1980 124 Rebuild

[Meistro]

Hello All:

I am new to the Fiat car line. My wife decided that she wanted a new car and it needed to be a convertible. And she fell in love with the 124's looks. And we needed a project to work on. SO, we bought this. and she loves it??

I thought that I would like to document the rebuild. So, after looking around I found this site. It seemed friendly and receptive to me, so I joined. After spending many hours reading up on the different threads, I feel good to start the process.

I defiantly will need some help. I am going to try to have this thing running for her birthday in December. Not an easy task, if I want to keep the total price under 4K.

I guess I should start with the background as I know it. Bought it from a lady in Tucson, $300. Car has been sitting in her yard for 8 yrs, uncovered. Was bought not running.

Exterior body in great shape, very little rust. Most of the chrome is in OK shape. No big dents.

Interior was shot, via AZ sun melting the vinyl seats. The seat frames were rusted apart and under the seats were rusted through. The top was completely gone, but where the water sat there are several rust through areas that need to be replaced. Basically, I need a total interior as none of it is any good.

Engine was without a hood for many years. Everything is gone from the block up. So, the pistons are stuck in the block. Just a block and firewalls. So I will have to start from scratch. Does have an auto trans, something my wife wanted, but after reading some of the posts I will replace with a 4 speed auto. As the engine goes I think I will put in something else as trying to find an original motor does not seem feasible. Any suggestions will be appreciated. I think I would like to stick with a 4 cylinder to not complicate the rebuild. Not looking to a lot of power just around 140 to 150 hp. I pulled the fuel tank, and it has a sticky black tar bottom. Not even simple green can touch it. Tank is good, but I still need to clean it out.

No tail lights, how much could that be?? Boy, was I surprised. Looks like I am going with something else.

I have started with the suspension and brakes. I have removed the rear end and am rebuilding the braking system. It seems that before, when it ran, it was in good condition. So all I have to do is rebuild the calipers and paint everything. I have replaced the master cylinder and reservoir as the reservoir just crumbled in my hands. Hopefully the booster is in good shape. Will clean out all the lines and replace the front flex hoses. Also, replaced the rear brake pressure regulator. Opened the rear end and cleaned it out, looked in very good shape. No leaking from the seals. But have painted it all and am putting it back together.

Am going to replace the steering components, as the rubber covers have dry rotted off. I am also going to replace the upper and lower ball joints and bushing in the front end. Also, bought a set of KYB shocks.

Next project will be to replace the rusted out floorboards and seat brackets.

I have been putting a lot of photos in Photobucket, so you will have to look there to see all the pictures. I will post some here in the posts, but not all. http://s1265.photobucket.com/user/Gene_ ... brary/Fiat (Hope this works).

Sorry for the long post. Others will be shorter, I promise.

Again, any commits and/or questions are welcome.

Gene and Liz

[BEEK]

you have your work cut out. it can be done, but i am not sure you want to change makes of engines, it sould be easy to source a fiat engine that runs for the project at a reasonable cost, that will speed up the process. unless you heart is set on a transplant, then it will be a fun project, but will take much more time

[vandor]

Hi Gene and welcome!

I will tell you the same thing I told a fellow with a new project on the Benz forum: you do know that you can buy a nice car for a lot less than what you will have in this one when it's finished? And you could drive it now, instead in 2 years

I do understand if you want a project to tinker with, I just don't want you to be kicking yourself 2 years and $25k in bills later

BTW, sourcing a Fiat engine should not be that hard, there are specialists all over the country and something could be freighted to you if there are none close by. Unless you are a master fabricator installing a different engine will be a nightmare. It is not commonly done because the Fiat twincam is such a nice engine. Getting 140 hp from one is not hard with the proper parts.

[Meistro]

New development!

Searching for parts in Crags List I came across a new add for a 81 spider, called and picked it up last night.

It was supposed to be a driver, but I think the engine does not turn. It is well used but was kept in a garage until the last few months. It is in rough shape but fixable. Will post some pictures but Photobucket is down.

It is an Arizona car so I think the floor is in good shape. Another good thing is that all the suspension and brake stuff I bought for the first build will be able to be used here.

More to come.

Gene

[Meistro]

OK Photobucket is back working.

Tried to turn over engine, but all I get is a click from under the dash. Some electrical items work and some don't. Headlights stay bright when key is in start, so no power drain at the starter. Will have to check when I get home tomorrow from work.

Found a spare, and jack in trunk. Looks like there is wiring missing from the air cleaner? Don't know if so or not, will have to research. Seats move without problem, and the top needs to be replaced. Do not think that there is any bondo on the car, it is a dark blue with blue interior.

Here it is in all its glory.







Sorry for the larger images, you will have to open them up to see all.

Gene

[vandor]

It could be a bad shifter interlock. You can always jump the male terminal on the starter to the hot wires to make it crank - assuming the starter works.

[steve8462]

that looks in very good condition for its age. look the common rust areas over real good, and if there is very little, consider this car a score! I can easily see twenty parts that I have had to buy or replace on my car that look in great shape on yours! I think you are way ahead of the game, looking at the big picture. good luck with the car and keep the pictures rollin in

[Meistro]

Here is an update.

Did find out that this vehicle has been sitting, lucky for me, in a garage, from around 1995. So far no rust, other than surface rust.

Finally got the motor to turn over and it has good oil pressure, well at least the oil light goes off. To me it does not turn over very fast, but it could be from a bad ground. Cranks but will not start.

Figured that the gas was bad, so I removed the fuel level sending unit. I had to remove it anyway because the fuel gauge does not work. Pumped out the fuel and it was dark. Added 4 gallons of fresh fuel. Removed fuel line from the front rail and found that no fuel was coming out. Changed the fuel filter and tried again. Nothing. Removed the fuel pump. Nothing. So ordered a replacement. Have to wait to get the new one to see if it will start.

Decided to start on the front end. So today I removed the upper and lower control arms, shocks, springs and upper and lower ball joints. Found some cracking around the control arm bushings so I will weld them up and make them smooth. Will rebuild the brakes calipers.

Ordered new wheel bearings and seals, one of the outer races fell out of the hubs due to the fact that the caps were never replaced and it was driven for quite awhile. Bearing were in very bad shape.

OK, here is where I will need some help. Found the relay panel, in the passenger compartment under the dash. There is a lot of extra connectors that are not being used. I will be tracing the wires from a wiring diagram that I have, but will be easier if I know what is what.

Found out that I have an electric antenna?? Now to figure how it operates.

Well, that's enough for today. Here are some pictures.

Gene

[Meistro]

Forgot to include the link to all the pictures in Photobucket. http://s1265.photobucket.com/user/Gene_ ... rary/Fiat2

I have many pictures here of the rebuild.

Gene

[80124FI]

I recently bought a full repair manual with wire diagrams from a pay to download kind of site. It has helped me quite a bit with the wiring.

If you think it would help you, I could email it to you ... or the parts you need ... I'm not sure about email size limits

[Meistro]

Update:

Thanks for the offer 80124FI, but I have already bought a manual from Vics and it is very helpful.

I still haven't gotten the front suspension back together, as I clean up the parts I find more to replace.

I had to order new lower pivot bars, I had one with bad threads and one that was bent.

Has anyone had to replace the bolt that the pivot bars attach to? All for are bad but I cannot get them out. Are they spot welded in place?

I had to weld up the area around the bushing area on 4 of the 8 bushings on the upper and lower control arms. Forgot to take pictures, but it looks like someone who replaced them before used a air chisel (?) on them.

I have had a difficult time taking the brake lines apart. Bought a special wrench but they are just rounding off, so I have had to use vice grips to remove them. Does anyone know where I can get new threaded ends for the brake lines?

Painted most of the front suspension parts. Working on rebuilding the brake calipers and painting them also. Will try to get some pictures on the new parts in place.

Received the new fuel pump, but haven't decided to put it in just yet. Found that there was some rust in the tank, so I might be removing the tank to try to clean it out.

While crawling under the front end I noticed that the engine was leaking water from the water pump and from a freeze plug. Just some other things that need to be fixed.

Well enough for now. Hope you all have a good weekend.

Gene

[hamlet]

Oh boy, you have your work cut out for you. All the best!

[RRoller123]

Noticed in your pic that there is no connector to the AFM, the engine won't start without that. I assume that you just disconnected it in this random pic, but in case you didn't, that needs to be resolved.

[Meistro]

Noticed in your pic that there is no connector to the AFM, the engine won't start without that. I assume that you just disconnected it in this random pic, but in case you didn't, that needs to be resolved.

That is how I found it. But after poking around I found that it was hidden under the air cleaner assembly. I did plug it back in and it seems to connect securely.

I could not get it to start because the fuel pump was toast, I think. Anyway, I bought another one just in case.

Gene

[80124FI]

I was trying to find out about the pivot arm bolts too ... I would like to replace them if possible but I'm not able to Getty them out of the crossmember ... Do I need a new crossmember or could they be replaced?