And Cars I've owned

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

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

Anybody have a 128 hood and grill

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

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

Vignale bodied Fiat 125s Samantha

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

Fiat console

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

 

Traded stock seats for Mayu's Recaro's

Maser wheels on the 71

First start 71 spider

Nice horn button

 

I made the button from one of the original Fiat badges

Fiat Apocalypse

Horn button for new wheel

 

Cute Dogs

 

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

 

Getting ready to transplant my engine

 

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

 

Festival Italiano guess this car

Festival Italiano 2009 guess the car

71 Spider

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

Check list

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?

Tony and the Jags

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

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

What's better then one?

Rear suspension and brakes

 

Koni reds with lowering springs and carbon brake pads

Adjustable cam gear from Millers Mule

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

http://www.millersmule.com/

Stump the Chumps

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)

X19 start 1.0

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

 

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

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

Hood scoop

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

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

Sweet Ansa Exhaust

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....

Flywheel for the X

Lightened and balanced by Ashland Grinding in Hayward Ca.