Colinb17's Little Red Rocket Build: 1988 Fiero

Woot. Loving that new dog bone. Equivalent to me installing traction bars in the rear. Plant and go.

Looks like I'll be grabbing some of those bits as well.

 

With two right hand threads there isn't a chance of it loosening at least.

Can't remember did you go through the rest of the bushings on the car? I bet that entire car could use replacements.

I have a full set of replacement rubber bushings coming for my car (OE style). Unfortunately the company doesn't have a fiero set.

 

good comparison. two different parts yielding the same result.

you'll love the bits. just go slow at first, ask me how I know......

a number of the rubber components have been replaced, but I do need to do more.

transmission and differential mounts were replaced when I had the motor out. the motor mount itself was in good shape though and appeared to have been replaced at some point. all of the bushings and rubber spring isolators were replaced when I redid the suspension. all that's left really are the bushings in the suspension arms. and the sway bar bushings. none of them are falling apart, but I would still like to replace all of them with polyurethane. prothane makes all of the necessary bushings. sells them In a kit for under $200 I think. it's like 20 different bushing sets

 

29 years has probably deteriorated them a bit even if they do look ok. Guarantee the car will feel better once they get replaced as well.

 

for sure! I just have to wait until we move. house is currently listed for sale, and it doesn't look good if I have a car in the driveway on jackstands when someone comes buy to check the place out.

 

finally tracked down some over the roof scoops for the gokart! estimates typically say there were roughly 2000 pairs made (which is a very small number). Add to that, that those 2000 pairs were made 30 years ago, and who knows how many are left. if a pair comes up for sale, either on a forum, facebook, or ebay, it is rare that they last more than a few hours. I got lucky with my timing on Friday and claimed a pair. seller went by the post office today for a shipping quote, and they will be sent out on Friday...........from Europe.

it's weird that nearly all of the parts for my Japanese truck come from the US, but this is now the 3rd item for my American made car that is coming from Europe.

I do have a question for you guys, but first, piktars!

not the ones I'm getting, but pictures of the scoops from google.









Now for the question......

The scoops are extremely good at forcing air into the engine bay, be if for cooling or the intake. at least initially, I will used these for cooling purposes (and I just like the look). however, the run so much air into the engine bay that there is an issue with the air circulating back out. there are numerous reports of people saying their ass end got very light at high speeds after putting them on with no other modification, because all of the air wants to go out the bottom of the engine bay, creating lift.

There is a simple and proven solution to this; a decklid vent between the scoops. my question is how to vent it, both for aesthetics and functionality.

Options are as follows:

some 84 fieros came with a center decklid vent, but I think it looks pretty terrible


other people go all out an fiberglass in a louver. honestly, that's a little more work than I want to do.


my inbetween solution is to get a nice louver or hood scoop, cut a hole in the decklid, and bolt it down. my problem is that I have a limited amount of space to work with, since I have the contoured decklid that was put on "performance" models. the raised section that I can cut out is roughly 21'' side to side, and 12 inches front to back. so I need a vent that fists that space.

if I go with a backwards facing hood scoop, the carbon WRX scoop is a nice fit.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/02-03-WRX-G...m5b27561043:m:mTXfDtXI5N-t7Maqqjdk_8Q&vxp=mtr


a recessed reverse scoop would also be great, but I'm having a hard time finding dimensions on them ,and fear they'd be too large based on the photos.




I'd like to do one large louver like this, but again, they are all too big, as they are meant to take the entire hood of a corvette or similar


and finally, I guess I could put two NACA style intake ducts backwards on it. while that would be very minimalistic, I feel it would just look odd


so with the WRX hood scoop currently being the easiest option, do yall have any suggestions on where to look, or prefferences on the looks of each style? my first resort was to check APR, but they had a lot of inlet ducts and very few vents. after a couple more pages like that, I resorted to ebay, where I've found most of the above.

 

How bout something like these vents?
http://www.obpltd.com/Essential-Parts/Cooling-Louvers

 

Depending on your car's underbelly, don't forget about inverted wings. Such as on Ferrari's and the like. I mean, yours is practically a Ferrari.

 

I've actually been trying to find ones like that, but in the opposite orientation. I need something wide, but not long. most of the ones that style are long but not wide. and the square shaped ones are just really small.

 

Next question. How fast are these people driving, when they notice this lift that you speak of?

 

Seibon or VIS have anything to offer?

 

yes, totally a ferarri

you mean like this? guy literally took a factory spoiler, wingstands and all, and bolted it to the bottom, upside down.....

not over 100 from what I can tell.

 

unfortunately no. seibon had some larger parts (too large), and I couldn't find anything from VIS, since it's mostly vehicle specific, and hard so search by part type.

 

You thought of buying a louver press and making your own? Or a sheet metal shop should have one, should be pretty easy to make a 12x21 louvered piece. I remember back in the day when it was popular to louver your hood, body shops were doing it.

 

that's a very good idea! i'll have to look into some dies. I have a 12 ton press in the garage that is plenty wide for something like this.

 

Something more discrete than in that photo.

http://www.f1technical.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=23898

The 360, don't quote, has an inverted wing, underneath as well. Small, but effective.

 

aaaaaand nevermind. looks like louver punches in the size range I need are as much as what I paid for the car

if I go the fabricated route, i'll probably just build a frame the dimensions I need, and then weld in angled flat bar.

something like this, but a rectangle

 

gotcha! I've always called those diffusers, but I know exactly what you mean now. I actually started looking into building one of those when I started the front splitter.

 

In conjunction or independant of the diffusers, but we both are on the same level now.

I like that last photo.

 

just be aware, the WRX scoops are not flat on the bottom, they have a curve to match the hood of the car in two directions, so they take a fair amount of fitting work to sit flat