Not any more. That's called making a smart, responsible decision, and is to be commended. You took a few laps around the fuckwad parking lot to get there, but at least you did. Good on ya.
I was wondering anyone knew a trick for getting rust off of chrome? My brother stored his rims in the garage for the winter and low and behold there are rust spots on the inner part of the rim. If you need a picture PM me, but if you know any good solutions it would be appreciated.
Come on dude you did not even try!!! http://tinyurl.com/28dmpxa It would of taken less time to google it than it did to type your post.
I'm planning on finally putting the hood sticker on my 71 challenger this weekend, but I've never put a decal on a car before, much less one this large. It covers the majority of the hood. I've looked a few things up online about how to do it, and read the directions, but they mostly suggest using detergent as a form of lubricant to allow you to move it around once it's on. I was just curious if anyone else had done something like this before and if you had any suggestions, or knew of any good products that might be better than detergent. Thanks for any help.
A friend of mine uses my shop to put vinyl on larger vehicles when the weather is crappy so I've assisted with the application every so often. Make sure the area on your hood is stripped of wax. Very important step. Use some painters tape to mark a few alignment points (top and bottom corners, or center, etc depending on what the sticker looks like). Use warm water and a very small amount of dish soap to keep the sticker from adhering prematurely. Once you're line up use some painters tape to keep the sticker in place and then squeegee the water out from under the sticker. Go slow with the squeegee since you want to squeeze out as much water as possible. Also do this on a nice warm sunny day. After you think you've got all the water out park it and come back to it in 30 minutes. Go over the sticker again (back to front) smoothing out and little water pocket bubbles. Just don't jump in the car and drive it until the vehicle has sat for a couple hours since the engine heat can fuck up the sticker if all the water isn't out from under it yet.
So I just pulled my old Fiero out of storage up at my grandma's cabin and drove it down to my house. Damn, it's been 10 years since I've driven that car with any regularity and fuck it needs work. Needs a new paint job, exterior work, as well as some mechanical work; The clutch isn't disengaging properly and the engine doesn't like to idle either (having the wrong injectors in there doesn't help I'm sure.). I could easily drop 10-15k getting it fixed and restored and am not sure I want to. The crux of it is that even if money wasn't an issue I don't know how much enjoyment I'd really get out of it. I mean as I was driving it down I was constantly reminded just by looking around the interior that this is a 25 year old car. It's like when I was 16 and driving it it seemed really cool but now that I've owned a more modern car I notice things that I never noticed or cared about before. On the other hand though I remember how much I love the way the car handles; even though the suspension is feeling its age and I've driven more powerful sports cars for my money nothing feels better than driving a mid-engine car. So I guess I'm just torn right now.
So what are you torn about? Keeping it and fixing it or selling it? I can throw anything and everything away... except for my vehicles. For some reason a few have a special place in my heart (and therefore wallet) causing me to invest far more into them than they'll ever be worth. I liked the Fiero but never owned one. You don't see many on the road and I know there are mods that make them insanely fast (I know a guy who put a Syclone 4.3L turbo motor and drivetrain in one... nuts), but if you drop even $8k into it... you won't be getting back in any form other than enjoyment.
The apprehension I have is the nagging feeling that even if I drop thousands of dollars into it I won't be able to get it to run well; As it is the car's on it's 3rd engine since I've had it. I mean I know the money I put into it won't ever really increase the value of the car, but what I'm afraid of is putting 10k+ into the car (new engine, new drivetrain, etc.) only to have it not run any better than it runs now, i.e. mostly ok but never well enough to make me feel that I could take it on a road trip without worrying that I'm going to end up with a disabled vehicle on the side of the road somewhere. I don't want a project car. If I'm going to spend a lot of money on this thing I want to at least have some confidence that I can take it out for a spin and get it back home without mechanical issues.
Get ahold of these guys: <a class="postlink" href="http://www.moradpartscompany.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.moradpartscompany.com/</a> There are a ton of Fiero guys that have done the 3800 supercharged engine swap into their cars, a bunch that have done Northstar V8 swaps, and even some that have done the LS4 V8 swap. Right now they have a Northstar V8 with transmission for $800 in their ebay store, or an LS4 with transmission and all wiring harness/computers for $2500. You can get yourself a reliable engine and drivetrain for a lot less than you think. Just about any front wheel drive GM engine will drop in that Fiero.
What caused the other engines to fail? Honestly for $10k I could take a Fiero and make it a reliable rocketship. You've piqued my curiosity so I did a little research (I'm having a weekend hangover so I'm in no mood to do work) Engine failure seems to be a major concern so swap in a ultra reliable & proven 350 chevy sb to start. Pepper in some suspension upgrades and new paint since it needs it. - 350 Chevy crate motor: $1,600 (you can probably do better but this is an average price) - Engine retrofit kit: $950 (requires no cutting or fabrication on the frame) - Misc parts for conversion (remote oil filter, etc) $1,100 - Paint: $2,000 - Suspension upgrade: $350-$1,700 depending how wild you go - Labor: $2-3K... If you pull the old motor yourself you'll save a fair amount of $$$. PS. I'm honestly looking at these fucking cars on Ebay now. If I end up buying one I'm going to murder you for putting yet another project in my head.
Engine #1: Original engine, was in bad shape. Not a lot of miles on it but it was more cost effective to get a new one than to do all the repairs to the original. Engine #2: Rebuilt 3.1 V6. The engine was fine until I got the clutch replaced; the idiot did the repairs put the wrong clutch in so every time I engaged the clutch I actually moved the crankshaft about a quarter inch. On to engine #3. Engine #3: Another rebuilt 3.1. I don't think there's actually anything wrong with the engine, it's just that I've always wanted to put something more powerful in it and now I finally have the means to do so. Which of course leads to... I know the 350 conversion is one of the most popular but on the other hand I've heard some people are of the opinion that it's just too heavy of engine for the car and negatively impacts the handling. Although this may no longer be the case since I haven't followed up on that conversion in over 10 years so it's possible that a lot of those problems have been solved. Personally I've always wanted to put a Northstar in my Fiero and am going to have to check out that link Slippingaway posted.
A year or so ago, I pulled up at the lights behind a Honda Accord Euro and could not help but notice that the rear tyres seem to be at an odd angle to the road. From where I was, it looked like the driver's side rear wheel was falling off. The owner of car had lowered it so much that for the wheel to fit it had to be what I believe is called "off camber" Now this is taking off camber to the ridiculous extreme.
Most of the Honda/Toyota/other cheap import cars that you see like that are done because they don't spend the money on a proper suspension lowering kit. A lot of them pull out an oxy/acetylene torch, and heat a coil on the spring up until it collapses. They keep doing this, one coil at a time, until it's as low as they want it. The wheels end up cambered like that because they either don't bother to adjust the suspension, or the adjustment won't go far enough to fix it completely, and they won't spend the money on the parts they need to do it right. Around here, most of those people are either high school students, or people that never graduated from high school. Around here they like to hang out in parking lots of closed businesses at night, show off all the LEDs they've put on their cars (underneath, on the tire valve stems, on the windshield wiper fluid jets, all over the interior), the giant wings on the back of their FWD cars, the interior panels they painted bright red or some other color that doesn't quite match their car, the free decals for performance companies they've never bought parts from stuck everywhere, or the other giant vinyl decals that cover half their car (and hide the door dings, scratches, and marks from other high schoolers keying their cars. They also like to show up at the meet one of the car clubs I'm in hosts every week. They park on the other side of the lot since we won't let them in, then try to do burn outs and race in the parking lot. Sometimes they try to drift, at least I think that's what they're doing when they drive in circles around the lot. Then they leave, and race each other on the frontage road (slowly) before coming back and repeating the whole cycle. It's pretty entertaining for us, since usually the Ft Worth PD shows up, catches a couple of them when they all scatter, and we get to watch them write out tickets and sometimes tow the cars. The only way out of the lot is to go by our meeting area, so we all get to watch and laugh when the cop lets them go. Since we're not idiots, we secured permission from all the businesses to meet in the lot, keep the idiots out of our meet and work with the PD to keep the idiots controlled, so the police don't bother us.
Ok weird question for you guys but seeing as I'll be car shopping this weekend, I need to ask it. I'll be looking on various used lots for something decent with no payment. I will have cash in hand. How much of an advantage does that give me as far as the asking price V this lady has cash lets make her a deal so we can sell a car! YAY!???
My family has run used car lots for a long time, and they all say cash in hand is definitely a good thing. Lots of the people who need payment plans on a used car and need to get dealer financing are doing so because their credit is not so good. The lots end up marking up the cars pretty significantly because of the risk they are bearing when people are financing the cars. If you're paying cash up front, there's no risk, so they're more willing to deal.
If you have cash in hand, why not try looking at private party cars? Get a list of cars that you would like to own and search on Craigslist, the newspaper, shopping guides for something that you might want to look at. You might wind up getting a car for much less than you can on a lot if you get a seller who needs to get rid of the car. If it is a male selling the car, then a revealing shirt will not hurt.