Hot Rods My Project....1938 Fiat Topolino.....Lil Beast...........

well the heat wave is back....too hot to weld in the garae...so i started cleaning and removing peices from the hemi......and dropped a few replacement parts on.....

 

Mark,
The Hemi looks great with the new parts on it. Will the timing chain stay exposed or is there a cover for it?
It is not to often I get to work on my Topo. This weekend I had a chance and set the engine in to mock up a few parts and pieces.
Bob

 

Lookin good Mark, glad to see you still at it. Its been a busy season for me at work, havent been able to get out much, or do much of anything on any of my projects..it does me good to see progress being made, I keep checking in to see how far along you are

 

They both are looking good, maybe I'll get to start building mine sometime this century.

 

we been hittin it fairly good thru june Randy...except for a few late nites at TA, and a few days where the heat melted my old ass like the wicked witch of the west.........gotta start back down to the other house and get it ready for the final electrical inspection, finish plumbing and paint/carpet it...figure every month it sits is another month it could be rented out.......which translates to more free hot rod cash

Bob, i can relate to the no time for rods....seems to be the busy time of year for a few of us here...make it while ya can!!!
the timing chain gets a cover, have to order form hot heads i guess...only way to run a sbc w/pump on a hemi...and buy a couple of adpters to match the pump to the block ports....but i will say this, ya need to pull the motor trans cobo out of your furgone just once....with the body in place!!!!!!!!...you's a cheatin pulling the body hahhahahah...

damn Ken, ya need to make a spot for it in your shop,,,,so ya gotta crawl around, over or under to get by it...then it'll start to get some attention...me and Bob been working on our mices for way too many years now......

me i'm balls to the wall trying to get mine together for a shake down run thru the back alley....slicks will keep it off the main roads for a bit....been eye'n those Radir big ass 32x12.50x15's cheater slicks for several years now....scares me enough that i still haven't called to price em..the slicks on Lil Beast are basicly the same size...and was free,,,less then half used too,,,with new tubes,,,,

 

Hey Mark,
I'll tell you what.
When you make your eastern swing with the beast, you can stop in and show me how to stuff that v-8 in there with the body in place.
I hope to see you cruz'in around real soon.

 

it's tighter then a ants ass..........liftin thru me louvers in the front end........check out tarlo's topo build here....here converted a later model fiat with the square nose front....and trimed the car to shape it really close to a early sty topo.......point...he made his nose like a regular hood style on it and it looks good....if memory sevres, so is Wanye Dobos topo...i figure mine shouldn't have to come out when it goes back in...or so the saying goes..........yeah to make the journey this fall is reachin a bit, but it could all come together.....ordering the clutch and hyd throw out bearing, and master cylinder in the mornin.....and i'll run the brake lines here soon also....

 

Nice to see you at it. I was out your way on the 4th but just long enough to get sweaty. I thought of you and Jocko. We should do breakfast again. I'm more mobile now. Court's got another truck. Haven't done crap with Eli's.

 

nicee to see you....was afraid to check the obits or the police blotters

yeah it's great to be back working on the topo....i just came in (2:19 am, it's way cooler in the garage) from working on the firewall template...i cut the rough the 16ga peices for it the other day when it was 106 here....steering feels great...firewall and the bracing....i'll looking at it and thinking maybe just a tiny bit more re-enforcement....gotta order a few peices this week for the front of the hemi, timing cover gaskets....been workin a lil here and there to get it cleaned and detailled....also ordering the tilton hyd t/o bearing and master cyl this week...got some coilovers coming hopefully this week......we're pushin to get out of the garage with Lil Beast.....

i'm up for a weekend breakfast.....although i'll be doing a weekend or 3 in cincy...finish plumbing, paint carpet....wanna rent it out while getting ready to list it.....

this weekend coming would work....sunday????weekend after is my kid brothers 50th bd...so might endup down in Beaerdam that weekend...check it out, maybe get the slamed truck guy from mich bar n grille(sorry me's terrible with names) to come....jocko, randy, n your boys.....hell anyone else who wants to show up. 'll be garage bound in the morn,,,hopefully all day...give me a buzz when ya got a min.......

 

pics..........

 

Really liked your post. I just missed out on a steel Topo on ebay and was wondering if u had come across any more along the way. [email protected]

 

no it was just chance that i found my body....answered a 2 year old add and someone else saw my post and sold me the one they had....like i said, just pure luck to have found it.....

but they're out there.....

 

Get Back to Work!!!!!!!!!!

 

break time!!!!!!!!!!!! it's in me union contract!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

last nite i welded in the steering column support....no more clamps anywhere on the steering!!!!!!!!!.....took today and changed directions....blight guy by harpin about my 48 flat fender willys jeep monday....so i had to come in and order the 2nd seat (ordered 1 last sept for it) and it arrived today...so i spent part of the afternoon playing with the new frame work to hold em in place....then had to pull the carb to tear it apart,,,again...4 kits in 5 years...figure it's time to throw it together and drive it...costing me too much with it sitting with all these carb kits...besides, i miss drivin in it....

i spent sunday figuring out how to enclose the side cowl vents so that they'll provide fresh air inside of Lil Beast...without it looking ugly....and my dremel fried out, even brushes wouldn't get it going again,,just burnt up/out from too much work......making it hard to remove the welds on the vent doors to keep em closed...and i need to get a section of small piano hinge to replace the stock hinges...tons of stuff to do while the hemi is out of the frame rails....

i need to find someone locall to do the bead roller work on the firewall once i have it fitted propperly....

ok ...break times over

 

coilovers for the rearend arrived along with micro bear claw latchs for the bottom of the doors on sat....hate to have em pop open at hi-way speeds....right side coilover set at 20* angle.........reworked some of the old tabs off the rearend for the upper mounts as they were perfect size abd offset for what i need on the uppers now......(i shaved it naked when i had the ends trued) thought it would be cool to reuse the old parts....basicly just shortened em 1/4"....

Dan(imal) and Elii his son stopped by today,,,,i just finished washing the boat...we talked rods a bit, life.......not the most productive weekend but ended on an enjoyable note

 

adjusting the steering abit.......

 

The 20 degrees looks good on there. I think that will give you a nice ride and the coilovers should perform like you want. It's great to see the Beast one step closer.

 

Nice work on the car, very cool when you get it all done. Hope the latches work out for the doors as extra safety for the suicide doors to stay closed!

 

yeah i thought so too..but it]s been suggested that the coilovers are too close to the middle of the car for decent handling / cornering...top and bottom mounts... still playing with it all....i'ld like to know how far off the brake backing plate it is to the lower hole center is....and what the distance from the center of the rearend to the upper bolt center....from you friend out there has on his car...

thanks , we're trying.....yeah i still haven't gotten around to figuring out what is holding in the factory lower guides......Bob ya ever take em out???? but your latches looking lke a good fit...and should do the job

 

Mark,
It is hard to tell from your pictures. In one shot the coilover looks to far center. In the othe picture it looks fine. Do you have a picture from the rear of the car showing both coilovers? I think that it is important to make sure they are in the correct location and is worth a second look.
I have included a couple pictures of Tom's Fiat when he built it over twenty years ago. You can see he is as far out on his coilovers as he can be. Keep in mind, the rear is only 29" from flange to flange, so he has alot going on in a real small and tight area. Hope these help a little.
Bob

 

Great pics Bob...guess i need to re-think it...my housing is 38 backing plate to backing plate.....oh well, it never ends

 

well been busy....but finally got back out to the garage...cut off the coilover mount section and am moving it outboard 5 1/2"....puts it about as far as possible from the center of the car....plan is to rebrace the rear side of the four link brackets and fab a reinforcement for the front of the relocated coilover mount....might seem like alot of work but it's cheaper and i haven't been able to find any mounts that are as beefy as these....

 

had a decent sunday in the garage and got the right side coil over relocated....thinking i need to cut a couple of holes thru the 4 bar mount,,,looking kinda boxy...




also scored a pair of O'Brien's covers off evil bay last nite for the 325 hemi...unpolished, but i;ve been polishing parts for years , so.....still undecided if they'll get a full polish or not....

 

Alright man!
Im glad you are back at it..lookin good

Me and Chey poped in on ya a few weeks back , but nada..so If the neighbors said some strange lookin dude came up to the back of your fence it was me

Like hell if I was going to walk into that back yard with them 4 legged teeth machines in there

 

well i got the left side colover mount tacked in last nite between running te grill for the momma and tending to the puppies.....trying to get it ready to roll up under the car and weld in the upper mounts.....


fully polished???well that's where i'll probably end up....then there's the timing chain cover....intake....oil breathers....air filter covers.....valley pan cover...like i said, i'll probably go there....but for now i'm buying as cast to save the bucks...and focusing on getting Lil Beast up to "it moves under it's own power".....

i polished the Lil John's Stuff wwater pump years ago,,it came satin brush finished....


so in the end it should look something like this


.

 

It should because that Dodge in the T-Bucket used to be my daughter's and it is a 325

 

damn, i been wondering about the water cross over shown in that pic...i'm gonna run a non-stock w/pump and the cross over pipe is the issue..don't really like the on hot heads sells...too modern looking for me taste buds...beautiful hemi , can't see much of the T...

edit..i just saw your sig on your post.....the covers off ebay are from sealy texas....i might need the hardware kit you sell with them....possible to purchase one from ya if i need it???also did you fab that crossover tube???looks simple to do, but i wondered what to make it out of to withstand engine vibration?????????

 

Randy, i was here, but was out like a light...pulled double at work the day before, then was up all nite in the garage.......didn't even hear the boxer babies barking....they are only 10 months old...lil sweeties.....

tonite ii managed to get the left side parially welded, but need more rods, so ...getting ready to roll it back up under Lil Beast and figure the upper brackets out.....looking forward to haveing a bit more rear suspension then the fat tires alone provide....


here's the coilovers at 20* angle...too tight in the garage to get a rear side pic

 

Looks real nice and it will make for a much better ride. Nice Job

 

rolled the rearend back under the topo last nite..looking to lay out the upper mounts......angle is at 26*