67 Fiat Dino Spider restoration

Got the car this morning and put it on the lift. Some good things and not so good. All of this stuff I knew before buying it so it just confirms what I already knew.

The good stuff
As far as we can see looking under it, there's no rust on the chassis and perhaps the body.
The body has been banged into several times but the chassis and suspension all seem fine.
Its pretty complete
It should run but will need some work. No gas going to the carbs now but did start with some carb cleaner.
The interior isn't bad. Vinyl and I may upgrade to leather even though they didn't come with leather.
Seems like a lot of the rubber hoses under the hood were replaced
Wheels look excellent
The exhaust system, the tires and the ignition switch are brand new

The not so good stuff.
The body is "very rough". Lots of issues with the body and the paint is close to hideous.
Not sure of the status of the electrics yet.
Lots of oil leaks from the engine and also the gearbox.
The clutch does not work. Maybe just hydraulics but not sure yet.
The top needs to be replaced
The bumpers need to be rechromed or replaced (available)
Its missing the front grill (but its available)
Steering wheel needs to be restored
Windscreen glass is scratched from the wipers

First step will be to get it running and driving. Then I can register it. After that the body, then back for minor mechanical details and finally interior / roof. Here we go....

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2.o. I wanted the aluminum engine.

 

Well, we had our first team meeting of the mechanics and the body shop after going over it.

I feel like Bill Murray in Stripes. "And then, depression set in". But after you get through all the bad news you gotta move on. It is what it is. Something 55+ years old sitting around for 30 years collecting dust is going to have issues. Its just time + money and time = money.

The body guys think it is even in worse shape than it looks, which is pretty bad. We won't know how bad until we strip the old paint but the guy was already warning me its going to need metal work. Its more than just "bad paint" and lots (and lots!) of dents. There are signs of some really bad bondo work done here and there as well.

We ordered about $5K in parts. Its a start. Gotta fix the clutch first so going to do everything new from the clutch itself and all hydraulics. New trans mount. Bought a new modern electronic ignition kit, carb rebuild kit, valve cover gasket set, new fuel pump and hoses/ filters, and all sorts of odds and ends. Its not the end but the beginning.

We put a probe down in the the fuel tank after draining it. I think the Andromeda Strain is growing in there. Luckily there is no rust coming through. The tank does not leak. So we will send it out for cleaning and internal coating. Gonna need a new fuel level sender of course. Some things on this car are reasonable -- but the tank sending unit isn't one of them.

Like everything. once you start digging you find stuff. Its par for the course. Not expecting to give another update until maybe next week when parts start to come in. The goal is to try to get it running in a couple of weeks. It won't be finished but it will be enough to drive around the shop instead of pushing it. Then the body guys can get it and start. One thing I do like is that at heart, its really a simple car. 1960's tech. Bolts, screws, wire, rubber, clamps. Even the suspension is borrowed from other period Fiats.

Haven't even looked at the electrical system yet but we can already see issues in plain sight. This is a classic case of the someone trying to fix something (probably 30 years ago) and making it worse than if they had done nothing. We do have an new electrical loom and the wiring diagram which came with the car.

Still, we are set on saving this thing. It made it this far into history. The least we can do is give it some more years of honor.

 

I'm in France on a couple of days of R and R and the shop sent me some photos of the fuel tank... Its ugly but its in one piece. Gonna send it out locally for reconditioning. I think it will need a new fuel sending unit!



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The difference is the all aluminum Dino motor. It’s really the only reason why this car is special.

not sure it shares that many parts with 124 spider but certainly a lot of standard Fiat parts of the Mid 60’s. It is at heart a very simple car of the 60’s, which is what I wanted. Also wheel knock offs are unique.

It’s pretty, rare, and sounds great. All that matters to me.

 

Yes I bought that one from that group. The 2.4 is about $100 more. You used to be able to get these for like $30!

 

Good news! All my parts were finally shipped today. Hopefully will receive early next week. From this we can replace the distributor and ignition system with electronic, the clutch along with the hydraulics / lines / springs, rebuild the carbs, fix the oil leaks on the valve covers, replace the trans mount, and hopefully put back in the fuel tank, fuel filers, fuel pump, and fuel level sender. Then deal with some electrical issues. Whew...

If we do this it should "run" and we can find out something we can't statically. Then the next step.

 

A few parts showed up already. Checking to see what's going on with fuel tank on Monday. Its been out for a week getting reconditioned. We believe its savable, which would be great news. I think we will start the mechanical restoration this week.
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Parts day! This box is the new electronic ignition system. All the parts came in that I ordered. Unless we find out something else mechanically wrong, we should be able to get it running and driving with this group of stuff.

We should get the fuel tank back late this week or early next. There's still some concern about it so we have to wait a bit before we can say we are out of the woods. The shop working on the tank said "Its the worst they've ever seen". So, we are making history!
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Yah we are literally stuck waiting for the fuel tank to come back. Frustrating.

 

Oh god...

Well the tank has been cleaned out and there is some internal rust and a few pin holes. But I think it can still be repaired. I'll know more on Wednesday. I'm going over to visit with them and see what's going on.

Work has been going on and there's lots of other things to worry about.

Started rebuilding the carbs. The fan appears to be incorrect for the car (it wasn't hooked up electrically when we got it). The valve cover is off that hopefully will stop the leaks.

But the wiring.... I'm heading over tomorrow but this does not look good at all.

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Went over to the O'Gara shop today. And its not as bad as it appeared yesterday in the photos. The picture of the loom was an extra one that came with the car. They were trying to see if any of them could be useful but for now, it seems not. We need to get the car running first.

The story of the fan makes a little more sense with some investigation. Some time ago the fan burned out. There are no fans or fan motors available so someone swapped it with a Bosch. The problem is the Bosch has a different electrical connection that is not compatible with the loom. So someone jerry rigged the electrical wiring from the relay and ground but never finished (or it didn't work and gave up). We think its fixable once the car is running again.

The electronic distributor seems pretty straight forward. It needs a little bit of modification but seems like it should work.

The valve cover gaskets were glued down 20+ years ago. Just getting one off took several hours. Waiting for some solvent to remove the residue.

Tomorrow we go visit with the company working on the fuel tank and see what the situation is. The fuel pump is out and in photo below. Its really terrible but it actually was still doing its best to pump to the bitter end. The fuel filter inside was almost completely clogged. Its in the photo.

Still need to remove the gearbox and replace all the clutch parts as well as hydraulics along with the trans mount. Just guessing but I think we have 2 more weeks before it will actually start up and run.

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This is where the fuel tank and fuel pump went before being removed. The carbs will be cleaned out and rebuilt. This is pretty straightforward. The air cleaner has the choke frozen but we think it can be freed up. The cable for the choke is still there under the hood even though the original air cleaner was replaced with aftermarket years ago.
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Went to see progress on the tank today. Pretty amazing place in Vegas. Located in the industrial area South of The Orleans resort. They are 4th generation radiator repair. A lot of what they do is construction equipment but they have also made a set of radiators for a Testarossa for O'Gara before.

And that is part of the fun of going through one of these restorations -- meeting interesting people working with their hands and companies who do all sort of stuff.

Bottom line is, the tank has a lot of pinholes that need to be filled and tested. All the pinholes were on the top of the tank which rusted. The bottom didn't really get much moisture so it looked pretty good from underneath. On top however, its not swiss cheese but not great. They say another 3 weeks to a month to finish. They have a lot of stuff they have to get done ahead of this. Repairing construction equipment pays their bills, fixing old Fiat fuel tanks does not. But we can work around this now that we know for sure it can be saved. Some Italian guy 58 years ago stamped this out and welded it together. It needs to be saved but this has been the biggest headache so far. I fear though that the body will become a bigger one.

The mechanic told me the Gearbox might come out of the car today so we can do the clutch job and the hydraulics.
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