Hi all, here are some photos of my new '49 Fiat Topolino. It's going to end up as an altered running in A/VG over here in Australia. We'll be removing the floor and the fenders, welding everything shut, and hinging it at the back in tribute to the Mondello & Matsubara altered. We'll also be creating a '38-48 topolino nose out of sheet, so it'll be a '38 until the C pillar, then a '49 from there backwards. It'll run a naturally aspirated, worked Ford 302, C6 and 9" with a tube chassis. As far as the rest of the design goes, it's based closely on the previously mentioned Mondello coupe (special thanks to Karpo M for supplying a huge amount of detailed images of his amazing car), with American racing 12 spokes up front with a straight tube axle, and Halibrand big window replicas in the back. I picked it up yesterday morning and by the time I left last night we had gutted what was left of the interior, cut part of the floor out, removed the glass and window runners, scraped off boxes full of red Aussie farm dirt and caked on mud, and snapped a lot of rusted fender bolts... I'll post some more pics as we make some more progress.
Ha ha - it's all about a beer called Coopers over here mate! The only place that has Fosters is the Grand Prix... And yes, fuuuuuuuuckin-A!
yea coopers they ferment it in the bottle back in my drinkin days we used to drink it im sure it wasent as strong here as there
i thought everyone drank fosters, ate at the outback steak house and played a didgeridoo-shit, has TV taught me nothing?? haha, cool car man. have fun with it.
Congrats on your Fiat!It will make a great gasser/altered. Being a 49 model the extra trunk space may come in handy. Was the wheel base 80" stock on the 49's? I know the earlier Topo's were, but I never measured one like yours. Good Luck on your build.
I think the wheelbase is exactly the same as the previous model, at 80". From everything I can ascertain, the dimensions are the same all over the vehicle, the bigger trunk is the same length - it's just "bubbled" upwards to make more room. I personally am relying on it for extra downforce... Our front axle will be moved forward to just behind the tip of the nose that we're making, stretching it to a wheel base of 99".
99" is a good length. Glad to see your running a Ford 302. I am running a 351 windsor with a c6 tranny and a ford 9" rear.
Here's the very early, super rough artwork for the paint. I'll update the art too when I have time to work on it.
Thanks, it's going to be a lot of fun putting this together - it's a long term dream that's really coming together.
Hey Fiat Freaks- here's a drawing I've worked up of another New South Wales Fiat- Mark Georgette's famous street- registered one. 392. 9's @ 150. Uni joint spat into slick at the deep end ended this one. Cuts & bruises. I Saw the run- t'was arrow straight 'till the poop hit the fan. Awesome is a hackneyed word these days but it was the right word for this car.
I have read about that Fiat and it was an awesome car in it's time. Are there prints of the artwork available? I sure would like to have a copy. Thanks
the difference between the coopers that comes to you and what we get here is the top label on yours has a kangaroo rather than a barrel. you fancy types may drink coopers, ill stick with my carlton draught. is the georgette fiat the one that went over at heathcote in the mid 80s?
Yep- that's it. I'm thinkin' it was November '85 or 86. I was spectating- the car made 3 or 4 passes I reckon. That grudge type deal. ( recall is hazy- drunk ). It was a real event every time the car lurched to the line, cam hunting @ idle, alky swiller I think. Wheels up high on violent holeshots, thing going this way & that, had to get out of it a few passes, and these abortions were not far out; less than 400 feet. Seems like only 100 ft. out in my memory, maybe it was ! That last run was a few hours after dark & she hooked & flew straight on what may have been a warm November track. I just remember the staccato thud & torquey roar of that angry elephant ( I was at mid- track ) then trap howl then sudden shut off- Dust in the dark out at the bottom. Believe it clicked a low or mid 9 @ 140- 150. Someone knows. Thoroughbred bad- ass hot rod. I've not met Mark but I admired his gung- ho battle with this little monster. Custom Rodder had a cool article with Eddie's road impressions- he was blown away. See if I can dig it out one day. Hope my rambling hasn't bored y'all. p.s. We drank heaps of beer that weekend.
Nice painting, never got to see that car run, not old enough... was it steel? I also dig this painting.
Yeah, mid 80s at Heathcote. If I remember right there was a rod run the day before and we stopped off on the way home. I was sitting in the tower between the lanes and watched it. Sad night, that Fiat is one of my all time favorite cars. Doc.
Thats is a great start. The few that I have seen in wrecking yards are about half there. Keep us posted... s.
OK, it's been a while now, I've been snowed uynder with work but have made some progress. Took me nights on my back to get the guards off. I didn't want to cut them off as I was donating the rears to a restorers club and the fronts are gonna make a nose down the line. It was a relief when bolts would snap, there was only enough room for quarter turns in some spots, even with a ratchet spanner. Then I marked out in tape where I though the cutting should be done, made a mock nose and shark fin scoop.
We are lucky enough to have a gantry so we lifted the car up and cut the last of the chassis bolts away and drooped it to the floor. The I cut a couple of inches away from the intended line (tape) and removed what was left of the floor, firewall etc. Again, anything and everything cut away has been donated to restorers.
Then I bolted the 2 front guards together and started to make a template for the solid nose piece. It's amazing how close the shapes are. Also made a dolly out of a pallet to wheel it around, then made a little mockup of the car with ethe wheel/tyre combo.
Next time I got in the workshop I cleared all off the rust off the new nose piece and did another mockup.
The last few day's effort has been spent on taking the car back to bare metal on the outside. I'll do the inside once it's all been braced and I cut the roof out. I don't have photos but I've also removed all rust and paint from the louvers and underneath the hood and new nose.
Next I've been making cardboard templates for the areas that I'm going to cut away. I using the forms in the car's mouldings so that I can simply flip the templates over and have a mirror image on the other side so we cut it exactly the same all around. There might be a much better way to do this, but I'm a total amateur... forgive me.
Then to make things fun, this turned up from Italy today... plus I've got another hood coming so I'm making plans to have 2 - one to have the OE grill and louvers, another to run the smooth nose and scoop. Good times.
Also, I've reviewed the art for the paint. I'm starting to swing toward early naive flame jobs, the ones where everything is so wrong it's right...