86 Parts Car

[dguy]

Our latest acquisition, which has a dryly amusing story behind it.

We purchased it from a neighbour, who had himself purchased it in the condition shown below as a potential trike project.

The owner previous to our neighbour, was a Darwin Awards candidate.   

For reasons unknown, he decided to take the car through a ploughed field.  Thereupon he met up with a partially burried culvert, at a good clip given the extent of the damage.  Looks like the lower part of the bumper connected with the culvert, taking out the radiator, steering rack, and coming to a stop against the front crossmember.  Meanwhile the driver was making his own emergency exit via the windshield.   

[dguy]

Engine has no leaks worth mentioning, compression is apparently good, so I suspect that I'll find myself "updating" Kitten's '84 next summer as it's just starting to show the signs of needing a thorough overhaul.   

Anywho...  we found this on the underside of the engine compartment vents.  I've never seen this style of "screen" on the underside of the vents before.  Everything I've ever dealt with up until now was a honeycomb (including on my first Fiero, which was also a 86 2M4).  Given that the decklid weatherstrip was also still in place, and that there were none of the expected yellow recall stickers on the underside of the decklid, I'm guessing that this style of vent was likely a pre-recall item.  Anyone know for certain?

[2ML67]

Probably a late 86 as I have found those on 87/88's. Dan

[poupas]

That car wouldnt be a standard would it with a good clutch master cylinder? I just had to ask.
                                        Andrew

[34FieroGT]

I believe that I have the same screens on my engine compartment vents (86 GT).  My digital camera is on the fritz so I can't take a pic, but I can show them to you at the next GTG.

[dguy]

Dan, Tyler...

Thanks for the comments on the grills.  Now I feel like I lead a sheltered life or something. 


Andrew...

'fraid we're being greedy and keeping pretty much everything for the time being.  There might be a number of items available next summer after we decide whether or not the upgrade for Kitten's car is a go or not, but not until then.

[poupas]

Just thought I would ask.
I may as well add some info on the subject of vents. I dont think mine look like that, I do believe mine have many holes in them(86GT), but I could be wrong. I can tell you that they are fantastic for collecting leaves!
                                              Andrew

[GoFast88]

my $.02
the 88 coupe has grills like that.

[dguy]

Well I guess it's rather fortunate that we got our hands on this car when we did.

The starter motor on Kitten's car has decided to shear off one of its mounting ears, and the other bolt has broken off deep inside the block.     ...and for some strange reason I'm far more interested in re-wiring the '84 from the instrument panel back to the tail lights, than I am in dropping the exhaust out of the way and going to town with a drill, tap, and/or extractor set.   

[Kevin]

That happened to mine. Thank goodness for the starter bracket or I would have been in trouble. That bolt is very inaccessable place I have tried everything from a Dremel to a foot long drill bit and could not get at it. I will fix it when I pull the cradle out. Kevin

[2ML67]

If you don't mind the poor location of the C500 connector that engine should bolt and wire right in just have to change oil pressure sensor. Dan

[dguy]

If you don't mind the poor location of the C500 connector that engine should bolt and wire right in just have to change oil pressure sensor.

Nah, I'm going all-out. 

The main wiring harness from the '86 is intact with the exception of some butchery at the radio connections, which would require some mucking about with in any case to work with the 84's speaker seats.  Re-wiring it should be more time consuming than difficult.

Not only does C500 get to conveniently move itself in the process, but that funky relay-driven inner brake/signal light nonsense can go where the sun don't shine too.  Not to mention that it'll be a prime opportunity to...  correct some other wiring oddities while I'm in there.  

I look at it as preparation for my <insert supremely unpredictable future date here> L67 swap.  If I can bring an 84's wiring "up to spec" with the later year models, hooking up a Haltech ECM should be easy.   

That happened to mine. Thank goodness for the starter bracket or I would have been in trouble.

I assume you mean the "tail" support that some have and some don't?    The only thing that kept her starter from hitting the ground, was that it happened to pinch itself between the catalytic converter & the heat shield which protects the fuel filler neck & whatnot.  Fortunately the pos^ve battery cable didn't find anything to ground itself against in the process!

Incidentally, that's what killed my first Fiero as well...  The outer bolt snapped off, but I was able to drill it through & ghetto'd it with a chunk of threaded rod and a fistfull of nuts.  About a year later the inner bolt failed.  At that point enough of the rear frame had been eaten by the rusties that it simply wasn't worth fixing.