1 ... 9 10 11 12 13 ... 16
alfadriver
alfadriver HalfDork
9/16/09 2:51 p.m.
Nashco wrote:
DILYSI Dave wrote:
Nashco wrote: I wish I could track down some of those free/near-free autocross tires that I am always hearing about with challengers!
What size rims?
The car currently has 15x6 fronts and 15x7 rears (stock stuff for the '88 Fiero). Bryce

AKA- 205- 15. They fit perfect on the 7's, close enough on the 6's.

You don't have any budget left, right, Bryce? And you are flying to Florida, too, right?

(just filling in the info- the set I could donate are corded, are just are used to move a car around)

E-

DILYSI Dave
DILYSI Dave SuperDork
9/16/09 4:00 p.m.

I've got a set of not great but not-yet-dead Hoosier A6's in 225/45/15 that I can send down with the Hongs if they don't mind. I tried to get $100 for them locally but couldn't. I'll trade them for a 12 of your favorite beer.

They will be a little pinched on the 7" rims. They will fit on the 6", but the tire guy will hate you.

AngryCorvair
AngryCorvair GRM+ Memberand SuperDork
9/16/09 4:47 p.m.

i also have a set of 225/45-15 A6's, currently on early 944 phone dials but i'd dismount them for you. can deliver to challenge, will charge you only eleven of your favorite beer, which is a substantial discount over dilysi dave's offer.

Nashco
Nashco SuperDork
9/16/09 5:26 p.m.

Hmm...very interesting guys, thanks for the offers (Dave, do you price match? JUST KIDDING!). I've never had that much tire on a 6" rim, I wonder if you could even get a flat-ish contact patch. In any case, it would probably still be better in the autocross than the all seasons I've got now. Anybody in the Gainesville area know of any uber-cheap tire shops? I'll punch some numbers into my budget tonight to update the latest progress on the car and see exactly what I can afford.

Bryce

MrJoshua
MrJoshua SuperDork
9/16/09 6:34 p.m.

We had that size on a second gen rx7 challenger with a 6" stock rim. Worked rather well. 8th place raw time in autocross.

P71
P71 GRM+ Memberand SuperDork
9/16/09 9:04 p.m.

Most factory 225 tires are mounted on 7" wheels, so a 6" shouldn't be too bad (depending on the actual width of the tire).

Do you have the big ole GRM numberplates?

KurtAKX
KurtAKX None
9/16/09 10:00 p.m.
AngryCorvair wrote: i also have a set of 225/45-15 A6's, currently on early 944 phone dials but i'd dismount them for you. can deliver to challenge, will charge you only eleven of your favorite beer, which is a substantial discount over dilysi dave's offer.

Hey PC, supporting the Fiero commnunity I see.

Nashco, go get 'em in Florida!

Nashco
Nashco SuperDork
9/17/09 1:15 p.m.
P71 wrote: Do you have the big ole GRM numberplates?

Nope...I was running under the assumption that all the stickers I need to run were provided at the challenge.

Bryce

Tom Heath
Tom Heath Marketing / Club Coordinator
9/17/09 1:46 p.m.
Nashco wrote:
P71 wrote: Do you have the big ole GRM numberplates?
Nope...I was running under the assumption that all the stickers I need to run were provided at the challenge. Bryce

Don't worry, we've got them for you here in Florida. Can't wait to check this one out!

P71
P71 GRM+ Memberand SuperDork
9/17/09 2:12 p.m.

Ah, ok. I wasn't sure how the sticker thing worked and I have a spare set of BRM numberboards here.

AngryCorvair
AngryCorvair GRM+ Memberand SuperDork
9/17/09 6:05 p.m.
KurtAKX wrote:
AngryCorvair wrote: i also have a set of 225/45-15 A6's, currently on early 944 phone dials but i'd dismount them for you. can deliver to challenge, will charge you only eleven of your favorite beer, which is a substantial discount over dilysi dave's offer.
Hey PC, supporting the Fiero commnunity I see. Nashco, go get 'em in Florida!

Kurt, it's about time you got on here!

KurtAKX
KurtAKX New Reader
9/18/09 9:26 p.m.

In reply to AngryCorvair:

What can I say, long time listener, first-time caller.

Nashco, sent you 25 via paypal, to help. Would have sent more but I've been out of work since May 15 2009.

spin_out
spin_out New Reader
9/19/09 7:47 a.m.

I too would have sent more, but I have to compete against him. :)

Looking forward to seeing the car in person.
I hope he is able to compete on R-compounds.
(It probably gets hard to stay on budget when you could really use 4 drag slicks and 4 autocross tires.)

InigoMontoya
InigoMontoya Reader
9/19/09 3:13 p.m.

The 225s should work fine, there is a local miata guy here running on 15x6 inch rims with A6s, they are not as flat as the 205s, but would be better than all seasons.

Nashco
Nashco SuperDork
9/19/09 6:23 p.m.

Well, the Fiero is officially out of my hands. I dropped it off at the transporter yesterday...I sure hope it makes it without a hitch. More updates soon...

Bryce

HIDGolf
HIDGolf New Reader
9/19/09 8:11 p.m.

I'm stoked, Bryce!

Pat
Pat New Reader
9/19/09 8:37 p.m.

Very cool. See you down there.

Nashco
Nashco SuperDork
9/20/09 3:51 a.m.

As promised, time for more updates with pictures.

As mentioned earlier, we've fabbed up a battery box out of HVAC sheetmetal, so it's pretty cheap stuff and is fairly easy to form. Aaron did most of the sheet metal work on the battery box, I can't take credit for it.

One of the many interior pieces we had previously stripped out was the headliner, which was sagging in typical 80's GM fashion. Jessica fixed this, very cleverly considering she had absolutely zero guidance. First she removed the foam backing which had deteriorated so that the cloth and cardboard would get as good of a bond as possible. She pinned the headliner to the cardboard at the two mirror mounting locations to keep the cloth in the same spot as it was originally, then laid down a layer of spray can glue and stuck things together as necessary. As you can see, the time has paid off as this headliner looks pretty dang good for an original 80's GM headliner!

Some more of Jessica's handywork, freshly repainted engine vents. The half-price trim paint we got has really come in handy, the stuff looks spot on to how it was supposed to look out of the factory.

This is what we've used for most of the "restoration" work we've done, all half priced stuff from a GI Joe's that was closing down. GI Joe's - great idea, poor execution. It was a camping/hunting/automotive/sports store. Basically, a man zone. RIP GI Joe's. I've been really impressed with the VHT paint and the trim paint. We've had to lay it on a bit thin to stretch the can (for budget reasons) but it is still holding up pretty well considering the car has almost 3000 miles on it since we first sprayed it and the finishes are exactly as we'd hope for. These nozzles also work well, so it's an all around good deal.

Not the greatest picture, but here's a shot showing the recently detailed/repaired/repainted trim pieces. Lots of little stuff that all adds up like the air dam, mirror, quarter window (sail panel, in the Fiero world), door handles, surround trim, front emblem, wheels, etc.

Jessica is slowly getting used to the "point of no return" mods, this was her first power tool to car part experience like that. Sure, it's only a dremel, but we all started somewhere, right? Here she's modifying the center console so it can fit around our new battery pack.

I was so proud of my new EV cooling tubes that Jessica made me model them. The black ones are freshly painted and ready to install, the silver ones are what I started with. The tubes were only a buck each from another closing store, Linens and Things I think...not nearly as impacting as GI Joes but still good for something! I bent the tubes with my Harbor Freight pipe bender, it's not good for much but it was good enough for this job!

Over the last few nights before the truck was shipped out, we were consuming copious amounts of caffeine. Healthy, I'm sure...thank goodness it's only during crunch time! This was just from our last night of excitement:

Yuck! I don't know how people drink this stuff every day, but during times like these it is the nectar of the gods! Oh yeah, and lack of sleep had us a bit loopy too. Jessica was having a little too much fun...I guess if she wanted a mustache, at least she wanted a classy mustache? She wore this mustache for at least a half hour, I couldn't stop giggling. Perhaps you had to be there.

Not much to say here, I've been showing you the "how it's made" shots all along, here's what the under-hood looks like now (note the lack of wire explosion in the under hood and interior):

Exterior shot:

Interior shot:

We still have a few more things we are working on, of course, but that's all I've got to show for now. We're happy with how much more we got done this week, but of course there's ALWAYS more to be done. I hope it shows up to Florida in good shape!

Bryce

HIDGolf
HIDGolf New Reader
9/20/09 10:05 a.m.

Fantastic Jessica and Bryce! The headliner looks great! Nice to see your graduation gift is still being put to good use!

blizazer
blizazer New Reader
9/20/09 10:15 a.m.

Wow, its looking much better than it did in San Diego, good work guys!

I'm looking forward to seeing it in action again in Florida.

KurtAKX
KurtAKX New Reader
9/20/09 11:36 a.m.

In reply to Nashco:

You left at least $100 in the budget! I spy a dash with uncracked vent corners (jealous) and a 120mph speedo that could be swapped out to yield a little extra cash should it become necessary.

Good luck, again!

ww
ww SuperDork
9/20/09 1:09 p.m.
Nashco wrote:
DILYSI Dave wrote:
Nashco wrote: I wish I could track down some of those free/near-free autocross tires that I am always hearing about with challengers!
What size rims?
The car currently has 15x6 fronts and 15x7 rears (stock stuff for the '88 Fiero). Bryce

Darn it. I have a spare set of 205/50/15 Hoosier A6's just sitting in my garage... Too bad we couldn't get them on the transport... Wait, how many carry-on's can a person have...?

MrJoshua
MrJoshua SuperDork
9/20/09 1:12 p.m.
ww wrote:
Nashco wrote:
DILYSI Dave wrote:
Nashco wrote: I wish I could track down some of those free/near-free autocross tires that I am always hearing about with challengers!
What size rims?
The car currently has 15x6 fronts and 15x7 rears (stock stuff for the '88 Fiero). Bryce
Darn it. I have a spare set of 205/50/15 Hoosier A6's just sitting in my garage... Too bad we couldn't get them on the transport... Wait, how many carry-on's can a person have...?

Stuff your clothes inside, put a handle on top, call them suitcases.

HIDGolf
HIDGolf New Reader
9/20/09 7:25 p.m.

We should try to snap a photo of the car from above, with the hood and engine covers open so you can see both drivetrains.

Nashco
Nashco SuperDork
9/21/09 3:09 p.m.

It was only a few seconds, but apparently the car was on the Speed Channel on Sept. 11, sneaking into the Grand Challenge video:

http://www.grid1.tv/?browse/media_vault/tribes?id=1_227#browse/media_vault/tribes?id=1_227

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ad-QCa9xdY

It's about 30 seconds into the youtube video. It's been a while since I had Speed, I stopped going out of my way to get it when it changed from Speedvision to the NASCAR channel. Maybe they've changed...?

In reply to KurtAKX:

Unfortunately, my recoup is pretty much tapped out because I got the car for pretty cheap (about $500). You'll notice I still have the aux gauges in the car, too, which are also worth some coin. I've long thought it was odd that the rules cap the recoup at the purchase price, since it doesn't reflect the real world budget constraints, but since them's the rules I just play by 'em.

Bryce

1 ... 9 10 11 12 13 ... 16

You'll need to log in to post.

Our Preferred Partners
Q7hdcmPBSyQzyFn0WLGb1IcGrwlrecwXr3uvmCLNTV7TrIFhypkyupxE7ehav5Oy