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- Journey's End
- More Suspension Work
- Working with Lou and Ray
- New parts
- Heater core restoration
- Heater Valve Replacement
- Water Pump
- Carbs Fit!
- Gettin Close!
- throttle stop created
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The ongoing saga of my 1972 Fiat Spider restoration project.
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Saturday, September 03, 2005Working with Lou and Ray
So, again, I haven't updated lately. But summer plans have not been as ideal as I'd like. Lots of family visiting. Vacations. More family. Monterey (no Fiat, sniff). House stuff. The Fiat has definatly taken a back seat to the rest of it. Unfortunately for the Fiat.
But we've had a couple cool club meetings. Check out the new club website for pics and news. Brimming with Mambo goodness. Anyway. Last big action I did was to remove the front suspension in preparation for installing new shocks/springs/pads/rotors etc. And then it sat for months. But this last week I've finally had time to get back on it and get it going. I got stuck on Tuesday. The 22mm nuts that hold the a-arm ball joints to the wheel hub assembly would NOT come off. No matter what I tried. Almost broke my back, arm and hand trying to get it off...with no luck. I sent out a message to the club asking for help. Apparently they are nylon (dammit) locking nuts and require more power than hand tools deliver. So today I got up early and met Ray down at Louis's house. After eating a burrito and talking about cars and family for a bit, we went out and used the air tools on my problem. Done in 15 minutes with minimal fuss. Man, I gotta get some of those air tools. Hoping to use the holiday weekend to get all the new parts installed and back on the road. We'll see, I am hopeful. Gotta return parts to Autozone and Eric, both of which let me borrow them a few months back. ;) |
Friday, June 10, 2005New parts
New parts on the way! Basicly, it's koni yellow shocks, performance springs, drilled & slotted rotors up front, stock new in back, ferrodo pads all round, new brake hoses and caliper rebuild kits. Also a console cap for the lower console. My car should handle real well and stop great.
1 FERODO FRNT FIAT 1 FERODO REAR FIAT 1 FIAT PERF ROTOR SET 2 FIAT BRAKE ROTOR ALL TO 84 1 FIAT SPI ALL & X-1/9 79-87 FT CAL KIT 1 FIAT SPI & X 1/9 REAR CAL KIT 2 FIAT FRONT CALIPER HOSE 2 REAR CAL HOSE FIAT 124 1 REAR CENTER HOSE FIAT124 6 FIAT BRAKE HOSE COPPER WASHER 2 KONI FRONT FIAT 124 ALL 2 KONI REAR FIAT 124/BRAVA 1 FIAT 124 SPDR PERF SPRING SET 2 FIAT BRAKE HARDWARE KIT 1 FIAT 124 UNIV CONSOLE CVR Haven't posted much lately. I"ve actually been working on the car a ton. Nearly every day during April & May, not so much in June yet. Let me give a re-cap of what's happened in the last months.
And I'm back to square one on the carbs. The parts come monday. I will spend this weekend getting the motor running good again. I hope to have it running to drive it to our next meeting. And to the Bella Italia event with the Ferarri and Alfa club of SD. And then to Monterey this August! Yeehaw! |
Monday, April 04, 2005Heater Valve ReplacementTonight, I spent the night pulling out the old heater valve for replacement. After I got into it, I discovered a stuck heater control. So, looking into that I removed the heater box. And decided for good measure, to remove the heater core and examine/flush it out. And I got a little suprize. In addition to a lot of green coolant that I managed to collect in a tin can, I got a huge pile of leaves, twigs, bugs and trash. Probably about 3 inches of it. Glad I cleaned that sucker. Guess there is no filter between the outside vents and the heater. Maybe I should put one on there. Even a screen seems like a good idea after all the junk I pulled out. Man, getting that heater valve out was a chore. Tiny space for the wrench and I had to work sideways and upside down to get under there. Plus coolant leaking out with every turn. Yeesh. Glad that's not something that goes bad often. Or at least I hope. The pic in the top right is the 'short tube' and the 'long tube', revealed for the first time here, exclusively! ;) A half hour of polish made the tubes look great, as you can see before and after in the pics. Probably not worth it, but kind of fun when I didn't have anything else to do. Tomorrow I'll attempt to put it all back together, or at least what I can without all the right gaskets. I also discovered something else. I ordered 2 'long heater hoses' from IAP. They're about a 2 feet long with an "S" curve in the end. I have no idea where these should go. Mine only requires the 2 shorter hoses. And these don't even fit. I'm kind of bummed at IAP for selling them to me. But I should have known exactly what to order in the first place. Dangit. |
Tuesday, March 29, 2005Water Pump
Got those screws on last night. But they're not tight yet. I need much smaller hands. And tools.
More work tonight. Installed a new water pump. Pulled out a screw that I thought I'd have to drill. Yes, there is a great use for locking pliers. Check the pics of my success here. Now I need to get replacement bolts, more 8mm washers and a few hoses. Also need to do the messy replacement of the heater valve. Yay for me, working on cars 3 nights in a row! |