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Next project - 38 fiat topolino

Discussion in 'The Hokey Ass Message Board' started by maddog, Mar 22, 2007.

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  1. gnichols
    Joined: Mar 6, 2008
    Posts: 11,345

    gnichols
    Member
    from Tampa, FL

    Still enjoying this thread very much... did you tell us already what the wheel base is? Later, Gary
     
  2. Mnhotrodbuilder
    Joined: Jul 12, 2010
    Posts: 1,140

    Mnhotrodbuilder
    Member
    from Afton, MN

    Looks great! Any videos of it running?
     
  3. Zoomer
    Joined: May 15, 2009
    Posts: 222

    Zoomer
    BANNED

    93" wheelbase. engine is set back 9" behind the front axle
    12' from the leading edge of the front tire to the end of the wheelie bars

    as for squirelly.. can't say as yet but I bought scales to weight it and to set up the coil over suspension and as it currently sits the weight distribution is 50.3% front & 49.7% rear
    50.5% left side & 49.5% right side

    no vid as yet... soon


    thanks for the kind words
     
  4. fiat gasser
    Joined: Sep 5, 2008
    Posts: 1,591

    fiat gasser
    Member

    What did it weigh?
     
  5. WDobos
    Joined: Jan 7, 2007
    Posts: 234

    WDobos
    Member

    I have stock Fiat door glass for patterns if you need them,I'll make the patterns and send them too you.
     
  6. Zoomer
    Joined: May 15, 2009
    Posts: 222

    Zoomer
    BANNED

    some tail light pics

    I had to cut a pattern to locate the holes in the exact same place from side to side, more fun once you realize that the two sides of the car are actually a bit different out of the original molds.

    pic 1 I have remote battery terminals mounted on a rear frame rail and since it cramps the area for the tail light I had work to do.

    pic 2 I had to remove the bulb and socket and access it thru the side then weld a cover over the original hole

    pic 3 I bought these 1950"s style Pontiac beehive taillights which are really nice repops but the trim ring is just way to big for the area it needed to fit into so I did some redesign and headed to the machine shop

    pic 4 side view

    pic 5 with the body doing a bunch of different angles where the tail lights sit I had to work the bottoms of the trim rings to match the body arcs perfectly.... excuse the dirt... the trim sits on the panel with no gasket... regardless of the illusion the of dirt

    pic 6 both sides and the added bonus of the removable license plate holder...

    and no that's NOT a blur on the pic, that actually is a primered area on the paint...
     

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    Last edited: Jun 11, 2011
  7. Zoomer
    Joined: May 15, 2009
    Posts: 222

    Zoomer
    BANNED

    decided to put some padding on the steering wheel

    pic 1 is the pads with stitching... still need to do a mount cover of some sort

    pic 2 is the hand stitching I was soooo lucky to get to do... look closely and you'll
    see a repeating pattern in the stitch, its an ugly one but its there, somehow?
     

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  8. Zoomer
    Joined: May 15, 2009
    Posts: 222

    Zoomer
    BANNED

    I didn't want to buy a hood ornament even though I found an original one and it wasn't overly expensive I wanted the design to be a bit longer

    pic 1 first I laid down tape on the grill and built a fiberglass reinforced base along with
    steel posts for the grille trim to align to

    pic 2 this is ground to something close to the size I want

    pic 3 shows the grill trim mounted and the base in place and the start of the boards getting
    together... you can see the center mounted grill trim set up in the ornament

    pic 4 after fiberglass and grinding and sanding it gets some hardened primer

    pic 5 just sitting not mounted

    pic 6 this pic also shows how the grill sheet metal is now sculpted around the intake
    manifold


    sort of weird not working onthe rod on a saturday but I'm fatigued with the project so I figured I'll get caught up on this stuff... didn't get to the dmv so no driving other than in the alley and I don't want to chew up the soft rear tires so ... a few more days
     

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    Last edited: Jun 11, 2011
  9. Zoomer
    Joined: May 15, 2009
    Posts: 222

    Zoomer
    BANNED

    windows windows windows

    started making templates and it is as much of a hassle as ever but as with everything else.... its just a thing

    pic 1 passenger door with felt in place, I had to work the template so the same amount of felt was exposed beyond the body panel

    pic 2 inside shot with rubber, felt, and glass lock / handle

    pic 3 close up with door latch installed

    pic 4 I set the lock handle at a point that looked close to what I had seen in pictures, I don't have the trim that the locks slide in so I figured since I would be making them I didn't have to be exact on my hole height.

    pic 5 turns out the windshiel has to mount from the inside (have repop rubber) only problem? roll bar doesn't let that happen.

    If I go with lexan there would be an arc because the panel at the bottom of the glass has a arc in it from side to side, or, I could rework the entire panel but if I did that why not run glass and mount it from the outside without rubber?

    windshield glass is ,250 thick and the body panel on the car has a .125 lip for the rubber which means the glass would stick up (not using the rubber) so I would have to do bodywork olong the entire winshield area.... NOT interested

    hmmm split window

    made templates and installed the glass and it actually looks better as a split window, more time period correct as odd as that is.

    I designed a center piece of moulding that holds everything and has a interior side plate which screws go thru to pinch the windows together.

    The center trim has the same design as the hood ornament...
     

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    Last edited: Jun 11, 2011
  10. GaryB
    Joined: Dec 19, 2008
    Posts: 3,529

    GaryB
    Member
    from Reno,nv

    damn its gettin close,bitchin car
     
  11. Zoomer
    Joined: May 15, 2009
    Posts: 222

    Zoomer
    BANNED

    some more seat stuff

    pic 1 on the left is what came with all the parts, on the right is the first level of change, I made a seat bottom and removed 6" out of the center of the seat back

    pic 2 I carved a seat from foam then fiberglassed it and used it as a mold, then I pulled a part of out of that and took the part to a 3-d scanner and had it corrected from side to side then sent that file to a cnc foam cutter and got this large block of foam that I sanded and glassed and prepped to pull parts from

    pic 3 a seat bottom in the mold (the mold was actually made for another project of mine but I thought the seat design would work well with the minimalistic theme I was building this car by)

    pic 4 even after removing 6" from the center I then chopped off the "wrap around" parts of the seat backs and then added in steel rods around the edge and arcoss the back side for added strength

    pic 5 seat frame

    pic 6 I had some sound barrier remaining from a project I built for someone else... this material was used in black hawk helicopters ...
     

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    Last edited: Jun 11, 2011
  12. Zoomer
    Joined: May 15, 2009
    Posts: 222

    Zoomer
    BANNED

    and more

    pic 1 thin foam applied over the sound barrier

    pic 2 seat upper with thin foam and edge wrapped with material

    pic 3 I built inserts with interior board, then glued foam to that, then material, then
    stitched the pattern

    pic 4 aforementioned stitches

    pic 5 the seat bottom.. I glued a thick blue foam then cut out the "insert" area, next to it you can see the material stitched to a thin foam

    pic 6 both seats

    pic 7 seat bottom without insert getting wrapped
     

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    Last edited: Jun 11, 2011
  13. Zoomer
    Joined: May 15, 2009
    Posts: 222

    Zoomer
    BANNED

    yes yes more

    pic 1 uhhh yeah (delete)

    pic 2 this shows how the inserts pull out. the upper is wrapped under around to the back and then the back is carpeted, the bottom is wrapped under the front and the bottom is carpeted...

    having the inserts pull out like this alows me to hide the screws that hold the hard seat parts to the frame

    pic 3 passenger seat finished, just need to adjust and trim harness lengths

    pic 4 I had to "adjust" the bright white of the simpson labels

    pic 5 head rest bar completed

    pic 6 dome lights : ) I have them on both side bars and under the dash on the passenger side and they really light it up

    pic 7 this shows the first pad idea I was going with... never got it to work and never liked
    the look... always for a reason

    the only thing I had my interior guy do was run the straight stitches in the seat pads, the steering wheel, and the door panels (which I don't have pics for as yet)

    I'm still not a fan of doing interior work
     

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    Last edited: Jun 11, 2011
  14. greaseman
    Joined: Jun 11, 2011
    Posts: 4

    greaseman
    Member
    from michigan

  15. Zoomer
    Joined: May 15, 2009
    Posts: 222

    Zoomer
    BANNED

    getting the door glass tomorrow and the windshield pieces back (had to have them fine tuned closer to my templates) another $600 added to the build total for the glass.... I keep thinking I'm done buying parts but ....

    head lights are wired and working, same with the tail lights.

    the little alternator that came with the project, that was later replaced with a rebuilt one ...twice.... just can't make the amps needed now that we have the actual need numbers. it makes 50 amps which we thought would be plenty, and then more and more draws were added and now the total needed is 75 when everything is running.

    so... a mini alternator with a single wire and 120 amps is available.... $394... after talking with 4 companies I went with a company that dyno tests each one and gives a performance sheet with each, a 1 year warranty and ..... drum roll please... they produce 85 amps at IDLE...


    went to register it and got a ration of bs from dmv and almost the same from AAA but without the attitude. have to get it inspected since the car is from out of state... slight hassle but the car is completely D.O.T. legal, yes even the headers : ) the legal limit for noise is 95db.. I'm below that.... woo hoo


    ( yes the license plate bracket looks gawky in the pic but with a plate on it and the wheelie bars back under the car itlooks great, maybe I'll show it someday )
     

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    Last edited: Jun 16, 2011
  16. GaryB
    Joined: Dec 19, 2008
    Posts: 3,529

    GaryB
    Member
    from Reno,nv

    true badass,need a video
     
  17. Model A Gomez
    Joined: Aug 26, 2006
    Posts: 1,695

    Model A Gomez
    Member

    Like the way you had it laid out, slight stretch on the wheel base and make it a driver...
     
  18. Zoomer
    Joined: May 15, 2009
    Posts: 222

    Zoomer
    BANNED

    it has registration.... tomorrow it has insurance.... I couldn't wait... took it out into the street just to romp the throttle once.... HOLY S*#%

    just popped the throttle for a second and it suddenly changed its tone dramatically and launched, no wheelie bar on so I didn't come off the trans brake or even off a higher rpm with the converter so it did its typical tunnelram 1/2 second stutter and then YIKES!!! this is going to be a fun summer : )

    license plate reads.... NO CHUTE

    still have a few things to finish up, machining new blinker arms that lift out of the body (stock feature) think I am going to machine the boxes the arms mount in since the original ones are a curiousity as to how they attach to the car...

    going to try and put 50 miles on it this weekend and then block it down next week and paint it. YES AGAIN....

    pic 1 I'm pretty pleased with the outcome, I think its a bad ass hot rod, but I'm biased

    pic 2 the headlights are NOT on, just really good internal reflectors, (really dig the no wires)always forget the pavement in tipped

    pic 3 a bit of sunlight on the lens?

    its odd that this project is almost finished, that means I am going to have to add up all the receipts.... uh oh
     

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    Last edited: Jul 1, 2011
  19. Zoomer
    Joined: May 15, 2009
    Posts: 222

    Zoomer
    BANNED

    took it around the block for the first time.... rolled a bit and 1/2 hammered it and banged 2nd and the block was over.... turned the corner and up another block a bit less aggressive, back into the garage... then downloaded my brain.... HOLY SHIT this car is really wicked fast.... can't even imagine what the ride will be like when I am coming off the trans brake at 3800rpm its going to be a fun summer

    ok it rides really smooth, its not loud in the car, stops on a dime, steering is a bit odd, mostly I found that I didn't have time to look at anything... 3 seconds of stab it and steer... it fits me like a glove and everything was a no brainer to access even while under throttle...

    going to do some carb tuning on sunday then at night drive over to a large smooth empty mall parking lot that backs up to the freeway... figure its the easiest way to test the suspension set up...

    my buddy will be recording so hopefully I'll have something to post on youtube. he said as soon as I got on the throttle it sounded like a dragster, whatever that's worth.
     
  20. GaryB
    Joined: Dec 19, 2008
    Posts: 3,529

    GaryB
    Member
    from Reno,nv

    beautiful topo,love to see it in person. bring it to RENO in august?
     
  21. Zoomer
    Joined: May 15, 2009
    Posts: 222

    Zoomer
    BANNED

    if reno was an hour away I'd do it, but 8 hrs is a bit much for me in any type of car...
    or train, or plane....

    I'll have some video of it soon going over the car in detail and then the burn out and launch.... gotta do it... its 1:15 am and I'm sitting here doing some work and all I want to do is pull the rod out of the garage and go for a cruise.... F... figure another month to get it totally completed.
     
  22. GaryB
    Joined: Dec 19, 2008
    Posts: 3,529

    GaryB
    Member
    from Reno,nv

    hell ya! take it out an play with it.....:D
     
  23. gnichols
    Joined: Mar 6, 2008
    Posts: 11,345

    gnichols
    Member
    from Tampa, FL

    I bet you're stoked... and that the brakes work good! Nice car! Gary
     
  24. FoxSpeed
    Joined: May 19, 2009
    Posts: 385

    FoxSpeed
    Member
    from NorCal

    A thrill a minute, you have built the ultimate hot rod, wow.....I will anxiously await the video of your "test and tune".
     
  25. Zoomer
    Joined: May 15, 2009
    Posts: 222

    Zoomer
    BANNED

    the body panels near the headers are catching a bit of heat and I really don't want that to be an issue since I am now block sanding the car for another repaint.. sooooo I built some panels that hold little fans that blow right on the headers. They are on a switch in the center console that has power on both sides of the ignition switch... power and accessory.

    The electric water pump runs on power and accessory as well and the radiator fans have an override that also can be powered on accessory. This way I can shut the car off and run the radiator fans, water pump and header fans for 5 minutes and take the temp down from 175 to 100 in less than 5 minutes.

    pic 1 is the template with the fans taped for fit

    pic 2 is the fans mounted on sheet metal

    pic 3 is the panel mounted in place.. this is the pasenger side... firewall to the right side, valve cover to the left side, the bar above is the engine roll cage bar... I used the bolt that connects the engine cage to the rest of the cage for the top mount and the lower body to frame mount bolt for the lower mount.

    pic 4 is the same as pic 3 but farther back view, the distributor cap is at the bottom of the pic...



    bought high heat sheeting good for 2000 degrees to put on the inside of the panels and to cover the fans and the mounting plates, currently covered with aluminum foil for a few days.

    started block sanding the car today, figure I'll be done by the weekend and hopefully get it into the booth a couple of days next week. blinker arms and boxes are getting machined currently, ordered door mirrors today.

    ordered larger accelerator pump aquirters today along with a secondary balancing tube so the carbs reacts at exactly the same time. did some carb tuning snday in the garage and its much better, the squirter change ought to clear everything up that is left.
     

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    Last edited: Jul 6, 2011
  26. Zoomer
    Joined: May 15, 2009
    Posts: 222

    Zoomer
    BANNED

    I have always believed that once a car is being driven the work on it stops.... thus I always completely finish a project before I start cruising it.... does that qualify block sanding it to repaint it? again!

    the areas around the vent doors got wavy when we set the body because I turned a suspension nut/bolt around and blah blah blah... that plus adding in the gas door... regapping the door fitment a wee bit, and a small dent on the tail section and one on the cowl section made it seem like a reasonable course of action.

    still looking to have it finished this month... where have I heard that before?

    I'll get it in the booth next week, pull the wheels, doors, nose, scoop and start one of those 100% emmaculant masking jobs.... gotta love a challenge (actually it won't be difficult or complicated at all, time consuming yes but thats all)

    buying a decibel meter tomorrow to determine where the headers really are and if I need to make some.... adjustments : )
     

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  27. Zoomer
    Joined: May 15, 2009
    Posts: 222

    Zoomer
    BANNED

    painted this week. the doors and nose, interior window trim, gas door, hood ornament, and grille trim was painted thursday.. I flatbeded the rod to the booth fri and shot it today.

    pic #1 is wrapped up in the booth. I layed plastic on the ground then slide the floor jack under it to lift it then set the stands under it so I could wrap it from the back to the front underneath and then up and over the engine to the cowl panel.

    pic #2 another angle

    pic #3 painted.... AGAIN!

    pic #4 another angle this time I shot with about 5# of air pressure to get maximum material on the body with little in the air and little to move the plastic around. acrylic enamel is not a fan of low pressure as it needs higher pressure to get a high shine and really smooth flow out. lower pressure gets you more orange peel and less shine but lots of material and since its getting colrsanded and polished the degree of shine at this point doesn't matter to me.

    pic# 5 is the hood ornament and the gas door ornament

    pic #6 is the new and old blinker box.. (1 side) the steel ones were so beat up and the blinker arms were broken so I redesigned the arms and then the boxes to work with the changed arms.
     

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    Last edited: Aug 6, 2011
  28. fiat gasser
    Joined: Sep 5, 2008
    Posts: 1,591

    fiat gasser
    Member

    Wow, what can I say. It looks great and the new blinker boxes are very impressive. I have the same directionals for my Fiat but they are pretty rough also. I also never noticed the design of your gas cap, nice touch. wanted to ask you how come you chose to use acrylic enamel and not base clear? no offense to you about it I was just curious. I sprayed alot of enamel over the years with good results after a wet sand and polish.
    Let us know when you get it back together again.
    Bob:)
     
  29. OldCrow
    Joined: Jan 10, 2010
    Posts: 134

    OldCrow
    Member

    Oh MAN. that is so cool. GREAT job on this build. I've always loved the look of those cars. a couple years ago a 36 Ford slantback body fell in my lap and I started "converting" it to an overgrown Topolino but got sidetracked building a T bucket instead. Your thread has renued my interest, and the T got finished last month. so, huummmmm.

    Cheers,
    Russ

    [​IMG]
     
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