Fieros and I go way back, to before I could even drive. The first time I heard about them I think I was 12 or 13, when a guy I knew told me about a nice looking little 2 seat car. What caught, and held me was when he said, “They’re fast enough to get you in trouble, and if you know how to drive, they’re fast enough to get you back out.”
That’s all I knew about them, but little 12(ish) year old me was sold.
It wasn’t until later, I think when I was 19, when I officially started my 30-year obsession. I talked my mom into letting me trade “my” Ford Tempo in on an ‘84 Fiero that I found at some shady little buy-here-pay-here place in Barberton, OH. They were anxious to get rid of it because it had an oil leak bad enough that they didn’t want me to drive it, but their world class mechanic </sarcasm> didn’t know what I knew. Ma and I drove the thing home, pulling a half mile smoke trail behind me. It was so bad she made me stop several times to make sure we weren’t on fire. A quick timing cover seal later, and she was all good to go.
Man, look at how young I was…
She was a good car, for quite some time, lots of stories that I may share sometime down the road. She met an unworthy demise, though. After an engine swap or 2, and countless fun miles, she finally became so rusty that she wasn’t safe to drive anymore.
Enter the ‘86 SE. With a nickname that’s not meant for polite society, she and I have had a tumultuous relationship. I picked her up from a guy named Matt out Youngstown way, with a spun rod bearing. Chassis was amazing, practically zero rust. Long story short, replaced the engine, drove it a while, engine blew up. Rebuilt that engine, blew that up on break-in, 0 miles driven. (I was young and dumb.) Got an NOS block and rebuilt things yet again, drove that for just a little while, collapsed a lifter. Sat. Replaced the cam and lifters, collapsed the same one 200 miles later, and now it’s sitting again. Has been since before I got married, which for those of you who are counting, was 15 years ago. It has the distinction of being the first Fiero that I’ve taken to a show, where she could have won an award for being the dirtiest car there.
Years passed with no running Fiero. I’d always had plans of putting a 3800SC in the ‘86 SE, but she needed some body work, so on Craigslist I found another inop ‘86SE that had good body panels, but it was a package deal, coming with a rough running ‘86GT. So I head up to Medina, and buy 2 more Fieros, off of another guy named Matt. Kept the SE for parts, and got the GT running a bit better. That is, until I tried to take it up town one day, and noticed it was driving sideways. Cradle is shot…
Being less a running Fiero YET again, my wife happened across a craigslist add for an ‘85GT for sale in Barberton a couple years ago for a decent price. After several failed attempts to look at it, and a couple failed attempts at buying it, I finally got a signed title from a guy named… Yep, you guessed it, Matt. This one, who has yet to earn a name, has been driven the most out of all of my Fieros, I believe. I’ll post some follow-ups about the rebuild process, but she’s been to shows in southeast PA 3 times now, no problems! I’ve rebuilt the entire suspension, engine, exhaust, brake and clutch lines, headlight motors, lots of wiring, changed it from a 4 speed to a 5 speed, and done some interior work. Right now I’m working on painting her and doing some more interior work, so hopefully she looks as good as she sounds come next show season.
And this is where I’ll leave you, for now. Keep checking back for updates on what I’ve done to the ‘85GT, and updates on finishing her off!