SRT-8 Daytona Clone

[Swampwing2]

I have just seen it called a headlight control module. If you ever find an 88 in a yard, here is a link I just found for removing the module and harness.
http://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum2/HTML/000568.html  Also check in "the mall" at that site as that is THE Fiero site. If you go this route, I can give you a wire color breakdown when you need it.  Using the factory plugs will be much easier, so finding a used setup would be your best bet.

[Stevearino]

I have just seen it called a headlight control module. If you ever find an 88 in a yard, here is a link I just found for removing the module and harness.
http://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum2/HTML/000568.html  Also check in "the mall" at that site as that is THE Fiero site. If you go this route, I can give you a wire color breakdown when you need it.  Using the factory plugs will be much easier, so finding a used setup would be your best bet.

Thanks, I will see where this leads. Meanwhile the guy I am trying to buy the rebuilt motor from says 84-86 Fiero has internal limits but from what you seem to have implied that might not be the way to go because the early units were prone to failure?

[Swampwing2]

Yes, the early ones were prone to stripped gears more so than the 88s.

[Stevearino]

Yes, the early ones were prone to stripped gears more so than the 88s.

The one that I ordered has an aluminum gear upgrade that I also ordered. I searched the modules and they are on average a little over $100.00 but the motor vendor says since I am using just one motor he has a module with one side burned out he will sell me for $25.00.

[Stevearino]

I got a little ahead of myself hanging the nose as I noticed while mocking up the fenders the arc of the hood at the very end did not match up neatly with the fender profile. The fenders relative to the doors needed to dive off a little more in the front. Roughly about 3/8" for everything to jive. So I decided to figure out how I was going to attach the fenders so that all the relationships were true. First thing I did was shape a piece of 3/4" .049 wall square tube to the profile of the fender. This would end up tucking underneath the inner rim along the hood seam. With the skin back off of the hood frame I could see that the hood frame was a little too flat especially at the end where the fenders rolled off pretty good. I re shaped the hood frame to match the  3/4 " stock I had just shaped to match the fender edge. Earlier in the build I had installed two pretty substantial pieces of 1 1/2" .090 wall square stock to act as hood prop (gas pistons) supports. I drilled and tapped these and attached some slotted brackets made out of .060 mild steel. Next laying the 3/4" profile spaced 1/4" off the side of the hood frame I tacked it to the bracket. Following down to the middle of the hood line I installed and adjustable bumper for the hood frame and an angle bracket with a shim under it in case I needed to adjust height here. Down in front where the fender drops off I installed another slotted bracket and tacked the 3/4" stock to it.

[Stevearino]

Finally I hung the fender on the 3/4" stock. After doing both fenders and making sure everything matched pretty well I re attached to hood mechanism.
Also I decided since the fender was in place to see what I was going to have to do to blend out the hood to the fender at the sides of the cowl. I was a little worried about this because I did the upsweep extension on the back of the hood and kind of just eyeballed it as far as how it would blend out. I am pretty happy about the way it looks.

[Indygenerallee]

Looking good Steve! 

[Lighthorseman]

Wow.  Simply... wow.   

[Highbanked Hauler]

  Steve, are you going to bring your car to the Petty's garage meet ??   I can tell you it would be a hit..

[Stevearino]

  Steve, are you going to bring your car to the Petty's garage meet ??   I can tell you it would be a hit..

If I ever get it done.

[Stevearino]

The newer cars don't seem to have as many places to jack the car up safely as in the old days. In fact just about anyplace you put a floor jack under this 06 Charger other that the 4 designated lift points will immediately start to cave in. Problem is it is very difficult t jack the car up and then get a jack stand under the same spot. I decided to take some 3/16 steel and cap over the overlap area that is the jack point to extend it. This allowed me to comfortably get a jack stand in place with the floor jack still under the lift point. I guess these cars were only meant to be worked on with a lift.

I wanted to drop the car to the floor to get the weight on it so that I might figure out what to do with the front fender and wheel opening. Since there is a 3 inch difference in the wheel base I knew I would have to add some material to the back half of the lower fender. Since this side was rusted out in this area I decided to cut the fender from about an inch below the body line down and replace it with new metal. There was not enough room to accommodate the fender brace at the back of the fender so I cut it out and replaced it with a 1" x 1" L shaped  piece of .060 steel .

[Stevearino]

After hanging the fender back on the car I rough cut the added metal to generally clear around the tire. Next I  used a home made wheel compass to mark out the semi-final wheel opening. After trimming it out I hung the nose back on the car and added the lower portion of the front of the fender that extends the nose. I was pretty worried about how this was all going to look proportionally  but I am pretty happy with the way it all ended up looking.

[Indygenerallee]

Looking good Steve! I really like the front fender lip.

[Baldwinvette77]

Looking awesome

[Stevearino]

Been going over a tone of piddly little projects like some wiring and other such nonsense so while it doesn't seem like I have gotten much done I have been at it steadily . Here is a video of the wiper situation. I finally got the motor wired back to the car. After that I had to get the main pivot arm located so that the wipers would cycle back to the back to the base of the windshield when coming to rest.  I modified the passenger side arm and set it on the driver side. The driver side arm was way to long to modify so I got another passenger side arm on line. When I first fired it up with the arms on the driver side swept past the "A" post. I took the motor out for the umpteenth  time and shortened the center pivot arm by 1/8". I re assembled it and then the arms would only come half way up the glass. I took it apart again and lengthened the arm by 1/16" of an inch and ended up with this. It is not perfect but I think I will leave it alone and stay away from torrential down pours.  Man this 68 Charger windshield is dinky. Like looking out of a pill box.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=877281385618095&set=vb.100000087251193&type=2&theater&notif_t=video_comment

Using the old windshield to map out the sweep of the wipers worked out great because it was scratched in the wiper pattern. Whoever owned it must have let the wiper blades wear out .

[Stevearino]

One of the things I decided to re do was the third tail light up in the back of the roof. The way I had enclosed it was a little too bulky so I cut all that out and cut the LED fixture down to a minimal size. Then when I was looking for a way to make a softer cover because of it being overhead I found an old plastic ice bucket from an old refrigerator. The contours of the bottom were pretty much what I was looking for so I cut it to fit a mock up of the rear window center section. My previous housing did not have a light dam to the glass.

[Stevearino]

Finally I painted it out matte black.

Also here is a picture of the quarter window motor. These are some after market universal window motors that I was surprised to find out worked really well. The are a very small motor that mounts remotely through a geared strap to the window crank stud with custom delran fittings. Two motors and the wiring kit were just  $80.00. Not bad for the work they saved. Since they mount on the outside they would not work with stock interior panels as the motor protrudes.

[Indygenerallee]

Looking good Steve! 

[BigBlockSam]

looking , very , very cool 

[Stevearino]

Looking good Steve! 

looking , very , very cool 

Thanks guys. I'm getting a little bogged down but pushing forward.

[Baldwinvette77]

AWESOME WORK  i like how you reuse every bit you can from that modern charger

[Stevearino]

AWESOME WORK  i like how you reuse every bit you can from that modern charger

I'm tryin'. Mostly because I'm a cheapskate.
Think about it. I cringed when I bought the donor car because it was close to $9000.00 but I priced the brakes aftermarket and they are about $8000.00 alone not to mention the crate 6.1 goes for about $6,700.00 so even though I am getting off easy I still find it hard to go aftermarket if there is something on this donor I can use. Like I said. Cheapskate.

[Mike DC]

    
Aftermarket hi-po parts  <  OEM hi-po parts.


OEM parts = cheaper, better tested, and better long-term availability.
 

[Stevearino]

   
Aftermarket hi-po parts  <  OEM hi-po parts.


OEM parts = cheaper, better tested, and better long-term availability.
 

Exactly.

[Baldwinvette77]

Any updates?