myredracer
True Classic
This isn't an ordinary Fiat restoration. First, it's an Abarth model that was based on a standard 850 coupe body with various mods done by Abarth. Some say less than 300 were made. Secondly, when I got it, it was missing numerous original Abarth parts but I eventually found some ebay. Lastly, the body was so rusty it was impossible to restore it. The car came from the eastern US and had seen a hard life. It had a lot of really bad body repair work done to it including copious amounts of fiberglass and bondo and lots of metal laid over rusty metal and tack welded in place. It had more recently installed rocker panels that were just pop-riveted on and even the inside of the inner rockers had a THICK layer of fiberglass (who does that??).
The model designation for the 1300/124 is a bit awkward and just doesn't roll off the tongue very well. The emblems on the exterior say "1300". But there was also a 100% all-Abarth sports racing car that was designated "1300".
I'll be creating a build thread on the rear engine forum one of these days when I'm not spending all my time working on the car. This is too give a basic idea what's happening in my workshop these days. My 600 Abarth resto-mod project is on hold at the moment awaiting undercoating and paint when the weather is warm enough.
I knew in the beginning that the body needed very extensive rust repair. I had also bought two stock 850 coupe bodies that were pretty much stripped down to suspension only with the thought in mind that I might use them for donor sheet metal. I brought one car back from CA in the bed of a pickup truck (fun road trip) and the other was a local car that *looked* to be in great shape. A close assessment of the 1300/124 a few months ago showed that just about all sheet metal from the roof down needed replacement or some kind of work. I then decided to use one of the "donor" cars as the basis for a restoration by either moving some of the original modified Abarth pieces onto the new body or replicating the Abarth mods. Fortunately there was enough of the original body and body mods to go by. It came without the original rear engine panel and I have yet to figure out exactly how Abarth modified the stock ones. I'm not going to do anything to the donor body unless it is as exact as I can make it how Abarth did.
The main change Abarth made to these models was to install a 124 pushrod engine and boring it to 1280cc. There wasn't much else done to the engines and they may or may not have had larger valves and hotter cam. A radiator was installed in the front trunk area and much of the sheet metal was cut away to accomodate it. Alloy coolant pipes were run under the floor. The rear engine panel was modified to clear the engine pulleys and the sheet metal between the 850 engine and fuel tank was cut away. There were many other mods as well such as different gearing in the transaxle, a special bellhousing, Abarth gauges, front grille, badging, lowered suspension and a few others. Some small details are hard to see like the rivnuts that were used for coolant pipe clamps for example. The engine that came with the car was a non-original later 124 1438cc with an incorrect Weber 40DCOE carb. I would dearly love to find an original block.
The first photo is what my car would have originally looked like. This is actually a car that belongs to a forum member that occasionally posts here. The 2nd photo is what it looked like in our driveway 10+ years ago. It *might * look sorta okay, but it wasn't. The 3rd photo is what it now looks like after recently dismembering the body. The right A-pillar was so rusty the door basically fell off and no cutting was needed. I was very careful not to damage anything that might have been modified by Abarth. I reduced the floor pan to a single sheet of metal - 4th photo. It has some humps created at the forward end for coolant pipe clearance that I'll need to replicate.
The 5th photo of the blue coupe will become the 1300/124. For the most part the body is in pretty good shape. Rusted areas needing repair include the floor, lower part of the front nose, a hole in one rocker and for some odd reason, some bad rust spots around the windshield and rear window under the rubber seals (seals were removed at one time and not correctly sealed??). There is also some collision damage to fix at the front left fender and left rear quarter panel. The 5th photo shows what the rear left quarter panel looked like. Just a little primer... And then the last photo shows what the panel was really like under the primer, paint & lots of bondo. Someone beat the sn*t out of it to get it kinda where the metal should be then went to town with bondo. So now that area really needs some work...
BTW, personally I like doing body work. Especially the metal working phase. It's very challenging and it's satisfying when you eventually figure out how to do it. It seems like there's always something new to learn and like there's a new challenge every day. Body restoration work is tedious, it's exacting and it can get complicated. There's no easy way out and there's no standard out-of-the-book way to approach it, especially on an older car and especially when you can no longer buy some body panels. Mig welding sheet metal is a b*tch. Some sheet metal is as thin as 24 gauge and it's flippin' difficult to weld without blowing holes through it or warping it. As you find rusty metal as you go through a body, it's simply gotta come out and get replaced. Sometimes it seems never ending. Thank gawd for the internet and youtube vids that we have today!
The model designation for the 1300/124 is a bit awkward and just doesn't roll off the tongue very well. The emblems on the exterior say "1300". But there was also a 100% all-Abarth sports racing car that was designated "1300".
I'll be creating a build thread on the rear engine forum one of these days when I'm not spending all my time working on the car. This is too give a basic idea what's happening in my workshop these days. My 600 Abarth resto-mod project is on hold at the moment awaiting undercoating and paint when the weather is warm enough.
I knew in the beginning that the body needed very extensive rust repair. I had also bought two stock 850 coupe bodies that were pretty much stripped down to suspension only with the thought in mind that I might use them for donor sheet metal. I brought one car back from CA in the bed of a pickup truck (fun road trip) and the other was a local car that *looked* to be in great shape. A close assessment of the 1300/124 a few months ago showed that just about all sheet metal from the roof down needed replacement or some kind of work. I then decided to use one of the "donor" cars as the basis for a restoration by either moving some of the original modified Abarth pieces onto the new body or replicating the Abarth mods. Fortunately there was enough of the original body and body mods to go by. It came without the original rear engine panel and I have yet to figure out exactly how Abarth modified the stock ones. I'm not going to do anything to the donor body unless it is as exact as I can make it how Abarth did.
The main change Abarth made to these models was to install a 124 pushrod engine and boring it to 1280cc. There wasn't much else done to the engines and they may or may not have had larger valves and hotter cam. A radiator was installed in the front trunk area and much of the sheet metal was cut away to accomodate it. Alloy coolant pipes were run under the floor. The rear engine panel was modified to clear the engine pulleys and the sheet metal between the 850 engine and fuel tank was cut away. There were many other mods as well such as different gearing in the transaxle, a special bellhousing, Abarth gauges, front grille, badging, lowered suspension and a few others. Some small details are hard to see like the rivnuts that were used for coolant pipe clamps for example. The engine that came with the car was a non-original later 124 1438cc with an incorrect Weber 40DCOE carb. I would dearly love to find an original block.
The first photo is what my car would have originally looked like. This is actually a car that belongs to a forum member that occasionally posts here. The 2nd photo is what it looked like in our driveway 10+ years ago. It *might * look sorta okay, but it wasn't. The 3rd photo is what it now looks like after recently dismembering the body. The right A-pillar was so rusty the door basically fell off and no cutting was needed. I was very careful not to damage anything that might have been modified by Abarth. I reduced the floor pan to a single sheet of metal - 4th photo. It has some humps created at the forward end for coolant pipe clearance that I'll need to replicate.
The 5th photo of the blue coupe will become the 1300/124. For the most part the body is in pretty good shape. Rusted areas needing repair include the floor, lower part of the front nose, a hole in one rocker and for some odd reason, some bad rust spots around the windshield and rear window under the rubber seals (seals were removed at one time and not correctly sealed??). There is also some collision damage to fix at the front left fender and left rear quarter panel. The 5th photo shows what the rear left quarter panel looked like. Just a little primer... And then the last photo shows what the panel was really like under the primer, paint & lots of bondo. Someone beat the sn*t out of it to get it kinda where the metal should be then went to town with bondo. So now that area really needs some work...
BTW, personally I like doing body work. Especially the metal working phase. It's very challenging and it's satisfying when you eventually figure out how to do it. It seems like there's always something new to learn and like there's a new challenge every day. Body restoration work is tedious, it's exacting and it can get complicated. There's no easy way out and there's no standard out-of-the-book way to approach it, especially on an older car and especially when you can no longer buy some body panels. Mig welding sheet metal is a b*tch. Some sheet metal is as thin as 24 gauge and it's flippin' difficult to weld without blowing holes through it or warping it. As you find rusty metal as you go through a body, it's simply gotta come out and get replaced. Sometimes it seems never ending. Thank gawd for the internet and youtube vids that we have today!