1967 Fiat 850 Coupe - RetroRides Build

[johnt]

Do you have a gasket under the plastic rear window to raise the height slightly?

I have a foam gasket to prevent water from leaking in, not for raising the window height. Depending on the thickness of the plastic you use, I guess you could purchase a thicker foam and/or don't cinch down the screws that much. That way you could get a smoother transition from the window to the body surface.

This is the foam I used in 2" width and cut it to suite what I needed. You could also use silicon/rubber sealant from a tube or window/door weather strip from the hardware store.

Here are some views of how the foam looks and how intrusive this modification is. The trim and headliner are affected and it still leaks. My car does not see lots of water, but if did, the water would drain to the steel floor and out to the ground. Imagine if you had carpet and sound proofing :confuse2: :sad:

Don't mean to scare anyone from trying it, but there are some drawbacks if your car is more on the stock side. The headliner is also pierced with holes to get the rear window fasteners in.

 

[ramona300]

Thanks John. My car is completely stripped out and I had planned to have the plastic as close to flush as possible to the roof line. I was going to just turn up aluminium spacers and not worry too much about moisture entering the car.

 

[johnt]

Finally repaired my drivers door strap. Now I don't have to worry about the door opening too wide and creasing the door sheet metal against the front fender. :blackeye:
Click on the picture for more details

This post probably deserves more explanation and pictures. Full understanding of a solution only came to me when I took it apart and swung the door open a few times with the strap and rubbing blocks/pucks in place to fully understand how to do this. Whats shown in the picture above has not been trimmed yet. More trimming with a cutoff wheel was needed for it to work properly.:whistle:

 

[johnt]

Fiat 850 Rotisserie

1-18-16 SoCal 850 owers (i.e. 850CC) at Jeffs Shop in Norco California

Watch it here:
Going Up
Going Down



Testing the rotisserie on Jeff's coupe.

Car does not stay at a solid 90 degree angle the way I remember it on my coupe. Jeff and I are working on making some adjustments. Not bad for 1st try!

Now that we can all see better, the debate for the best rust repair approach begins. L-R Jeff, Mike, Chris, Jack.

Going Up
Going Down

Jeff would appreciate some help locating a replacement rear quarter. Anyone have ideas on how to repair it?

 

[johnt]

Jack Bissey 850 Coupe

During a visit with Jack in late January he had time to show me his 124 powered 850 Coupe.

Front grill from an x19 and turn signals from a Harley Davidson

For those thinking about using a VW transmission in your 850, here's a way to mount it.

One thing I've never seen anyone attempt before is to use square tubing for coolant pluming. Here you can see how Jack went from square to round tubing to fit his hoses.

The plan wasn't supposed to include such a large fuel tank, but that's what was installed for now along with a custom made radiator.

All the electronics for the engine shown here still need to be hooked up

Rack & Pinion from a Ford Pinto fitted along with an aftermarket electric fuel pump.

Interior needing more wiring. Large pillow/pad on the passenger side is used to sit on while all the wiring is being completed.

Left side of the engine bay.

Right side of engine bay.

Fabricated upper and lower a-arms. The upper arms had to be modified even further to accommodate the coil springs. Jack plans on installing smaller diameter coil overs in the future. He just wishes he would have discovered the Empi shocks before he spent all the money on the custom racing shocks and all the modifications to the upper a-arm.

Jack is showing us these new Empi coilovers he found which where inexpensive and better fitting part. Maybe you can see the Empi part number to give them a try.

Here is a closeup view of the HD turn signal and thr reflector that replaced the original turn signals.

MSD fuel pump mounted very low and custom alloy radiator.

Fabricated exhaust built for rear bumper clearance. Pully clearance and fabrication also shown.

Engine mounts

 

[kmead]

Holy isht that is going to be one wild ride

Twin cam, supercharged, fuel injected unholy terror!

Quite an amazing build!

All kinds of goodies and nuggets to consider in these pics, wow!

Thanks and feel free to post up any other images you may have of that or more plebeian rides.

Karl

 

[johnt]

1968 Series 1 Coupe

VW "Cal Look" bumpers.

Blue coupe lowered with Abarth 1300 reverse eyelet leaf spring. Red coupe uses a lowering block and stock spring. Both about the same ride height.

Everybody, including Lucy the cat loves "Cool" Italian sheet metal on a hot day :sun:

 

[johnt]

Click on the Retro Rides forum link below for everything about the car and modifications/upgrades.
http://retrorides.proboards.com/post/2230510/thread

Click on Picture BELOW to go directly to uTube videos for water pump installation details.

The carb on the left is stock and the carb on the right is:

1. Cleaned and polished with a fine wire bench mounted wire wheel
2. Choke shaft and actuating hardware removed and plugged near throttle bores
3. Choke mounting points/ears removed with rotary files and sanding drums
4. Throttle shafts downsized and smoothed
5. #80 idle jet (stock #45) to accommodate PBS ST280 PBS camshaft and other modifications
6. Adjustable progressive throttle

Installation of under dash supplemental Water temp and Oil pressure gauges. Here's a peek at what the install looks like. Click On Pic mg:

 

[kmead]

Welcome, I doubt any of these specific cars are for sale however I have seen some racing prepped 850 Spiders come up that are complete turnkey cars or nearly so which would be a much better place to start.

Given where you live, an alternative would be to find a running but needy Spider, which are relatively available in decent condition. Just know that racing parts are somewhat rare for these and quite expensive.

Coupes are much harder to come by as they sold fewer of them, few have survived and as a racer are less desirable as they are heavier and have more weight up high (glass and the roof).

 

[johnt]

Found a Simca 1000 Transaxle for a teardown and review.
See it here: