End of the year updates

Been working on the car over the last few days since the shop is on Xmas shutdown, its been nice cause I've gotten a few things done, mostly with the shifter, interior bits and pieces, finished modifying the brake/clutch and mounted the gas pedal. What I didn't get done was the front suspension, I was looking to finish it but since I ran into steering geometry issues I've been leaning and looking into doing a 88 suspension swap. I will have a 88 front cradle coming in early next year and I'll be rebuilding it all again, but that's another story, this is about what I did over the last 3 days.

First I started with welding the shifter bracket in place, I needed to move it since the 240 dash was interfering with the location of the stock bracket, once I got that located then I needed to work on the shifter cables, I opted to get rid of the stock ION cables for something a little easier to adjust and stiffer mounting, from my local idea store (Princess auto) I found cables, but after fooling around with them last week I noticed a fundamental problem, the cables although really nice had a problem with it not being able to allow for flex, they were too rigid. So I had to "dismantle" them, and the stock GM cables, removing the plastic shaft with ball joint that allowed the stock cable to move with the pivot action of the shifter and transmission links. After fighting all day with them I finally got them done and installed on the shifter housing, the next day I tackled the transmission mounting and with some fine tuning and adjusting of the cables the system works fairly well, although I am going to have to install a 5th/reverse lockout guide on the shifter housing, but that's a project for another day.

Next I tackled the stock ION brake and clutch switches, it was more simple, just had to cut a couple tabs from the stock ION foot pedal assembly and weld them to the Fiero assembly. The gas pedal since it is a electronic fly by wire system needed a chunk of the stock ION mounting bracket cut off and welded to the Fiero chassis and a re-enforcing bracket be welded to the brake pedal assembly.

I also got a bit more of the rear hatch done, mounted the gas lift struts although thinking about it I might go and grab a pair of linear actuators and have some lifting action put into the hatch. I did get to tackle some alum TIG welding as well, welded up some of the ducting for the intercooler so it will line up with the scoop that I will have to build into the hatch.

Lastly I started welding brackets in place to mount the 240 dash, until now it was just laying in the car with no bolts or support, also started mocking up the center console pieces with a combination of 240 and Fiero plastic pieces.

On to some pics

Its been a busy month, some progress.

Its been a busy one lately, with xmas, family emergency, work and regular day to day life, but I have gotten a few more things started.

Mainly I started doing some dash work with getting the seats semi mounted (this project is on pause right now), when I got the dash mounted I realized the stock Fiero shifter location is directly in the way of the main console, so the shifter had to be moved and re-designed. When I started looking at the shifter assembly I also started looking at better cables which I am still trying to figure out so it might not look 100% correct right now.

Also, I started working on the auxiliary gauge setup in the dash........I've got 8 gauges right now, looking for a place to maybe fit one more, also I am going to have to figure out where to mount the stereo, because there is absolutely no room left in the dash, lastly I got the rims and wheels back on the car, the last month has been really bad for moving the car around the shop on the dolly, the weight of the chassis crushed the rubber wheels and split them open making it next to impossible to roll the car.

Lastly I might have run into a problem with the front steering requiring me to have to re-design the rack mounting location, I'm not getting proper angles one the wheels when turned to full lock..........more work.