6/28/2005: Half-a-Car Comes Home
As I’ve mentioned before, many years ago my father got a parts car and
stored it in our barn. The deal included a number of new or rebuilt parts,
many of which I will be using in this restoration.
However, the requirement was that we also take the car itself, which had
basically rusted itself in half over the years of being left outside,
unprotected. In order to haul it home, my dad cut it the rest of the way in
half, and so it has been stored in two halves in the barn ever since.
I decided to bring the front half of the car to my house so that I could get
a better look at it and see if it could contribute any sheetmetal to the
repair of the front of my car.
My mom and I loaded it into the back of my truck. It barely fit, but i
couldn’t close the tailgate behind it, so folks driving behind me would have
seen the dashboard and steering wheel apparently hanging off the back of a
pickup. I imagine that was a fairly surprising sight :)
After getting it home and not dropping it on I-84, I decided that I needed
some sort of a dolly to load it on, so that I could easily move it around my
garage without assistance and without scraping up my garage floor.
I screwed together a few 2x4s and some scrap wood I had laying around and
bought 4 caster wheels and bolted them on. The result worked out to be
almost the same height as the back of my truck (by luck more than design),
and I was able to slide the car off the back of the truck and onto this
dolly by myself. I figured “Hey, what’s the worst that can happen? I drop
it on the driveway? So what?”
It worked out great! After bolting the body down to it so it won’t slide off,
I can easily roll the thing around with one hand, in and out of the garage.
Here’s what by garage now looks like. I’ve christened serial number 40912
Eric the
Half-a-Car :)
Even if it wasn’t half a car, it would still be beyond saving. The rust
throughout the inner structural parts is amazing, once you look closely.
The wiring is terrifying, having been spliced and hacked on for years.
But it’s still useful to me, for reference, for a number of little parts,
and to confirm what’s “normal” for a fiat 1500 cabriolet tipo 118K.
Unfortunately the front sheetmetal isn’t perfect.. It looked pretty good
until I stripped off some paint- there’s some prior damage and a fair amount
of filler in the nose area and under the headlight on one side. But some
areas are definitely in better shape than on my car, so it may still provide
some pieces, or at least templates.
Another fiatblue118K
6/30/2005 14:08:04
I have also layed my hands on one, i found it five years ago stored in a cold garage for the last 28 years!! I brought it home on a trailer on the 12:th of march. In two months time i had it running after overhauling the brakes and servicing a bit the 1600 twincam engine, the original 1500 engine is also saved but not in use at the moment.What i also had delivered with this car was a Hardtop in perfect shape (i am not at the moment planning to use that!!) What i surprisingly discovered was that it still is possible even here in sweden to buy parts for this car, the biggest obstical so far, and it was not very hard to overcome, was to find tires in the proper dimension. Do you want me to mail you some pictures?
all the best and warm summergreetings from Värmdö east of Stockholm.
Anders Telby
7/1/2005 23:42:32
Sure, i'd love to see it!
Tires are definitely a challenge. I did some initial calculations to try to figure out what would be appropriate.. And there's not a lot to choose from that you can actually buy at this point.
My car currently has old 155SR14 tires on it that seem to fit reasonably well. The original tires on these cars (145 R14) look very skinny by modern standards, so i'm hoping to stay with a slightly wider tire, as much as is practical with the 3 1/2" rim width.
http://www.bribos.com/ is supposed to be the swedish distributor for coker tire. You might try them?
Let me know what you find!
It's good to see your active again
7/4/2005 15:50:48
I've been checking every couple of days to see if there has been progress in your project. It's so good to see your again working and displaying progress on the site. Keep up the good work, if you need a beer or two I'll send a 'Care' package.
Your friend,
Tim
Tipo 118K*047086
Fiat 1500 Cabriolet
5/20/2007 22:32:52
I have a Fiat 1500 Cabriolet in my back yard, I need to get rid of it, but it looks like your original project. Is it worth anything and do you know the best way for me to sell it.
I appreciate all your work in your project, and am hoping you can help me.
Crystal
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