Author Topic: 68 Fiat Abarth 1300 Coupe  (Read 98215 times)

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Offline zippyfiat

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Re: 68 Fiat Abarth 1300 Coupe
« Reply #30 on: March 28, 2007, 03:16:47 pm »
Thanks for the help/info. J.S.  Yes, please let me know.

Gil

Offline zippyfiat

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Re: 68 Fiat Abarth 1300 Coupe
« Reply #31 on: March 28, 2007, 03:47:20 pm »
Hi Eric.  You are very lucky to have such a good body!  I'm not sure on the history of the use of the side stripes on these cars.  I don't think they all had them, so perhaps it was an option?  Personally, I'd rather leave them off, unless you are convinced your car had them originally and you want a historically accurate restoration.  My car is white, but I'd prefer the red.  But, I will go for the what the car originally came with.

I bought my car from Mahlon Craft who has been well known in the Abarth circles for a long time.  He has a pretty good website if you have not seen it yet.  He sent me some photos, but I cannot access them at the moment, as they are on my old PC which is currently in storage (am building a new house).   I can't seem to get my digicam working on the PC I am using at the moment, so photos are going to have to wait a while.  My 1300/124 has a pretty rough body. I have two very good rolling coupe shells, so I may do some "cutting and pasting" of sheet metal to restore the body.  As you probably know by now, these cars have some unique modifications made by Abarth that would be difficult to duplicate, so you can't just transfer everything onto a new body.

My car came without some of the very important Abarth 1300/124 parts like the gauges, alloy coolant pipes and front grille.  Fortunately, I already had these (except a couple of small cooling pipe pieces, which I just got.)  I was planning on building a replica, but now will have the real thing!  I have to thank J.S. for helping with some of these missing parts.  I have the 1438cc engine in the car, and a single sidedraft Weber DCOE.  The intake manifold seems to be a FAZA aftermarket part.  I do have other important original Abarth things, like the 3.89 ring and pinion set, radiator and radiator shrouds.

I  have a "new" Delta reground camshaft with a performance profile that I will use.  I have a set of NOS heavy duty sway bars and new Koni shocks to use.

Sidebar story:  I had found a couple of the plastic "1300/124" emblems that go on the front grille, from someone in the U.S.  When the arrived in the mail, the end of the package was clearly missing and the contents were gone!!!  Can you imagine postal workers delivering that?  I was rather upset, as these parts were original and irreplaceable.

Some day, I really want to visit someone who has an original 1300/124...   I would like to get various original details done correctly.

Gil


Offline viotti600

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Re: 68 Fiat Abarth 1300 Coupe
« Reply #32 on: March 30, 2007, 09:39:22 am »
Sidebar story:  I had found a couple of the plastic "1300/124" emblems that go on the front grille, from someone in the U.S.  When the arrived in the mail, the end of the package was clearly missing and the contents were gone!!!  Can you imagine postal workers delivering that?  I was rather upset, as these parts were original and irreplaceable.

 Not nearly as upset as I was...I'd had those trim strips safely tucked away in my collection for quite some time. It still pisses me off to think of the bonehead postal worker(s) that just passed along the damaged/empty container without even noticing the contents were missing! Argh... =(

I'll keep my eyes out for another one, but don't hold your breath! LOL =)

-Jeff.
Jeff Stich
Norco, CA, USA

Offline viotti600

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Re: 68 Fiat Abarth 1300 Coupe
« Reply #33 on: March 30, 2007, 10:13:33 am »
Hi Gil, I don't see any rust or uneven rockers or anything, but I know that nasty surprises are often discovered at stripdown time.

 Besides the floors & rocker panels, the #1 place I'd check out for rust is the A-pillar, specifically in the area between the top & bottom door hinge. There's a hollow area in there that loves to collect dirt/water & then rust from the inside-out. This is a PITA area, because there are multiple layers of sheetmetal joining right there.

Definitely interested in an air cleaner and a correct dash layout.... You are welcome to the badges.  I'll look around a bit more and send you a want list.  I'll inventory the spares and send you that list too.

Here's what your dash should look like:





  On the far left of the dash, note the round pushbutton (for w/s washers), the triple rocker switch unit & the single Fiat 600-style indicator light. This is what should be there on your dash instead of all of those switches & lights that you have. Also note the wood veneer & thin metal surrounds of the dashboard's horizontal insert strips. If you need/want these for your car, let me know. Maybe we can do some parts trading? =)

Cheers,
 -JS.
Jeff Stich
Norco, CA, USA

Offline evannice

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Re: 68 Fiat Abarth 1300 Coupe
« Reply #34 on: March 30, 2007, 07:19:51 pm »
JS- thanks for the great photos.  I dug through the boxes of parts and found some of the missing items, also found and snagged the three switch cluster on ebay.  I still need the wood veneers and the thin chrome metal surround pieces.

Looks like my list of other missing stuff is pretty short:  there is no sheet metal floor on either side of the engine compartment, and no air cleaner.  The 32 DCOF is old and full of crud, Pierce manifolds has them for $60 new, so I ordered one.  I will order a new mechanical fuel pump and lose the electrical "improvements".  Brake fluid reservoir looks fine, it is leaking from some questionable clear tubing and clamps.

Here's an overview of the stuff in boxes that you may be intersted in:  engine to trans bell housing and clutch to tranny input shaft.  I don't know how to tell if they are stock 850 or if they are 124 to 850 bits.  Tail lights and front marker lights.  A nice gauge cluster.  Sun visors.  Axle boots and joints.  The rest of the stuff is old and crusty and probably stock things like windshield wiper motor and mechanism, wiper arms, fuel pump, coil, coolant T piece, rear main seal housing, nuts and bolts.

Here's a photo of the front grill emblem, it looks right to me.

As for the ID plate, I am intrigued that the ID on the metal plate matches the ID stamped into the sheet metal and they both are 1324xx numbers.  Seems most likely to me that Fiat designated these cars for assignment to Abarth and stamped them 1324xx before letting them go.

4/27/07 RETRACTION:  it is pure coincidence that this car's ID# starts with 1324.  I had ASSUMED that they all were, but have since been set straight by other owners.  As at least some of you already knew, Abarth just got some finished 850 coupes from Fiats from time to time and these ID plates are just 850 coupe ID plates.  This ID# just identifies this car as a 1967 850 coupe.  I am trying not to put misinformation into permanent cyberspace!

Eric
« Last Edit: April 27, 2007, 05:01:18 pm by evannice »

Offline evannice

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Re: 68 Fiat Abarth 1300 Coupe
« Reply #35 on: April 13, 2007, 10:54:24 pm »
A couple of photos of the front radiator with the plastic cover pieces removed.

Offline evannice

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Re: 68 Fiat Abarth 1300 Coupe
« Reply #36 on: April 15, 2007, 02:54:51 am »
I got the car running this week but it sounded and felt like an unbalanced washing machine.  Pulled the head this afternoon and found a very bent pushrod, a very stuck valve, and a somewhat dinged up tappet.  The valves and seats and head and pistons and bores look very nice, and everything came apart without trouble or broken fasteners.  So it's off to the machine shop for the head, and I'll get the gas tank out next for cleaning and sealing.

Offline evannice

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Re: 68 Fiat Abarth 1300 Coupe
« Reply #37 on: April 21, 2007, 12:51:03 am »
Getting the gas tank out is more challenging than I thought!  Here is some progress today.  I could have just pulled the transmission, but this gives me a chance to check out al the engine bay bits and pieces and clean it all up before reassembly.

Offline evannice

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Re: 68 Fiat Abarth 1300 Coupe
« Reply #38 on: April 21, 2007, 11:15:32 pm »
Okay, now the transmission and fuel tank are out.  Those of you who can pull the gas tank by pulling the transmission alone like in the shop manual, I am very impressed!  It was hard enough with the engine and tranny both out of the way.  Now I can see a small spring hanging from a metal brake line above the transmission and connected to nothing.  I am guessing that was somebody's attempt at a clutch return spring.  There are coil spring spacers of some sort, connected incorrectly, some are just bouncing around loose.  I will have to see if this was an attempt to compensate for weak springs.  My "to do" list is growing.

Offline evannice

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Re: 68 Fiat Abarth 1300 Coupe
« Reply #39 on: April 22, 2007, 08:58:53 pm »
I see I forgot to show the bent pushrod that was the cause of all this dismantling.

Offline evannice

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Re: 68 Fiat Abarth 1300 Coupe
« Reply #40 on: April 27, 2007, 08:19:06 pm »
Destruction continued this morning.  Got the right rear suspension out and will get the left out this afternoon.  There is lots of surface rust, but I have not found any structural rust yet.  Lots of wire brushing and rust killing to do here, and wow there are a lot of coolant pipes and hoses under there!

Anybody know the correct coil spring free height for these cars?  These are 8.7", and the shop manual specifies 9.37" for the 850 coupe.  There were spring spacers installed wrong which fell out on the ground as soon as I touched them.

Offline zippyfiat

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Re: 68 Fiat Abarth 1300 Coupe
« Reply #41 on: April 29, 2007, 03:07:27 am »
Eric, the 1300/124s used a different spring from the normal 850 coupes.  They are stronger to carry the extra engine weight.  I am guessing that the springs are likely a little shorter.  It may be a while before I am able to dismantle my 1300, so cannot confirm the spring length.

Gil (in Canada)

Offline evannice

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Re: 68 Fiat Abarth 1300 Coupe
« Reply #42 on: April 30, 2007, 05:57:53 am »
Thanks, Gil.  Are there supposed to be rubber seats above and below the coil springs?  Mine only had uppers.

Offline zippyfiat

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Re: 68 Fiat Abarth 1300 Coupe
« Reply #43 on: May 01, 2007, 05:29:33 am »
Eric, there should be the seats top and bottom.  You don't want steel wearing against steel there.  The seats do disintegrate from age and wear....

I envy you being able to work on your car!!

Gil

Offline evannice

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Re: 68 Fiat Abarth 1300 Coupe
« Reply #44 on: May 01, 2007, 06:39:34 am »
Thanks for the info, Gil.  I enjoy fiddling with the car a couple hours at a time until it begins to resemble actual work, and then I come back to it another time.  Tonight I took apart the rear brakes and the clutch to have a look-see.  I got stuck at the point of trying to remove the flex couplings because I did not have a big enough socket.  It appears to be about 32 mm.  I'll see if I can pick one up after work tomorrow.

Don't forget to send some photos of your project, too!

Eric in San Diego

 

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