fiat500 said:

Colour-co-ordinated axle-stands?!?!

I have them too, but they multi-co-ordinate with all of the cars and bits I have ever painted.

Click to expand...

Haha no, we've had them for years

Some more progress to getting Buzz back on his wheels!

After fitting the front leaf spring, the bump stops were next.



It almost seems strange to be bolting these parts we have had in storage for so long back onto the car.




The old battery tray was paper thin and mostly fell out when the body was blasted, so I cut out what remained. I made the decision that I would bolt the new battery tray in rather than spot welding it, so it could be replaced in future more easily. The battery tray was also ideally shaped with a nice sturdy return that “hangs over'' the bumper support bracket. I had already pre drilled the holes and dry fitted the tray before paint, but it was removed for the paint job and sprayed off the car. I made some custom fasters for the tray. The majority of the fasteners on the car that are not original and non-structural are being replaced by marine grade stainless steel.

After cutting the fasteners to length, and re-tapped the threads to clean them up.





The tray bolted in place.



Next we decided to start putting some of the controls together, starting with the pedal box.

All parts plated/painted.





I don’t know if I ordered the wrong bushing kit, but the plastic bush was too long, so I had to trim it.



I also chose to tap a thread instead of using a roll pin, as the reproductions were a bad fit.



Fitted.



I also used a bolt and nylock nut to hold the clutch pedal on, for the same reason.



Pedal box all together.



I had to modify the end of the throttle pedal as the square end touched the recess in the body. I could have spaced the pedal away from the floor but the bracket is plastic, so it would be very flexible.



Master cylinder mounted.



And finally bolted into the car.






Continuing with the front suspension. These little cars are so simple, there are so few parts compared to a modern vehicle! Even so, I find it helpful to lay all the parts out prior to fitting and getting the tools I need ready. It helps me make sure I have all the parts I need and means I don’t have to get up from under the car 50 times!



A mix of new and refurbished parts.



Fitted to the car. My husband says it’s really nice to be working on a clean car in a clean environment again.



Next it seemed logical to build up the brakes, and once the top arms and the kingpin/knuckle were fitted, they were next. This turned out to be a huge pain in the butt.

Getting the parts ready. The backplates have been refurbished and repainted in satin black, except for one of the front backplates that had a very damaged stud (that bolts it to the kingpin/upright). The threads were completely missing so I had to order a new one. I also repainted that to match the other 3.



I found using a large screwdriver in a vice as a pole to slot the backplate over worked well. It gave me something to pull on as I was attaching the springs.



And the other side done...not too difficult.



Now it was time to press the new races into the repainted hubs. I did my usual thing of putting them in the freezer, and I gently tapped them in with an appropriately sized socket and a plastic faced hammer.



There is an audible change when the race is properly seated.



Bearings and seals in. One odd thing I did find was that on many parts diagrams there is a retaining clip for the bearing behind the seal, but there is no groove for that to fit into on my hubs, and I can’t find the clips for sale anywhere. I can only assume this clip/spacer is to set the correct height for the seal, and are maybe omitted on later cars?



Upright and backplate fitted with brakes, ready for the hub to go on.



Damper fitted.



At this point I unboxed all the dampers and discovered that I was missing a steel sleeve from the kit.



Annoyingly it seems you can’t buy these sleeves individually, I would have had to buy a whole new damper! So, I went and got some steel tube stock for less than £4 and made my own.



The OD was spot on but the ID was 1mm too small, so I reamed it with a 10mm drill bit.



And finally cut to length. It looks like the ID is wrong but I verified it with digital calipers, I think it's just an optical illusion of the radiused ends of the original part. It’s within 0.1mm in all dimensions of the original.



So with the damper now able to be fitted the rest of the corner can go together.







And obviously I did the other side in tandem.



And I just had to test fit the wheel to see what I would look like!

A real milestone to get a wheel on the car. Looking very nice and I like how you engineer solutions to your issues. A productive update!

I think that you will find that the 'spring-ring' between the bearing and the seal is used as a spacer so that the seal is located correctly when it abutts the ring.

Some more updates to progress on my little fiat.

As the car now has its front suspensions and steering complete, it was time to do the rear.

Bearings were fitted into the holders.



Parts unboxed and ready to go.



Slave cylinders fitted and marked.



Then I fitted the bearing holders to the arms along with the backplates, these were again marked after being torqued.



I used a nylon strap to keep the brake shoes in place whilst I attached the return springs.



Brake lines fitted. I bought one of the ready made, pre-flared kits and quickly wished I hadn’t, the pipes were very difficult to bend compared to the usual copper, and they were all 2-3cm too long, so I had to make unnecessary bends in places. :bang: If I were to do this again I would buy a flaring tool and custom make the lines.



Grommet fitted.



Hub mounted.



I made a mistake and routed the brake line in such a way that it might be damaged by the bump stop if I were to bottom the car out, so I re-shaped it.






After this, all that remained of the rear suspension assembly was to fit the springs/dampers, refit the trailing arm brackets and fit the arms themselves.

Trailing arm brackets fitted.



Fitting the rear spring seats onto the isolation rubbers was impossible, the rubber parts were far too large...queue some modification with a finger sander.





It was still a tight fit and it took the weight of the car on the springs to fully seat them!

Dampers in!



I also took the opportunity to fit the remaining grommets and cables etc. in the centre tunnel.



I also finished off the rear brake hard lines before it got too cramped.






I also fitted the brake reservoir bracket, reservoir, hose to the master cylinder and fuse box.










The arm and brakes fitted to the car with half shaft installed. This was a pretty heavy piece to fit so I had to use wooden blocks to support it.





And with the wheel fitted.



And finally, Buzz back on his wheels for the 1st time in…*checks notes* 1,183 days!



Next up is wiring loom, lights and sound deadening, more soon! :slayer:

Have you tightened up the rear stub-axle nut to give the required rotational torque yet Katie?

Not yet, they are dry fitted at the moment

Hi all,

Some progress on the little Fiat but we have run into a frustrating issue. We have wired the car up as per the wiring diagram with a brand new loom. Everything seems good, no spare wires, all connected up ok but we have an odd issue as the car seems to be dead. No lights, no courtesy light etc. We have tested and verified that the lights themselves work and the car has a new earth strap from the alternator to the body and we get good earth continuity throughout the body where we have tested (for example, if I take the + from the battery to the back of the lights they work) therefore, I assume the car is well earthed.
There are no doors on yet so the door switch is closed yet there is no power to the courtesy light wire and we get no lights on the dash (she's an L) on turning the ignition key.

We have checked the the continuity on the starter cable also.

We haven't tried to start the engine yet, the fuel is yet to be plumbed in.

Does anyone have any suggestions on what might be the issue? Any help greatly appreciated

Thanks,

Katie

Katie B said:

Hi all,

Some progress on the little Fiat but we have run into a frustrating issue. We have wired the car up as per the wiring diagram with a brand new loom. Everything seems good, no spare wires, all connected up ok but we have an odd issue as the car seems to be dead. No lights, no courtesy light etc. We have tested and verified that the lights themselves work and the car has a new earth strap from the alternator to the body and we get good earth continuity throughout the body where we have tested (for example, if I take the + from the battery to the back of the lights they work) therefore, I assume the car is well earthed.
There are no doors on yet so the door switch is closed yet there is no power to the courtesy light wire and we get no lights on the dash (she's an L) on turning the ignition key.

We have checked the the continuity on the starter cable also.

We haven't tried to start the engine yet, the fuel is yet to be plumbed in.

Does anyone have any suggestions on what might be the issue? Any help greatly appreciated

Thanks,

Katie

Click to expand...

The power for all the ancillaries, lights etc comes via the starter motor fed by the battery cable. From the starter there is a thick brown wire, that joins to the battery cable terminal on the starter, to the voltage regulator terminal 30. I would check there first to confirm you have 12v’s to earth? It’s not switched via the ignition it should be a permanent 12v’s?

If you have 12v’s there go to the next point which is from terminal 30 on the VR to the fuse box via a red wire. It should be the first fuse and have another red wire joining it on the same side of the fuse. Check there for 12v’s to earth? The other red wire will run directly to the ignition switch, so it is an unprotected feed. If necessary check for 12v’s on that also. I suspect the 12v’s isn’t getting to the fuse box, as the one of the wires on the protected side of fuse number 1, they are two whites on my F but they maybe purple on the L goes directly to the interior light, all the door switch does is provides a short to earth when it is opened. Check on the interior light wire to earth for 12v’s or on the wire feeding it from the fuse box.

Vitesse said:

The power for all the ancillaries, lights etc comes via the starter motor fed by the battery cable. From the starter there is a thick brown wire, that joins to the battery cable terminal on the starter, to the voltage regulator terminal 30. I would check there first to confirm you have 12v’s to earth? It’s not switched via the ignition it should be a permanent 12v’s?

If you have 12v’s there go to the next point which is from terminal 30 on the VR to the fuse box via a red wire. It should be the first fuse and have another red wire joining it on the same side of the fuse. Check there for 12v’s to earth? The other red wire will run directly to the ignition switch, so it is an unprotected feed. If necessary check for 12v’s on that also. I suspect the 12v’s isn’t getting to the fuse box, as the one of the wires on the protected side of fuse number 1, they are two whites on my F but they maybe purple on the L goes directly to the interior light, all the door switch does is provides a short to earth when it is opened. Check on the interior light wire to earth for 12v’s or on the wire feeding it from the fuse box.

Click to expand...

Thank you! It was immediately obvious from your detailed description that we have the brown stater wire on the wrong connection and not the same one as the battery cable. We now have power! I should have mentioned that the engine is a 650cc with alternator and the starter is in a different place. The brown wire didn’t reach and so we connected it to the closer one. The loom will have to be modified slightly for it to reach I think.
Still a few tweaks to go with the lights as they seem a bit random but very happy that we have made progress.

Re: the rear lights - is the threaded tab earth on the top usually enough by itself as they don’t yet work.

Katie B said:

Thank you! Re: the rear lights - is the threaded tab earth on the top usually enough by itself as they don’t yet work.

Click to expand...

No problem. It is normally enough but it maybe down to the fact that you have nice new paintwork and it’s unable to get a decent earth. It’s a bit of a compromise between how much paint you expose. It’s the little spring clips if I remember correctly that clip onto the bodywork over the hole and the light lens is secured by self tappers? I would make sure that the inside of the hole is nice and clean rather than damaging the bodywork, and give it a squirt of Waxoyl on the inside to keep the rust at bay.

Just to add a good indication of how good you earth is on the rear lights. Is to turn the ignition on and short together the two wires feeding you brake light switch, normally yellow/black and red. If the lights come on, you know the earth is good and to look elsewhere if the other lights are playing up.

Mega update incoming!

The rebuild is continuing and the pile of parts to bolt back on is diminishing rapidly. I even had to go to the tip with a boot full of cardboard boxes from all the parts that are now on the car, feels good! :slayer:

I rebuilt the gear selector so it’s ready to fit to the car once the fuel/brake lines and starter cable were in place.



I had all these parts re-plated. Again I lay them all out prior to assembly so I know I have all the bits.



Greased and assembled.





I ground down the tip of a stainless cap head bolt to correctly fit the hole in the gear selector rod.



Installed!





Next up I decided to tackle the dash clock, it was very dirty with 50 years of...hand cheese?



The tab seal on the back of the clock was unbroken so I assume these are the original KM’s, it all came apart easily enough.





The hand cheese was very baked on and took quite some effort to remove with brushes, hot water and a small plastic pick. I also used some cotton buds to clean the front and back of the coloured lenses for the tell-tale lights.



The main reason I removed the dash binnacle was to fix a crack in the top of the binnacle that went almost all the way through. It’s in a weird place so i can only assume this must be from an unbelted Italian bouncing off the steering wheel at some point!

I could see from the flashing marks that this part was injection moulded, so it had to be thermoplastic. This meant I could weld the crack back up to stop it propagating.



Then filled with plastic filler.



Sanded back smooth.



Then I masked up the tell-tale lights prior to spraying.



After a few coats of satin black to make it factory fresh.



https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50062914472_7da10d3a7c_b.jpg[img]

And the other reason for taking the clock apart, the plastic clock face was UV damaged and quite milky.

[img]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50062659696_c7f65eb482_b.jpg

I used a DA polishing machine with a 4” Orange medium cut HexLogic pad and a 2-step process of Meguiars M205 followed by M105. Thankfully the oxidised layer was on the outside, whilst the screen printed border and numbers are on the inside, so there was no difficult masking to do.

Looking much better!





Back together.



Although it’s a minor thing, I also wanted to give the rear view mirror a refurb. It’s front and centre in the cabin, and will no doubt be getting a lot of use on today roads with the ubiquitous Audi 3 nanometers from your rear bumper at all times.

Crusty! The contacts were cleaned with a rolled up bit of emery paper.



Difficult to show in a photo but the mirror glass was very grubby around the edges with what looked like overspray (or maybe more hand cheese!) and it was very difficult to clean, so I removed it. The bezel was also very shiny on one side only, perhaps due to 50 years of adjustments.





I also cleaned up the bulb holder contacts and the bulb itself, it was quite corroded. Left side cleaned, right side not! I also cleaned the little window the bulb shines though as it was very dirty inside.



Unit reassembled with the adjustable mount cleaned and lubricated.



I decided to paint the bezel of the mirror in the same satin finish as the clock binnacle to get around the one-sided shininess.




Now most of the interior hardpoints were sorted such as pedals etc, it was time for sound deadening, which I wanted to do before I tackled the wiring. After looking up reviews online and making some measurements I plumped for Silentcoat 2mm.



This took two whole days and was back breaking getting in and out of the car perhaps 100 times to make templates and cuts on the bench. I was pretty rubbish at the start of day 1 but by the end of day 2 I was a pro...I just never want to do it again.



The aluminium top layer supposedly helps keep the heat out, it’s also responsible for the wildest paper cut I’ve ever had!

I really took my time and tried to make neat cut outs for bolt holes/body grommets/drain holes etc.



The silentcoat works well, it’s very sticky and flexible to its easy to mould into the numerous ribbed sections used to stiffen the shell.







I had to be careful using the rubber roller on the wings, they are so thin and flexible. I definitely don’t want to have a crash in this thing. The matting definitely makes the car feel more solid, just by running on the floor it sounds….deadened. Hopefully that translates to a slight quieter driving experience. I also remembered to save some matting for the doors!



In the end I did everything that’s under the carpet except the tunnel sides and top (I might go back and do those later depending on how hot the car gets in the summer months) and all of the rear bulkhead.


I decided to give the ashtray the same treatment as the mirror, as it also had overspray on it. I did buy a new one but it was utter garbage compared to the original and went directly into the bin. :bang:




Polished with a little buffing wheel on a dremel.



I don’t smoke so I’m thinking I might yet modify this to hide a USB charging port inside for phones/GPS etc.

I also purchased a new dash panel, but again, it was rubbish compared to the original with the outer edges not fitting properly and looking like they would come up some way short of the door and dash seals. It was also somehow made of a plastic that looked shinier than the one that came on the car, which is quite the achievement!

So much like the dash binnacle I scrubbed and scrubbed for what felt like an eternity to remove the years of crud from the dash, and it actually came up looking good, if a little “dry”, like some plastics can go after a while. I treated the plastic with some trim dressing and it came up looking great! The neighbours think we have lost the plot I’m sure.

Naturally the foam backing fell off upon removal so I used some contact adhesive to stick it back down.



As the dash was about to back on, I also wanted to get the steering column sorted and get the steering wheel on. This was especially needed as the car was now back on it’s wheels and we needed to push it around to move it.

1st I had to fix a damaged wire on the column controls. It looks like it might have been pinched and some point and it was hanging on by a thread.



So I cut the wire off and made a lineman's splice



Heat Shrink ready to go.



With the rest of the column wires in, I heatshinked the bullet connectors to stop any water ingress.






Dash in finally




And clocks in.




More to come, and thanks again to those that have helped so far, we’re hoping to be on the road before the summer is out! :slayer:

Vitesse said:

The power for all the ancillaries, lights etc comes via the starter motor fed by the battery cable. From the starter there is a thick brown wire, that joins to the battery cable terminal on the starter, to the voltage regulator terminal 30. I would check there first to confirm you have 12v’s to earth? It’s not switched via the ignition it should be a permanent 12v’s?

If you have 12v’s there go to the next point which is from terminal 30 on the VR to the fuse box via a red wire. It should be the first fuse and have another red wire joining it on the same side of the fuse. Check there for 12v’s to earth? The other red wire will run directly to the ignition switch, so it is an unprotected feed. If necessary check for 12v’s on that also. I suspect the 12v’s isn’t getting to the fuse box, as the one of the wires on the protected side of fuse number 1, they are two whites on my F but they maybe purple on the L goes directly to the interior light, all the door switch does is provides a short to earth when it is opened. Check on the interior light wire to earth for 12v’s or on the wire feeding it from the fuse box.

Click to expand...

Flippn' heck....we're not used to that sort of clarity and precision on this forum. What happened to the "it could be" or "have you tried this?"..........or "it might be the condenser?"

Absolutely bang on.

It's great to see that the original parts are getting re-used so much and it does speak for the fact that despite the apparent "cheapness" of the 500, it was actually quite well made. Having said that, obviously your finish is better than new.

I would have kept the original finish of things such as the mirror because I love things like the shiny edge from years' of adjustments, but I don't like the sound of the "hand cheese"....you're well rid of that :yuck:

Wiring fault finding part 2:

We have got all the lights working but there is an odd set up at the front. The headlights work on both dipped and high bean as expected, but they also have an extra bulb in the bottom of the headlight that seems not to be used, and there are no wires for in my harness. I assume these are sidelights incorporated into the headlight? However, the separate sidelights/indicators below the headlights are constantly on when the ignition is on. These are the ones with the dual filament bulbs and the wiring seems also to be for dual filament (3 wires plus and earth) Is this normal? The indicators also do not work on these front lights, but The side repeaters and tail light indicators are all good.
All lights have their own good earth connections.

Katie B said:

Wiring fault finding part 2:

We have got all the lights working but there is an odd set up at the front. The headlights work on both dipped and high bean as expected, but they also have an extra bulb in the bottom of the headlight that seems not to be used, and there are no wires for in my harness. I assume these are sidelights incorporated into the headlight? However, the separate sidelights/indicators below the headlights are constantly on when the ignition is on. These are the ones with the dual filament bulbs and the wiring seems also to be for dual filament (3 wires plus and earth) Is this normal? The indicators also do not work on these front lights, but The side repeaters and tail light indicators are all good.
All lights have their own good earth connections.

Click to expand...

LHD cars had their side lights in the same fitting as the indicators and had a white lens. RHD cars had the sidelight in the headlight as you have identified and had an orange lens for the indicators. I believe it is an MoT failure here because the flashing indicator has to be orange?

What colour wire is feeding the side light filament in the dual filament bulb on each side? What colour are the other wires feeding the indicator fitting?

Ah I see! So my lights are uk spec but the car is Italian import. Can I keep it in Italian spec and still have the indicators work? Or should I remove the relevant wire and attach it to the headlight instead?

Side light dual filament wires are yellow and black at the top and 2 x blue and black at the bottom.

The side repeater wires are blue and black (from sidelight) and black to earth

Katie B said:

Can I keep it in Italian spec and still have the indicators work? Or should I remove the relevant wire and attach it to the headlight instead?

Click to expand...

..your call, but like those joke, facsimile, Italian-style number-plates, technically illegal.

fiat500 said:

..your call, but like those joke, facsimile, Italian-style number-plates, technically illegal.

Click to expand...

Ok, is this possible though given the current wiring set-up as the indicators (sidelight ones) don't currently work?

Once we get to firing the engine, I have a few questions:

We purchased the engine from Poland, its a fully rebuilt 650cc standard engine with alternator. I also have a 123 ignition system which we are yet to fit. We received the engine 3 years ago and it has been stored on a dolly, covered in the garage. We have turned it over regularly by hand to stop anything seizing.

Prior to starting for the 1st time, our plan is as follows. Are we approaching this the right way?

1 - Remove spark plugs and put a touch of engine oil down each of the bores, and turn the engine over by hand a could of times.
2 - Crank the engine on the starter with the ignition/fuel disconnected to check we have oil pressure and the light goes out
3 - Assuming we have good pressure, attach fuel and spark and away we go...fire extinguisher on standby!

Does this seem sensible? Is it necessary to put oil down the bores?