Next project - 38 fiat topolino

I'm pretty sure that anywhere that's not there............sucks!!!

 

got the last radiator plumbing tube built today..... its always the last one that has to be made twice. lots of bending then cutting in half to rotate the bend for such small quarters. figuring out the last few support brackets so everything is rubber supported was fun. monday I am going to finish the little heat sink looking sculptures I have that cover the visual hangers, do the little bit of length trimming needed and finish up welding what's currently tacked.

I took a few pics today but they suck so you all have to wait until tuesday, I know I know it just breaks your heart, yeah right.

Trying to figure out where to mount an engine oil cooler? down the pass side of the engine and under the seat area I have radiator plumbing, on the drivers side I have the steering shaft then the booster / master and then the trans cooler and fan, behind that I have the battery mounted. maybe I can hang it between the engine pan and the steering shaft since that shaft is running just off the frame rail? 10 pounds of horsepower in a 2 pound, yes 2 pound can.

 

One suggestion and one question-

Put the oil cooler at the opposite end of the oil lines from the motor. Hope that helps.

Where the heck is your brother in all this. I hope he is helping and not just sluffing off.

Ask him where to put the damn oil cooler.

Hurry up.

 

ohhhh oh I see the oil cooler at the OTHER end that's where I was screwing up. My brother? yeah exactly.... you know the initial plan was to hire him to do ALL this stuff, and as you know all about plans.... he got immediately busy with a remodel and pretty much after he set the steering gear box he's been 7 days a week gone, I wrangle him once in a while to verify an angle or give me some technical blah blah blah. I suppose doing the work will just make me appreciate it more when I'm cruising... at least thats the BS I keep telling myself.

 

my camera took a dump... thus no pics of late. was working on the booster master set up, bought a 1956 ford f 100 brake pedal assembly, and after removing 3" from the length and 2" from the width.. it works great... after I alter the pedal arm for the corrected angle needed. based on the specs they emailed me (the wrong specs) it looked like a few changes and it would work, famous last words I suppose. Changed the steering design, got all Borgeson parts (another $600) and mocked it all up, 2 double joints etc. however with the brake pedal in place it looks to work pretty good having a couple parts machined tomorrow so I can then build the heim joints support structure for supporting down shaft. had to relocate and slice and dice the roll cage bar behind the dash, raise it up also so I could fit the steering column support brace and get the column where the borgeson would work and the column was still technically "in" the dash. (have to design and machine a second column brace as well) worked on the front brakes today a bit, got the drivers side put together and will finish the pass side in the morning, went with Wilwood disc set up. also going to bend some welding rod to get a basic header shape so I can order some 2" mandrel tubes in different shapes, hoping I can get the tubes in by friday so I can weld up the zoomies over the weekend. Going to take the rear end to Currie on friday, going with a new detroit locker, new 411 gears, new 31 spline axles, bearing seals blah blah blah, gotta stop stalling since it is a 2 week job for them. going to leave drums on the rear, makes e-brake less of a hassle. after the headers are built I am pulling the body to finish all the welding on the frame, then I'll build the body mounts, flooring, etc. man, still a ton of shit to do on this thing... I've had it 3 months, worked on it 6 weeks and ugh, really want this thing running this month. figure once its running I'll cruise it rusty until I'm settled with how it is, then I'll tear it apart and send everything out for satin black powdercoat and/or satin black paint then put it back together. thinking flat gray body with a vintage style logo for my company with lexan windows, maybe yellow? have to look at some vintage hot rod mags to decide on color.


working until 11pm in the garage on your new hot rod..... priceless
not having a chick around bitching at you to stop working in the garage on your new hot rod.... heavenly.

here's a pic of my other stress reliever.. ahhhh the single life aka freedom

 

if anyone is looking for baffles for Zoomie pipes... here you go http://www.carchemistry.com/shop/index.php?l=product_detail&p=154

they are 6" long, come in a variety of sizes and are about $200 for a set of 8

 

ok so I didn't take the rearend to Currie....yet, but I will mon or tues I swear, no really I swear. ordered my exhaust pipe tubing (mandrel bent stuff) ordered my baffles, ordered my front tires, ordered my rear tires. maybe if I spend more it will get done faster? if I wasn't in the middle of a 2.5 year project and nearing completion on the first prototype I'd probably be closer on this rod. I think I'll do my long project work at night this week and do the noisy rod stuff during the day and see just how much I can get cranked out this week. ugh

 

fyi bought rear tires from M&H yesterday, they had a messenger deliver them today at NO extra charge, AND, the salesman wrote a thank you and good luck note on the tire with a grease pencil. Talk about customer service.

 

I remembered I have another camera... duh
I have built one side of the exhaust... the bar that connects the tubes underneath will NOT be in the final design its just holding them true until the spacers are machined. it was rather complicated to get the sweep on each pipe to be different to give the pulled back effect I was going for (check pic from over rear wheel). Also made the 1st and 3rd tubes the same ending length and the 2nd and 4th tubes the same ending lengths, with the difference being 3/16" so it gives a uniformed staggered look. The 6" baffles I bought need to have the OD machined down about .035 so they fit but that's nothing major. Going to work on the other side tomorrow.

The steering support I designed is getting machined over this weekend so the steering will be finished up next week sometime as well as the exhaust and body to frame mounts.

The rear end went to Currie yesterday.... 4.11 detroit locker posi new tubes bearings seals narrowed 5" new axles 3" studs blah blah blah I'll tell the story of the salesman once I have the rear end back in my hands next week.

Redesigned and rebuilt the radiator / dual fan mount, something always bothered me about it which is why I never finished it.. the new design is much better. The radiator tubing is completed.. everything is rubber mounted for vibration dampening, will get some pics up here the next time I reinstall them.

Really happy with the wheels and tires, was a bit concerned about the fronts looking a bit to much like tractor tires but they look really vintage and cool. Thrilled with the way the zoomie pipes look.

 

as is always the case with me... one of the tubes was off 3/16" ( not the one you might think by looking at the side picture, there's a bit of an optical illusion going on there ) so I did a bit of surgery which required ALL 4 pipes to be altered.... at least I can sleep at night. OCD is not a good thing to suffer from if your building... anything, AND, you happen to have perfectionistic tendencies. I'm just saying.

 

fronts and rears

 

You do exelent work.
I realy dig those rear weels to

 

thanks for the kind words TinFabricator

 

Love the pipes, love the tires.... um.... er... a little disappointed in the rate of progress. Could you pick it up a bit? Hello - it will be raining soon.


Sheeeze, slackard.

 

oh sure now the shit storm begins, my man underdog, I mean MAD DOG arf arf arf : )

Yea I've been off the project for a while now, but trying. the pipes, well the second side is a bit more complicated as the engine is set 3/4" off center to the pass side AND the drivers side bank of ports is 3.5" forward of the pass side... I'll post the fixture pics later when I get them done.

I got the rear end back last week, SAAAAA WEEEETTTTT and . now I just ordered disc brakes for the rear. I was content with drums in the back as they actually work really well with much more surface contact etc, however I had to be honest with myself and with what runs thru my head every time I see a little hot rod that has DRUMS in the rear, ugh why did you stop there? "hello, Wilwood?" another $886 peeled off the money tree. A honest look is having the steering finished this week and the exhaust, if I can get the pan hard rods built great if not then that's my weekend project.


As for it raining soon, you are aware this is LA right? rain happens in December, maybe. Occasionally I do have to work on one of my prototypes so that mmmaaaayybbbeee I'll have a new source of revenue coming in, you know?

 

working on panel alignment... wanted to get the nose centered before fabbing the body to frame mounts. gotta love hand made bodies... cripes.

tried to post the headers (both sides) yesterday but the site wasn't going for it.

 

headers, ugh only have to grind the welds and weld in the lower supports, which allow me to remove the bars across the bottom of the pipes. I have to say that the drivers side pipes were the most difficult project of the entire built thus far. With the engine set 3/4" towards the pass side and the drivers side bank of cylinders being 3.5" forward of the drivers side, I had to forgo the "length is what matters" because at equal lengths the drivers side would have been into the front wheel. Therefore I landed all the pipes at the same end location which was the nightmare of all
nightmares. I built a jig to hold the pipes so I could match the angles for a close starting point, then I built a running board off the cart under the car so the angle in relation to the ground was the same as the pass side. After that it was lining up the measurement from the end of the pipe to the ground, end of the pipe to the frame, end of pipe to the front king pin, angle up to the engine, angle sweeping back to the rear of the car..... as you can imagine if you move the pipe to change 1/8" of one measurement ALL the other go right out the window. The rear two pipes on the drivers side had to have the last 6" to the flange built out of the car since I couldn't see. 5 braces later I removed the pipe and worked on it on the bench.... sooo much better. Ohhhh shiot... room for the spark plug wire end? yeah had to change the forward pipe and since it turned out sooo smooth I changed the next 1 to match the angle of the pipe since they stick out
and need to match exactly.

I'm glad they are finished, 95% anyway.... far enough to be out of my head.
When I was welding the pipes with my mig I was thinking about the pipe to the flange weld.. I really wanted the old look of a gas welded bead, tig looks to modern and mig welding 14 gauge pipe to a 3/8" thick header flange doesn't work as the flange sucks all the heat and you get a lousy weld. I used my torch to heat the flange around each pipe then went in with the mig and welded.... it worked great, great penetration and the gas bead look from the weld.

I'm thinking about starting laundry basket racing.

 

The Fiat looks great!!
I know what your mean by panel alignment. I have run into the same issues with mine. Keep up the great work.

 

forgot to add this one. a little side shot action. figure I'll spend a few hours today grinding on the pipes... the weathers a bit bleak and I can meditate behind the grinder......... oooooohhhhhhmmmmm oooohhhhhhmmmmmm

 

That is so cool, I want one.

 

doodlrodz;
The Fiat I posted for sale in Mass.Is only about 3 hours from you.

 

so much for grinding being meditative... how do you grind the weld BETWEEN the pipes? hmmm I called my buddy who owns a polish shop and he loaned me this cool little electric grinder that instead of a disc it has an extension like a knife that is a 1/2" belt sander.... along with another attachment that runs 1/4" belts... really cool little tool.

First day of real rain here today... figured its better to run errands and order little parts and play poker than tinker in the garage, because, as you all know, tomorrow IS another day.

 

Man that Fiat is awesome Very nice work too.

 

well its been a couple of weeks with no time to work on the rod.. starting to miss the little beast. anyone know where I can get door latches? I ordered them from rod n race 4 months ago but they wont even return my calls so I have to look elsewhere I guess, any help is appreciated. machine shop is actually going to have my steering column supports finished tomorrow which means if I get the time next week I can finish the steering, build the body to frame mounts and then remove the body, engine, and trans and finish weld everything. We'll see what actually happens.

 

I finally got my steering brackets from the machine shop.... right before I go to vegas for a few days which means next week the steering will get wrapped up. Having the pan hard rod ends machined from my designs while I'm gone.

The pictures are as follows; the previous brace that I had mounted to the roll bar however the access to the bolts to mount it were not accessible because of the cowl panel so I redesigned the way they mount.

Then, since the mount was near one end of the steering column and the other end has the leverage of the steering wheel I designed a brace that also mounted to the roll bar between the other two redesigned braces and then went out to the other end of the steering column where a collar that bolted to the end of the brace also held column securely.

Threw in the drawings just for kicks. The steering column came with the rod, I cut down the outer tube and the inner shaft. The splined steering shaft material I bought was much smaller O.D. than the I.D. of the steering column inner tube so I machined a bushing and welded the bushing in the inner tube then the splined shaft in the bushing. Solid and then had to machine a bushing to fit between the inside of the inner tube and the outside of the steering shaft. Still have to grind down the steering column welds from the manufacturer.

 

here's the rest of the pics.

I'm thinking of building a removable hardtop for the little beast. With the roll cage in place the fold up/down soft top frame doesn't work (too bad... joke)
so I was thinking a fiberglass hard top that has multiple studs that drop thru holes in the rain gutter internal channels would work. I could sandwich some nice weather stripping for wind noise or water (ahhh ha ha water, sure it'll see rain, right) that allows me to keep a nice tight clean roof line top on or off and sculpt some nice treatments into it if I want, as well as a slick back window design.

Found a guy to weld up the fuel cell so I'll grab some aluminum next week and get it bent up and welded and get the cell foam ordered as well as the inlet plate, fittings, overturn shut off valves and etc.

I welded the nose to the body, finally... now I have to mark off where the new cut off lines will be and then slice and dice, build the mounting plates, install the dzus fasteners etc. blah blah blah

 

6 weeks gone by and not one single day to work on the rod. I am hoping that by the end of the week I can jump back on it.

 

body squared on frame, 10 body to frame mounts built, body now hanging from rafters.
front pan hard rod completed, front steering bar completed, front tie rod ends and bar completed (all machined bars and connection point) steering column support completed and installed, alternator brackets 50% completed. working this weekend to finish steering linkage from column to gearbox.

next week; alternator, rear end, rear lower shock mounts, have driveshaft built, have fuel cell welded together.

 

Here's a few pics... a 3/4 front shot of the frame with the body lifted. you can see the steering column and shaft in place (more pics to follow) and a rear view pic with the narrowed 9" in place, and.... the caliper is not mounted but I put wilwood disks on the rear.

 

Here's the pan hard rod pics. I removed a king pin bolt and milled a 3/8" by 3/8" deep hole, then machined a block of steel down to have a threaded stud left hanging off one side (just a wee bit of time to whittle that down) on the bottom of the block I milled the same 3/8" x 3/8" hole, then I set a 3/8"x 3/4" steel pin in both holes to locate the block squarely above the king pin bolt. With the two parts aligned I heated them with a torch and then mig welded them together, filed them, welded, filed, and installed.

There is also a top view. I used steel tubing with an .093 wall and machined bushings that plugged into the ends (once the ends where ground at a 45 degree angle I welded them in place) and where threaded in the center for the rod ends.

At the frame I machined a large stud with a big flat head then drilled a hole thru the frame and set it in and welded it in place. I have to wait until I pull the engine to weld the head side of the bolt to the frame.