  Fieros never had anything behind the speakers.

I hope you didn't follow Ford's lead on installing the backup camera.  On my Ford truck, the factory unit is installed behind the license plate.  A 1.5 inch hole had to be drilled into the center of my license plate when I bought the truck. 

[NoMad]

Like Charlie said, the PO had stuffed the dash with some spare carpet to act as baffles.

The camera I have is mounted to a bracket that is held on by the license plate bolts. No holes drilled as everything, so far, has had a space to pass the wires without drilling.

[NoMad]

Finally got a minute to do some maintenance that I was behind on. I knew the club had done the oil but with the sitting and my driving I knew it was time despite the mileage.

Mike's comment regarding Rotella dropping the spark rating made me bypass that as an option. Went with Mobil1 and opted for the Wix XP filter. The one that came off was much bigger (like 2x the volume) and at the next change I will try to find that volume filter. Oil looked okay but dark.

While I was down there I finally dropped the transmission oil. That was where the real surprises started. The initial oil coming out was milky and thin like a lot of water had gotten in. When I pulled the dipstick plug it was loose. It has spaces that look like several O-rings are supposed to be there but aren't. Cleaned it all up but still loose in the bore. Are their supposed to be o-rings? If not, anyone have a spare dipstick for the getrag?

Also pulled the airfilter for a look. The filter was dry as a bone, quite the problem for it being a K&N and needing to be oiled. I pulled it to clean and the thing was filthy! Makes me dread what got through it. I went ahead and took Cat's car and bought a NAPA gold air filter.

Simple stuff but like always, the car just seems to run so much better after. Also the getrag is shifting much smoother and seems to have less resistance and no more racking down shifting to second on the move. Still lots more to do but was nice to feel her respond to a little TLC.

[GTRS Fiero]

Always great to read about the progress.  After I do simple maintenance on mine, my wife usually says improvements are in my head.

[Fierofool]

I have to disagree with her.  I know for sure that when I removed the old plastic valve stem caps and installed chrome caps with the Fiero logo that the car was capable of doing the quarter mile in 5 seconds.   

[GTRS Fiero]

In my case, I replaced the 20-year-old tires, the rear struts, the rear sway bar bushings, the rear end links, and the tri-links.  It felt so much better when making turns.