The Tale of Antonia

[blurple124]

The Good:
It all started out great when I sent my wheels in to get my new Bridgestone Insignia’s put on. Really quick, and they look nice! I went the cheap route and actually painted my wheels with chrome paint! A good amount of the metal was in decent shape, but there was some pitting and corrosion, so I want to see how this turns out. The new tires make me feel a lot more comfortable about driving the car. During the winter, I had one go flat just sitting still. Not good.






The center of the wheels had originally been black, so I primed them and painted them with my black Rustoleum. Before doing the trunk, I had decided to get a gallon of the stuff and spray it through my conventional spray gun. WAYYY cheaper than rattle cans!

The Bad:
Alright, so all was going great! I had new bushings to go in the arms, so I took them to a local mechanic so that I didn’t have to sweat and swear my way through it. I stopped by a couple of days later to see if they had finished up. The guy who runs the shop walked towards me with a bit of a disappointed look and said, “I have to show you something.” Oh, no. This is what I see:



He followed a common method of pressing out the bushings: using appropriately sized sockets to contact the edge. Except that the socket caught the edge of the metal. Done. Scrap. Shit.
Before too long, I was on the phone with Ramzi at Auto Ricambi (this is about the time they were going through the upper control arm bolt fiasco. Just my luck.). I told him that I needed a new upper and he suggested using washers to solve the issue of the bolt threads being too short. I opted to use the original bolt, since there was nothing wrong with it. So I ordered and it was on its way.

The Ugly:
With the control arms in progress, I took a gander at the wheel well to see what prepping I could do. I knew I had no choice but to take a closer look at the shock tower. I started grinding away, and it turned out to be much worse than I had thought.



A fair warning to anyone this may pertain to: these shock towers, even moreso than typical rust issues, are like little ice-bergs. Don't take what you see on the surface to be representative of what lies beneath.

The other side looked bad, and I can only imagine what grinding away at that side will reveal!
Feeling a bit overwhelmed, I put that aside for the moment. I will come up with a plan to deal with these in a cost-effective way and share with you once I do.

I’m not sure how I feel about these developments. Excited, proud, upset, sad, nervous, overwhelmed. All of the above? I must admit, though, it is one of the things I love about getting to work on a car. With every mistake you make, you learn something new!

[124JOE]

i bought a new lower control arm this last spring
it was $72.50 from IAP
my old one looked alot like yours

if you have anything you have time
time to work on it,i have had mine for 20 yrs
some of it in resto and some of it rolling resto

stick with it

joe

[blurple124]

if you have anything you have time
time to work on it

True, but I wish I had more! Despite the fact that every free minute I have has been going to this thing!

The encouragement is appreciated, though!

[blurple124]

Feeling a bit daunted by the front end of the car, I decided to work on the back end a bit more. With the springs cleaned up, it was time to put the rear end back together. This should be easier than the front, except that you have to compress the spring externally and install the spring and shock simultaneously. Boy, did I ever struggle! Either the shock doesn't fit or the spring compressor is in the way! Eventually, though, I did manage to get both sides on.

Before:


After:


This, with the addition of new trailing arms, will make for a much safer, better ride.

The gas tank was not bolted down yet, so I pulled it out to make my life a bit easier. I then proceeded to scrape as much of the peeling undercoating as I could. I have been coming in at the end of the night completely covered in grease and grime lately, but I figure you have to get dirty if you want something to be clean.

I had to unbolt the electric fuel pump (which was hanging by a single sheet metal screw) before I could power wash the underside and give it a coat of paint. Not only does this look much cleaner, but it will also protect the metal from the Wisconsin elements.

Before:


After:


I then drilled two holes to mount the fuel pump with and ran 1/4-20 bolts though (trying to keep things standard for easy repair). I mounted the pump, but will have to put in rubber washers to compensate for the vibration noise.

With the pump on, I was ready to put the gas tank back. Just as with the battery cover, the original foam "seal" hardly remained, so I put the adhesive backed rubber on, which creates a good seal. I used my Dremel wire wheel to clean the studs of rust and paint which makes it very easy to spin the nuts on.


Many good things accomplished here, but I did find a couple issues cropping up.

1. As I was working with the rear suspension, the muffler and a section of pipe felt it had had enough of being attached to the car, and took a leave of absence. I will put some pictures up after the repair.

2. My work in the trunk was not sufficient, apparently. The battery acid appears to have found its way between the back wall of the cabin and the forward wall of the trunk. Corrosion has been continuing and quenching its appetite with steel and fresh paint.

[RCSquadraCorse]

I'm absolutely stunned by this restoration!
Love all the work and the efforts you're putting into it, my hat's off to you Sir! All the parts you've restored so far look great and you're super fast with the progress! I'm impressed by your determination!
You're really saving a car and you're doing it in the best way, so keep it up and good luck!

Riccardo

[blurple124]

I'm absolutely stunned by this restoration!
Love all the work and the efforts you're putting into it, my hat's off to you Sir! All the parts you've restored so far look great and you're super fast with the progress! I'm impressed by your determination!
You're really saving a car and you're doing it in the best way, so keep it up and good luck!

Riccardo

Thank you! I have been moving quickly, but this thread is a bit deceiving. I have only been working on this car since June, and I have taken pictures throughout, but now I am trying to document what I have done via this post. When I was on vacation and couldn't work on the car, I found time to start writing about the journey and began this thread. So really, I am posting about progress I made a few weeks ago right now and attempting to bring everyone up to date!

I am anxious to make this thread current, but I am also trying to pace myself a little bit.

I must commmend you on your restoration, as well, though! It seems to be moving along nicely, too!

[RCSquadraCorse]

Thank you! I have been moving quickly, but this thread is a bit deceiving. I have only been working on this car since June, and I have taken pictures throughout, but now I am trying to document what I have done via this post. When I was on vacation and couldn't work on the car, I found time to start writing about the journey and began this thread. So really, I am posting about progress I made a few weeks ago right now and attempting to bring everyone up to date!

I am anxious to make this thread current, but I am also trying to pace myself a little bit.

I must commmend you on your restoration, as well, though! It seems to be moving along nicely, too!

Well, from June to now is just a couple of months of work and I must say that it's still a quick restoration! Ahah!
I really like how you're taking care of every single part of the car, she'll looks amazing once finished! What you did on the underside is what I would really like to do too one day... my restoration goes on pretty slowly, but a proper clean and some fresh paint will be needed at some point and this thread will be really helpful!
I'm following your restoration with admiration!

Riccardo

[Exit98]

Charlie,

Sorry about the shock towers man, that's not good news.

I guess you will be welding in new ones?

[blurple124]

New ones are a bit out of my budget right now. I believe I have a less-than-beautiful, but effective solution. Will post on this progress shortly.

[blurple124]

Why not post now, I suppose. I have it written! I have more pics to put in here, but it will wait until tonight.

The shock tower rust really had me concerned, but I decided
that I could go for function over form in this case. I ground away as much rust
as I could then treated and cleaned the surface. I then took 11 gauge plate
steel (about 1/8″) and welded it right over the hole. My welder is capable
of mig, but I don’t have gas yet, so I used the flux-core wire that came with
it. It is crude, I will admit, but it will provide the strength needed to make
me comfortable behind the wheel.


After welding, but before grinding the welds flat.


Welds ground down and the metal primed


Painted - Repair Complete

It's not pretty, and it would have been nice to have the MIG set up for this job, but it is still a strong repair.

The next day I was able to pick up my lower control arm from
the mechanic, who agreed to work out a deal after he finished the driver’s
side. My new upper arm had already arrived from Auto Ricambi (prompt as usual!),
so I dug in.


First things first, I had to get the original ball joint out
of the spindle knuckle, since the ball joint was riveted to the arm. I tried
hitting it with a hammer, but it was so stubborn I was convinced it had been
threaded on there! Well closer inspection of the shop manual and help from the
Spider forum proved that it wasn’t and that I just wasn’t trying hard enough.

So I kicked it up a notch. I broke out the sledge hammer and
wailed on it! (the joint is bad already, so what harm could this do?) Sure
enough, it popped right out. I was glad to find this out, because I had to do
the same for the tie rod end. Both were in rough shape. If you don’t remember
the last time you greased your ball joints, I suggest you do so or just replace
them:





I also took the tie rod sleeve off, wire wheeled the rust
away and painted it. Then, before putting the tie rods in, I applied a healthy
dose of anti-seize.

Everything seems ready to go for re-installation, but I will
save that for a weekend.

I had some time to check out the exhaust as well, which had broken off in front of the rear axle. I cut the rusted ends off with an angle grinder and attempted to measure the pipes.


The break was just below the clamp shown in this picture.

After three trips to autozone for flexpipe and adapters, I have discovered that my exhaust is compiled of three different diamteters. 1-3/4″ in front of the resonator, 1-5/8″ as it enters the muffler, and 1-1/2″ where it broke. I had no idea Dr. Frankenstein worked at an exhaust shop!



I managed to take a small section of flex pipe to connect the broken pieces, then exhaust strapping to pull the pipe up close to the car.



My forward exhaust hanger had broken, so the pipe was hanging low and had ruined the e-brake cable.



Now that I put strapping in its place and back by the resonator, the new cable will fit right underneath the exhaust. The only problem is that it is so high, the muffler has taken a dip. Not a big concern at the moment, so I will address it later, if need be. Chances are I will have the exhaust completely redone at some point.

[blurple124]

I was prepared for the front suspension to give me trouble,
but I had no idea that it would drive me to wrench-throwing levels of
frustration.

Granted, I was still using an external spring compressor,
which wouldn’t fit, but I thought I had devised a solution…




A piece of plate steel, an eye hook, and a bolt through the
eye were intended to act as an internal spring compressor, or at least maintain
the compression I would apply with the external one. And hold that compression,
it did. Unfortunately, it did not fit well between the compressors, and when I
did manage to make it work, it would simply slide over and give the spring a
very nice arc.

In any case, I couldn’t get the spring short enough to seat
it.

This was only half the battle, however. At first, I had
bolted the upper arm on and attempted to seat the spring, then used a floor jack
to bring the lower arm up enough to slip it on the studs. In hindsight, this is
laughable. It would probably never have worked, but it got close enough to keep
me trying. I guess that is Fiat’s version of torture.

About five fruitless hours and eight gallons of sweat into
the job, I wisened up and started with the bottom arm. It took me another two
hours and a suggestion from my dad to ditch the eye-bolt setup for a much more
elegant solution: tie- down straps. You can see how beat up the paint had gotten from my hours of efforts trying to get it on the car another way.



My Tie-Down Strap Solution

This was like having zero-profile compressors to keep the
spring in a nice, neat package. Once the spring was seated, I used the floor
jack (along with a block that had a 1/2″ hole which the lower ball joint
grease fitting could fit in) to bring the suspension in place and bolt it up.
Undo the straps and release.

After discovering this, it couldn’t have been more than 15
minutes before I had the suspension completely together. I stand by my claim
that all jobs are easy with the right tools and techniques.

Before




Passenger Side Complete



The brown you see is the copper in the anti-sieze, rather than rust. Also, you may see the spring seat turn from red to black This is because the spring and arms were so scratched up that I had to do some touch up painting. In black, of course.

Re-packing and seating the bearing was really quite easy, too. I just followed the shop manual and it worked out great. The thing spins FOREVER!

By the reverse method, I was able to get the driver side off
and disassembled within an hour, as well! I washed these parts and prepared
them for their trip to the sandblaster.





Nothing is all good news, however: In trying to get the swaybar off, I sheared one of the bolts off! I am trying to come up with a clean solution for this. I have access to a Tap, steel, and a welder, among other resources, so I should be able to find a clean solution.

[blurple124]

Just a fair warning, I am going to be blasting this thread with updates today because I want to bring it (and all of you) up to speed on the restoration. I am to anxious to make the thread current. It is easier on me, and it should be an exciting weekend, so I will want to post about it! Thanks to all who are keeping an eye on it!

[RCSquadraCorse]

Tie-down strap solution FTW! I saw that method once during a rally, at first I was laughing at them, but then I was amazed by how quick that solution is when you don't have the proper tools!
As always, congrats for the great job on the car, it looks 4398749287 times better post after post!

Riccardo

[blurple124]

The driver’s side was a great deal easier than the passenger
side to assemble, due mainly to the knowledge I had acquired from my recent
endeavors. It did not, however, come without its own challenges.

After the parts had been sandblasted, I noticed some damage
to the upper arm where the ball joint bolts in. The holes were not even round!
I have no idea what happened to it, but it certainly explains the movement
which I has suspected the ball joint of causing. (it needed replacing anyway,
so I was not sorry that I had a new one to put in.)

The A-arm metal was sufficient for structure, so I welded In
some filler material and drilled it out so that it was round again. After some
grinding, you can hardly tell there was a problem…



Welded in and Ground Down

If the passenger side shock tower rust had given me a
challenge, the driver side spelled imminent defeat.



This picture gives me the chills

I was about ready to give
up on this one. There was hardly any good metal left so I didn’t have much to
work with.



This metal has been treated with a rust converter.

It was enough, though. I just needed more metal to patch in. Halfway
through welding I ran out of flux core wire…time to get gas! I converted the
welder to run MIG, and I was up and running the next day. What a difference the
shielding gas makes. Nice.


The new metal has been welded in.

After this, it was the same drill as before: primer, paint,
compressor, tie-downs, floor jack, anti-seize, torque wrench. The only hold up
came after i had everything put together and noticed the upper half of the top
spring seat sitting on the ground. Doh! Enter my name for putz of the week!
Needless to say, it was not too much trouble to fix it.

Shock Tower:


Before



After



I realize now that my assumption of the rear suspension
being easier to work on was not necessarily accurate. It just helps to know
what you are doing!

Other “accomplishments” of late include draining
the coolant and removing the timing cover and radiator in preparation for
replacing the timing belt.




The radiator will suffice for now as-is, but will be
adorned with a fresh coat of paint. Soon come!

[blurple124]

Things are really starting to speed up now. The suspension was a real challenge for me, but it is now finished! Well, mostly... I found a broken tie-rod sleeve which is now on its way from a vendor.

Fortunately, that is something that can be done after the rest is assembled, so I took a few minutes to touch up scratches on the suspension parts so that I could install new shock absorbers.

After this, I gathered what I needed to install the brakes. The caliper yokes had seen the business end of a sandblaster, followed by high temperature header paint. I cleaned up the bolts and caliper wedges, and set to it.

Amazingly, this job was extremely easy! I guess after rebuilding the suspension, doing bodywork, and fixing rust, general maintenance seems fairly straightforward. The help of a shop manual and "before" photos of the brakes properly assembled make the job much simpler as well.

In no more than 20 minutes, I had all four brake assemblies put together and on the car. Smokin'. It seems that the only thing I have forgotten to do is lube the caliper wedges, but this won't be too difficult.

Before:


After:


I also installed a new emergency brake cable to replace the one which had been burned by the exhaust and was actually missing the piece of cable to the right caliper! It was time...



The next project was to swap the timing belt. I figured this would be fairly simple as well. I marked all of the gears and pulleys with white out so that I knew where to put them if things moved, then loosened the bolt on the tensioner. Except nothing moved! I figured the tensioner mounting plate was stuck so I applied PB Blaster, which has worked wonders so far. Then, in pushing the tensioner back with a 2 x 4 (which I am told is necessary, but certainly not elegant), The belt was moving enough that I could just slip it off.

Marked Gear Position



With the belt off, I went to check the tensioner pulley by giving it a spin to make sure the bearing is still good. "Spin" is probably the wrong word to describe what happened here. In fact, if I didn't know better, I would have said the pulley was welded to the engine block. No movement. None whatsoever.

I unfastened the bolt and took the bearing off. Sure enough, both sets of bearings on the tensioner were absolutely shot. There was just enough wiggle to tell that they were supposed to move. Back to the catalog I went! The tensioner bearing is now on it's way as well. I ran into some confusion ordering because I saw advance autoparts asking a full $40 more than everyone else, but listing the part as a "pulley" not a "bearing." And yet the picture remained the same. Rather than rist the money, I stuck to a trusted vendor who specializes in FIAT parts.

It looks like the timing belt will have to wait until later.

These jobs were small, so I had time to tackle another. My choice? To cut into the only clean piece of metal left on the car.



What kind of fool am I? Well, let's be clear, I am quite a fool, but this piece of metal was really only clean on one side. I needed to gain access to the gap between the trunk wall and the cabin wall in order to thoroughly rinse the battery acid out. Cutting clean, flat piece of metal will make it much easier to weld back in place, and no one will ever see it hidden here.

I had made the mistake of putting great stuff in here as a means of reducing vibration, but I really just made my life more difficult. The white in the picture is what was left after I scraped it out of the way.



Using the powerwasher and baking soda as a neutralizer, I flushed water in between the panels. When I was thoroughly satisfied with my cleaning, I let it dry out, applied rust converter, and welded the plate back in. This will get repainted with the floor boards when I do them.