Wheels & Machine Shop search continues!

I ordered Kumho Solus KR21 tires from TireRack.com at 8pm on Thursday of last week, the next day at 10am the UPS man was delivering them to my door. Unbelievable! I had to order 155/80/13 as the original 155SR13 are pretty much no longer available in this country. You can find them by Vredestein at Coker Tire but they are out until March 2012, they are also a lot more expensive compared to TireRack. I picked up my newly powder coated stock steel wheels from Accurate Powder Coating and they came out great.

I was afraid they might be too sparkly when I dropped them off but the end result is impressive. I had my new tires mounted on the steel wheels at a place here in San Francisco called Rolling Stock. They. Look. Awesome.

The period correct, Japanese made, "American Racing" slot mags are off.

I was all set to put on the steel wheels until I discovered that the proper style wheel bolts I had were fine thread... the 850 takes coarse thread... damn! So, for now the car is perched on jack stands until correct wheel bolts arrive.

So on to the Machine Shop "situation". I sent out a bunch of emails to local Fiat parts suppliers as well as garages that specialize in Fiats asking them if they did their own machine work or who they'd recommend. Some got back to me, some didn't. Some machine shops won't touch Fiat work, others say they'll be happy to do it, then... nothing. So, to make a long story short and without naming names, I'm still trying to find a machine shop that- A. Has Fiat experience and B. Actually wants to do it. It would help if they are somewhat local too but it doesn't look like I can be too picky.

Engine Removal

When removing the engine from an 850 Coupe there's three things you need to know- Despite what the manuals tell you, there are 6, not 4, bolts that secure the rear panel, you should also REMOVE the OUTER tail light assemblies to avoid damaging them. Finally, you don't need an engine hoist if all you're doing is pulling the motor.

I stripped down as much of the motor as possible BEFORE pulling it out. I figured less weight, smaller size, easier to handle. The exhaust, water pump, alternator all came off first. Once removed from the car I lifted the motor up to the workbench.

The previous owner told me the car had sat since 1991, possibly due to a blown head gasket. He bought a used 850 Spider motor and tried to make one good motor by combining parts from both motors. From what I had discovered so far I knew it wasn't going to be good. This is what I found when I removed the head.

Not good. The P.O. had told me he used the "better" head. The original head, which was part of the purchase, looks perfect compared to this. He also incorrectly installed several of the rod bearing caps.

This is how it should look, both stamped with the same cylinder number.

This one has the bearing cap installed "backwards". Notice you can't see the cylinder number stamping.

Finally, in this pic we can see where the P.O. left off the oil return tube.

I still have more tearing down to do, not sure what else is left for me to find wrong, but we will see. I also need to find a machine shop that is familiar with Fiats. I emailed R&D in Costa Mesa but have yet to hear back from them. There are a couple of Italian Repair places here in San Francisco, so if I don't hear from R&D I'll check in with them to see if they can do it or recommend someone. Judging by the box of leftover parts in the trunk it looks like the engine I removed has the original Coupe pistons & rod bearings in the used 850 Spider motor. Hopefully I can use the old head and block to keep it original.

FIAT America Tech Meeting

I recently attended the FIAT America Tech Session. Not sure what to expect I took my lo-tech memory device and headed out in my sensible car for a 90 minute drive to beautiful Gilroy, California. I pulled up the the location and saw some X1/9's, a 124 Spider and an early 850 Spider. "AWESOME!!!" I thought to myself. I met Gary and Pat, two very knowledgeable FIAT aficionados, and was introduced to several other people, so many people I can't remember all of their names. They say it's the first thing that goes. Anyway, the tech session was more of an opportunity to work on your car and have someone there with the knowledge to help you out if you got stuck and needed an extra set of eyes, hands or ears. I got to talking with Pat and told him about my Coupe and how I wanted to put stock wheels on it as I can't stand the period correct "slot mags". Don't get me wrong, if I was restoring zebra three I'd be totally ok with them but I much prefer stock steelies with hubcaps. Well, Pat had a set and told me if I found them I could have them. How. Cool. Is. That?!! I told him that I would give him the slot mags for them. Pat also has quite the collection of cool old cars; Fiats, Lancias and such so even though I didn't have anything to work on I was still kept busy with all the sights.

Later in the day the guys and gals provided a BBQ lunch. The FIAT America gang are a great bunch of people, super friendly, approachable and give advice freely on how to fix/enjoy your FIAT. If you live in the Bay Area I highly recommend joining the club.

Sport Coupe is home.

I had the FIAT towed home by California Towing. George, the owner, has an immaculate flatbed tow truck and is very friendly and mindful of the vehicles he tows. Once home, George helped me push the car into the garage and informed me that it looked like it leaked some fuel while on the truck. After spending some time on the car I noticed a few things weren't quite right. Although the battery was 80% charged it cranked over very slowly. After reading some manuals and bouncing around online it became clear that perhaps the engine wasn't properly grounded. It wasn't. At the bottom left corner of the radiator there was a ground wire disconnected and at the fuel filler there was an old fashioned braided ground strap just sitting there. I connected it to a bumper mounting bolt and the water pump and my multimeter confirmed the engine was now grounded and cranked over a lot faster. I thought I better double check all the basics. The plugs were gapped wrong and were a mixture of Champions and Magneti Marellis. The distributor driveshaft has an awful lot of up and down freeplay. I haven't found anything online that covers what an acceptable play amount might be, if any, but it seems excessive. Points were also gapped wrong and at TDC the points were resting on a distributor cam flat, not opened on a lobe as it should be. After checking for spark at points and plugs I was ready to try and start it. A few blasts of starting fluid and it fired up! It wouldn't hold an idle and there was a lot of valve train noise. I decided it might be a good idea to adjust the valves. I have two manuals for this car, the factory one and some old Haynes manual. The factory one mentions adjustment when valves are "at balance", whatever the hell that means! The Haynes manual suggests rotating the crankshaft, (counter clockwise remember) and when one valve is fully open to adjust the valve that is completely closed. There is a correct sequence to this and if you need to know what it is you can contact me. Anyway, valves adjusted and I try to start it again. It started and ran so long as I kept spraying starting fluid into the carb. Fuel pump works and there is a fresh supply of fuel but it just refuses to idle and the valve train is still noisy. I figured that since the car was only running for a few seconds at a time, oil wasn't being pumped long enough to get to the rockers. Since I plan on using this car to get to Fiat America meetings, car shows, Napa, back roads touring etc. I have decided to rebuild the motor... the brakes, the fuel system etc. etc. etc...

The Search Is Over.

A few months ago I decided it was time to get yet another project car. Being from Scotland I thought it was time I owned something British and being who I am I had to have something different. I've seen enough MGs, Spitfires, Morris Minors and the like to last a lifetime. I decided that I had to get a Hillman Imp. It's Scottish, it's rare, it's perfect! I started the daily eBay and Craigslist search. It was soon obvious that finding an Imp wasn't going to be an easy task.
Perhaps a Triumph Herald might be the right car? With visions of Emma Peel and "Swinging London" dancing in my head I again did the Craigslist search. I found a couple in Sacramento and one in Tehachapi but for some reason they didn't feel right. They just weren't... sexy enough.
Maybe I needed to forget about the British car thing. Did I need to become a FIAT owner again? I had owned a few FIATs before; a 1977 X1/9, a 1977 124 Spider and $40 850 Spider that I bought to part out on eBay. OK, a FIAT, let's see what I find. In order to make the search easier I used crazedlist. It searches ALL Craigslist sites and I found a posting for a 1970 FIAT 850 Sport Coupe in Pleasant Hill, California. I had never seen one in person before and a google image search was all it took to get me hooked. A few emails later and I had a appointment to check it out.

The owner, Stan, is a retiree that buys projects, gets them running then sells them on. He does it more as a hobby to keep busy than a way of making money. The FIAT however had him beat. After a year of weekends spent wrenching, it still refused to start. I love a challenge though and since the car was pretty straight, rust free and complete a deal was struck. I couldn't pass it up. Now... how do I get a car that doesn't run back to San Francisco... cheaply?