My 1986 Pontiac Fiero SE

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Loved the Fiero`s

I almost got one as my first car instead my parents wanted me to have a safe huge car so I bought a 1985 Cadilac Eldorado Biarritz that I bought cash from all my vacuum sales . I used to sell Hoover convertibles exclusively . Enjoy a brand that they removed from history but I am glad your saving this one .

Dan
 
Dan

Thanks! I love saving stuff from being thrown out! For example, my husband has a V6 that he was rebuilding a few winters back and the camshaft was no good. He was going to throw it out and I said I wanted it so I could make a table lamp out of it! We had a good friend of ours drill it out for us because we don't have a lathe and a drill bit that long! All I need to do is get a cord and wire her up and she will work! Something saved and made into something cool!!! I love fixing old stuff up and giving it a second chance at life!!! :) -Michelle
 
A friend put a GM small block V-8 in one of those. Yaa-hoo. Clean installation too. In his car it mated right to the stock transaxle. From outside the car nothing gave the game away. The cooling system was apparently adequate for a V-8.

These remind me in a way of the last iteration of the Corvair. GM finally gets all the details right then cancels the model forever. These and Corvairs were great handling cars but GM never really figured out how to sell them, and always seemed to cheap out on some parts of the car so there were always reasons to criticize both.

Keep us posted on the progress. I love seeing orphans get love.
 
I remember going to the car shows when they came out, showing the bodies snapping off and on, little models all dressed up doing it of course. I think the car was intended as a cheap commuter, hence the Chevette front end and iron duke motor, but styling got a hold of it and price went up!They had many recalled for the Iron Duke with cracked blocks too if I remember correctly.
 
suckolux

What's ironic is that we own 2 Chevettes!!! The Chevette is my husband's favorite car! He used to have a 1976, 2 door, 4 speed that he bought as his first car. He restored it and used to show it at car shows; this was all way before I knew him though. Sadly in 1992 it got stolen and he never found it! When I met him, this was in 2006 and he still talked about Chevettes! He wanted to get a 76 again, but come to find out in 2006 they're harder to find and more expensive! He had a friend in a near by town that was selling a 1985 (new body styled) Chevette, he didn't want it because it wasn't what he had. Mind you, he restores antique/muscle cars for a living! I said to him, why don't you buy it and convert it to look like an old one? With that, he bought it and has been rebuilding/working on it ever since! I now own one as well! I like the look of the newer body style 4 doors. Hence, I go grocery shopping and what not, a 2 door is like a clown car to try to get in it! Ha Ha! He bought me a 1980, 4 door, automatic, w/air, and the RARE H/O motor w/dual exhaust!!!! We are in the process of restoring both of our Chevettes right along with Goldie!!! BTW, my Chevette is named Roxy and his is Beest. His old one was named Beast, he wanted the same name, but spelt it differently. It's pretty ironic too, for the fact that we are a household full of Chevettes and then we get a Fiero that shares Chevette parts! Too funny! I'll do a new thread on a our Chevettes. :) -Michelle
 
I had a VERY orange 76 myself for 2 years? It was almost new when I got it, simple, a bit crude on the freeway held wide open, yes I did. Never broke.Mine had the rubber mat in the back hatch and no tinted windows, boy it smelled like burning rubber all the time.I had a rural paper route at the time, so it was perfect for that.
 
The Chevette owed a lot of it's design to the Opel Kadett if the one brain cell to survive the Navy is working properly today.

I never drove a Chevette but a lady friend of the time had an '84 Cavalier with the Iron Fluke four banger (which was originally a tractor motor from Brazil!) and my memory of it was getting passed by everything on the highway on I-70 in Colorado. The car could just barely get out of it's own way.

The Fiero had a front suspension peeled off a Chevette and the rear suspension, half shafts and I believe the transaxle came off the front of a Chevy Citation. A car with two front suspensions! No, really.
 
That era for American cars was pretty much scraping the bottom of the barrel. Almost nothing made here had any kind of quality. I had an Olds Cutlass back then, purchased new. None of the body panel gaps were even, it squeaked from the day it was new (not big squeaks, but lots of little ticks and chirps), and where the roof panel was joined to the C-pillars you could see where the body shop did a hideous job of leading and grinding the seam. The joint was lumpy and you could see grind marks in he paint. Of course the paint was orange peeled too. Horrible quality control at GM back then.
 
I don't think the Iron Duke which was a 2.5 was ever offered in the Cavalier, pretty sure anyway.Yes the Fiero was a parts bin commuter car.
 
and I think with our Energy Crisis, boy in CA it was fun! they found the Chevette in Brazil,very related to the Kadette. Mine was bottom of the line, so prob the 1.4 1 barrel, I got it in that energy crisis as my Buick Wildcat had a huge thirst along with Huge thrust! I was visiting my bro in SF most weekends, just over a 2 hour drive. Wild kitty could not make it down and back and drive around there on one tank, it was 27 gallons. Ironic it did about 17 highway on premium. The Chevette would travel 75-80 wide open and did no better, but a much smaller tank, I was screwed! Gas stations then were mostly closed on weekends. Such fun.My next car a Datsun 210 could do it no problem
 
That Cavalier had the Iron Fluke in all it's cast iron, push rod, four cylinder glory. I looked under the hood to see what was powering, or maybe I should say underpowering, the car.
 
Marks_here

Hi! Thanks for thinking about dear Goldie! She's kinda been on hold for awhile now. We are so busy that we are behind on our daily lives! Right now we are trying to take down 2 12 by 10 sheds and put them up at our house so we can clean out the garage. Once we get the garage more organized then we will regain full steam on Goldie! So far though, Sammy and I dropped the transmission out of the parts car, he dropped the trans from Goldie, and got the parts car trans in Goldie. Now she needs typical maintenance and reassembly on her engine. Also, my husband's boss, who we got Goldie from, had another Fiero identical to mine except it's an automatic, one of the other guys Sammy works with just bought it! He's in the process of fixing the other one up as we speak! The rims on our Fieros are different. He has a fan type pattern and I have honeycomb. He doesn't like his and wants the honeycomb, so we are going to do an even swap here pretty soon! Yea Goldie will have a different pair of shoes!!! Ha Ha! BTW, my hobbies are constantly being shifted around!!! We were working on chainsaws and cut a neighbors tree down not to long ago. Now, I started a new hobby of collecting vintage multimeters to calibrate them! I have a stack of those in my living room awaiting me! I just got another little AM tube radio I want to fix up and turn into a guitar amp! Been messing around with the oscilloscope too! Also, been making oscillators on breadboards! Just rebuilt a GE hand mixer that I just used to make homemade mashed potatoes with! Just bought a Sears cassette recorder probably from the 70's today for $1.00! I want to check that out as well! Those are just a few of the things I can think of off of the top of my head!!! Ha Ha! I just got some new batteries for my camera, so I can FINALLY take pictures of all of my stuff! Thanks for wanting to know!!!! :) -Michelle
 
Good to hear you & hubby are doing great, winters comin & supposed to be another hard one here in TN. I'm glad to hear about all those projects, you should get the medal of projects for all your undertakings!! Simply amazing & I know your having fun with the tube radios. My soldering isn't that great I need more practice, but I know everything your talking about. Those oscilloscopes come in handy, my dad used to use one among many other instruments for making a Heathkit tv in the late 70's early 80's which worked great until lightning struck the entena & fried everything inside. Stay well!!
 
Michelle, you're just like me! Buying cool stuff all the time and tinkering with it! I need to get a shed myself, there's crap spilling over everywhere down here! 
smiley-tongue-out.gif
 
Radio as a "G" fiddle amp---CAREFUL THERE!!!Try to use a radio with a power transformer in it-or at least put a polarized cord-plug on the radio.Make sure the chassis is connected to the NEUTRAL pin of the plug.We dont want you to end up playing "Hot music" on an electrified guitar.And--electric guitars need HIGH gain for them to work-a radio audio section will not have this kind of gain.You will need a Guitar preamp.I would look around for a single stage guitar amp designed for guitar use-it would have the proper safety isolation and gain.These types of amps are not real expensive.Often sold as "practice" or "Studio" amps where the recording studio will place a microphone in front of the amps speaker.This type of amp will have a single tube in the output stage-like a 6V6 or 6L6 or similar.The single tube will put out about 5-8 watts.And the "G" fiddle amp will have the proper tone controls,too.And the jacks needed if you want to add an "effects" pedal-"Stomp Box".
 
Marks_here

Thanks for the compliments!!! Technically I wish I had another me so I could get ahead with my never ending projects!!! Ha ha! That's cool that your dad built a heathkit tv! That's very neat! I like anything that has little parts, bright colors, lights up, and/or goes bing! Ha Ha! The oscilloscope was my husband's, but I now have acquired it because I named it, so therefore it is mine! Ha ha! Next, he's gonna bring up his frequency balancer and I have an inkling that I'll end up taking that away from him as well! Ha Ha! Hope all is well with you in TN!!!???!!! :) -Michelle
 

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