A Tale of Two Fiats

[BEEK]

no, wanted to go, but im still coaching football. my team didnt fair so well, but the 5th grade team has won the central florida championship, this weekend we play regionals, im helping this team and its coaches, never have enough help. was at osceola highschool last friday night when the spanked our local highschool 71-17.

there is a group of fiat owners here im working with. they are mostly 500 owners but its a good group of people very passionate about the fiats

[Zulu]

no, wanted to go, but im still coaching football. my team didnt fair so well, but the 5th grade team has won the central florida championship, this weekend we play regionals, im helping this team and its coaches, never have enough help. uas at osceola highschool last friday night when the spanked our local highschool 71-17.

Sorry to hear that. Funny enough, we work on our Fiats at the airport right across the street from Osceola High.

there is a group of fiat owners here im working with. they are mostly 500 owners but its a good group of people very passionate about the fiats

We need a bigger central Florida group for Fiat owners. Richard Wagner told me he was the FLU representative for central Florida but hasn't really done anything yet.

[fiathead]

Glad to hear that the lower ball joint has been done on your car. The only other thing I could offer as advice for anyone else doing this job is to clean both the inside and outside of the taper with brake cleaner before installing. All traces of oil or grease need to be gone on that joint. That will make removing it tough some day, but hopefully you'll have 20 years before that happens to need replaced again.

[Zulu]

I installed the passenger side front this morning:





Here are the details of the front suspension rebuild:

- After disassembly, every part was cleaned and bead-blasted before being painted. Everything is black except for a grey kingpin and yellow springs, for a bit of contrast. I reused the lower arms, with new bushings and balljoints. The upper arms are brand new.

- I cut two coils off the springs for the front. This will both stiffen the ride a bit and return the car to the European ride height that the suspension was designed for.

- The hubs were disassembled, cleaned, and painted heat-resistant black. The old bearings were still good so they were soaked in mineral spirits and repacked.

- I cleaned the wheel well thoroughly with Simple Green and mineral spirits. There was small spots of surface rust which I wire-wheeled down to bare metal. I then painted the wheel well with satin black. While it might have been nice to redo the undercoating entirely, this is a much simpler solution that still looks very nice.

[JacobSimon]

Whatever happened with your Fiats guys?!

[Zulu]

Whatever happened with your Fiats guys?!

Huh? Still plugging away at them, been posting updates.

Right now I'm getting all of the old tar off the floor. Will post pictures when I'm done but it will probably be another week what with Thanksgiving and all.

[JacobSimon]

Yeah, I accidentally looked at the join date, and thought that was your last time posting! Looks like I'm not moving too quickly today.

[Zulu]

An update on my floorpans:

I started scraping up all the tar coating from the floors. The good news is that a lot of it was pretty easy. The bad news is that it was easy because there was rust buildup inbetween the tar and the metal. Fortunately much of it looks to just be surface rust.


Here you can see the driver's side done, and the passenger's just started.


Here is a close up of the seat-belt mounting nut and two factory drain holes. If I'm not mistaken, these drains should have been left clear to... you know, drain. But they weren't, they were completely covered over with tar. Hmm.


This is the worst rust. It looks like the P.O. attempted to path it with a piece of metal pop-riveted to the bottom. The seat mount moves up and down due to this hole.


Here is a hole where the transmission tunnel meets the floor on the driver's side.


And the other big hole. This one's at the front of the driver's side by the clutch pedal.

All rust areas will be cut out with new metal welded in. After that, the floors will be painted with POR-15. I haven't yet decided what to do for insulation and carpet.

I'll end this update with a question: Does anyone know what this cream stuff is? It almost looked like spilt body filler. It doesn't seem to be doing anything so I'm going to take it all up, unless there's any reason not to?

[BEEK]

"I'll end this update with a question: Does anyone know what this cream stuff is? It almost looked like spilt body filler. It doesn't seem to be doing anything so I'm going to take it all up, unless there's any reason not to?"

that stuff is seam sealer, you would be wise to apply some yourself when you install any panels that are not 100% seam welded. meaning if you spot weld or stitch weld in any repair panels use that on the seam created

[Zulu]

that stuff is seam sealer, you would be wise to apply some yourself when you install any panels that are not 100% seam welded. meaning if you spot weld or stitch weld in any repair panels use that on the seam created

Where can I get it?

[4uall]

I am a big believer of this product



and of course who doesn't enjoy the good old POR?

[BEEK]

wow i love the por 15, have 4 quarts of it in my shop right now. i prefer to leave the floor just that way, cover with carpet and maybe a heat pad over the cat, but thats it, im not a big fan of insulation in a rag top, as they get wet, unless you never drive in the rain. the padding just soaks up the water and will eventually rot out the floors. again thats just me. ive seen some real nice padding / insulation jobs.

[BEEK]

i just read the specs on the ez cool, saying it absorbs no moisture. thats a great product then.

[RRoller123]

When I do over the carpets this winter I need to make a decision about the insulation, I am leaning towrds none, because I just don't see the need. There is no offensive level of sound deadening needed, I actually like the sound as it is. And the floor and transmission tunnel in my car never get overly hot, maybe just a little warm over the cat. What is the consensus here as to why you guys have put in the insulation?

[Exit98]

Hey Pete,

My original, back-in-the-day 72 Spider poured heat into the cabin during those hot summer nights driving back from the Shore in stop & go traffic. Like an oven.

My now 76 Spider wasn't too bad, but still plenty of heat when I didn't want it. Noisy too.

So I insulated mine heavily, particularly over the trans tunnel, last February when I did my floors. Console now isn't even warm to the touch.

Very pleased with the outcome.

You'll find some remanents of some very heavy factory padding over your tunnel if it hasn't been removed by a PO. You might decide to leave it on, but if you take it off and don't replace it with something I think you'll be sorry.