Hi all.

I've recently come in to possession (through my brother who runs an import business) of a 65 Otto Bulloni recently shipped over from Italy (to the UK) and in remarkably good condition.

I'd never driven one before, and wow! What fun.

You can squeeze through gaps that would make a mini blush. And it has grip for days. It's also one of those cars that brings out the best in other roadgoers, they'll happily let you in front of them (and then regret it at the next incline ).

It needs some new bits and pieces, and a little TLC over the winter. So I'll be writing about that in my next posts. (mostly just taking bits apart, cleaning/painting/replacing and putting them back together trying not to have too many screws left over )

Anyway, glad to be here. I've read some of your posts and you're doing some inspiring stuff.

At the risk of sounding quite thick, what is a "65 Otto Bulloni"?---where about in the UK are you?

In 1965 the Nuova 500 F was introduced as heir to the “D”. The modifications were mostly aesthetic, the most obvious being the removal of the so called “suicide” doors: in 1965 the law was changed in Italy forbidding the manufacturing of cars with door hinges on the rear of the door. The body was also modified in many more ways than meets eye. In reality all that maintained from the “D” was the bonnet and the front of the car. The tank was now larger, its capacity increased to 22 litres, the engine had revised valve timing and delivered 18 hp, the suspension was stiffened and the axle shafts of greater diameter. Even the braking system was enhanced and used bigger brake cylinders. Initially the 500 F used some pieces of the old D, waiting for the introduction of the new parts and also exhausting old stocks of Fiat (which was quite common at the time).

The 500 is a part of that small batch of cars, which are known as the pre F, built from March 1965 to July 1965, this series is different from the latter due to the concealed door hinges that are fixed to the body with 8 bolts. Other important fine details are door handles and window winders constructed of cast aluminium instead of the plastic that was used later, the seats are derived from the D version with supporting rubber bands, headlight rims, front wheels, the support of the front indicators, the grille and hub caps are all aluminium as on the previous version D, and from May 1965 they were being replaced by cheaper material.

"Otto Bulloni" translates as "eight bolts".

Ralph

Thank you ralph for that very clear description---I am suitably impressed, and educated.

'Otto Bulloni' sounds quite extravagant doesn't it? It just means 'eight bolts' because the early F models have 8 bolts on the door hinges. When Fiat switched from the D to the F in 1965 they produced a short run of these cars which used up all the D parts they had remaining.

Really, the only difference (that I can tell from the 1969 F I've compared it to) is that less of the components are made of plastic. Perhaps some of the internals are different too? I read on an Italian forum that maybe the gearbox would be from the D.

I've been doing a lot of research in this area because I don't want to accidentally order the wrong parts.

I can't comment on the interior, because I suspect it has been transplanted from an L model (there's blanked off circles on the door cards where an L would have the door release handle)

I'm on the Oxfordshire/Bucks border.

Hobbler, I have to put my hands up, I googled it and copied information from the 126 site.

Ralph

Just to add a bit of extra geekyness....
N/D engines are numbered 110.000 and 110D.000 and later engines 110F.000
One difference between N/D gearboxes and F/L ones is the fact the starter motor is a 2 bolt on the early cars and 3 bolt on later...
so a clear difference in the rear of the block....
So one would think an early gearbox would not be fitted... unless it had a 3 bolt bell housing or the block had a 2 bolt starter mounting...

However.... I was collecting some parts, and I always look at engine blocks as early ones are hard to find... and I saw, a 110F.000 block that had a 2 bolt starter bolt pattern! At the time I thought that is very interesting and wondered what it was fitted to, I actually wish I had brought the block just out of curiosity.. but it was so heavily corroded I didn't want to get messy...
So that may back up the idea that 8 bolt cars may have had a D gearbox.

so have a look if your starter has a 3 or 2 bolt mounting pattern...
and check the engine number is a 110F.000

may be time to take your engine and box out and start checking casting numbers....

Bigvtwin996 said:

Just to add a bit of extra geekyness....
N/D engines are numbered 110.000 and 110D.000 and later engines 110F.000
One difference between N/D gearboxes and F/L ones is the fact the starter motor is a 2 bolt on the early cars and 3 bolt on later...
so a clear difference in the rear of the block....
So one would think an early gearbox would not be fitted... unless it had a 3 bolt bell housing or the block had a 2 bolt starter mounting...

However.... I was collecting some parts, and I always look at engine blocks as early ones are hard to find... and I saw, a 110F.000 block that had a 2 bolt starter bolt pattern! At the time I thought that is very interesting and wondered what it was fitted to, I actually wish I had brought the block just out of curiosity.. but it was so heavily corroded I didn't want to get messy...
So that may back up the idea that 8 bolt cars may have had a D gearbox.

so have a look if your starter has a 3 or 2 bolt mounting pattern...
and check the engine number is a 110F.000

may be time to take your engine and box out and start checking casting numbers....

Click to expand...

Thanks for the info BigV, yes. I will have a look at that and report back.

The details on what exactly is/isn't different on this model seem to be hard to discover from the searching I've done online.

One of the problems is that there is very was very little information retained by the "Factory", I collected lots of info from Italian sites, but had a disaster recently with my portable hard drive...
There are a few guys in Italy I know who are very knowledgeable and I manage to pry information out of them, but "blood" and "stone" would be included in an appropriate phrase to describe how closely guarded information is...
I had spend many hours, days, weeks searching sites and translating to build up a great deal of information.. I hope i can retrieve it eventually....