New W-body project Im considering

[Runfromcheney]

I love my Fiesta. However, while it handles the freeway very fell for being a four cylinder compact, I want something more comfortable for road trips. Knowing from experience that W-bodies are great long distance driving cars, I was thinking about creating the ultimate touring sedan. I was considering taking a 4-door 90-93, adding FE-3 suspension, the multi power adjustable front seats, digital gauges, an electric DIC, HUD, and converting the rear to buckets and a console, among other things. My more radical ideas have included maybe putting the multi-adjustable buckets with a DIC console in the rear as well, if I were to find a way to make such a thing feasible. I thought up the idea while driving home from King of the Road auto parts in Toledo after seeing a 88 and 91 CS Internationals there. If I decide to actually move forward with this, I'll likely go back one Saturday in the near future to gut the seats, gauge cluster, consoles and the multi adjustable hardware out of that 88 International, as well whatever goodies I can gut out of a nice International that just popped up at a junkyard by my house.

 

What are your thoughts? How feasible is this? I imagine most of it will just go bolt right in, with some electrical tinkering to make it all work. The biggest question I have is how hard it would be to convert a sedan to having rear buckets. And of course, finding a worthy candidate considering that the earlier W-bodies have been pretty dried up in my area.

 

Or maybe I'll grab that $800 3.4 CS coupe and make a two door...

[l67ss]

DO IT!!!!!!

I love my Fiesta. However, while it handles the freeway very fell for being a four cylinder compact, I want something more comfortable for road trips. Knowing from experience that W-bodies are great long distance driving cars, I was thinking about creating the ultimate touring sedan. I was considering taking a 4-door 90-93, adding FE-3 suspension, the multi power adjustable front seats, digital gauges, an electric DIC, HUD, and converting the rear to buckets and a console, among other things. My more radical ideas have included maybe putting the multi-adjustable buckets with a DIC console in the rear as well, if I were to find a way to make such a thing feasible. I thought up the idea while driving home from King of the Road auto parts in Toledo after seeing a 88 and 91 CS Internationals there. If I decide to actually move forward with this, I'll likely go back one Saturday in the near future to gut the seats, gauge cluster, consoles and the multi adjustable hardware out of that 88 International, as well whatever goodies I can gut out of a nice International that just popped up at a junkyard by my house.

 

What are your thoughts? How feasible is this? I imagine most of it will just go bolt right in, with some electrical tinkering to make it all work. The biggest question I have is how hard it would be to convert a sedan to having rear buckets. And of course, finding a worthy candidate considering that the earlier W-bodies have been pretty dried up in my area.

 

Or maybe I'll grab that $800 3.4 CS coupe and make a two door...

[94 olds vert]

While I love that idea and have thought about it myself. Start with a car that has the least amount of rust as possible.

 

Most stuff should bolt in all these first gens are very similar. I know rear buckets can go in a sedan, but you have to be careful with the center console when installing. Something about the bolts being to long and could/will hit the gas tank.

[l67ss]

I wouldnt do rear buckets myself cause i like to use, um, my backseat for, um, stuff.

While I love that idea and have thought about it myself. Start with a car that has the least amount of rust as possible.

 

Most stuff should bolt in all these first gens are very similar. I know rear buckets can go in a sedan, but you have to be careful with the center console when installing. Something about the bolts being to long and could/will hit the gas tank.

[Runfromcheney]

A few potential starting points:

 

http://detroit.craigslist.org/wyn/cto/4103220299.html

http://detroit.craigslist.org/mcb/cto/4197097779.html

http://detroit.craigslist.org/wyn/cto/4141038688.html

http://detroit.craigslist.org/wyn/cto/4070119558.html

http://detroit.craigslist.org/wyn/cto/4158804597.html

http://detroit.craigslist.org/mcb/cto/4082547074.html

http://detroit.craigslist.org/okl/cto/4181394189.html

http://detroit.craigslist.org/wyn/cto/4160663897.html

http://detroit.craigslist.org/mcb/cto/4152516865.html

http://detroit.craigslist.org/okl/cto/4112149644.html

http://detroit.craigslist.org/mcb/cto/4194095048.html

[94 olds vert]

I would personally stick with obdI cars.1994 is 1.5

[Runfromcheney]

With the wonky PCMS. Didn't know that! Those couple of really clean 94 sedans are tempting, though.

[RobertISaar]

a 94 wouldn't bother me at all. after all, the 94-95 LQ1 PCM has had the DIS patch for about forever. i need to test my 93-95 3100 DIS patch yet, but i need to put one of the DIS back together first.

[19Cutlass94]

Worst come to worst, if its a 1994/1995 3100 car, just get an adapter from Saar, like I did. Make your world MUCH easier.

[Schurkey]

Start with a 3.4L vehicle. All the suspension parts are there already. Perhaps you'd need to freshen the struts and bushings.

 

I've been using Lumina Euro 3.4s as my highway cruisers and am VERY satisfied. 1800 miles in 30--34 clock hours is entirely do-able. (I mean, I leave here at whatever time in the morning, and 30--34 hours later I'm pulling into Dear Old Dad's driveway...1800 miles away. The clock doesn't stop for gas, food, toilet, naps, a couple of hours of roller-skating in Reno, etc.)

 

Who do you plan to put in the back seat? I use mine for luggage, so buckets aren't preferable as far as I'm concerned. One time I carried a Sun distributor machine and cabinet home from Salt Lake City on the back seat.

 

I've never seen digital instrument clusters that I like. Real gauges for me, please.

Edited November 17, 2013 by Schurkey

[Runfromcheney]

That's why that 93 coupe is near the top of the list, given that my suspicion that the "bent valve" is really nothing is true. Even though it's not a sedan its a good start: bolt in a set of AQ9s, put in the digital gauges and DIC and that's pretty much it.

 

I'm just weary of taking on a 3.4, because I hear so many horror stories about them.

[94 olds vert]

I love my 3.4

[Runfromcheney]

Has it given you any problems? What is it like to work on?

[94 olds vert]

A few, like upper and lower LIMs, the oil pump leak (easy to fix when the LIMs are off). The alternator not that bad to do, but it is harder than a 3.1l.

 

The biggest thing was the new timing belt and pulleys at 120k, other than that the rest has been typical maintenance for a 20 year old GM car.

 

I was actually really surprised how easy it is to work on. Room is limited when I replaced the heater hose line that runs behind the engine that involves some work because there is no room to get to anything.

[Runfromcheney]

Another worry is that maybe the knocking is a bad timing belt tensioner. If so I'm pretty much redoing the whole timing belt job over again.

[94 olds vert]

Could be.

[Schurkey]

Both my 3.4s knock...especially when cold. No oil pressure problems, oil tests come back "fit for further use" when I drop an oil sample after 6,000 miles.

 

The '92 has been doing it for about fifty thousand miles.

The '93 has been doing it for as long as I've owned it, about forty thousand miles.

 

First Guess: Piston slap.

 

Whatever it is, it's bad enough that the knock sensor is unhappy, so my performance and mileage are not optimum. I've lost about 3 mpg on the highway. Used to get 27--28 mpg at steady 80, now I get 24--25.

[Nas Escobar]

I love my Fiesta. However, while it handles the freeway very fell for being a four cylinder compact, I want something more comfortable for road trips. Knowing from experience that W-bodies are great long distance driving cars, I was thinking about creating the ultimate touring sedan. I was considering taking a 4-door 90-93, adding FE-3 suspension, the multi power adjustable front seats, digital gauges, an electric DIC, HUD, and converting the rear to buckets and a console, among other things. My more radical ideas have included maybe putting the multi-adjustable buckets with a DIC console in the rear as well, if I were to find a way to make such a thing feasible. I thought up the idea while driving home from King of the Road auto parts in Toledo after seeing a 88 and 91 CS Internationals there. If I decide to actually move forward with this, I'll likely go back one Saturday in the near future to gut the seats, gauge cluster, consoles and the multi adjustable hardware out of that 88 International, as well whatever goodies I can gut out of a nice International that just popped up at a junkyard by my house.

 

What are your thoughts? How feasible is this? I imagine most of it will just go bolt right in, with some electrical tinkering to make it all work. The biggest question I have is how hard it would be to convert a sedan to having rear buckets. And of course, finding a worthy candidate considering that the earlier W-bodies have been pretty dried up in my area.

 

Or maybe I'll grab that $800 3.4 CS coupe and make a two door...

 

I'm not sure how different the sedan and coupe are, but the bottom seats bolt into the car in the center of each seat and the top piece is bolted on at the bottom, where the bottom part meets. Then there's that plastic panel that covers the hole to the trunk. This of course is the coupe (and convertible)

 

If the sedan is not like the 2g Lumina (the seats are held in by slits in the body) then it should be plug and play. The DIC might be too radical, but ay, if you get it to work, you'll get a lot of people asking a how to.

 

Everything else should be plug and play... I would also toy around with the idea of relocating the seatbelts to the B pillar. 94 may be the best year to look for as you could swap anything from 88-93 or 95/96 in it.

[ripp]

if you go back to the yard with the 91 where the sunvisors any good how where the seat covers? IM looking for some for my 91 in the grey that was in the 91a