1979 spider 2000 restoration

[RRoller123]

"Patience, 007, patience."

[Sambo42]

Yea, I basically decided to order one of the new texas heat aluminum radiators at the beginning of next month. That will let me take down the whole engine bay, re-spray it, and rebuild it to "new" look. I'll also be installing the 34adf when that happens.

I've got rust all in my actual rocker panels and the rear lower panels also. That is pretty easy patch work, and I can go ahead and start getting them ready for paint.

On my body rust: I've basically decided to cut out large sections of the inner fender lining. Having it out will make life MUCH easier... and allow me to kill all the rust hiding in there.

Funny, after I did my floors I said to myself: "No More welding while laying on my back."

Wrong.

I know that feeling soooooo well. can't count the number of small patches of hair I lost during mine...

[MrJD]

Question gents. Was thinking about fuel delivery today. The fuel tank in a carb car is under no pressure. All the pressure comes from the block mounted pump. Why would I plumb a fuel return line all the way back to the tank... When I could plumb it into the main fuel line pre pump? What am I missing?

[BEEK]

in all honesty, you may be able to just delete the fuel return line all together. But the engineers at fiat did not think so, i would not try and reinvent the wheel. Having said that, it can be done, you will need a check valve but again, just return the fuel to the tank

[MrJD]

my thought was i could keep all the fuel lines under the hood save one single sending line going from the tank to the carb.

In essence you have a pool of fuel, some of which gets pumped up to the carb. If the return line T's into the sender line pre-pump... It seems like a simplified system, keeping one less fuel line out of the cab with me.

[aj81spider]

I'm no expert but I don't think that will work. The pump is creating a vacuum that pulls fuel up the fuel line. That fuel is essentially under pressure (just pressure created by pull rather than push). If you T the return into it the fuel will also flow out that path and into the engine via the return line.

An additional bad effect will be a drop in pressure at the pump due to the loss of fuel down the return line.

[MrJD]

yea, figured a 1 way valve system would be needed. Agreed with the others that its overcomplicated. add 7 feet of extra fuel line to the pile.

[azruss]

the manual pump is a diaphram type. Without a return line, the pump can build pressure that can damage the diaphram (although some have no return line and seem to do okay). If you pipe the return to the incoming line, you just create a loop and reduce the ability of the pump to draw from the tank. Once the needle valve in the carb is closed, the fuel is against a hard stop with no place to go without a return to the tank.

[MrJD]

Hi all. Need an opinion.

I am about to order my shift boot, and I would like to leather wrap the e-brake handle also. Which of these do you think would work best on the ebrake?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/190965210938?ss ... 1423.l2649

http://www.ebay.com/itm/171048984130?ss ... 1423.l2649

I assume the first one with the longer end on the ebrake boot. That way i could form fit it and cut it to length. Comment?

edit:

did a little work on the car today. Removed the drivers side door panel to repair it... but jesus what an ordeal it was. I had to cut one screw out with an angle grinder... I couldn't drill it OR get my dremel multimax to cut it. I dunno what they made that screw out of, but i wish the body was made of it!





the wood I will be using to re-card it.


sticker on air cleaner. Shame its ruined... i've never seen a reproduction of this one. Might be 1979-80 carb cars only.

[FiatBen]

JD, I feel your pain. We are brothers in spirit both working on '79s. Pulled my door cards the other day. This is the card out of the driver's side.

Not much left there for a pattern, huh?

[MrJD]

I removed the staples holding the vinyl to the door card. This allowed me to separate the two using a razor blade.

I laid the door card down and penciled in/painted the outline



back of the vinyl


not bad if I say so myself!



Also finished welding in panels on the rear drivers side quarter.



All that is left on there now is to weld back in the inner-fender and patch the rusted areas of the inner fender. Then I will weld in some panels over the inner rocker... paint it all up, and its done! (then off to the OTHER rear quarter, and the rear end of the car... but I think I've figured out how to do the rear of the car and make it nearly painless other than lots of welding. We'll see.

on putting the inner fender back in: I don't plan on welding the lip of the car to the inner fender... I think I am going to use the good eastwood seam sealer and use it as a sealant.

Also figured out why the interior fan wasn't working... Ground was where it should be (though spliced there a few times)... but the two other wires were... not. One was not connected to anything, and the other was connected to the radio!


anybody ever tested a cooling fan? i don't feel like looking it up right now, lol.

[Sambo42]

It's easy. Hook up a positive and terminal to a spare battery if you've got one - black (earth) wire to your negative terminal and red the positive. There are 2 positives for the 2 speed settings. Mine hadn't been working but have ruled out the fan motor as the culprit by doing this.

cheers

[MrJD]

Door re-carded. Once the glue dries(24 hours) i will start cleaning it. Should look new when finished.

I put a little glue in areas near the middle of the card where the vinyl might move around. The complete card is now under a mattress in another room for compression while drying.





Household stapler was strong enough to get through the wood!

[4uall]

looks great, what kind of wood etc?

[MrJD]

looks great, what kind of wood etc?

down at the bottom. $15 and I still have half of it left... even after building trunk floors and a door panel!
http://www.fiatspider.com/f08/viewtopic ... a&start=45

I started on the rear of the car today... as with everything on this car, its not going to be as easy as I thought.

When i first got the car I found this under the filler


Today I started cutting out their panels:


look at the rusted holes in the tail light mount... i dunno wth i am going to do there.


All cut out and cleaned up


swiss cheese metal.... ffs. Hate this car sometimes.


when they did the rear quarter, they didn't weld this bit on, lol