New 70's euro-box in the family!

[David Votoupal]

Along with the Simca 1100, it laid the template for modern FWD cars.

Enzo Ferrari drove one to work.

[Lupo TDI]

Thread revival...

My nephew now hay a '64 notchback VW (beautiful, with Fuchs wheels), and he wanted to get rid of the Fiat. As nobody wanted it, I thought I'd give it a new home. So... I am collecting data on how to make the engine a bit more powerful. The Fiat SOHC seems to respond pretty well to tuning. The plan so far includes a nice exhaust (think 2,5") and a 4-in-1 manifold; a more aggressive cam, maybe bigger inlet and exhaust valves, and I'd love to have two twin carbs in there; the sound is so intoxicating... I'll be looking at 130hp by then; should be a handful to drive balls-out. You can feel the torque-steering already. The shocks are pretty good still (Sachs), when they are done I think I'll install some Osrav off a Fiat 127 as they are 2" shorter. Should give the car a nice drop. The rear leaf spring will get some spacers. Then I'd try to fit the cobra seats that are left from the E21 we both wanted to restore. The dash is cracked and if I can't find a replacement I will cover it in suede.

Anyhow, up to now I rebuilt the brake system (new master cylinder, new front and rear pads and some brake lines); new steering joints and new wheel bearings. I made a bushing for the throttle linkage and adjusted the clutch cable and it feels already better.

This will be a slow build I guess, I hope I'll be able to start collecting the engine parts so that in a couple of months I'll be able to play real-life Lego

A couple of pics:

The missing bushing:



New bushing, made out of a block of delrin:



Other side:



And I find it strange that it has some difficulties to start??



My first patch, and it definitely looks like it:



Brakes:





Front sway bar in yellow; serves also as longitudinal control arm:



Boxy:



Front suspension:

[Lupo TDI]

This last weekend I tried something new; I wanted to fill some grooves left by rust in the rear lid but did not want to use bondo so I tried the lead loading technique.

It did work, although not on the first try of course. But I hope the car won't ever rust again there.

Starting point, used a rust converter hence the brown color



Clean the converter off



Put on the flux paste



Heat it and put some lead/tin on the metal (notice the area grew bigger...)



File it down once it is hard



After that I applied a very thin coat of bondo that I then sanded down and put primer on afterwards.

Primer




Then I proceeded to fix the hole under the rear window.

Cut off the bad part.





Cut off some more as the first try wasn't enough





[IMG][/IMG]

Make replacement



Make new replacement in one piece without cuts as first one was crap and cover the rear it in solder-proof primer (no pictures)



Tack it on and smooth the weld spots



Clap yourself on the shoulder, maybe

Other random things: Swapped all the instrument lights with same color LEDs, now one can read the speedometer even at night... Found out the front seats are from a BMW e30 two-door and have separated front and rear height adjustment. And found a couple of coins under the floor mat...

[VadGTI]

More rust repair please, so I can learn from you!

[Lupo TDI]

More rust repair please, so I can learn from you!

I don't know if I'm the right guy to imitate with all the talented guys we have around here, but I take it as a compliment

There's still plenty of rust on the poor box; but I plan on removing all of it and replacing metal as I go. Now I have a small camera that I can take with me and take snapshots of what I'm doing.

[Maggiolone]

I do have a soft spot for these cars, even though they misbehaved when new.

My dad had one of these new:

[Lupo TDI]

I do have a soft spot for these cars, even though they misbehaved when new.

My dad had one of these new:

They have become really rare. I'd love to find a wagon some day and give it the "special" treatment.

[rains]

Nice looking Fiat

[Rob.]

Odd looking cars for sure !

[Lupo TDI]

Update:

Managed to take off the windshield in order to fix the rust underneath. It's more than I had "hoped" for...

[Chapel]

yikes

[UberWgn]

[Iroczgirl]

I'm sure you'll have that windshield frame fixed in no time.

Looks like any other Mk1 VW Golf frame.

[200HP4dr]

Great work! I love to see this kind of thing in here.

Chris

[BostonB6]

Great work! I love to see this kind of thing in here.

Chris

Yes!

My uncle had a green 128 in the 60's and early '70s in Italy when I visited as a kid. It was always overshadowed by my cousin's Alfa Romeo Giulia, but the Fiat ran great up and down those mountain roads in central Italy.

[rlfletch]

I love that car and I love this thread. Please keep us posted on your most excellent efforts.

[Lupo TDI]

I think I'll need to remove the fenders, or at least detach them from the structure where they meet the windshield frame, so I can thoroughly remove the tust that's there. But to be honest, I am a bit unsure about what to do now. I might bring it in, on the other hand I can't really do work now, as I have the wrong sheeetmetal, ie it's too thick and I have difficulties in modeling it the way it should be. But don't worry, this car will be saved. It's jsut too cool to give up I actually miss driving it, it's fun, fun, fun!

[Air and water do mix]

Update:

Managed to take off the windshield in order to fix the rust underneath. It's more than I had "hoped" for...

Ouch! That's going to require some serious metal. Is the cowl available as a new part? If not, do you think you could patch in sections from something like a Mk 1 Golf? I'm pretty confident those are still available.

Good luck with it!

[Lupo TDI]

Of course the cowl is not available as a replacement part

I've made a piece of cardboard to have the curvature of the lower corners, and compared it to a cowl of a BMW e21 (you remember? ) and it seems to be identical. Of course, the curvature of the surface from the windscreen to the hood is different, but that is a lesser problem in my opinion. In order to not ruin an original BMW replacement cowl I looked further and I found these two items, for a Golf 1. Thanks fort that idea by the way!

I'll be able to work on the 128 in two weeks time, hopefully I'll make some serious progress. I need to pull the fenders as they're rotting too, and I honestly don't want a "rat". After that I'm going to have it professionally painted. the car deserves it.

[Numbersix]

Ah, yes. I'm actually surprised they didn't just hand out an accessory package of rust when you bought a new Fiat in the 1960's and 70's. (Alfasuds were even worse.)

Good for you in tackling this project! There are some decent metalworkers in TCL (Barry and GaryC come to mind) that might be able to offer some advice.

[Lupo TDI]

Ah, yes. I'm actually surprised they didn't just hand out an accessory package of rust when you bought a new Fiat in the 1960's and 70's. (Alfasuds were even worse.)

Good for you in tackling this project! There are some decent metalworkers in TCL (Barry and GaryC come to mind) that might be able to offer some advice.

LoL

The Alfasud story is such a shame; it could have been so much more successful, it was an amazing chassis. I had the possibility to drive an Alfasud Sprint 1.3 with twin downdraft Webers, and it didn't feel like any FWF compact I drove til then. (mostly VWs: Lupo, Golf 3, Golf 4).

Thanks.
Maybe they'll see the thread; but I've learned a lot from their threads, especially Barry's Lincoln Limo Project. I really hope to get this done soon.

[Lupo TDI]

Golf MK1 repair part has arrived... next weekend we'll see if it fits or not...

[Iroczgirl]

Nice!

I'm hoping it does.

[71DubBugBug]

good luck with all the rust repairs, dont you just live getting into more than you had planned?
happens to the best of us

[barry2952]

Yikes! That's a lot of work.