1977 CS1 imported to UK from California

[So Cal Mark]

the turbine wheels were not oem on any Spider, those are aftermarket wheels. That style was very popular in the 70s and it's possible that some dealers installed them on the cars when new, but they weren't from Fiat.
BTW, your car is quite stunning!

[pgilling]

Many thanks for clarifying that Mark, interesting to know.
And thanks of your kind words!

[Wanting]

Just looking back through your restoration and I know it was 2 years ago but how much did it cost to have your seats upholstered?

I contacted a local company and about fell off my chair when he told me the price.

[pgilling]

Hi, I went to a local upholstery company who do vehicle seats too. The seats aren't leather but vinyl, and I think in total it cost around £600 which I thought was pretty reasonable. Leather would've cost around 3 times as much.

PG

[pgilling]

Hi, I went to a local upholstery company who do vehicle seats too. The seats aren't leather but vinyl, and I think in total it cost around £600 which I thought was pretty reasonable. Leather would've cost around 3 times as much.

PG

[RRoller123]

Was that 45 kg weight for the pair? 600 L-pounds sounds about right, I paid $900 US (which until recently was about the same) for an upholsterer to do mine from scratch.

Pete

[pgilling]

I must be missing something, I don't know what you mean, why are you talking about weights? 'Two nations separated by the same language'!

[Wanting]

The company I contacted wanted £1300.
I could buy vinyl covers from the states that's round £460 to my door. I'll phone round a few more places yet.

[RRoller123]

"I weighed the old bumpers and they were about 45 kg"

Just want to confirm that is for the pair? We never seem to get an accurate weight here on the forum to assist in the decision to replace the Federal bumper system with the older one. Would like to know the NET weight reduction to see if it is worth it.

Pete

[Nanonevol]

I'd like to know what the bumpers weigh as well but I know I'll leave mine on. Yesterday I ran out of gas on a highway off ramp (I know, stupid but, er, my gauge doesn't work) and a State Trooper pushed me out of the way, bumper to bumper. Glad it was there.

[AriK]

Nice cop! Where I'm at cops ticket you for running out of gas and they'll just sit their with their roof top arrow and wait for their exclusive tow trucks with exorbitant prices to tow you.

[pgilling]

"I weighed the old bumpers and they were about 45 kg"

Just want to confirm that is for the pair? We never seem to get an accurate weight here on the forum to assist in the decision to replace the Federal bumper system with the older one. Would like to know the NET weight reduction to see if it is worth it.

Pete

Hello Pete,

I've done a search on Guy Croft's excellent blog and found that in this thread the 2 bumpers weighed 35kg (18.8g and 16.5kg) not including the brackets http://www.guy-croft.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=2141

Unfortunately, I didn't get round to weighing the new classic bumpers but they are considerably lighter. Certainly a lot less than half the weight. I appreciate there is less crash protection but to be honest, that is down to you. All I know is that my car looks so much more attractive and it's a lot lighter (less polar moment too!). To make up for the reduced crash protection I do have upgraded brakes and inertia real seat belts. Also, earlier in my thread you'll see I've installed a bracket for a towing eye.

[Wanting]

Did I read somewhere that you were getting over heating issues?

Have you managed to sort it now?

[RRoller123]

Thanks, so about 100 pounds weight for the pair. Roughly 4% of the total car's weight. Not insignificant!

Pete

[pgilling]

Did I read somewhere that you were getting over heating issues?

Have you managed to sort it now?

Hi,

yes I did report on a saga of overheating earlier in this thread, but it was a combination of large amounts of heat being generated by the long primary pipes, an airlock in the small heater hose from the top of the head, and a poor quality fan. These issues were largely resolved by getting the exhaust manifold Zircotec coated, clearing the airlock (basic oversight) and fitting a powerful Spal cooling fan.

Because the GC engine is designed for performance over economy, GC fits a 75 deg C thermostat which are only available on internal 'stats so that is what is fitted. Also, I fitted a high quality Racetech temperature gauge that has a much longer dial 'throw', consequently any slight temperature increases are more apparent. On a warm day (yes we do get them occasionally) in traffic the temperature rises to around 90 C / 195 F which is still too high for a HC engine.

I recently discovered that the bottom of the radiator is cool when the top is hot, so obviously I'm losing cooling efficiency. I spoke to the knowledgeable guys at Radtec in the UK explaining the problem and they said it was either caused by an airlock or a faulty pump. Well it is highly unlikely to be the pump as it is a new engine. I have fitted air bleeds to the top of my hoses so I felt an airlock was also unlikely. However, they assured my that it was possible for an airlock to remain in the bottom of a radiator! He asked if I had squeezed the bottom hose when filling the radiator. I did, it was only a slight squeeze. Apparently the water can remain in the bottom of the rad (seemingly against the laws of physics!) unless 'shocked' to move by heavily squeezing the pipes or pressure filling. He also strongly suggested filling up with deionised or distilled water as this 'sticks' to metal better due to the lower surface tension. This reduces the chance of cavities forming and enables greater thermal transfer. One final point was not to put too much antifreeze in the system, no more than 15% for summer use. This is because the thermal efficiency of water is far below that of water.

I shall try these steps soon and hopefully the engine's cooling capacity will greatly increase. I'll post the results.

Phil