- First mechanical thing I did to the car was to change all the filters / rubber hoses carrying fuel, oil, or coolant. Luckily, on my first night of ownership, I stumbled accross both Mirafiori.com and Fiatspider.com, so I was able to tap into a lot of experience right away. The oil filter took some 4 or 5 hours to remove as it was really cranked on there and had probably been there for quite some time. Soon after, I rebuilt the 32ADFA carb., though it really needed to be replaced as it required some 'creative gasketry' as the base was warped. That September, my parents had the brakes done for me as my birthday present ... they sorely needed replacement and overhaul. That was all that could be done before it got too cold to hold the tools ... even in the garage.
- All winter, I was itching to be behind the wheel of my car, though Upstate NY is famous for not letting the snow leave until late May. Once Spring broke, I did a quick run through of the car and off I went, down the open road. Drove it all this year, replacing the clutch cable, speedometer cable, and fuel tank sending unit. I also purchased a parts car ... 1969 124 Spider for $75.00 ... and installed a brand new carpet set I found in the trunk. Also replaced the heater control valve when it decided to 'pee' on someone's foot one night ... embarrassing, and a real pain to fix! Put in a new idle solenoid, located some missing chrome trim.
- This is the third summer I have owned the car and driven it as a daily driver through the twisty Adirondak Mountains. In hindsight ... I was out of my mind to drive the car with the suspension as it was. That summer, I replaced the clutch cable twice, then put in a new clutch pedal, repacked the wheel bearings. Took it off the road that summer for a nearly car-wide overhaul that has turned into nothing short of a restoration.
- After the summer of 2001, I took the car off the road, parked it in the garage, and began a tear-down of the whole car to go over just about every mechanical system in it. Pulled out the interior, took off the top, all the exterior trim. Stripeed the body of paint, sandblasted the steel of the interior shell, exposing the little rust there was. Cut out all the rust and patched with steel, used POR-15 to coat all the floors, patched metal. Dropped the rear end, wire-brushed it, coated with POR-15, re-installed. That is all I had time for by the end of the summer of 2002.
- Fall / Winter of 2002 found me in the garage again during my breaks from college, stripping down the engine/suspension of the car. Removed the intake and exhaust manifolds, the entire exhaust system, the radiator, all hoses and pumps ... essentially just left the bare - block and cyl. head, ready to be pulled and gone-through. Removed the shocks and springs from all four corners. Sand-blasted the A-arms, painted them, installed new bushings. Took apart hubs + bearing assemblies, determined the bearings were fine ... will be put back together in the summer of 2003.
Quite an extensive list of parts replaced and work done ... see ON THE ROAD AGAIN
Here it is, 2+ years after my last entry ... I drove the fiat for a solid year as a daily driver, minus the NY winters of course. Work has taken the majority of my time and energy, but I still have the fiat, and its not covered in dust. I just sold my 1985 Fiero which was the daily driver for the past year ... so in a way Im forcing myself to drive and enjoy the fiat. Now that things are going well (just bought a new house in June of 2006) and I have more time on my hands for family, friends and cars, the Fiat will be getting the last bit of parts I have planned on since 1998 ... high comp. pistons, 40/80 80/40 cams, and a high flow, big valve big spring cyl. head. I think I'll keep the compression around 9.2 or 9.0 instead of 9.8 ... but you know how that goes. The HP bug is still going strong!!
