Thanks Matt, I already have a second Lincoln spool.

However, I came out lucky on the supplied one, it was a decent spool. The welds, surprisingly, were nice for what they are. I made sure to test it out by welding up a new cart and some other stuff, just so I could be sure on its quality. This isn't my first run welding. Though it's been almost 10 years since I did it for a full time living.

I am gonna eat this spool up for as long as it wants to weld clean then do the switch over. I have already found a welding supply place with decent prices on 75/25 (my preferred mix) and will then reconfigure it once I have the folding money to spend.

After we finish up the Fiat, I am going to use it to finish sectioning a bumper for my truck and filling in the holes so I can do a hidden bolt mount. Might as well make this MIG work for it's money. And if it dies I still have my LincArc as a backup.

So the firewall is fixed and the engine will be put back into the car this weekend. I repeat the engine is going back in the car! I will try and remember to take lots of pictures, then I will have Sherman post them. Wish me luck.

Luck!

The motor is in!

No pics right yet. Me and Tersta are cooling down from an afternoon out in the sun.

However, quick tale to tell.

That little MIG saved our bacon once again. Not only has it fixed a broken firewall and patched holes in the floor, it also helped us to remove the pilot bearing.

We attempted to remove the bearing in the nice way by filling the cavity with bearing grease and hammering it with a dowel. Unfortunately the seal on the bearing was shot, so all the grease did was shoot out the bearing area. So out came the hammer and screwdriver. After beating enough bearing out of the race to pull the center, I took the MIG to the race left in side. The localized heat helped unstick it from the crank, but didn't didn't get the crank itself too hot to touch.

After zapping it in a few spots, it broke free enough that we could then pry it out.

But it is nice to have that motor where it belongs. Still got a lot of things to do, but we are officially putting it back together again!

can't wait for pics. Once the motor is in, they start to look like cars again instead of projects

Dang your ahead of me....Good job and I hope my bearing comes out easier as I have no mig to play with.

We have to run errands today. So no time for a real post.

Instead I have a couple of teaser pics.

Floorboard rust repair from the other day. Don't laugh, I couldn't get in with a hood, so I had to weld by braille. Aim, close eyes, press trigger. Cuss, grind, repeat.



And the motor as we had it at the end of the day

OK. errands done. And we did a bit more fiddling around on the Fiat today. But nothing good to show for it. So we are going back a few steps.

Floorboards.

So we (Tersta) was scrubbing bad sealant off the floors when she found some thin spots in the floors. A quick poke with her screwdriver showed that they were more than thin. This was just after the firewall repair, so we were equipped. We wound up lucky to find some sheetmetal at Lowes of all places. Armed with sheetmetal and a MIG, we tackled the bad spots in the floor.



This is the first patch. Needless to say not the best looking work. By other three patches each got a bit better. That's right three more spots were bad.

So I didn't take any pictures in progress other than that one, and one other. I was too busy tacking and cussing. But we got one after we sprayed it down with Eastwood's Rust Encapsulator.



After that, we used some peel and seal to use like Dynamat. It costs less, and works pretty good to from what we have read.



So now the floors are all buttoned up and hopefully no rust for a while. All in all, it wasn't too bad. Those were the only bad rust spots, Everything else was just surface rust, so nothing really to worry about there.

We are both sore and stiff today. But we got the motor in!

So not much to tell here that others have not already done before us, so this is a brief post.

Yesterday we got everything set up. Tools hauled to the car, motor was cleaned up a bit and dusted off. Then we spent a bit of time going over the motor and making sure no major parts were missing. Things like that plug on the passenger side water passage. That would have been embarrassing to find out about while filling the radiator...

So we decided to install the transmission and then drop the motor down and put them together. Good plan right? Well we weren't so sure, but it was the way we decided to go about it.

so here is what the engine bay looked like at the beginning of the day.



Transmission in.



Now the car sits in the back of our yard which is all dirt. So cherry picker sinks in stead of rolls. So we thought that instead of hoisting the motor and taking it to the car. We would bring the car to the motor. So first step is to line everything up.



Then the clutch needs to be installed along with the flywheel.



Now we didn't have a nifty tool to get everything lined up, so we improvised!

I had cut a tire iron earlier to use as a drift to try and punch out the pilot bearing(that was a total fail). But it fits the center of the pilot bearing opening perfectly. Then I went looking for something that would act like a bushing for the plate. We found a socket the both fit the bar stock perfectly and left almost no slop on the plate itself. Yay!

So let's get them together, just like Fiat intended.

Push!



Shove!



Cuss, swear. Raise the motor, lower the transmission. Lower the motor, raise the transmission. Cuss, swear. Bust knuckles, Cuss and swear. Can you see a theme here?

But after doing all of the above, we ended up with this!



Now, we are getting the wiring sorted. We got the car with pretty much everything out of the compartment. So on top of use using an earlier block with the alternator on the other side, we have to figure out where everything belonged before so we can plug it back in correctly.

And on top of that I found some melted wires. It is a connector with a gray wire w/ a black stripe, that then is joined at another connector to what looks to be a pink wire. Then it appears to go into the dash cluster. But for what, we don't know. I am gonna do some digging in the manuals we have, but if anyone knows off hand what it is, we would be appreciative.

Anyway, nothing exciting today, but it is getting closer and closer. We can't wait to get it started up! Maybe I will see how good that HD video camera on my iPhone works.

OK so around round of being sidetracked, but we got back onto it again today. Finished up the last of the wiring, but still have one odd wire left. Anyone familiar with an always hot green lead the comes out of the harness with the headlight connector? Have no clue where it goes.

Stuffed an old battery from my truck in it and got a click from the starter, and some really sick horn sounds. Woot!!

Nothing shorted out, caught fire or did anything else bad. So the battery is on the charger and maybe we can get it juiced up enough to try before the night is out.

Still got lots to do, but getting closer. .

You mean I beat you to the punch...I got mine in and put about 150 miles on her already, she purring like a kitten. Sorry cant help about the wiring unless you look at the wiring diagrams that are available around and online.

Congratulations SLOSpider! I haven't been on for a bit, when did you get it buttoned up?

Being so far inland, it has been hard to get motivated to head out in the heat. Awning or not, it sucked.

Plus I had picked up a carb kit for my Goldwing and got it purring. So I have been geeking out on it. kinda hard to stay focused when you got so many things to put together.

We still have the top and interior, but here's to hoping for a successful start up.

OK boys and girls, the secret word of the day is Frustration. When someone says the word, what do you do? SCREAM!!!

AHHHH!!!!

We charged up the battery and popped it in. Frustration! AHHHH!!!

It pops, it farts, it won't run.

Timing is right, the cams are lined up correctly, but no luck. Sigh...

We did find a couple of things though, the rotor is sloppy on the distributor shaft, so we have ordered a tune up set from IEP to just get it right. And while the points looked good, they are an unknown, even though they were pulled out of what appeared to be an unopened box. So they are going to be replaced too. So a few more days and maybe we can have some results. Still what Frus... an irritating day.

You sure your not a tooth or 180 out? Did you check your coil and correct wiring and 12v at the coil? Good luck she will be purring in no time.

At the moment I am not totally sure any more.

I thought the timing marks only came together at one point during the cycle. Am I thinking right? Or do they meet more than once?

We are getting fire, even checked the timing off that with a light. So I can guarantee there is some spark. Whether or not it is enough is still debatable.

But I will do some more digging and make certain we got it all in the right order.