Looks like you are on the way, but I have to concur with timebomb: It REALLY needs an axle at the front.
I currently have the body off the chassis (to pull the engine and trans out), and I'm really leaning to an axle on the front, the ifs turned out to be way wider than I liked, stay tuned.
OK, you asked for it. Here is mine. A 38 that has been in a couple of different backyards for 25 yrs. I have a slightly built 454 chevy with a turbo 350 and a 9 inch. I posted on here that I needed a "historical document" with no luck for many months. Then one day I get a PM from a guy that bought a Topolino 40 years ago and put the body on a race car. He never registered it and just threw the document in a drawer. One day recently he came across it and did a search on the internet. That led him to my wanted post. I paid $100 for it which was $25 more than he paid for the whole car. Mine is now a 39 Half of all the door hinges were missing so I am making them. Nowhere that I can find on the planet has them. The body is upside down for some repairs and I made a fixture to pull it into alignment so I can add a light weight frame to the perimiter for strength. Once thats done I will start on the frame. I am collecting parts for the suspension now. Here are a couple pics of what I have at this point. I also agree that an axle is manditory up front. Not hard to do and not too costly.
How mant test drives have you allready made Jim . The body you have looks pretty decent, rod n race lists steel replacement rocker panels and a few other replacement pieces. They redid their website. http://www.rodnrace.com/c10/Fiat.htm
Oh man that needs a gasser straight front axle a spring and hairpins......with the nose in the air. $.02
Woah, that looks serious in that shot. I like it. Test drives? In those white chairs? Not too many miles but plenty of great launches, a lot of tire smoking and some friday night crusing. I did confirm that I and a passenger will fit in that little thing. Not much room for the feet.
After new year's the ifs is comming off, and going up for sale, a front axle is comming up. It's not much in the leg room department, especially when the pants you wear has to have a 36" inseam!
I see that you have the bows for the soft top. I have them also but thier operation gets in the way of a roll cage. I think I am gonna snap a cover to the body (one with bows in it for shape) and unsnap it and roll it up when I want it open. I have seen rod n race replacement parts for the rockers and the doors. That would sure make it easier but it would cost more than its worth to me. I think I am gonna make them my self. I dont need all the parts anyway.
You got that right Royalshifter. The Mondello Matsubara car has been completely restored. Matsubara was known as "The driver that never lifted"
To be honest I wish my body had the steel roof on it instead of the ragtop (I'm not really a ragtop man), I'd pull the bows off mine if I could find a steel top for it. The rocker panels on my body were so wasted that I made new ones out of 14 ga 1 1/2 x 1 1/2 tubing, it was a bear to put that compond bend in the tubing.
Tubing, thats not a bad idea. I was going to do it with sheetmetal then add tubing on the inside. Do you have any pictures of the work you did? How did you make those bends? You may know this but Fiat made a non-soft top model. It was called a Simca. I am not a soft top guy either. The sun here in sunny southern California is too much for me. I dont want to loose the look of the Topolino though.
I don't have any pics of the rocker panel redo, no camera at the time, I took a piece of tubing 10 ft long, put one end in my big vice slid a 10 ft piece of 2 in sq tube on the other end and started yanking on it, turned it 90 deg and yanked some more, test fit and repeated yanking on it till I got it the right shape, it was a bear to do, then on the insides I used a piece 16 ga sheetmetal to replace the rusted sheetmetal on the inside (you can see it in the one pic when the door is open).
Glad to hear the axle is going. Might consider another powerplant too, when the budget allows. For everyone dissing the guy - it could be worse!
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