The Tale of Antonia

[btoran]

welcome back. was wondering how your restoration was going. tesla, hmmmm..... should we expect an electric spider?

[blurple124]

Haha, I've definitely thought about it! It would ruin the weight of the thing, though, so not just yet!


Posting here to get a bump on the thread I just posted regarding clutch replacement. Your help is appreciated!

http://www.fiatspider.com/f08/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=28938

[blurple124]

Wow, it's 2017 now and I really haven't done this thread justice. There is an awful lot I ought to catch you all up on.

Transmission rebuild, carb swap, engine rebuild, shipping to California, carpet, exhaust, top install, and, ooh yeah...driving it!!!

I suppose I should get back to writing and see how good my memory is....

[nelsonj]

Shipping to CA? Do tell. And please do catch us up - it sounds like major activity (like a complete rebuild of the drive train.

Peace.

[blurple124]

Watch this space....

I changed jobs and finally have some time to devote to writing haha.

[blurple124]

Gearing Up For Winter

Three years since my last update on this project? Wow. Time screams by. Perhaps I should update this…Tarantino style.

It’s May, 2017. I drove my Fiat to work today; it’s about a 15 minute commute from Redondo Beach to work in Gardena, CA, just south of LA proper. A beautiful, sunny day, as usual – dew from the evening still lingered on the tan top, and it still takes a little while for the oil to warm up before I can really wind the engine up, but the car drives wonderfully and shifts like a dream. Around the time of my last post, that transmission didn’t shift like a dream. Second gear would grind, trying to mesh with no synchro, and fifth was rendered completely useless by gear damage.

In fact, last time I wrote about this car, I was 2000 miles from it, living in San Jose, California – the car still waiting patiently in a Wisconsin barn. I had just taken my first job out of school, working as a Quality Engineer at Tesla Motors, which consumed most of my time for the next few years. As I alluded to in my post about the re-wire, I was in the process of addressing those aforementioned gearbox issues. Coordinating the transmission rebuild from afar was a challenge, but we pulled it off!

I actually pulled the transmission from the car days before a family vacation that preceded my move to California. Removal was straightforward, and we were able to ship it to fellow forum member, “BEEK” to conduct the rebuild. As expected, he found several worn syncros and missing teeth on the fifth gear. Beek worked his magic on the transmission while I coordinated my move. That’s when things got really tricky! There I was, a 4 hour plane ride from my car, trying to coordinate delivery and installation of my transmission.

Here is a photo of the missing teeth on 5th:


My next trip home was Thanksgiving, so once the transmission was returned, it was forced to wait patiently beside my car in the garage for my return. In the days before our holiday, my dad and I managed to get the transmission installed and the car back on its feet! The first thing I did, of course, was to take the old girl for a topless spin in the chilly fall air of northern Wisconsin. Absolutely worth it!

Listen to some nice second barrel intake noise here: http://vid1132.photobucket.com/albums/m ... C_0019.mp4
And Here: http://vid1132.photobucket.com/albums/m ... C_0020.mp4

[Texafornian]

Hi Charlie,

Welcome to SoCal. I'm in Torrance, so practically neighbors! I've enjoyed reading your posts. If you see a white 77 around, that's me.

Cheers,
Daniel

[blurple124]

Excellent! I'm in Redondo now, right near Inglewood and Ripley, and work in Gardena where 405 meets 110.

[blurple124]

Dressing Her Up

For my first six months of residency in California, I lived in an apartment in Fremont. It was borderline torture to go without a workshop or a car to tinker with. I was driving a Subaru Legacy that was a hand-me-down from my parents. That afforded me a reliable, practical, fuel efficient car to use in Bay Area traffic and long weekend drives to Lake Tahoe, but there was nothing really special about that car. It lacked character and there wasn’t really anything I was interested in fiddling with on it. Skies cleared for the grease monkey in me around January, 2015, when I found a house to rent with some coworkers. A 2 car garage beckoned and begged to host a small blue Fiat. I spent a few months planning shipment of the car and waiting for the weather in Wisconsin to clear up enough to make that happen.
Finally, in May, I had arranged for and open trailer to deliver the Fiat across the country to San Jose. My parents bundled the topless convertible up on the cold end of the journey in order for it to survive any weather the transporter might come upon during the trip. The gal was definitely happy to be in a warmer climate!
Now that we were reunited, I had my work cut out for me to make some much-needed improvements. Namely, installing the convertible top that I’d owned since my first year of ownership and adding some interior creature comforts….like carpeting. Putting the top on seemed pretty straightforward, but in hindsight, I could have done a better job. I prepped the roof bows and bought the adhesives needed to do the job and had my roommate help me with the install. I closely followed the instructions so carefully laid out by Chris Obert & Co. but did not put enough weight to their advice about installing the top to the forward bow. I was warned that poor execution could cause “the front of the top to stick up like a teenager’s spiked hair.” Well...sure enough, my tan top started to look like Guy Fieri. I still haven’t fixed this to date, but it may be something I circle back to soon.


As mentioned, the next project, which I started in August, was to add carpeting and insulation to the floor. For a few years, I had been cruising around with sheet metal floors, painted and covered by some floor mats I’d scavenged from an Audi A6 (these actually worked pretty well!). Needless to say, it was like driving around inside a tin can. I wasn’t aware of this, of course, until I had remedied the situation and experienced life on the other side.

Just Paint:


I stripped out the center console, mid console, and seats to get access to the entire floor pan. I purchased a roll of foil-lined foam, a roll of underlayment padding, and a roll of black carpeting. I went to work creating templates for the shapes of each piece, cutting out what I needed in each material. For edging, I purchased nylon webbing, like you’d see on backpack straps, then folded that over the edges and sewed them on with a heavy duty sewing machine.

Heat Shield:


Jute:


The carpet was held in place by fir-tree retaining clips. This made it pretty straightforward - I drilled a hole in the sheet metal, laid the carpet on top and, with a corresponding hole in the other materials, simply pushed the clips through. This meant no adhesives or velcro, but still a well retained carpet. The trick ended up being those holes in the fabric. Drill bits would twist up in it, so I used a cheap soldering iron to stab through the fabric and cauterize a whole. This smelled awful, but it worked brilliantly!

Carpet in:


Genius that I am, I did this bit of project in the dog days of California heat, so there I am, stuck in the garage, head stuffed under the dashboard, surrounded by insulation and heat-reflective materials, tugging on carpeting and wielding a soldering iron. I could have filled a swimming pool with the sweat the poured out of me in those few days. It was all worth it, though, when I finally took it for a drive. I thought that my ears were plugged up because the sound levels had dropped so drastically! Gone were the rattles and road noises, the heat from the engine through the firewall, and the hard floor on my heels.

Finished Product:

[RRoller123]

That is a great story! These little cars are a lot of fun.