I to just finished reading, you really are an inspiration.
I am also new to Fiat and am undertaking minor repairs to my 124 Spider
Only removed my soft top this weekend (10 min job) and getting the frame powder coated ,
Felt proud about doing such a small thing.

Keep up the great work
Cheers

Thank you all for the encouragement! I hope that you all enjoy it as much as I have!

Getting things off is usually not too bad, I have always had trouble getting them to go back on the way they are meant to...

Next summer I will be installing a new soft top. It will most likely be a chore, but I am looking forward to the results!

I will be home this next week to put the car away for the winter, but I should have enough time to sneak in a brake job, so I am going to replace all of my discs and rotors before I pack her up. I will be sure to post!

when doing a top you need to mesure the center line ft and back mark with tape and draw a line
use rubber cement on the bow
then line up center ft and bolt up the gasket.all with top open a bit.
then line up center back and almost close the top,climb inside and bolt up the rear clamp "someone to push down from the outside helps for this step"
after that close up the top and lock down the cables,"pulling with vice grips"
finaly rivet the ft and put on trim peices,let sit for three days if cold 24 hrs if hot outside

store car with top up to keep form

i have had 3 tops all vinal
cloth is better

hope this helps.joe

124JOE wrote: i have had 3 tops all vinal
cloth is better

Why would you say cloth is better if you never have had one? I ask this question because I am trying to decide right now which way to go. I expected vinyl and cloth to look really different, but in the samples I have received they do not. The feel different, but really do not look that different. Since my top stays down almost all the time I drive it, I will probably go with a vinyl top. Also, since I will be going with a tan top, my impression is that cloth will get dirtier much easier than vinyl. And then there is the mildew factor of a cloth top.

Big difference is that the cloth tops need to be dry before they are stowed down. Pretty inconvenient depending upon where you live. If the desert SW, probably not a big deal. Here in New England, fairly big deal.

when the vinal cracks you see the white fibers its made of
if cloth get a tare it frays
at least the fibers are black
the cloth cost a bit more so i figuered it will be a better top

i had a tan vinal top it had mold and dirt deep inside
i managed to clean it with brake cleaner and a quick rinse
but they all crack from folding.and i like black

Thanks for the tip, Joe. I have already purchased the tan vinyl, so I will make do. I will probably need some serious help when that time comes, because it will have been a full year since I removed the old one.

You 'tep on the brake, 'tupid!

And what a racket it made! I had some serious metal-on-metal issues with my brakes after I got them back on. I was in such a rush to get the car back on the road before school began, I didn't bother worrying about how worn they were.

Thanksgiving break offered a great opportunity to do a bit more work on the old girl before she was put away for the winter months.

All new pads and rotors from Vick's were much needed and looked fantastic next to what could only be the original sets.
The Saturn-esque originals:

The new guys:


The front pads (I hope you can tell which are which):



I timed the job, from the moment I opened the garage door to the time I went back into the house after the job was done and the tools were put away. 1 hour, 20 minutes. I felt like a NASCAR pit crew for FIATs!



The job went without a hitch, for the most part. The rear left caliper (of course, the last one I got to) is in a bad way. It is due for a rebuild, thus the others are, too. It's a good thing I am quick at breaking down the brake system. I will probably replace brake lines sometime in the future as well.


For now, I am stopping on a dime and loving it!
My next challenge is adjusting the valves.
See: http://www.fiatspider.com/f08/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=21648



Until I return!

i see in your photo the brake pads are not worn even this will cause a pull when braking
i hope you greased the slider blocks this helps for even ware,and less pulling while braking

hope this helps.joe

Charlie, I have just read your resto thread from start to finish...WOW! I'm a 30 year old rookie working on my first car and I'm so impressed by your knowledge, tenacity, fearlessness and great writing! I can't wait to read more. Keep up the fantastic work and thanks so much for inspiring all of us with your thorough pics and posts.
Ps. I guess $600 was about right.

Please forgive my latency! I have not given up on this project, in fact I have been so caught up in it that I have not made the time to write a post. I am well overdue, so I will do my best to quench your desire for some progress! I appreciate all of the support from this forum, it goes a long way.

As I mentioned in my latest post, my brake job was a bit half-baked. As soon as I got home, I ordered some caliper rebuild kits and new brake lines from Auto Ricambi and disassembled the brakes. Apart from being quite dirty, the calipers weren’t in too bad of shape, but some of the seals were pretty badly damaged.



I took each one apart and gave them a light cleaning. I would have liked to sandblast the cast surface, but I am sure that I wouldn’t have gotten all of the abrasive out and one would certainly find its way into the cylinder. I wasn’t about to risk that, so I succumbed to having dirty calipers. I removed the brake lines, which put up a good fight after having been under the car for who knows how long. The hoses were in pretty bad shape, so I was glad that I decided to change them out.



All was going fairly well until I sheared one of my bleeder screws off… let the cursing commence. I fought with it for a long time and eventually got the bugger out of there. That is one mistake I will not make again.



Once that issue was resolved, I ran into the assembly of the rear calipers. Fiat really didn’t make it easy on us when they came up with this contraption. The spring washers must be compressed in order for the e-brake shaft to slide over the cam key, but there was nothing to compress the washers with. After hours of blood, sweat, and swearing, I decided to grind the anvil of a c-clamp, which allowed me to compress the washers enough to slide everything together.



I packed them with grease and installed the new hoses. I was ready to put everything back together when I found it nearly impossible to screw in the rear pistons. They simply wouldn’t budge. Thinking I had assembled something wrong, I sought help from this forum. Finally, I decided to bite the bullet and pull the pistons out again. Of course, in doing so, I got a lovely bath of DOT 4. Incidentally, so did the piston and cylinder. It turns out that my little Italian girl doesn’t play well until she is lubed up! The fluid had lubricated the seals and the pistons nearly slid in by hand.

With everything back together, I bled the system to clean out all of the old fluid and gave the brakes a try. She stops so well, it is hard to believe. At first I had some brake pull, but I think that whatever was causing it worked its way out of the system. I did, however, have a grinding sound as I turned. I discovered that one of the washers on the caliper-mount bolts was missing in the front. This allowed the bolt to protrude from the yoke where the rotor would rub as I turned. I found a matching washer and resolved the issue. Crisis averted!

My baby is back on the road. Lubed up and quiet as a mouse….until I open up the second barrel, of course.

This is a fantastic thread. Thanks for your diligence in documenting all your work.

Thank you for reading!

If I didn't write it down somewhere, I would probably forget everything I've done!

Part 19 (?): Valve Adjustment

With my order of brake kits came the valve shims needed for a valve tune-up that was long overdue. Mysteriously, nearly all of the clearances were under-spec. I would have expected that wear would cause the clearances to grow, if anything. Needless to say, a clearance of 0.011”, when the spec is 0.018”, is a bit too low for my comfort.
Once I figured out the right way to use the valve adjustment tool, the process went rather smoothly. The clearances are all now right where they ought to be which, if nothing else, brings me peace of mind.




This was really one of the only things that I needed to complete before the car was drive-able, despite not having put the top on yet… I was far too anxious to wait for a good time to install the top, so I spent a few weeks just driving the car as a roadster, carrying a car cover and tarp in the trunk.

What an absolute joy this car is to drive! I admit that after having owned the car for almost two years, I hadn’t yet put 100 miles on it. I managed that much within a weekend! My girlfriend and I went for a drive through Peninsula State Park, not 20 minutes from my house, and more beautiful each time I visit.

A view from the top of Eagle Tower:



During the week, my Jeep was having some battery and brake issues, so I ended up using the Fiat as a daily driver for a bit. I haven’t had the top off of the Jeep in a while, so it was really great to be out in the open again!

One caveat of driving this car is that I proceed to find everything else that is wrong with it. The dull whoosh of my transmissions input bearing, the grind of a gear with a bad synchro, and the piercing screams of mainshaft bearings that have long been on their deathbed. Oh, have I got work in store. Before that, even, was the collection of bad grounds and fire hazards in the engine bay and above my knees, hiding in a rat’s nest of wires. It was only a matter of time before I snagged one or a short started an electrical fire. I’ll have none of that, so the next project is to refresh the wiring.

I've got a transmission rebuild staring me in the face, here, and it has me curious: is there a lower 5th gear ratio that can be installed in these transmissions to drop RPM at cruise speeds? I really like my 3.90 rear end and I want to keep the acceleration (i.e. no 3.58 for me), but I'm wondering if I can just swap out my top gear.

I'm probably going to hold off on this rebuild until next summer, so I have some time to figure it out. Does anyone know if this can be done?