Hello,
My name is Sandra. I love this forum. I wish it was available when my dad and I restored the 850 in '89. The head cracked in '94, and a mechanic tried to charge me double for repairs and parts. I brought my car back but not before the mechanic tore the engine appart and stripped it of some parts. It has been sitting at my mom's house since. I brought it to my house on 9/15/12 and am now ready to start the renovation. I will post my progress on "restoration" and "850". Here is what it looks like now.

best of luck with it! You have a pretty big project there, I hope all of the parts are stashed in the car somewhere

The trunk and hood gave me trouble just to open and yes the block was on the floorboard. The rest was scattered all over the car. This is what I found.





tagged and bagged everything
I believe the only thing i'm missing is the head.
I had guest come over unannounced and did not get a chance to do much more today.
My husband will be in San Francisco in a week. He will check out the area for a parts car.

That is going to be one cool project. It will be so much fun to watch your progress. Thanks for all the "before" pics. Yep, a lot of work but what a reward when it's all done.
Thanks for sharing.

FiatBen wrote:That is going to be one cool project. It will be so much fun to watch your progress. Thanks for all the "before" pics. Yep, a lot of work but what a reward when it's all done.
Thanks for sharing.

Yep, Looking forward to it.

Yesterday 10/3/12 I lifted the car and removed the wheels. I did an under carriage, axle inspection. I am going to have drop the axles to work on everything thoroughly and, comfortably.

Any one have any extra safety precautions that I have to take when dropping the axels?



I noticed a crackly coating on the under carriage. Is this coating protective or accumulated gunk?

After 1 week of removing rust and cleaning engine parts I was ready to put the engine block together (not rebuilt yet, just checking what I have and don't have. This was the result. In some pics the parts looks like they have rust but,it isn't rust. For some reason the pics turned out w/ red tint.




I am missing the oil pump. air filter, and cylinder head. Once I find the parts, I will rebuild it.
In the meantime I am going to drop the transmission and clean it up.

I dropped the rear axle and gearbox today. It was a pain in the @$$. I thought I would do the front and back today but, the back gave me a lot of trouble. the nuts and bolts were easy to loosen. The gearbox mounting brackets were in the way of the A-arm mounting brackets. Lowering the gearbox to move the mounts out of the way caused the A-arm mounts to drop as well and the bolts ended up out of alignment. I was able to punch the bolts out but it took forever due to limited hammer swing space.

I'm sure there is an easier way to remove the rear axle and gearbox but I did it both together.

Axles and transmission removed

REAR and TRANSMISSION


FRONT


Started cleaning the parts...oooo nice and clean


I ordered front brake hoses and caliper rebuild kit. i will continue cleaning the parts, to be ready to put together when the parts arrive.

Things seem to be moving along nicely. This is a fun project to follow.

Wow good progress! You're really cruising on this project. Looks good so far, keep snapping pictures for us, we like following and seeing what's happening.

had to take time off the project to catch up on life (son's band competitions, daughters modeling, husbands side projects, garden, landscaping etc). When I returned to the restoration project, I was upset cuz, a lot of the parts i cleaned were getting rusty again. It was minor but enough that I had to touch up all the parts that were cleaned already. today was a wasted day. To avoid this again, i bought engine and caliper paint. No more rust on cleaned parts and moving on with project. YAY!!!

Gotta luv the 850,
Hope you don't mind me asking but are you a mechanic
Most guys would shy away from such a project, Hats off to you can't wait to see her Rollin in new paint
Cheers and keep up the great work

PininF wrote:Hope you don't mind me asking but are you a mechanic

My dad was a mechanic, I hung around him growing up. Then I joined USMC and was placed as a mechanic (MOS). I worked on diesel engine equipment in the Marines, when I left, I worked at a rental company servicing diesel engine equipment. The Marine GI Bill and the rental company put me through college. I received BA in Psychology. I changed careers to work with foster system kids and hadn't touched a wrench in about 10 years.
Working on the 850 is a great way to jump back in to working on engines. My husband is a mechanic as well and so he guides me when I need it.

Thanks for asking and letting me tell my story
Sandra

Awsome

I've degreased, sand blasted, wire wheeled, sanded, primed and painted a lot of suspension and wheel parts these past 2 weeks. I took a few days off for the holiday and now am back. But, I am stuck on the stub axle shaft. My first real hold-up. it is seized in place. I tried banging it out, but it barely moved 1/4 inch. I am trying PO but kinda hard cuz I can't submerge it while it is on the control arm. Maybe I'll try heating it up. I'll post later how it turned out.