fiat spider

Talked to IAP today regarding wheel bolts and radiators. Sounds like I just have to bite the bullet and buy a new radiator. Mine's leaking due to corrosion and if it's corroded in a small spot it's corroded in others but just not leaking yet. And the guy I talked to gave me a new option for mounting my vintage wheels...buy lenghts of bolt and cut to size for a conversion to lugs. Which would be cheaper and probably faster than waiting for bolts.

Did some research into what I need to buy to get this into a respectable ride. I want to go with dual carbs and a pair of 40IDF's, manifold, full kit is just around $1k. So I'm budgeting for that as well.

There's another guy that's restoring his fiat and documenting it on the web. He started his journal about the same time I did and he's done. I like his method better. Acquire car, disassemble car, rebuild motor, replace bad parts, buy performance parts, reassemble. I've recently realized that I've been treating this project as if it was a broken down honda...when in reality, this is a project car that needs new parts to be road worthy. I must admit I've brought it a pretty good way with elbow grease and determination, but getting the parts and dedicating a few hours a night to working on it would get me a LOT further. I've also realized I don't like spending my time restoring old ass parts or jury-rigging it to 'just work'. It already 'just works', just not very well. I want this to be a flame spitting beast, not a weakling that's barely road-worthy.

But, I'm trying to buy a house. I am gonna buy a few things to get it road worth and keep the momentum and buy the expensive stuff after I get moved in and my finances stable.

Also realized it's been a whole year since I started writing this all down. (And nearly 2 since I bought the car). I've come pretty far...but not far enough. More to come soon!

Rewrote the To-Buy list as a cgi. Much easier to maintain.

Lots to do. (sigh)

So last time I did work on the car was back in November. I had been driving her a lot and putting on some miles with trips back and forth to work. And then one Saturday I was tinkering around, trying to figger out why it wasn't starting reliably...and then the radiator fan didn't come on when it should have. But thankfully 1) the car was in the garage and 2) I noticed it and shut the car off. But it was pretty hot...boiled the coolant and the overflow bottle spewed a bit. Either the thermostat failed or the temp sender failed. I started down the road of just wiring the fan to run all the time (thinking it was the temp sender).

And then it was winter...and I hate working on cars when I have cold hands. And months had passed since I bought the BWA wheels and I'm still trying to get bolts. And then Christmas and then recovering from paying for Christmas. And I've had this little computer related business venture that's taking up a lot of time. And work's been kicking my ass. And I'm trying to buy a house. And now all of a sudden it's March. Yike. (Still no bolts BTW.)

Today I started up the car and ran it for a while. *Lots* of smoke. But it went away after a minute or two. I jury-rigged the fan to run off the battery and tried to set the idle. But it died. I think that I must have been playing around with it back in December a little bit because all the settings were off. I pulled it apart and re-set everything.

Then I noticed that I have a coolant leak from the radiator. F'ckin great. I think I can have it re-cored? A new one sure is expensive. But mine's 30 years old anyhow, so it might need replacement.

So, a little list of things that I need to do and/or buy, not in order:

Replace/recore radiator (leak)
New temp sender for radiator fan...maybe. Might be the thermostat...need to debug that problem.
Replace exhaust manifold (crack)
FIND FRIGGIN WHEEL BOLTS
New rotors (so cheap, I'm gettin new ones)
Caliper rebuilds
new brake pads & brake lines
Fix carburation..either find parts for mine or get a new one. The secondary isn't even hooked up and it's not functional (missing parts).
New exhaust

Something interesting I noticed tonight. If I get upgraded brake rotors, they come with lugs. Which means they might just work with my wheels. Which would solve a very hard problem I'm having. More on that as research allows.

So, I'm gonna try to spend a little time and money on the car each week till it's done. I have a PS-91 ignition coil on the way, I'm excited about that. And I'll be working on the radiator this week as well.