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500 (Classic) New Canadian Bambino!

My 1967 500 F which has definitely seen better days. Neglected and stored away, it made its way to Canada, and is undergoing the restoration it deserves.

Introduction

Hi folks,

New member but long time lurker here. I have been on the hunt for a cinquecento for over 3 years now. Ive been a classic car enthusiast since i could remember and it was time to add some Italian flare to my overly German and American garage collection. I got the 500 bug for after servicing and enjoying a 500 that a friend of mine owns. I finally was able to get my hands on a 67 500F, and im overly joyed. I just finished a resto and full rebuild on a 75 911S, and kept on finding myself wanting to drive my friends Fiat over the Porsche. The Porsche is gone, and i needed to fill the empty void.

The car itself needs some TLC, and had been disassembled and partially sandblasted before "supposedly" its previous owner gave up on it. From my recollection, the car had not been on the road at all since it was brought in to Canada, and the engine had work done to it back in 92, more then likely back home in Italy. It is a bit of a basket case, as it has had some hackery done to it in its previous repairs. But its in safe hands now.


I am in the process of tallying all body panels needed (basically all lower panels, all fenders, all inner fenders, floor pans, etc the works. And slowly making a list of parts to order from the UK.

I couldn't wait to dig into the engine, and was able to clear a bench to start the tear-down process. The motor had a 540cc 70mm cylinder upgrade done to it in its past life, but had also seen some abuse. The cyl and pistons are in great shape, but the tappets and case cam holes need R&R, i ordered some C932 bronze stock, and will be machining insert sleeves for the cam. I plan to do some port/polishing and tweaking to this 540. I have forged 118mm connecting rods on their way as a "safety" insurance, for the fun it will see.


In a few years im planning a trip to Italy, family friends have a summer home just a hr away from D'Angelo Motori, and i will definitely be visiting them for some more spice to add. Coupled with a 650 block that im sure is much easier to find overseas then here in Canada. But in the mean time im going to enjoy the original 500/540 block to its full potential.

The car itself is an original F, someone had changed the front sheet metal in its early life. I will be restoring it back to its formal mustache glory. The car was originally "453 Medium Blue". I am leaning more towards keeping a blue, but going with more of an aqua marine shade. I have a paint sample "Frozen Blue K5J " from the 2018-2020 Porsche Taycan. Its a very mild metallic/pearl. So should still keep with the "solid/classic paint style" with some added depth. Again this hasn't been set in stone, and might change as i progress with the resto.
Small update. The engine is nearing assembly completion. Its a buttoned up and waiting for its tins. I haven't stripped the tins yet. But decided to begin on the exhaust. The plan is to make a very similar version to the Lavazza system, just planning the mockup and pipe routing this past week. Im also awating the shipment of stainless pipes to show up.

Should be pretty cool when its all fitted.:cool:
 

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With that big silencer you will definately need to carry out the silencer-mounting -bracket modification that I mentioned. If you are just relying on a stud fixing for the top of each of the silencer-mounting bracket, they will pull out.
 
Today finally things started to get going again. A long awaited shipment of all the body panels and goodies finally showed up. It was a bit of a ordeal but i finally have them.

Basically everything that i would need once i dig into the car. All the fenders, all the little hidden pcs, everything that is basically available for the 500. I got a variety of floor pans too. A set of the left and right pans, as well as a couple 126 full pans. The 1/2 pans don’t actually do 1/2 a floor pan, and leaves about a 4” strip down the center of the car. I didn’t really want to have too many butcher seams in this car. So massaging a 126 pan is a better choice imo. It also seems much stronger and has more reinforcement. We will see what its like once i get into it.

A set of rims also were on the docket, my whitewall trim inserts showed up yesterday, i just await a shipping $ for the tires. Shes gonna be a classy looking pepperoni ?

On a side note. The past couple of weeks i have been busy building a spot welder for the car. I was able to source a 50kva industrial old sock automotive factory spot welder transformer. I have been quietly building the cart, the controls, and the electrode gun assembly. I would like to spot weld as much as possible to keep things as original as possible, as well as for ease of assembly and strength.

The spot weld tips are interchangeable and liquid cooled. Its the real deal, this unit will output 15,000A. So a high speed timer and solid state relay system is needed. It should do full welds in under a 1/4 of a second.
This will yeld oem welds, if not better then what they had in the 50’s and 60’s.
 

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Today the tires showed up, YAY!

They look great. I quickly loosely mounted one onto one of the new rims, and fitted the whitewall cap. Exactly the look i was looking for.
Incase anyone was wondering, Pirelli has re-created the CN54’s. Classic look, but modern guts. Just what a classic 500 needs.

Ive ordered some valve stems, mounting lube, and im going to try and finish the other 3 this weekend.
Ive ordered 7 in total. 4 for the car, 2 for the trailer and one spare.
I suppose now ill be refinishing the 3 classic style first generation rims that the car has on it now. And using them for the spare and trailer. They should fit in the powdercoating oven. Lol. I have been really enjoying powdercoating, im literally going around the house powdercoating random stuff now. All the spoons and forks are next lol.
 

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Well this past weekend, the engine came to life. And its a success!

I only ran it for a few seconds, as i dont have the shrouds on. But we have ourselves a spicy little engine.
I still have lots of carb work to do, jetting is way out of wack. But it runs, and the exhaust sounds darn good!

I was able to hook up one of the oil pressure sensors, and we have a nice and strong 60psi of oil pressure. I cant be more thrilled.
 
Silly me, im sure you folks like photos. Again nothing spectacular, its obviously not done. i still have some final fab, cleanup and polishing to do on the exhaust. But it was enough to give it a test run.

I sill need to make the down pipe/tip. But will likely wait till its in the car to properly locate its height, still got some brackets and such to make. But overall, im pleased.. It definitely wasn't an easy one to make.. some tight bends and hard to weld spots with such a compact system.

I could of bought a pre-fab one, but oh well.. the hard route is sometimes the best.
 

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Thanks, it definitely is a sight to be seen. I cant wait to see what its like once polished.

One thing, my tig welds on this one were not my greatest, they are not bad by any means, but i was having stable arc issues the entire project and i couldn't determine why. Nearing the end, i had to reposition the tip (flexible torch head), and it began spraying coolant everywhere. Turns out inside the torch head, the gas feed had a pinhole crack, and then the coolant leak broke the camels back. Had to wait a few days for a new torch head, and we were good to go, wish i could redo the whole thing.:bang:
 
Good welds or not Jacques, it is still a first class effort. How are you securing the silencer to the crankcase? For my '695' engine I have had a custom system made for me in stainless so I am going to use the 'big-springs' method of attaching it. The silence, like yours but not quite as extreme, is not the same shape as the 'factory' silencer, so the normal mounts don't quite fit.
 
Good welds or not Jacques, it is still a first class effort. How are you securing the silencer to the crankcase

So.. thats still a tbd..lol.. i used the lower factory mounts to hold the muffler and actually this muffler fits somewhat decently in the curve of the bracket. So for now I might continue to use it. And make a custom strap that goes over the top with a spring tensioner. If thats a fail. Ill just make a completely new fancy bracket out of aluminum or stainless. For either ill be using small strips of high temp fiberglass weave between the bracket and the muffler as to prevent scratching and such.



Nearing the end of the fab i was able to dial in the pulse setting and got some satisfactory looking welds before any polishing or cleaning. 95% of my welding is AC aluminum, this stainless was very finicky.
 

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Oh. Im sure you like more eye candy. Heres some of the stainless manifold flanges made to fit the porting on the head exhaust.

Aluminum oil pressure/switch adaptor, and a quick fuel pump blockoff plate for testing.
 

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Something interesting arrived. Ill share more details when it works lol. A few months of hunting to find the original part before “modifications”
 

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Looks like a drive-shaft coupling to me---possibly at gearbox end?
 
Looks like a drive-shaft coupling to me---possibly at gearbox end?

Yes!, its the beginning of making some CV joints for the end. After some hunting, i was able to find imo the original CV joint that is modified and used on the 500's that some sellers sell.

There are 2 types of these conversions i have found. One that uses a "tripod cv joint" that i have yet to be unsuccessful in hunting down the original, and this one. Which requires machining and modification, but has the proper spline count to fit the 500's axles.

Again its nowere near ready, and its just a side tinker project for the winter to see if i can get it to work, the joints were relatively inexpensive, so worth it imo to experiment.
 
I wish the inner CV joints on 169 Pandas were common and inexpensive. You can get the outers easily enough but the inners seem to be only sold along with a complete shaft. When I called a drive shaft specialist the assistant did not even know what I was talking about. When I eventually got them to listen to my requirements, all I got was, "Oh we don't have them". "But we do have the complete shaft or you can have one with the wheel hub nut".
FFS Ahhhh
 
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