fiat spider

Started the Fiat yesterday...leaked some oil from the exhaust manifold. Talked to Carlos at ITAL and he said it could be a stud that's loose. So I'll check that out later.

So I saw another Fiat on the road last week. Turned around, followed and exchanged contact info. He sent me an e-mail with some info about his local mechanic and places to get parts. Turns out there is a local Fiat specialist guys, Carlos at ITAL Automotive. Sweet, so I called him up, and ordered a steering box. I went down to pay for it and he says 'what day was your car manufactured, because the steering boxes changed in 1973'. Shit, I dunno. So I went back the next day with the old box in hand, ordered the new one. Got it the next day, Friday for $200. Not bad. Installed it on Saturday, and on Sunday, I put the whole thing back together. Clutch cable, intake manifold, carb and various other hoses and cables. Started it up last night at 10:59. Yay. Gonna go home today and test drive it, park it, and do all the fluids. Happy!

I removed the F*&%ING steering box. I spent a great bit of the day trying to remove it without removing anything else, with great failure. So I decided to remove the carb, intake manifold and the starter. The starter wasn't as hard as they made it out to be. The intake was a bitch. Fuckin coolant everywhere. Hard as shit to reach bolts. It was harder to reach than the starter, and there were 2 of them! The carb was a snap. Hope I can remember how to get the rest of it back together. I'm sure I'll be fine. The hard part is going to be rebuilding the steering box. Not sure if I'll do that or not. I'd rather have a new one.

Hopefully I can get the Fiat running. I've been trying to take out the steering box...got it loose but the starter's in the way. And the intake manifold is in the way of the starter. So it's a big deal. Oh well, I'll get it at some point. :)