Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.

[colwyn500]

I meant to say earlier, have you tried a socket on that gearbox filler plug? Although it's a 13mm tapered, square head, I found that a 9/16" socket jammed on nicely.

[vitesse]

[JC T ONE]

[vitesse]

Thanks Jens. I didn't polish the heads, I simply replaced the screws. The good thing about the 500 is you can buy virtually every nut and bolt for them. It must be quite a big business as the are at least a dozen parts shops dotted all over Europe.

It is so much cheaper to buy them from Europe rather than the UK. I priced up some parts yesterday that I need, from Germany they would cost me £20 including shipping and normally take 2 days to arrive. From a UK supplier that is only about 10 miles from me the same parts would cost about £60. They are all sourced from the same manufacturers in Italy.

Tony

[vitesse]

I completed two remaining windows that required sealant today. I must add it is one of the worse jobs I have had to do on the rebuild so far. It takes about an hour per window and squeezing a caulking gun for 2 hours does lead to quite a sore hand by the end of it. Its not particularly messy if you mask around the window rubbers but tedious to say the least.

I also mounted the rear number plate to the engine lid. I had found the original Bluemel plates that I took off the car years ago and replaced with pressed ones. I wanted to use them to add to the originality, of course they needed a lick of paint but I am really happy with them. I used tap washers to mount them to stop any damage to the paintwork. I just need to stick a bit of black paint on the bolt heads to finish off the job.



Also I mounted the front badge.



I need to find some brackets to mount the front number plate below the bumper, previously it was held onto the front panel by double sided tape but I want it in the correct place, as there are holes in the underside of the bumper to mount it.

My boxes of bits that are required to go back on the car has shrunk to virtually nothing so next week is definitely engine back in, so I will do a nice little video of the first start up once back in the car.

[kevin2306]

Thats looking lovely!
I used tap washers behind my plates to prevent them touching the body work plus it packs the back out a bit and prevents distorting the plate when tightening the bolts up.

Kev

[D4B]

Luigi has got his face back

[colwyn500]

Fiat 500 Classic Car Rescue C5 8 o clock tonight

[colwyn500]

PS. Was rubbish (as expected)
Not a patch on your standards Tony.

[vitesse]

[vitesse]

The big day came today. Engine back in, with the help of my very good neighbour.

So the plan is to squeeze this into this.


And you get this!!!!!!!






Incredible that it is held in place by four bolts.

I have connected up a few of the wires and cables, so the rest will get done tomorrow. Along with the rubber pipes for cooling and connecting up the drive shaft. Note to self don't forget the little springs. So the big switch on will be probably Wednesday.

[vitesse]

[colwyn500]

The door bottoms had a dodgy fit and the seats probably wouldn't align because of their heavy handed way of doing things. The main thing is that the car melted the hearts of The "big" men, who all ended up appearing to genuinely love it. Usual thing, after mocking it when it arrived they all wanted to get in it.

I doubt the car will last as long before its next restoration as yours will. Well timed yours is too because your going to have all summer to buzz around in it looking for your next project.
If I could have been allowed to get on with it, mine could have been 80% painted over the scorching days of Easter...28.2 C on our very sheltered patio

[D4B]

A major milestone Tony, good luck today, I can feel a youtube start up video on the horizon

PS even my love of the Fiat 500 wasn't enough to prevent me from switching off Bernies programme.... simply dreadful, what a couple of clowns

[vitesse]

Connected everything else up today. All appears to work ok apart from the throttle cable that kept sticking, so I took it back out and squirted some duck oil down it and there was a lot of rusty gunge that came out the other end but with enough oil down there it started to clear, so I put the cable back in and appears to have resolved the issue.

Starter motor turns the engine over ok. But when I turned it over by hand I could hear a nasty scrapping noise that I thought was coming from the fan housing, which would of been a nightmare to take apart with the engine inside the car. So I took the pulley and fan belt off and turned the fan by hand and it was smooth as anything, so fortunately not that. Further inspection underneath and I took the plate off under the flywheel and noticed that the sump gasket was actually rubbing on the flywheel as it was squashed so much. So I need to take the sump off and just confirm that it is the cause of the noise I can hear. Also there was signs of oil leaking around the gasket, so I will need to get a new gasket and probably use some hylomar on it just to be certain.

Fortunately Ricambio Fiat is only about 10 miles away. I don't mind paying UK prices for a single gasket, well have just looked on the web maybe I do after all £6.60 in the UK £1.50 in Europe

So I will need to drain the oil out and get a new gasket, so startup is delayed

I also notice little leaks from some of the unions on the brake lines that I hadn't tightened up enough, I tightened them yesterday and they all look nice and dry today. Pressure is still okay on the pedal but another quick bleed and it should improve even more.

I suppose you should expect all these little teething issues when the car has been in so many bits.