Hi Tim

I sourced most of my panels from Ricambio (http://www.ricambio.co.uk/69-fiat/54-850t--900t-e/278-body-parts-and-panels) around 18 months to 2 years ago - mainly because I hadn't sussed out extending my Ebay searches beyond the UK. Overall though comparing prices and allowing for overseas postage there wasn't much difference.

Ricambio has the N/S (left panel) on their site: http://www.ricambio.co.uk/69-fiat/5...-n-s-left-rear-corner-panel--fiat-850t-900t-e

From what you describe you need the mirror image for the O/S (right panel). I'm not sure if Peter was more successful (he sourced many more panels than I did). I couldn't track down one before and I've just had a quick look on Ebay and can't find one at the moment.

The chaps that welded Connie used the N/S panel as a template for the O/S one. I think they did a pretty good job

Step by step photos of the welding are on my restoration website: http://fiat900t.co.uk/?u=81&p=Welding This shows the detail under the external panels which you don't usually get to see.

Hope this helps.

Hi Guys


Yes that is the panel, It seems that the nearside is less rotten on most cars worldwide and so those panels are slightly more available,


thanks for the tips


Tim

Hi Tim

You are in luck, a pair of rear corners has just been listed on Ebay see: http://www.ebay.de/itm/FIAT-600-850-900-T-E-PULMINO-SILL-CORNERS-SCHWELLER-ECKEN-SOTTOPORTA-ANGOLI-L-R-/172117988580?

Good luck

I had a search around the Italian EBay seller where all my panels came from. The bottom corners seem sold out. I was very lucky although I paid quite big money. PM me if you need other panels and I'll link you if he has them.

Hi everyone, just to let you know, I am planning on having a batch

of these offside rear panels made, on a "English Wheel",

by a company who specialise in restoration of certain 60's vehicles.

Please let me know if anyone is interested, the price is not finalised yet !

lovejoyantiques said:

Hi everyone, just to let you know, I am planning on having a batch

of these offside rear panels made, on a "English Wheel",

by a company who specialise in restoration of certain 60's vehicles.

Please let me know if anyone is interested, the price is not finalised yet !

Click to expand...

I would be interested in these thanks

Classicandy45 said:

I would be interested in these thanks

Click to expand...

Read this!!!!!!!....and be amazed and in awe.

https://spannerdude.wordpress.com/2011/12/05/possibly-the-most-expensive-900t-panel-in-the-world/

wow, lot of labour in such a small panel? Mine are ok, but am picking up whatever spares I can come across in readiness!

phate316 said:

further to previous post heres a twin choke webber on ebay.it
http://www.ebay.it/itm/FIAT-850-COU...470700?hash=item3f560a892c:g:Tj8AAOSwkNZUoFyD
this is identical to the one i fitted and also the same 4 branch i fitted
http://www.ebay.it/itm/MARMITTA-FIA...hash=item3f0ef2a9f1:m:m50YhnReT4JIMAonAXrQ3rg
this will lift the rev range, then all you need is a gearbox upgrade and it will make you fly

Click to expand...

Hi
I've finally started the rebuild, the 4-branch exhaust fitted with a bit of fettling - hopefully it will sound as good as it looks.

The twin choke carb fits on the manifold but the connections for the choke and throttle cables are in different places (different sides). Are you able to provide a photo showing the route of the cables on your set up to remove the guesswork?

Thanks in advance

Gary50 said:

Hi
I've finally started the rebuild, the 4-branch exhaust fitted with a bit of fettling - hopefully it will sound as good as it looks.

The twin choke carb fits on the manifold but the connections for the choke and throttle cables are in different places (different sides). Are you able to provide a photo showing the route of the cables on your set up to remove the guesswork?

Thanks in advance

Click to expand...

Hi Gary.
I have a 1979 900t too, i did fit an 850 saloon gearbox(8/37) a couple of years ago but i did find it a bit too high geared for a 903cc engine. it was not able to get into the power band in fourth before the aerodynamics held it back. ive now put an 850 coupe gearbox (8/39) and its a bit more lively acceleration but still longer legged than standard.

I feel the saloon gearbox would only work if you can get an a112 1050 in the back.
I hope this helps

Tim

As this thread seems to be the most recent discussion for power upgrades for these little vans I may as well add my findings here.

I'm well into a full body restoration of an early 850t and have been conducting a lot of research into engine upgrades.

There are two main considerations,
Firstly, do you keep the fiat 850 transaxle?
This severely restricts the options to similar fiat engines or some honda units.

Fiat coupe/sport this is the easiest swap and if used with the gearbox will improve driving and cruising speed.
The downside is you're still stuck with the fiat reliability and cooling.

Honda D series, this was my preferred option. An all alloy proven performer, great reliability and sensible power (64-79hp) used up until 2003 with great parts support and loads of aftermarket mods.
I did a lot of research into this, and had most of it figured out.
Mating it to the fiat box and turning the radiator 90degrees i had planned to transplant as much from the donor car as possible, ecu and all.
D series engine are a favourite of the mini brigade so there are aftermarket ecu's and so on. I even almost bought a donor car but had one last thing to check, will it physically fit?

Short answer is no.
You need to make some fairly large bulkhead mods to accomodate the distributor, this I expected.
What I didn't expect was for it to also stick out of the back van.
For me a step too far.

So if you change the transmission, what then?

The vw box is the most obvious however even these are increasing in value and becoming rare.
Almost anything can and has been mated to these.
I did do some research into a modern fiat fire unit, 1.1 or 1.2 in a bid to keep it in the family however this has the same problems as the honda with added comications of swapping transmissions
The distributor will stick through the firewall and, likely as not stick out of the back.

It maybe possible to swap a modern day 3cyl using the vw box but the space saving of the missing cylinder is actually taken up with other stuff and you guessed it the distributor will still stick through the firewall.

I would have loved to have dropped an alfa boxer in, even mated to a vw transmission. Kits are available to do this and it was a popular conversion for beetles for a while.
These are becoming very rare though.

Another option and popular with the vw fraternity is a subaru boxer with a reverse drive conversion kit.
There are quite a few of these in the Us and down under, some with serious miles on.
Cooling is done with a belly mounted radiator and they now produce a cutom ecu.
I have no idea how a belly mounted radiator would perform in uk conditions and the kit to reverse the gearbox is £1800.
And to top it all i suspect it wouldn't physically fit.
The 850 engine bay is tiny!

One additional consideration is power, the subaru starts at 120bh and the alfas are not far behind.
I personally think thats way too much.

Straight out of left field, as I said I've spent a lot of time on this.

Honda goldwing flat six, there's a guy in NZ currently converting a hilman imp. If thats possible then an 850 must be as well.
The engineering involved is mind boggling.

Smart car.
I know of one 850t with a smartcar subframe which includes engine transmission suspension and brakes.
It requires major structural work to the rear floor and bulkhead.

If i was prepared to do that amount of modifications i thInk i'd favour transplanting the front of a modern 500 or even a toyota iq.
This for me is a massive step into the unknown, I don't even know how you'd go about registering mods of that nature.


Electric conversion
The space under the floor makes this an ideal candidate for conversion. Kits are available for beetles and several fiat 500s have been converted.
The downside is a massive cost, long charge time and pitiful range.

Fiat did try it themselves.

Badget said:

As this thread seems to be the most recent discussion for power upgrades for these little vans I may as well add my findings here.

I'm well into a full body restoration of an early 850t and have been conducting a lot of research into engine upgrades.

There are two main considerations,
Firstly, do you keep the fiat 850 transaxle?
This severely restricts the options to similar fiat engines or some honda units.

Fiat coupe/sport this is the easiest swap and if used with the gearbox will improve driving and cruising speed.
The downside is you're still stuck with the fiat reliability and cooling.

Honda D series, this was my preferred option. An all alloy proven performer, great reliability and sensible power (64-79hp) used up until 2003 with great parts support and loads of aftermarket mods.
I did a lot of research into this, and had most of it figured out.
Mating it to the fiat box and turning the radiator 90degrees i had planned to transplant as much from the donor car as possible, ecu and all.
D series engine are a favourite of the mini brigade so there are aftermarket ecu's and so on. I even almost bought a donor car but had one last thing to check, will it physically fit?

Short answer is no.
You need to make some fairly large bulkhead mods to accomodate the distributor, this I expected.
What I didn't expect was for it to also stick out of the back van.
For me a step too far.

Click to expand...

Badget said:

Straight out of left field, as I said I've spent a lot of time on this.

Honda goldwing flat six, there's a guy in NZ currently converting a hilman imp. If thats possible then an 850 must be as well.
The engineering involved is mind boggling.

Smart car.
I know of one 850t with a smartcar subframe which includes engine transmission suspension and brakes.
It requires major structural work to the rear floor and bulkhead.

If i was prepared to do that amount of modifications i thInk i'd favour transplanting the front of a modern 500 or even a toyota iq.
This for me is a massive step into the unknown, I don't even know how you'd go about registering mods of that nature.


Electric conversion
The space under the floor makes this an ideal candidate for conversion. Kits are available for beetles and several fiat 500s have been converted.
The downside is a massive cost, long charge time and pitiful range.

Fiat did try it themselves.

Click to expand...

Hi budget, have had all the very same thoughts. I twigged bout the dizzy issue but didn't realise the length of the honda (or even k series?) Engine. Subaru, vw etc seem to be major mods just to cope with transmission. Not many engines spin 'our' way but I did consider a renault 4 or early renault 5 engine and transaxle... 1100cc I think up to 1400?

Sorry, badget ... typo

I'm told from several reliable sources that the 850 transaxle will happily take 90bhp all day long.
The weak box is the 600 and 126 (alloy casing) both clockwise rotation.

The real question is are you transplanting an engine just as old, rare and probably as fragile as whats already there.
I'd hoped to bump the power a little but improve the parts supply immensely.

For example i've just discovered i need to replace the thermostat housing, as well as the exhaust and manifold and I haven't even looked at the internals
For less than the cost of the parts mentioned i could buy a honda d13, in car with lowish mileage.

I found a rebuilt sport coupe engine for sale in the US, only 7000usd.


Plus postage obviously.

Yes, my 'obvious' solutions all involve period engines even skoda estelle but those options all seem to be as rare as our vans!

I've had my eye out for a skoda 120 5 speed for ten years.

Not seen one in this hemisphere

Hi
My first car was a Hillman Imp (many years ago) and I had thought about using one for an engine & transaxle swap for my 900T. I gave my Imp a mild tune and had it at 55BHP without much effort. Importantly, Imps are still hot on the hillclimb circuit so performance parts etc. are readily available and 100+ BHP easily achievable. Plus with an block canted over and most of the bits in a similar place to the Fiat block it should fit without too much bulkhead bashing.

However, Imps are about as rare as 900Ts and to get all the running gear would most likely mean canablising a good one... I couldn't live with myself if I did that.

Getting a few extra BHP is useful for comfortable cruising but reliability is more important to me... I want to know I have a good chance of getting home under my own steam and not on the back of a recovery truck.

Electric sounds a great idea until you start adding up the cost and charging isn't as great as the hype would have you believe... especially if wanting to go on a road trip.

The other option is to look at small automatics and mount them midships so the running gear is still turning the correct way... instead of having 5 reverse gears. An auto box will mean no gear linkage to worry about.

There will still be some chopping to get the unit to fit but it should work if creating a subframe for the engine & gearbox first, so all the bits fit and then fit the subframe to the chopped out engine bay. Depending on the size and positioning it would most likely create a new 'boot' space at the cost of losing some of the interior space.

Loads of other mods would be needed to make sure it turns corners and stops etc. and passes the MOT / roadworthy test... and careful planning not to get stuck with a Q plate (if they still use them?).

All of which are beyond my engineering skills and available time at the moment... but I'm aiming to retire in 4/5 years time so can start planning soon

Gary50 said:

Hi
My first car was a Hillman Imp (many years ago) and I had thought about using one for an engine & transaxle swap for my 900T. I gave my Imp a mild tune and had it at 55BHP without much effort. Importantly, Imps are still hot on the hillclimb circuit so performance parts etc. are readily available and 100+ BHP easily achievable. Plus with an block canted over and most of the bits in a similar place to the Fiat block it should fit without too much bulkhead bashing.

However, Imps are about as rare as 900Ts and to get all the running gear would most likely mean canablising a good one... I couldn't live with myself if I did that.

Getting a few extra BHP is useful for comfortable cruising but reliability is more important to me... I want to know I have a good chance of getting home under my own steam and not on the back of a recovery truck.

Electric sounds a great idea until you start adding up the cost and charging isn't as great as the hype would have you believe... especially if wanting to go on a road trip.

The other option is to look at small automatics and mount them midships so the running gear is still turning the correct way... instead of having 5 reverse gears. An auto box will mean no gear linkage to worry about.

There will still be some chopping to get the unit to fit but it should work if creating a subframe for the engine & gearbox first, so all the bits fit and then fit the subframe to the chopped out engine bay. Depending on the size and positioning it would most likely create a new 'boot' space at the cost of losing some of the interior space.

Loads of other mods would be needed to make sure it turns corners and stops etc. and passes the MOT / roadworthy test... and careful planning not to get stuck with a Q plate (if they still use them?).

All of which are beyond my engineering skills and available time at the moment... but I'm aiming to retire in 4/5 years time so can start planning soon

Click to expand...

If going midships the other options include Toyota MR2, Lotus Esprit donors.... now that would be cool at the traffic light grandprix