? about a wrecked Fiero

streetmaster42 · 03-08-2009, 01:06 PM

A buddy of mine has had his 80's something Fiero for quite some time now, and it ran like a top.

Well, he had i guess one to many, and hit a phone pole and bent the support behind the front bumper.

He has dicided that i can have it if i do anything with it, but not knowing much about Fiero's, the hood is widged closed, and i dont want to hurt it anymore than what it is.

I dont want to try and remove anything from the front of the car, if im not gonna be inerested in it.

The car looks as if it could be fixed though, ? is if i attempt to remove the front end, will i find that the front support will be an easy fix.

How are the front ends built on thiese cars, are they bolted together, or welded, be nice if some one had some good pics with there frontends removed.

Ragtop_Renegade · 03-09-2009, 01:20 AM

The Fiero's chassis is integrated into the steel skeleton that supports the urethane and plastic body panels. Any serious damage to the frame rails has a ripple effect all the way through.

The Fiero is a very, very safe car in an impact. The reason is the space frame crumples, absorbing forces that would otherwise be transferred to the bodies of the driver and passenger. This is good news for the people in the car, but very bad news for the Fiero. Often a serious accident will require hours of work on a laser guided frame machine to get things back in order, if not render the car unrepairable altogether.

If damage is limited to the front bumper, it could be a very easy repair.
The radiator core support can suffer quite a bit of damage and still be fixed, but will require cutting and welding since it's not a bolt-together assembly.

That being said, you may be able to bolt together new pieces to rebuild the core support, eliminating the need for a welder. This isn't the way the factory did it, so some fabrication skill and creativity on your part is needed.

Suspension damage is fine as long as it's limited to the control arms, tie rods, and steering rack. If the components of the space frame that mount the control arms were damaged, the outlook is not good at all.

Do you know how fast the car was going when it crashed? Some photos of the damage, including the underside below the radiator and shots of the control arms with the wheel turned as far outward as possible would be very helpful in figuring your odds for a successful repair.

streetmaster42 · 03-09-2009, 03:53 AM

He told me that he was only going 20mph or so, just go pulled out, drove right off the road and into a phone pole. He broke his tooth off on the steering wheel, meanwhile bending the wheel.

Sorry about not having pics, only took one look at it, try'ed to pop the plastic bumper back out. The hood gave me a bit of a hard time, would'nt open (did'nt force it) so i move on to the rest of the car.

But as far as i could see, some metal behind the bumper was pushed in, wich is why the hood gave me a hard time. And i did'nt want him to give me a hard time, because i poped the hood open and then it wonld'nt shut again.

Ragtop_Renegade · 03-09-2009, 01:05 PM

Your friend probably told you, but just in case he didn't (he is probably STILL nursing off a nasty headache) the hood opens backwards, aka rear to front, aka "suicide hinged", like vintage Corvettes do. Naturally, if you're trying to open the wrong side you'll be quite unsuccessful!
FYI, in Fierospeak (and mid-enginespeak in general) the "hood" is called the front compartment lid, since the term hood tend to imply there's an engine underneath. Going along with that, the "trunk" lid is called a decklid, as one doesn't expect an engine to be in a trunk.

Under the urethane bumper cover are egg-crate looking plastic absorbers that help the Fiero meet Federal 5 mph bumper requirements. Behind those lives the actual steel bumper, mounted in line with the integrated frame rails using collapsible absorbers.

Chances are the bumper is bent up pretty badly, the absorbers are destroyed, and the radiator core support may or may not be a little twisted up. Naturally this means you may or may not need a new radiator. As stated before, a little creativity is all you need to rebuild a functional core support using an off the shelf selection of light gage angle, plate, channel, rod, and i-beam. The front compartment lid hinges may be bent, but this isn't a hard thing to deal with.

streetmaster42 · 03-09-2009, 01:55 PM

Yeah well i sounds like its more trouble than its worth, besides were would i find the steel bumper for it anyway?

I know that there are'nt any in the bone yards round here, and cant seem to find very much info on the web, for anything other than the body parts.

Ragtop_Renegade · 03-10-2009, 02:22 PM

Kick Hill - (860) 642-4362 - Has just about any body part, be it plastic, steel or glass.
They're located in Connecticut but ship nationwide.

streetmaster42 · 03-12-2009, 01:08 AM

ThanX for the tip on Kick Hill, i found the website and will pass it on to my buddy that has the car.

Ragtop_Renegade · 03-12-2009, 11:47 AM

Don't assume what's on the website is all that is available, it is only an incomplete listing of what's actually there, made up of the most commonly sold items. I understand they aren't web experts so they pay someone to design the website. (I think they got ripped off, it look like a Kindergartner made it) For cost reasons, they don't have pictures and listings of everything available. In reality they have almost everything but turnkey Fieros for sale, less the super high demand stuff like headlight actuators, mirrors and dashboards. You can email, but CALLING is the best way to reach them.

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