Scratchy Bottom Fiats & Racing

A few badges from Italian car show

2011-10-10T17:04:00.000-07:00

New Fiat lover

2011-09-27T15:14:00.000-07:00

Ayumi Jean Saler daughter of Ed and Mayuko
Born 9/24

2011-09-27T14:54:00.000-07:00

Still in testing stage with about 500 miles since build. I drained out the breakin oil and put in Mobil 1 10-40 mixed with some 15-50 just because I had some.

The Grande is finished mostly

2011-09-15T18:43:00.000-07:00

Finally figured out how to start a Moped at least for now

Engine disassembled again

2011-09-04T12:46:00.000-07:00

I messed up the intake porting causeing a massive air leak, so I got another Vespa case (74 caio), I will try to have it running later today.

Grande disassembled

2011-08-29T18:35:00.000-07:00

1980 Vespa Grande

2011-08-25T19:25:00.000-07:00

Not Fiat related but it is Italian!

2011-08-25T09:49:00.000-07:00

2011-06-20T16:11:00.000-07:00

Getting ready for Oregon

2011-06-20T16:08:00.000-07:00

This X is coming soon...

2011-06-13T13:28:00.000-07:00

If it's good enough for Steve Hoelshler...

2011-06-13T09:46:00.000-07:00

Our exhaust setup for the X, Steve is a 6 time national solo champion, 4 times with an X19, this setup is pretty much a copy of his except our header is not ceramic coated.

Almost ready to install big valve X head

2011-05-22T09:11:00.000-07:00

Miller's Mule adjustable cam gear, his new website is here:
http://www.millersm ule.com/MillersMuleStore/index.php

This trick little single DCNF manifold is courtesy of Paul Stoltze who has experience racing X19's. It's a modified Faza unit that was cut apart, ported and welded back up, it should flow well with a 400mm DCNF, 1500 block and big valve head.

And Cars I've owned

2011-04-17T11:48:00.000-07:00

Cars:

57 Ford Fairlane 4 door coupe
58 Chevy Bel Aire 283 4 barrel
59 Buick 225 Electra 4 door coupe
71 Fiat 124 spider
65 Austin Healey 3000
64 Austin Healey 3000
66 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham
63 MGB
2-64 Chevy Impala convertibles
71 Mercury Capri V6
2-Lancia Scorpions
76 Lancia beta coupe
71 BMW 2002 tii
74 BMW 2002 tii
68 BMW 2002
71 Audi 100LS
81 Chevy full size wagon
86 Ford taurus wagon
55 Austin Healey 100-4

54 Austin Healey 100-4 LeMons clone

58 MGA
10-Fiat 124 spiders various years
BMW bavaria
88 BMW M3
86 Porsche 911
86 Mazda 626
67 Alfa Duetto
69 Alfa Spider
67 Alfa Guilia Super
84 Alfa spider
AMC Eagle

87 Pontiac Fiero GT

Datsun B210
66 Datsun 1600 roadster
68 Datsun 2000 roadster
1970 Datsun 240Z
86 Porsche 944
87 Porsche 924S
68 AMC AMX
74 Plymouth Duster
75 Fiat X19
76 Triumph TR7 w/231 Buick engine Lemons racer
81 Triumph TR7
68 VW fast back

I'm forgetting several dozen forgettable cars
Favorite car, toss up between 54 Austin Healey 100-4 LeMons clone and 88 BMW M3

Trucks:

71 Ford F250 LB
75 Ford F150
87 Ford F150 LB
2-Ford rangers
79 Dodge Ramcharger
2-Dodge D100 pickups
84 Toyota van
3 Chevy S10's

94 Ford Explorer 4 door

79 Chevy step side P/U
74 Chevy LB camper special
81 1/2T Chevy long bed
86 1/2T Chevy long bed
96 Chevy short bed V6 stick
95 Chevy 2500 LB
72 Ford ranchero 351V8
96 Toyota Tacoma 4WD
72 Chevy 3door suburban
84 Chevy El Camino
78 Chevy El Camino SS

I have probably for got as many as listed
Favorite truck, 72 Chevy 3door Suburban

Motorcycles:

1948? Harley Hummer
1968 Allstate 125
1966? Honda 305 Scrambler
1977 Honda 550 four
1979 Honda 400 four
1968 Triumph 650 TR6 with scrambler pipes
1970 Norton Commando
1986 Ducati 750 F1
1977 Ducati 900SS

Favorite is no surprise, Ducati 900SS

There is a1974 750 SS approaching $90,000 on Ebay right now

Cars I've owned

2011-04-13T12:52:00.000-07:00

This might be an incomplete list but it was fun to remember all these rides...
76 Pontiac LeMans (sold to a scotsman who wanted to drive it cross country)
85 Toyota Supra (left me stranded in Santa Cruz)
84 Pontiac Firebird (had straight pipes that burned anyone exiting the pass. side)
71 Fiat 850 (left me stranded EVERYWHERE, sold to a guy in the Keys)
74 Fiat 128 (parting out after rear ending an SUV, not me)
81 Fiat 124 spider (active duty)
95 GMC Sierra
71 Ford F150
00 Ford Focus (totaled, not by me)
04 Ford Focus (active duty)
86 Mitsubishi Montero (left me stranded in Los Banos)
76 Triumph TR7 (part owner, race car)
85 Jeep Wrangler
76 Toyota Corolla
2 x 69 Buick Skylarks (sold one, other was crashed by my dad)
81 Audi 4000
Great memories with all of these, each were memorable in their own way despite either leaving me stranded or being crashed by other people.

RIP 128 say goodbye

2011-04-09T15:50:00.000-07:00

Anybody have a 128 hood and grill

2011-03-31T23:56:00.000-07:00

My son in law got a little distracted and rammed the 128 into a SUV, looks like a hood and grill will need to be replaced.

Down on the SF street

2011-03-08T13:47:00.000-08:00

The first one I've seen in the wild since I bought mine 2 years ago...

Vignale bodied Fiat 125s Samantha

2011-01-16T14:26:00.000-08:00

According to BAT less then 100 of these pretty little coupes were make, with a 1608 twin cam engine and 5 speed trans. it would be similar to 71 Fiat spider.

Trying to track down a wiring problem

2011-01-15T17:07:00.000-08:00

Fiat console

2011-01-07T17:00:00.001-08:00

This is what the lower console looks like after I replaced the wood to fit the different location of the brava transmission shifter, I painted the dash and shift console satin black since a PO had installed the ugly 76 dark formica dash.

Restored door panel

2010-12-12T14:33:00.000-08:00

Traded stock seats for Mayu's Recaro's

2010-11-30T17:13:00.000-08:00

Maser wheels on the 71

2010-11-25T13:50:00.001-08:00

First start 71 spider

2010-11-22T09:30:00.000-08:00

Nice horn button

2010-11-15T07:40:00.000-08:00

I made the button from one of the original Fiat badges

2010-11-14T18:15:00.000-08:00

Fiat Apocalypse

2010-11-11T20:34:00.000-08:00

Horn button for new wheel

2010-11-08T17:00:00.000-08:00

Cute Dogs

2010-11-08T07:01:00.000-08:00

Mayu's dog Yuki on the left and snowball on the right, one mutt from Oakland, and one mutt from Tiawan

Mayu's new wheels

2010-11-01T19:19:00.000-07:00

Getting ready to transplant my engine

2010-11-01T15:20:00.000-07:00

We will be saying goodbye to the Colorado Fiat, I will be transplanting the drive train into this 71 spider, I finished painting the engine compartment with the original Colorado yellow color.

71 Spider gauges installed

2010-10-31T18:18:00.000-07:00

Festival Italiano guess this car

2010-10-28T20:45:00.000-07:00

Festival Italiano 2009 guess the car

2010-10-27T18:28:00.000-07:00

71 Spider

2010-10-25T18:50:00.000-07:00

Too early to tell but this car might be the one I transfer my tuned 1800 motor and Brava trans into

Check list

2010-10-24T16:50:00.000-07:00

After a short first drive in the X here is a list of items needing attention:

Change head and install larger intake valves using a 79 carb head that was ported and had isky springs installed.

Install 2 DCNF 40mm carbs on a PBS intake manifold with a different Delta cam

Gasket match ports on the manifold

Check the trans linkage, reverse is hard to engage

adjust clutch

Get the fan to come on and wire up a switch to override

Install new tires

Repair nose and head light bucket paint

Install custom 2.25" exhaust and muffler

Change door panels to black to match newly covered seats

BWA wheels for Mayu's spider? My spider?

2010-10-23T15:22:00.000-07:00

Tony and the Jags

2010-10-22T19:48:00.000-07:00

Anybody need some XJ6 series one Jag parts?? This is the guy to go to he's got 3-4 of them!
We raced the 24 hours of Lemons with Tony a couple times with the famous TR7 weginator. He now has a bunch of Jags and the one in the photo raced in a Lemons race recently, it's got a SBC in it now here's his website: http://www.dr-no007.com/

Mayuko and I traded Maserati rims

2010-10-15T14:50:00.000-07:00

She got the silver ones for her spider, the dark grey ones go on the X

What's better then one?

2010-10-15T14:43:00.000-07:00

Rear suspension and brakes

2010-09-28T19:01:00.000-07:00

Koni reds with lowering springs and carbon brake pads

Adjustable cam gear from Millers Mule

2010-09-28T18:53:00.001-07:00

This little beauty will restore proper cam alignment after the head was shaved

http://www.millersmule.com/

Stump the Chumps

2010-09-22T19:34:00.001-07:00

Stump the chumps recap time:

1500 engine, brand new Lancia short block deck height even with pistons from
factory I did not take any off the block.

FI head, Fiat head gasket installed

2.7mm approx total off top and bottom of the head

1300 tensioner I measure to be 59mm others say 60mm (which I just took off and
it came apart in my hand with ball bearings going everywhere)

confirmed continental 1500 belt last 3 numbers=069

tensioner pulley bracket pt# 4320684

adjustable cam gear by Apple diameter 124mm

lower crank pully from 1300

aux gear is plastic from ??

I could bend the long side of the belt past 90 degrees

solutions:

sleeve the tensioner bearing (expensive?)
dremel out the inside of the tensioner bracket boss to gain 1mm maybe
1438 tensioner bracket=67mm diameter, probably too much?
any others?

Chris
Oakland,Ca.

ps
It's weird that the tensioner fell apart in my hands did I tighten the nut too
much causing that? Ck that looking at the tensioner it's not possible to over
tighten since the inner races on both inner and outer bearings are captured by
the bracket boss and tensioner washers. I found all the bearings and put it
together again.

x19 start 1.2 (NSFW)

2010-09-22T08:13:00.000-07:00

X19 start 1.0

2010-09-19T09:58:00.000-07:00

Usually we only post our successes in automotive work but here is a look into the fumbling and idiocy that usually precedes any accomplishments. This is the video of the first attempted start of the x19 with the new motor. Keep in mind that even before this there were many attempts beginning with no cranking, timing being 180 deg. out, ignition switch problem (thats why my dad is underneath the car to start it) After a few hours of fiddling around we get this...

Fully functional 128 hood scoop

2010-09-18T15:37:00.000-07:00

New brake pads for the X from www.lpiracing.com

2010-09-10T08:01:00.000-07:00

If they work out we will put them on all the Fiats.

Hood scoop

2010-09-09T11:02:00.000-07:00

Next improvement for the 128 is a hood scoop. Here is my inspiration...

I just have to get my hands on some 3/4" plywood, sweeeet!

The caravan

2010-09-09T10:51:00.000-07:00

Here are some photos of the trip up to Oregon we took in July...

Sweet Ansa Exhaust

2010-09-05T18:20:00.000-07:00

This is a new 128 Ansa header that we bought from Neal which is an improvement over the stock one but we lost a stud that we were using as a mounting point for the throttle linkage that my dad made (see 8/23/10 post) so it's back to the drawing board for that thing.

There goes my gas mileage....

2010-09-05T17:37:00.000-07:00

Flywheel for the X

2010-09-01T17:43:00.000-07:00

Lightened and balanced by Ashland Grinding in Hayward Ca.

Fiat 128 center caps

2010-09-01T17:41:00.000-07:00

Fit the Maserati wheels nicely

DCNF with manifold for the X19

2010-08-28T19:45:00.000-07:00

I enlarged the ports to 28.5mm, Steve Cecchele in New Zealand fabricated this from a 74 X manifold. This manifold puts the DCNF carb in the right aspect for linkage installation and float alignment. OOps Steve is from the West coast of Australia near Perth! Sorry Steve!

Finished linkage

2010-08-23T09:06:00.000-07:00

Boring 128 linkage stuff

2010-08-23T09:03:00.000-07:00

I found some tubing that had the perfect inside diameter for extending the original rod, I modified the bracket on the end to bolt to a stud on the exhaust manifold.

Big valve head installed

2010-08-23T08:57:00.000-07:00

Ready to drop the head on

2010-08-23T08:56:00.000-07:00

These are what the DCNF's need!

2010-08-23T08:55:00.000-07:00

Mayuko torquing the head on her 128

2010-08-23T08:54:00.000-07:00

Say goodbye baby

2010-08-11T22:33:00.000-07:00

Michael Lemus will be the new caretaker of the 600, I supplied him with a short block that has high compression pistons, that should make baby go even better then ever.

Mo Powa for Mayuko's 128

2010-08-11T10:25:00.000-07:00

I'm installing a big valve fuel injected head that has the piston outlines shaved off to bump compression, it has 40mm intake valves with stock exhaust valves. A Faza 35-75 cam will provide the lift and a set of DCNF's will supply the air and fuel. We will keep the stock 74 exhaust mainifold and custom exhaust. I am waiting for the new water pump from Midwest Bayless to arrive to bolt it all together.

Say goodbye to baby

2010-08-04T20:03:00.000-07:00

Congratulations! Your item just sold. The buyer has been sent an email reminder about paying the deposit through PayPal. You should also follow-up with the buyer to confirm your arrangements for the remaining payment.

Fiat
Sale price: $1,575.00
Quantity sold: 1
Sale date: Aug-04-10 17:30:07 PDT
Buyer: Michael Lemus
kikolemus

X19 bumper mod

2010-07-29T17:15:00.000-07:00

I'm sure this has been done many times, but here is my take on modifying the ugly 76 style bumpers with out spending any money. The whole job took abo+ut 2 hours. I disassembled both bumpers and used the upper bars. I turned the brackets that are part of the piston assbly. 90 degrees and bolted the top bars back on, the front brackets were bent a little to match the bar angle. I cut the rubber ends with a sawzall and sanded them with my 10" sander. Approx. 60-70% weight savings and much better looking. Before and after shots.

Mayuko and Buck at the lake

2010-07-25T09:52:00.000-07:00

The other half of the blog

Fiats at the 2010 Oregon meet

2010-07-25T09:48:00.000-07:00

This only about 1/2 the cars that were at the meet, blame me for getting the organizer back late to get everybody in one shot. The place is Howard Prairie resort in southern Oregon, they run a nice place and couldn't be nicer people.

GMC and 600

2010-07-25T09:44:00.000-07:00

Piggyback 600

2010-07-25T09:43:00.000-07:00

We hauled the 600 and boat up with my GMC 3/4t, the Starcraft is light at about 1200# and the 600 wieghs in at about 1200. I built a small ramp inside the bed and used 8' ramp boards. It was a little exciting getting it up there the first time.

RIP 903 engine

2010-07-19T09:25:00.000-07:00

I blew up the 903 over the weekend racing in Oregon, there is some kind of metal on metal sound coming for the engine with a big loss of power. Anybody want to buy a cheap 600? Or does anybody have a used 843 or 903 short block for sale?

Christophersaul@gmail.com

510-910-0967

128 got cleaned up for vacation

2010-07-13T21:25:00.000-07:00

We freshened up Mayu's 128 and painted the wheels for the upcoming Oregon meet. Mayu will lead the way and I will follow with the new toy hauler, it should be an interesting trip. Towing the Starcraft with the 600 in the bed if the truck.

New to the family

2010-07-11T20:14:00.001-07:00

Couldn't help ourselves

low mileage X that needs a head gasket

Comes with the gasket set

36 DCD tuned and ready

2010-06-15T14:54:00.000-07:00

The Weber 36 DCD has been tuned and installed, main jets 135 air jets 200 idle jet 50 with 25mm chokes
The head was match ported to the manifold, the choke was removed and a custom throttle lever was fabricated. Make no mistake this engine is fully capable of suking al the air and gas this carb supplys!

Rough specs here:
903 engine
PBS ralley cam
balanced and lightened flywheel and pressure plate
Weber 36/36 DCD carb
S/T cam gears
9.5? compression ratio
Fiat 127 water pump
Fiat X19 electric cooling fan
Flipped top spring in front to lower car
Cut rear springs new shocks
850 front disk brake conversion
Fiat 124 spider steel rims with RE potenza 165-65=13 tires
I will pull the engine soon to change to front main bearing seal to the reverse rotation style
Also hope to auto cross/solo this summer in the under one litre group

Fiat 600's new mirror

2010-06-15T14:29:00.000-07:00

Spider rear end

2010-06-09T19:01:00.000-07:00

A couple of notes when changing to a early diff in a late spider, chase the lug bolt holes with a 12mmX1.25 tap, I used a L bracket that was custom bent to hold up the bracket where the hard brake line meets the soft line it bolts on to an existing 10mm nut on the diff case close to where the caliper bracket is attached, we decided not to use a backing plate giving better brake cooling? All the upper and lower diff locating rods are the same and bolt right up.

Rear ends

2010-06-08T22:28:00.000-07:00

Mayuko's spider diff was making a lot of noise, terminal noise. We decided to go with an early pre 1978 style as a replacement.

Here are the parts you will need for the conversion:

*early complete differential with axles (don't forget the shock attachment ears)

* early style straight pan hard bar

*pre 78 back half of drive shaft (or not)

The most common gear ratio was 4.30 we found a 4.10 which is a little closer to the original 3.90 her spicer style diff came with.

You just unbolt everything and carefully slide out the old unit, her springs were cut so no need to compress them, and the brake lines will move out of the way after cutting the wire tape that attaches them to the housing. You don't have to undo any brake lines.

Fill the diff with oil while it's out we used 80-90 EP oil, about 3-4 pints or until it runs out the fill up hole.

We opted to use the original drive shaft which is about 10mm too short, just loosen the drive shaft center support bracket and slot the holes a little then tighten the rear drive shaft to the diff then tighten the center support bracket. It's about a three hour job if you have two monkeys working together.

Photos shall follow.

More DCD photos

2010-06-03T08:59:00.000-07:00

Those with sharp eyes will see that I made a cover in place of the choke assembly and I had to make a new cover for the throttle assembly so the lever would clear.

Valve cover side relief

2010-05-29T09:35:00.000-07:00

Its a little bigger then the 30 DIC!

2010-05-29T09:33:00.000-07:00

Head modifcation for 36 DCD

2010-05-27T16:51:00.000-07:00

This is the area that needs to be ported out for the S/T manifold and 36 DCD carb, the head is pretty thin in this area so cutting it with a die grinder and cutting bit should be pretty easy, I will leave the head on and stuff it with shop towels to catch the grinded bits then vaccum it out and reinstall the head bolts.

36 DCD carb and S/T manifold

2010-05-26T18:07:00.000-07:00

I will mount this manifold and carb to the 600 shortly, the intake hole will have to be ported to match the Scuderia Topolino manifold. Paul a S/T recommended jetting and 25mm chokes which I sourced from Pierce Manifold in California. The go to place for all things Weber.

John's 3P

2010-04-24T14:43:00.001-07:00

Here is Scratchy Bottom reader John's sharp lookin' 3P. I have yet to see either an SL or 3P on Bay Area roads since I've owned mine although I did hear of a
3P going to the crusher not too long ago :(

Send us your pics!

2010-04-23T10:07:00.000-07:00

A couple of followers out there have Fiats too.
Click here and send me your pics and I will post them on the blog

Cute rear end

2010-04-17T15:42:00.000-07:00

Cute front end

2010-04-17T15:41:00.000-07:00

My old spider wheel

2010-04-17T15:38:00.000-07:00

Achtung!

2010-04-17T15:37:00.000-07:00

13" spider wheels for the 600

2010-04-17T15:34:00.000-07:00

165/65/13 Potenza RE92 wear rating 160, pretty sticky for what they are.

Monkey business

2010-04-17T15:29:00.000-07:00

Two struts, two monkeys, 45 min. New boge's for Mayu's 128

Also WRONG

2010-04-13T18:54:00.000-07:00

These two images is what our Fiat collection would look like if my dad had his way. In my opinion both look awful. Cast your vote in the comments!

Don't worry! This is just a photoshop job, to see the 128 with the CD58's scroll down...

TRON is WRONG

2010-04-13T18:40:00.000-07:00

28/36 Weber DCD carb

2010-04-13T16:43:00.000-07:00

This carb along with one of Scuderia Topolino's intake manifolds will go on the 903, it will putt along just fine on the primary and will get with it when you step it down and the 36 secondary kicks in.

Exhaust system

2010-04-13T15:42:00.001-07:00

Reversed top spring

2010-04-13T15:42:00.000-07:00

Lowered the front about 2"

Front bumper

2010-04-13T15:33:00.000-07:00

I tightened up the front bumper by shortening the brackets about inch giving a cleaner look, no bumper brackets please.

600 deck lid closed with 903 motor

2010-04-13T15:31:00.000-07:00

Shortened distributor

2010-04-13T15:28:00.000-07:00

This dizzy was shortened by Thad Kirk, it is now possible to close the hood on the 600. Thanks Thad!
He can shorten one for you too!

Yeah it's slow...

2010-04-13T14:42:00.000-07:00

This quote from Murilee on Japlonik had me laughing all by myself at my desk this afternoon...

"The 24 Hours of LeMons Chief Perp, Jay Lamm, drove a caged, Hammerite-painted, Conrad Stevenson-ized '71 GTV as his everyday transportation for many years, and I can say from personal experience that it's a helluva car. Oh sure, I've been a passenger in the thing when Jay lost a freeway-onramp drag race against an older woman in a 5-year-old Accord who didn't even know we were racing, but the GTV sounded amazing! And that pretty much sums up the GTV Experience: by modern standards, it's pretty slow… but who the hell cares?"

This perfectly sums up my drive to work in the 128.

Carb upgrade on the 128

2010-04-13T13:50:00.000-07:00

Another upgrade, this one not as noticeable. Basicall all of this has stuff been forced on me because everthing off my car is going to the 600. My old carb was going to go on the 600 but now theres a whole other ball of wax which I'll let my dad explain in another post.

128 wheel-gate

2010-04-13T13:36:00.000-07:00

Theres been wheel drama on the 128 front...long story short my steel wheels needed to go on the 600. As a replacement my dad suggested these which are known as the TRON wheel:

These wheels are a HELL NO for me so I dug my heels in and refused to reconsider despite a really big YES campaign by my dad. A peace accord was reached when we took a trip to Joe's Fiat and uncovered a set of CD58's which are still a little on the fugly side for me but a damn sight better than TRON.

Compared to the steel wheels these magnesium CD58's are way lighter and provide a noticeable difference in performance. The car feels more nimble and quicker off the line. To my utter horror my dad wants to put these on the 600! Weight wise I would say that these are perfectly suited for the 600 and really should go there but it hurts my eyes just thinking about it. These wheels will NEVER go on the little Fiat. So on the 128 they will stay...

Close-up: