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Announcement - The Wedding Of The Year by Lothar Bacher
The
day has finally arrived! Our baby Fiero has grown up to become a fine looking
Italian Lady and she found here prince charming. It was love at first sight! In
shiny aluminum, he hails from the NORTH STAR family. After a one year
engagement, they were recently married in Chicago.
It
was a beautiful ceremony will all of my shop personnel in attendance. The
groom’s parents are from Detroit, MI - unfortunately, the were unable to
attend because of the GM strike! However, State
Farm Insurance issued an insurance policy and the State Of Illinois supplied
a nice orange sticker with the number ’99 on it for their license plate.
The
honeymoon was spent on I-94 heading up to Wisconsin. It was newly paved - just
in time for this occasion. The couple now reside in their newly decorated garage
in Willmette, IL. The proud parents are Lothar and Alice Bacher…
We
finally finished the new look of my Fiero. A modified body style with a 4.6
Litre North Star engine resting upon the engine cradle. The entire conversion
was done in my shop. We would like to thank our many suppliers for the parts we
needed: Schram Auto Parts (MI), Howell Engine Development (MI), Moser
Engineering (IN), IRM (MD), RCC Specialty (TX), Jeg’s High Performance (OH),
Andrew Wood Design (MI), Ideal Tool Company (IL), Progressive Sheet Metal (IL),
and R&R Body Shop (IL). I would also like to thank some fellow club members
who helped find even more suppliers. Special thanks to: Bob Nielsen, Elmer
Schild, Criss Moore and John Norman.
This
turned out to be a full, one year project. It took a long time to finish because
we only had a few hours here and a few hours there to do it in what time we had
to spare. We started with an engine supplied by Gary Zumalt. Unfortunately,
after he was paid in full, he did not follow up on our calls to answer questions
thereafter. As a result, we had to do a lot of research and find technical assistance on our own. We had to
ask a lot of questions and needed to purchase a lot of tools we will never need
again.
We
put a lot of time into the details - we maybe even over-engineered and
over-built it, but we sure had a lot of fun! We learned a lot seeing as my shop
rebuilds metal working machinery, not rebuilding cars! So, it became a challenge
for myself and my fellow employees to do something like this that I have never
done before. AND IT WORKED!!!
This
is a project I am very proud of. It took lots of time and lots of money (I am
glad I did not keep track of just how much). But, I now own something I did
myself and no one else in the
neighborhood can come close to saying anything like that! Keep your eyes peeled
for the silver streak of light that will be at the next car show!!
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