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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. fiat gasser
    Joined: Sep 5, 2008
    Posts: 1,591

    fiat gasser
    Member

    Now that takes a big set of nuggets. Very cool idea. Would like to see it when it's done.
     
  2. Zoomer
    Joined: May 15, 2009
    Posts: 222

    Zoomer
    BANNED

    Bob... thanks for the thumbs up. as for why the single stage enamel? its just great paint to work with and if you colorsand it dead flat with a hard block and then polish it you get a much deeper look than base coat clear coats offer. I always cut any peel with 800 on a hard block then follow that up with 1000 on a hard block then 1500 on a semi rigid soft pad... polishes like butter : ) besides that two staging a solid color never made much sense to me.. of course you can't buy centari or delstar in los angeles county so you have to have it shipped in.

    Now its time to address Russ and his HUGE surgery job ahead of him... it seems like a cool angle to take even though it is going to take some hours to get that project to come together.... however... like you said, your t bucket project is finished sooo no excuse , right? thanks for the kind words about my project.

    Started colorsanding today... door and nose, and scoop are ready for polish.. going to sand the body tomorrow... maybe polish over the weekend? looking like maiden cruise night voyage will be friday august 19th.... Bob's toluca lake... (I think I've made predictions of this nature before?
     
  3. OldCrow
    Joined: Jan 10, 2010
    Posts: 134

    OldCrow
    Member

    It's just like building a canoe out of a log. first you cut down a suitable tree, then you cut everything off that doesn't look like a canoe. ;)

    Ya. it's a big fab job, and I told the wife the T was my last major project, but I'm already having fabrication withdrawls, and she likes the idea of a "Fopolino" , so.... ;) . As you can see I've already shortened the 36' body 20" (2 years ago). I'd leave the side windows as they are now, cut out the foot box/firewall and build a Topo style "hood" to mate up to a fiberglass Topo nose piece. Not an A/FA Topolino clone, but it would be very "topo like". Now that yours is nearing compleation, what would you give for the 4' 4" span between the inside rear of the 36 slantbacks doors? ;) ;) the Topolino is a TINY car.
    anyway... enough about my dreams. I'm looking forward to seeing that great project of yours rolling down the hiway with a smiling driver behind the wheel.


    Cheers,
    Russ
     
  4. Zoomer
    Joined: May 15, 2009
    Posts: 222

    Zoomer
    BANNED

    just a few things to post...

    pic #1 one of the perks of being single... setting parts where ever you
    want

    pic #2 I pulled the header fans out when I painted the car and also to wrap them with a high temp reflective shielding, also put the shielding on the inside of the body panel around the vent doors

    pic #3 I've posted the new blinker boxes before, here's the rest of it. The old arms were steel that was folded and had a steel pivot arm inset...
    I decided to make the steel pivot a bit different and the arms out of aluminum and longer to fill in the box opening. (you can see the tab cover on the right end of the old box that covers 1/2" of the opening) The wires run internally and will power l.e.d. lights behind orange forward lenses and red rearward lenses. the pull soleniod was rebuilt and rewrapped for 12 volt... I guessed I would be into this little adventure for $1000 when it was all done... I was $15 off.

    pic #4 close up

    pic #5 just shiney stuff

    pic #6 more shiney stuff


    having the window lock rails machined currently... going to paint the window rails, blinker parts, door handles, and windows locks this weekend.

    going to install a track bar tomorrow, the rearend is moving a bit to the right when launching... a bit too much for the odd panhard rod I built.

    no first cruise yet... thinking sept 2nd.... basically running out of things to build...
     

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

    Zoomer
    BANNED

    and another weekend rolls by..... the rails for the sliding front glass got lost inside the vortex that is also known as the machine shop. However I have them now and spent the last couple days painting small parts.

    The new door handles I bought from M.r Fiat BROKE.. yep one of the handles broke across the pivot pin, what f-ing junk.. and the guy that runs the place, David, acts like nothing is his problem, like a teenager with a part time job.

    I took the broken one and pulled the spring then drilled the pin out of my old one and replaced it then prepped the old ones for paint.

    I painted the slide rails, the glass lock handles, the door handles, the door mirror, the door lock cylinder, the blinker arms and boxes, the door glass separators, the windshield separator, and a few other goodies.

    with the oven type heat we had last week the paint got a forced curing sitting in the garage so I decided to take 1500 on a hard block and do a light colorsanding and repolish, looks pretty sweet. Going to look at it in the sun tomorrow and give it a finish polish and waxing which ought to hold it for the next 6 months while it finishes curing at which time I'll get in there and 1500 and polish a final time.

    I am running out of things to do so I think, maybe this up coming weekend I'll take it out
    ahhhh ha ha ha ... going to take some video and post on youtube when it takes its first cruise.

    the track bar idea from the previous post wouldn't work with my short 4 link bars so I made some adjustments... pic #1

    pic #1 the original pan hard rod is the elbow shape with the 45 degree bar, however the forward mount (upper right) really only kept things in place with the collar the end bushing slid in to. by adding the straight rod (left) I now have a giant U shaped rod which limits rearend side to side movement to basically zero..

    pic #2 (before kit) the carbs I am running are vacuum secondary and it rolled thru my head that I needed to balance them so one isn't opening sooner than the other. Holley makes a kit that has the balancing tube but at the same time allows for a quick change system to change the spring size in the vacuum pod.

    pic #3 after kit

    pic #4 the wanted to polish the scoop again so I draped it.. I took this picture because it reminded me of being in the barber chair..

    pic #5 I'm a big nuts when it comes to panel fitment, I can't stand it when panels don't line up with each other, not just the gap between the panels but the height of one panel to the next

    pic #6 I was trying to get the trash cans in better focus...
     

    Attached Files:

  6. GaryB
    Joined: Dec 19, 2008
    Posts: 3,529

    GaryB
    Member
    from Reno,nv

    lookin good,be a handful.......:D
     
  7. claymore
    Joined: Feb 21, 2009
    Posts: 896

    claymore
    BANNED

    Now that is one of the finest black paint jobs I have ever seen. That is some fine work there sir.

    paint.JPG click to enlarge
     
  8. scottbscottb
    Joined: Sep 16, 2011
    Posts: 3

    scottbscottb
    BANNED
    from kingman Az

    wow amazing project, just went AAAALLLLLLL the way thru it... can't wait to see more pics... are you going to post a video ?
     
  9. claymore
    Joined: Feb 21, 2009
    Posts: 896

    claymore
    BANNED

    Anybody know what happened to get zoomer banned?
     
  10. Mats-Henrik
    Joined: Nov 7, 2009
    Posts: 94

    Mats-Henrik
    Member
    from Norway

    I'm building a '38 Topolino myself, check out my album on my profile.

    [​IMG]
     
  11. Dynaflash_8
    Joined: Sep 24, 2008
    Posts: 3,038

    Dynaflash_8
    Member
    from Auburn WA

    WTF? why'd he get banned? I wanted to see the outcome! :mad::mad::mad:
     
  12. Kenneth S
    Joined: Dec 15, 2007
    Posts: 1,527

    Kenneth S
    Member

    Looks like it got a little too "street roddy" maybe.
     
  13. metalshapes
    Joined: Nov 18, 2002
    Posts: 11,138

    metalshapes
    Member

    No... The build was cool.

    He went a little overboard with pic posts off his O/T latemodel, and the spinnerwheels it has had.

    Pics Deleted, he reposted.

    He was asked to not post the latemodel, he ignored that.

    Then a Warning, and Infraction.

    Responded with Drama.
     
  14. scottbscottb
    Joined: Sep 16, 2011
    Posts: 3

    scottbscottb
    BANNED
    from kingman Az

    I saw this car in van nuys over the weekend at a small poker run event.... holy cripst the pictures do NOT do this rod justice. freaking amazing.... and the wheelie bar wheels are all mangled... told him I read all about the car on the jalopy journal... said he was banned for life, can't imagine what could so terrible to deserve that? anyway the car is wicked cool and sounds like a freakin dragster when he hammered it leaving. I have a 30 clip on my cell phone that I will try to post on you tube then post a link here.
     
  15. GaryB
    Joined: Dec 19, 2008
    Posts: 3,529

    GaryB
    Member
    from Reno,nv

    ^^^^ thank you, please do.car is wicked bad
     
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