Project L67 Fiero

Jfrost

TCG Elite Member
Dec 19, 2011
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440
Brookfield
I was finally able to bring my Fiero home from my house at school and figured it was about time I start my build thread. The car is a 1986 Fiero GT I bought from a guy being stored just down the street from my house. The car sat for many years in a field and the paint is all faded but only has 69k miles on. The guy I bought it from was stripping it down and selling parts off of it. When I bought it the interior was completely gone except for the steering column/wheel and wiring along with the front bumper. Lucky for me I already had another 86 Fiero GT I was parting out due to the frame being rusted and engine being shot. I took the interior and front bumper and swapped them onto the red Fiero, and had a running and driving car.

What drove me to Fiero's is I was trying to find a car to swap a L67 into that was rear wheel drive, affordable and provide a somewhat unique build. While a L67 swap is nothing new in a Fiero, it is still a unique car with a relatively easy and well documented swap. Trans bolts up and I get to have a manual L67, something I've always wanted. I stumbled across Fiero's during my research for a vehicle to transplant and L67 into, I've since been bitten by the Fiero bug. I've bought both of my Fiero's for less than a grand total which worked out great with my budget being in grad school.

The plans for the car are an L67 swap using the stock Fiero 4spd manual trans, a GenV, Northstar TB, ZZP headers and a 3.6 s/c pulley to start off with. All the parts were taken from my GTP when I returned it back to stock. The car will be painted this summer and the L67 swap completed. Things left to do for the swap are:
Exhaust built/trunk sectioned
Trans cable bracket adapter to clear headers
Flywheel cut/balanced
Front brakes replaced
Aluminum rear cradle bushings
Poly suspension mounts
Rear cradle frame mounts repaired/replaced

Here are some pictures of the progress so far:

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When I got the car, had to cover it up to protect from the rain.

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Interior before

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Not the most recent picture, door panels are now on.

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Donor car and the recipient

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Donor car stripped down and ready for the junkyard. You can somewhat make out the rust damage on the rear frame rails that lead me to junk the car.

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Red project Fiero as it sits today

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I’m going from this amazing spacious garage at school

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To this garage, I was spoiled at my last place.

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Donor engine waiting to be installed

I'll be ordering more parts here soon once my bank account recovers from some recent bills. Space is limited at the new garage so progress on the build might be a bit slow until warmer weather comes around. I'll soon post more pictures of the progress up until today including the work I did on the donor Fiero.
 
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RICH17

Dr. Pussy Slayer, MD
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Nov 14, 2008
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BrianG and I have a garage about that size. Imagine how space is for us LOL. Luckily we have a spare bedroom and an attick to store all of our extra stuff. We've swapped three different cars in that garage too.

I'm hope you update us regularily cause I have always wanted to do this
 

Jfrost

TCG Elite Member
Dec 19, 2011
2,189
440
Brookfield
I can only imagine. Right now I have almost an entire car worth of Fiero parts stored in the crawlspace at my parents house and garage....I couldn't bring myself to throwing anything away. I'll update as often as I can, I'm just waiting to hear back from a guy for some custom parts I need for the swap, mainly the machined/balanced flywheel and engine mount. Once I have those I can start mounting the L67 in the Fiero and plan out my exhaust system. From there things will start progressing pretty quickly.

I'll try and get pictures up tomorrow of the swap items I already have including the engine harness, fuel lines, etc.
 

Jfrost

TCG Elite Member
Dec 19, 2011
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440
Brookfield
I'll get a more complete listing once I get home from work, but some of the things I have are:

rear GT clip
GT bumper (small crack in the corner)
front fenders
exterior door panels
steering column
GT rear decklid springs

....and a bunch of other parts from the Fiero I parted out.

Edit: Just found my listing on another forum. I'm not sure why some of the pictures don't show up but I'll fix it later.

http://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum4/HTML/059468.html

Is there anything in particular you are looking for?
 

Jfrost

TCG Elite Member
Dec 19, 2011
2,189
440
Brookfield
Took some pictures of the swap parts I've acquired so far.

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Custom engine harness to tie the L67 into the Fiero wiring. Everything is labeled, tested and ready to go!

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Fuel lines to connect the L67 fuel rail to the Fiero's fuel lines.

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PCM tray from a late model S10 so I can mount the L67 PCM in the stock Fiero location, only a few bucks from the junkyard!
 
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Sprayin

Public Enemy #1
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Oct 8, 2008
25,112
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Grand Rapids, MI
I'll get a more complete listing once I get home from work, but some of the things I have are:

rear GT clip
GT bumper (small crack in the corner)
front fenders
exterior door panels
steering column
GT rear decklid springs

....and a bunch of other parts from the Fiero I parted out.

Edit: Just found my listing on another forum. I'm not sure why some of the pictures don't show up but I'll fix it later.

http://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum4/HTML/059468.html

Is there anything in particular you are looking for?

Not sure right now. Ill hit you with a PM when I actually start working on mine again lol. Various knick-knacks. Mine isnt a GT, so wouldnt need any body parts.
 

Jfrost

TCG Elite Member
Dec 19, 2011
2,189
440
Brookfield
Mine isnt a GT, so wouldnt need any body parts.

You could make it a GT if you wanted....I have most of the parts for the rear end conversion :wink:

Damn coming together very nicely

Thanks, I'll be buying some more conversion/restoration parts here soon. Can't wait for warmer weather to do more work out in the garage on this.
 

Sprayin

Public Enemy #1
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Oct 8, 2008
25,112
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Grand Rapids, MI
Still looks a lot better than mine! I'm liking the bumperpad bumpers though, very nice.

That was like 4 years ago. It has a lot more wear and tear now. I really need to clean it up. What I really need are those rear sail windows. You have a GT though and those are different. Mine somehow cracked, then flaked off over time (its just a piece of glass stuck to a black background, not actually a window). I should really buy a new decklid too.

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Fuel lines to connect the L67 fuel rail to the Fiero's fuel lines.

Have a question about these. Are these like a swap kit or are they off another car? I'm looking for something like this, but I dont have an L67, mine is a Ford 302. Im sure I could just change the fittings to work with a Ford or aftermarket rail. I'm kinda just looking for something to completely replace all the fuel lines as I'm sure whats on there is not stock and kinda looks/works like shit lol.
 

Jfrost

TCG Elite Member
Dec 19, 2011
2,189
440
Brookfield
Have a question about these. Are these like a swap kit or are they off another car? I'm looking for something like this, but I dont have an L67, mine is a Ford 302. Im sure I could just change the fittings to work with a Ford or aftermarket rail. I'm kinda just looking for something to completely replace all the fuel lines as I'm sure whats on there is not stock and kinda looks/works like shit lol.

I bought these as a kit from a member on my Fiero forum that were specifically made to work in a Fiero. They are really well made and I'm sure you'd be able to make a set. I feel more comfortable having someone experienced make fuel lines rather than try it myself. The risk is not worth saving a few bucks, I think these were only like $60 shipped.
 

Sprayin

Public Enemy #1
TCG Premium
Oct 8, 2008
25,112
20,155
Grand Rapids, MI
I bought these as a kit from a member on my Fiero forum that were specifically made to work in a Fiero. They are really well made and I'm sure you'd be able to make a set. I feel more comfortable having someone experienced make fuel lines rather than try it myself. The risk is not worth saving a few bucks, I think these were only like $60 shipped.

Well yeah it would be on my Fiero. It has a Ford engine in it haha. Im on Fiero.nl do u have a link to where he sells them? Ill PM and see what he says..
 
G

guspech750

Guest
Damn. I love it!! I think the Fiero is one of the coolest cars. I had always wanted one. I test drove one to possibly buy as my first car back in 91. The stupid check engine light came on :(. So I didn't buy it :(

I had never seen or heard of the swap you are doing. I've always heard of the Archie V-8 swaps.

Man. Keep up the pictures and info. This is a great build!!
 

Jfrost

TCG Elite Member
Dec 19, 2011
2,189
440
Brookfield
Well yeah it would be on my Fiero. It has a Ford engine in it haha. Im on Fiero.nl do u have a link to where he sells them? Ill PM and see what he says..

I'm dumb haha. Yeah his name on fiero.nl L67 I believe, he should have a thread in the mall section.

I had never seen or heard of the swap you are doing. I've always heard of the Archie V-8 swaps.

Man. Keep up the pictures and info. This is a great build!!

Thanks! I'll try and keep it updated as much as possible. The V8 swap is very popular, but the 3800 swap is quickly becoming one of the most popular swaps in a Fiero b/c it is relatively inexpensive and easy.

There are bunches of video's on Youtube of 3800 swapped Fiero's.
 

Jfrost

TCG Elite Member
Dec 19, 2011
2,189
440
Brookfield
Didn't get anything done on the Fiero this weekend but I manage to teach my girlfriend how to drive stick in it. She did a lot better than my first time, she only stalled 3 or 4 times. Now I have a backup driver if I need a DD.

On the agenda for next weekend is a visit to a junkyard to track down a brake booster from an S10 to help the lackluster Fiero brakes. I'm waiting on a reply from a vendor so I can purchase a low mount alternator kit, engine bracket, and cut/balance flywheel. Pics of the engine mount bracket and low mount alt kit below, borrowed these from the vendor:

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To give everyone a better idea of what is needed for the exhaust setup I am going to run I grabbed a few pictures from a Fiero forum I’m a part of.

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I’ll have to cut the trunk in order to use the ceramic coated ZZP headers from my GTP, here is a picture from a different L67 swap to give an idea of what is needed.

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Taken from another L67 swap here is a general design to what I’ll be doing for my exhaust on the Fiero. I have a TOG dp I’ll be cutting up to use the cat and flange to build the exhaust system.

To give an idea of where I started with my Fiero L67 swap here are pictures from the first Fiero I intended to use in the swap.

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This is how the car looked when I picked it up. It was in rough shape as it had been sitting for a bit and had 176k miles on it. The original owner said it just needed a new ignition switch to get the car running. That was partially true. I don’t really know what happened, but somehow the engine mount sheared in half, the harmonic balancer wore out and caused the engine to run like crap. The engine would start and run but would die if I didn’t keep on the gas. The interior was in remarkably nice shape for its age and the mileage.

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Unfortunately once I removed the engine I realized the rust damage on the Fiero was beyond my capabilities to fix.

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This is the driver’s side rear frame rail that was pretty well rusted away.

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The trunk was pretty well rusted away at the corners as well.

This is what led me to buy my current Fiero to build up, lower mileage, less and more manageable rust damage (inevitable with a Fiero from the Midwest). I’ve removed the majority of the parts from my first Fiero to save for my current build and to save usable parts from the scrapper. .

I hope to have a better update this weekend with some actual work being done on the car.
 
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