My Second Fiat - The Runner

[wachuko]

Jaime, your header bow looks rough. Does it look like you can bring it back to life?

I am going through the same process, except my frame doesn't look bad. I too cleaned, sanded, primed and painted the frame. Haven't put the new top on yet; ran out of time.

BTW, where can you get (or fabricate) the soft rubber lining at the very front of the header bow? Mine is somewhat shot and in certain areas the edge of the bow is sharp. Over time that sharp edge may cut through the new top. Any suggestions?

Looks bad in the photos, but it can be repaired. So I will reuse it. Too costly to replace with a new one.

Not sure where to find the plastic trim, sorry...

[Europa]

Jaime, the white strip at the leading edge of your header bow, except mine wraps all the way around. Mine looks like a thin strip of soft rubber, about the same width as the white strip on your bow. I'll take a picture tonight.



Narfie, I too thought of duct tape... Nice to know it's still holding up after 2 years.

[Fiat88]

Great progress! You can even use pop rivets to put in a patch panel for those seat pans. I had a welder do my passanger seat for $50 but rivets would worl also.

[wachuko]

Great progress! You can even use pop rivets to put in a patch panel for those seat pans. I had a welder do my passanger seat for $50 but rivets would worl also.

Thank you. Both pans now fixed. Passenger pan just waiting on the POR15 paint to put it back together. Plus I need to drill the three holes (so that it looks like it was before I glued the alum sheet).

The pending items really take a lot of time. Can't wait to be able to put the carpet down and top to start using it as a daily driver.

[wachuko]

Got an email from Denise. Dash pieces are done, dash pieces are done!!!! Can't wait to see them!

Ok... back to normal programming.

[Snoopy]

Hallo,
Question because of the dash changing: Any problem of fixing the 84 dash in the 81 car ? What you have to change ?
Someone in our forum want to do the same thing...
Snoopy/Christoph

[wachuko]

Hallo,
Question because of the dash changing: Any problem of fixing the 84 dash in the 81 car ? What you have to change ?
Someone in our forum want to do the same thing...
Snoopy/Christoph

I will let you know... so far I have only presented the dash, nothing else, and it seems to align perfectly... once I get the wood pieces I will mount the rest.

[wachuko]

Dash is in... difficult to photograph, but here are a few photos. Looks great. Thank you Denise.

Finish is cherry wood with satin clear.











Like I said, difficult to photograph... all the same color and wood but in this photo it looks different...

[courtenay]

That looks great! Nice job Denise!

[wachuko]

Little things that take a long time... I had mentioned needing to rewire the guage plugs since the gauges don't match...

In the '83 you have Battery, Hazard, and Brake in the speedometer and in the earlier gauge you don't have those... in the earlier gauge I have parking/tail lights, turn signals, high beam... then in the Rev meter you have Battery, Hazard, Brake... those are not present in the earlier gauge cluster... anyway... all done now.

A few photos before going to sleep...





Finally ready to be installed.

[wachuko]

A few more photos... shift pattern plastic glued back... lighter base (green plastic around ligther) installed. I moved the switches in the center console closer to the driver and the lights to the other side...

[BEEK]

looks great

[wachuko]

looks great

Thank you Randy.

I will work on rewiring the clock to use the '83 plug. Once that is done I can start plugging everything and screwing everything in its place.

Could not resist... just the glove box cover is bolted... the center piece is just held in place by one bolt for the photos... sorry for the lousy photo, just wanted to see how it looked in place... Since nothing is bolted down correctly everything looks a bit crooked.

[Fiat88]

Neat, yup the old style clock is much classier looking then the digital!

[stefhahn]

Wow Jaime, this looks great, I'm looking forward to the complete dash setup - Denise, that's a fantastic piece of work!
ciao,
Stefan