In the last installment my son was able to find and purchase a suitable project Pontiac Fiero. We had taken a calculated risk on a 1985 GT that had mysteriously stopped running before a test drive. This time around we assess the condition of the car as well as perform some cosmetic upgrades. We would also discover if our gamble on buying it as-is would pay off or be a costly bust.
When the car was delivered, the seller let me know that when he added some extra gas to the tank the car fired up and drove just fine onto the trailer so that was a win. For us anyway, I think the seller was a bit disappointed but to his credit he stuck to the deal we had agreed on. My son was able to drive the car off the trailer, around the block and into the garage. He definitely had a big smile on his face. The assessment stage could start as well as giving the car a good clean. The following items needed attention right off the bat:
- Dead battery
- A bit of broken body rub trim
- Missing door lock on the driver’s side
- Reverse lights did not work
- Terrible paint
- Fluid changes as it had sitting for multiple years
- Assessment of brakes and suspension
- Now that it ran it now leaked a bit of oil
- Gas gauge would require a good look as it read 1/4 full when empty
- Tires were very old
On the positive side:
- The headlights worked
- Newer looking spark plugs and wires
- There were a few extra parts included
Time was of the essence to get back to pull parts from the cars that we’d previously seen in the Calgary scrapyard before somebody else got them or the car was recycled for good. We had intended on grabbing all the body panels if they were all in good shape, but there was not a complete set of undamaged panels in red. Additionally, my son’s car had the ground effects which the scrapyard cars lacked, so mixing and matching was out. So we just snagged a hood and rear lamp lens housing. While the hood was in good shape it was missing its headlight covers, so we settled for the ones from the other red car which were a little faded.
The before shot of the hood.
The hood removal was the first wrenching work he had done.
So much better! The mismatched headlight covers would need a bit of attention to complete the transformation.
The headlight covers had an old school orange primer on them. We were able to carefully sand that off and buff the paint underneath. Overall the car was still 16 shades of red, but at least no more orange.
We wet sanded and polished the rest of the paint work on the car, being careful not to burn through the thin paint.
The passenger side rear light cluster had a nasty crack.
The junkyard sourced part uplifted the whole appearance from the rear.
The interior was cleaned up, then he moved on to painting the side mirrors and intake grates over the engine.
After this clean up he now had himself a pretty darn good looking Pontiac Fiero on the cheap. In the next installment we tackle some of the mechanical jobs.
Faded, nonmetallic, non clearcoat red can sure respond well to polishing and buffing. It’s a lot of work (mine was a Taurus wagon) and you might need Tylenol the next day but it’s rewarding labor. Nice work!
I think you should check out this YouTube series on restoration of a fiero. Search for “ronald finger fiero”. This kid refurbishes the entire car.
That paint failure almost looks like clearcoat from the pictures, but then again it is hard to believe that they used a clearcoat over non-metallic red when that car was built. My Miata tended to go into several different shades when it got ignored, but would come mostly back to (almost) one color after a good scrubbing and polishing.
This is fun, watching a car come back to life.
It does have clear coat. Although some parts of the car (especially in the rear) had been repainted a slightly different colour.
So far so good, nice that you were able to find parts in the junkyard for it. The last time I saw one in the yard around here was a couple of years ago, it was very picked over and very rusty..
That’s great that it fired up with just a little gas!
It does look much better with the panel swap. Glad you were able to get back and grab them before they were gone. I had visions of you going back 2 days later to have them tell you they were just crushed yesterday.
If they are still there I’d definitely check for other things that might be in better shape cosmetically and maybe pick up some spare swtich gear or other Fiero unique bits since it is hard to say when you might find one let alone 3 in the local wrecking yard.
This is excellent advice. If you have the space to store it, get it while you can. A plastic tub will store tons of interior parts, and given GM interiors of this era, you will need them eventually. I try to have spares of all lights and bumper ends as well.
Absolutely. Unfortunately the interiors were picked pretty clean.
Check out Row52.com they are a website where wrecking yards can list their inventory in a searchable database. If you make an account you can save searches and it will send you an email when a new car is listed that meets your criteria.
Of course it is most useful if the wrecking yards in your area participate and post their inventory in a timely basis. That increases your chance of getting there before all the good stuff is gone.
However they also allow people to register as a parts puller at a particular yard. You contact that person and arrange a price for them to pull and ship the item.
Years back I went to a pick your own wrecking yard. It was like a pack of coyotes feeding on a dead cow. Dozens of cars picked clean down to the carcass. You had to pay just to go out in the yard. I was looking for a drivers door lock actuator for a ’98 Avalon. They had one Camry that was of the correct vintage. Hopefully it had power locks. When I found it at first I was a bit dejected because at first site you could tell it was just another carcass waiting to be crushed. I pulled the door open and take a look, the actuator is still there! The final bonus was the door was already gutted so all I had to do was unbolt the actuator and head for the check out line. I think the cost was really cheap, maybe 10 bucks. Took it home, fingers crossed that it worked. Put it in, yes it works. Toyota wanted about $230 for a new one so I was happy. I was even happier when I traded the piece on junk.
Cool to see a Fiero brought back from the dead and made to look good so quickly! Hopefully this quick start provides the momentum to see the mechanical issues through.
I was also going to bring up the Ronald Fingers Fiero series. I’ve watched them all and he finds many resources and ways to bring his old ride back to life.
Yes, I mentioned him in part one. He has a very similar style of restoring to me. Sweating some very minor details and a low buck approach.
As of the last episode, Ronnie has basically rebuilt his whole Fiero to better than new. He’s got to have the nicest Iron Duke Fiero in the world at this point.
Fantastic! Fiero looks great after the work, and I am looking forward to the next installment.
I’ve owned many Fieros. Actually very comfortable, even on long trips. V-6 gives plenty of power. Nice to see the younger generation appreciate the car.
Enjoying the series thus far. Brings back the memories of junk yarding and the exhilaration in discovering a sought after component! Kudos to your son for doing the greasy work. It’s the little things that improve the look of the car, and fires the enthusiasm to keep on working. Looking forward to the next installment! 🙂
Looking good! This’ll be fun to follow along with. Let me know (offline if you want) if there are certain pieces you can’t find, if I run across a junked Fiero I can keep an eye out. There’s usually a new one every couple of months, the most recent one was pretty picked over already though. But most seem to be red over tan. I could have gotten you the 95% complete supercharged V6 engine swap package if you’d acted sooner!
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/junkyard/junkyard-classic-1984-pontiac-fiero-2m4-se-spiced-up-with-supercharged-v6-swap/