Electricity and Water Do Mix!

Summer is in full stride and things seem to move pretty quickly. With a full time job, I have from 4:30 to dark (which is about 9:00) during the week and then most of Friday and the weekend to work on the car. My family and friends are starting to get jealous of the car, since she gets all of my attention. I’m probably going to have to give in at some point!
My first full weekend home gave me the opportunity to do two things: convert to my Pertronix electronic ignition and power-wash the engine bay. I was just begging for an electrocution that day.
The Pertronix kit was really a joy to install. Very easy and rewarding, that’s my kind of work! A few simple steps laid out in the instructions allowed me to take my distributor from this:



To this:


I was really happy with the new setup and had a new distributor cap, plugs and wires to install. But before I put the plugs and wires on, I left the old plugs in the head to give the engine bay a solid cleaning. What I thought was an undercoating was, in fact, several layers of grime and grit.



I had two gallons of a concentrated industrial de-greaser which I put into a squirt bottle. This stuff will take a cheap paint clean off. I used that in concert with the pressure washer which could probably draw blood with the nozzle I put on it. I wasn’t willing to find out for myself, but I can only speculate based on the brief contact I have had with the stream. I loaded the surface of the engine bay walls with the de-greaser and let it soak in for a few minutes. Then I hit it hard with the pressure washer. Nada. I had to do this FIVE TIMES before I could call it clean. I would have used a paint scraper, but didn’t want to scratch the paint too badly. That was an impressive amount of grease.



After power-washing the cylinder head and cleaning the oil residue off of it, I installed my new plugs and wires. Here is a quick progress shot of my engine bay from when I bought it to today.

Before:



After:

I know this is a hot topic of debate, but timing cover or no timing cover?

I think the industrial look of the engine without is cool, but I really don't have any nice cam gears to show off, so I was just going to paint the cover a different color.

Thoughts? Suggestions? Color Opinions?

dang! Come clean mine! That looks awesome!

Hm... Blue or Silver for the timing cover? Blue might result in too much blue in the bay, but it wouldn't shout at you like the yellow does. haha

Yea, I have been scheming some paint ideas. I will certainly post photos of the cover and engine bay when that is done.

Painting Begins


Meanwhile, I have managed to get the front passenger side suspension off, with a few skinned knuckles to boot! The control arms were just gross and all of the rubber closely resembled Death Valley. The shocks squeaked and the tie rod end was shot. Yes, it was well overdue for a refresh.



Luckily, I was able to borrow some blocks from a local marina that are used to support yachts during the winter months…they should hold up.

I managed to disassemble the rear suspension and front passenger side suspension, but not without my fair share of skinned knuckles and bruises. As it happens, the bushing collar of the long trailing arm on the drivers side rear suspension was rust-welded to the bolt holding it in place. I ended up having to chop up the and of the arm and slice the collar into a bunch of small pieces to get it out. Yikes!


I got two replacement arms which were really great and needed, since my passenger side was bent!


With everything off, I took all of the parts to work where we have an industrial bead blaster (steel shot, rather than silica, though we have one of those, too. Fringe benefits!). After two and a half hours on the machine, I had taken care of the rust and grime on the control arms, spindle, spring, caliper yoke mounting plate (not sure what else to call it), and the springs for the rear suspension.

My plan is to leave the driver's side assembled until the passenger side is done, this way I can use it as a template if necessary.

This cleaned the rust off nicely, and I was able to put a coat of primer and paint on them.


I was not particularly happy to find more rust than anticipated on the shock towers. This concerns me, so I will be addressing it and posting progress on that front shortly.


In a sudden bout of ADD, I decided to have my hand at some body work, as well. Why I chose the fender I did is beyond me, but I chose wrong.


I began with the wire wheel, taking paint off… and then rust…and more rust. I had to stop for fear of the entire fender flare crumbling in front of me.




A Dremel grinding stone helped me open the holes up, but I couldn’t really put new metal in here. Not easily anyway. The thin sheet was easily burnt through, and apart from cutting metal exactly to fit, I could not patch many small holes. Some spots allowed me to put a piece of metal in as a backing plate to work with.


This fender is now very heavily laden with body filler. I am considering this a temporary fix (2-4 years) until I get a chance to repaint the entire car. At that point I can do a better job.


With the filler shaped as best I could, I laid a coat of primer down and painted it with factory color touch up paint. This will do a fine job while I dream of a deep gloss.

as for the timing belt cover i would paint it gloss silver
and the radiator black
nice work on the fender, for now untill you can do it right
also fix the back side of that rust

You think I should use engine enamel on the timing cover and radiator?

no,id would ued some krylon for the cover and any cheap gloss black on rad then use the reat under the car"wheel wells"
dont forget to scuff up the cover so the paint stcks well

At some point, I’m going to have to take care of the floorboards. My girlfriend says she will not ride in the car until she is no longer able to check the tire pressure from inside the car…


In order to do that, however, all of the seats and carpeting needed to come out. I was impressed with how easy this was! I removed the rear panels, seats, trim, and then carpeting, which is an original royal blue. Or was. It is quite lovely. It needs to go. New carpeting will have to wait, though, so I am just going to take care of the floors and make sure they are prepared for new carpeting next year.
As I was gutting the interior, I found quite the selection of previous owners’ junk. Receipts and wrappers were no surprise. And un-burnt cigarette under the center console and a puzzle piece were a bit peculiar.

I did manage to find 70 cents in this, so I am starting to recoup my purchase price… slowly.


Just when I thought I had seen it all, I lifted up the “package shelf.” What do I find, but a single piece of lingerie.


Somebody out there is running around without their underwear wishing they knew where this Fiat was right now. Poor girl.


But the real surprise came from behind the driver’s seat:


Mmmmmmm..... Doesn’t that just ruin your appetite? Not one, but two rusty, leaky fuel lines. One with fuel still running through it! Joy of joys. It looks like I will be replacing that as well.

I spent the rest of the afternoon scraping gasoline-soaked insulation and sound deadening off of the floor. I now have a full size garbage bag full of this just from the interior! I cannot figure out how FIAT managed to fit such a huge pile of junk in such a small space and still left room for passengers! The fuel line is getting thrown out with the rest of it, glad to be rid of that.



I have purchased some aluminum line to go in where this is coming out, which should make me more comfortable. In order to make everyone else comfortable, I will have to start cutting away at the floor. I will end up welding in a sheet of 18 gauge or thicker.

It was an interesting day of working on the car, but a productive one. Like opening up the worlds rustiest time capsule.

That is awesome. I feel a lot better about the minor rust I found under my carpeting. I am a big fan of the whole POR15 process. Good luck with your project, I look forward to watching the progress.

Feel free to check out my post http://forum.fiatspider.com/f08/viewtop ... &hilit=por

Wait, how big of holes can you use por15 to seal?

I imagine that stuff could fill pinholes. It seems to be pretty thick. I would be concerned about the thickness of the existing metal at that point, though. If you have holes, there probably isn't much material left around that hole.

I did this size without any issues


Nice little surprise by itzebtze, on Flickr


Fiberglassed the surprise hole then POR15 by itzebtze, on Flickr

any hole big enuff to put your heel in should be replaced with metal
all small holes the fiberglass will cover

its said up here in WI if you open both doors at the same time these cars fold right in the middle


so order some floor boards and do it right
well i would

If you are already in a hole you can't climb out of, why not keep digging!?

Perhaps I am easily distracted, or it might just be me wanting to make some progress when I need a break from a different part of the project, but I have a tendency to jump around when working on this car.

With the leaky fuel line, I really had no choice but to drain the fuel that was left in the tank. Since I have the fuel drained out of the tank, why not take it out and clean the trunk? More than anything, the trunk was just dirty. There was a good amount of surface rust and a couple spots that concerned me, but I figured I could give it a decent freshening up with some paint.



The floorboard underneath the spare tire has plenty of rust holes, but there is enough material to survive the winter. I will go back and replace this metal later on in the project. A leaky battery had resulted in a lot of corrosion and sulfur-dioxide powder, which I did my best to flush out with the power-washer. While I was waiting for that to dry, I took a close look at the gas tank. (It’s out, so why not!...)



While most of the tank was in decent condition, the driver’s side of it had a good amount of rust. Closer inspection revealed pin-holes. Oh no! That sure explains the rust on that side! It might have been a good idea to use a tank repair kit on this, but the point of this project for me is to do as much as I can, as best I can, at minimum cost. Hence, I broke out the JB Weld. This stuff is awesome. Tough as nails and gasoline-resistant.
I patched the holes, then cleaned and sanded the tank to prepare for a repaint. I hung the tank from an engine hoist and gave it a coat of Rustoleum’s “rusty metal primer” and followed that up with gloss black.



I have only run the engine a little bit since replacing the (Original!) fuel filter. Maybe 5 hours….maybe. In that time, I already had a puddle of sand in the filter! I think the tank was due for a rinse. After letting the paint dry, I rinsed it out with gasoline to get debris out.

Now I have the gas tank out and the trunk apart. I guess this is a good time to remove the rear bumper! Project creep….oh boy.
Removing the bumper was very easy and will save a lot of weight, but I will hold off on removing the front for now, since that is more involved. (Note: pic is from after the painting, but you get the idea.)



Once the trunk had dried, I sanded and wire-wheeled it to get a good working surface, then wiped it down with mineral spirits. I then gave it the same treatment as the fuel tank: primer and a few coats of black Rustoleum.



The trunk looks much cleaner now and is ready for new floorboards, which are well overdue. I’m hoping to put in an LED trunk light to finish up the area.

There is still more work to be done here and on the rest of the car, but this offered some rewarding results in only a few days’ time.