'71 Fiat 850 Spider, a Sub-Liter Beater

I've got a yellow 850 in the driveway, and it needs a new home in short order. I've got latches, and I think I've got the glass you're looking for.

I only have one latch.

Anyway you can get windshields for these for less than a small fortune?

Today was a good day (I didn't even have to use my A/K)!

Before sticking the car in storage AKA Trents side yard, the car ran only a handful of times, and it never really ran right. The car followed me home last Saturday (7/6/13) and I could get it to fire up after cranking for some time and it would idle just fine, but would crap out with any sort of throttle input. I figured there must be something gumming up the carb, but was recalcitrant to open it up yet again as the mounting holes on the carb are all stripped/FUBAR.

So when looking through E36 M3ty box of nasty Fiat carbs I noticed that the only carb that had a "send" and a "return" was the one on the car. So, naturally, I did what any other ham-fisted assjack would do. I stuck a pair of needlenose vicegrips on the "return" line. BAM! Car runs like a top now. Starts right up, idle is rock solid at 800rpm, revs out pretty well, too! Color me excited. I can only assume my "send" and "return" was more of a "send" and a "send, for the next carb down the line".

I feel a little dumb. What kind of carb has a "return" on it? Certainly not a Weber 30 DIC, that's for sure.

Planning on an update with piktarz for later tonight. Nothing too exciting, but images are always welcome, right?

Bastardized Yugo Carter-Webers have return lines.

That return line on the later DIC-30's has a TINY little orifice in it. It is just a re circulation line back into the tank. Part of the emissions add ons when Fiat bumped the motors back up over 50ci and had to comply with federal regs.

I actually had to use it when mine was carbed. The cheap electric fuel pumps that are everywhere actually have trouble delivering the very small amount of fuel an 843cc motor needs and they tend to boil the fuel when the car idles for a while. Adding a recirc line back to the tank allows the pump to remain cooled by fuel while still pushing the 3psi into the carb.

You have to remember that frustration I had. Took me a week to figure it out.

Hmm. Well, time will tell. I'll happily use whatever combination of carb junk that makes the car run the best. Hopefully the MS install isn't too far down the road.

Speaking of which. You used 1.25" weld-els on your manifold, right Trent? I keep eyeballing them on McMaster, it looks like it would be almost cheaper to do it almost equal length than a log style with tees. The tees are bloody expensive. Also, stainless els are somehow cheaper than mild...

Didn't use tees. Two weld el's and the rest was just tubing that I coped and machined.

The next one will definitely be equal length. This thing, while functional is an eyesore.

I'll gladly take that off your hands, since the honeymoon is obviously over. Be a dear and pop the flange for a GT15 on there for me?

I remember watching a beautiful Fiat 850 go around our autocross one time. If you looked the other way you wondered what exotic race car running at 147 mph you were missing. Then you'd turn and look, and see a little car driving casually around the track...

So, where were we? Moving day. Well, Moving day v3.0. I had gone Dutch on a shop with a buddy through the winter, but with funds dwindling fast and summer soon approaching we called it quits. Time to move everything back home. All but the Fiat have since moved on to new owners.

As unappreciative of carburetors and points-based ignition as your average mid-20's male, I started working on something a little more... modern. The distributor is a castoff from Ditchdigger's sedan; a cutdown and spliced unit from a rabbit. The vaguely phallic intake manifold, holds onto a sportbike throttlebody with a 1g DSM injector. Amazingly that should be enough fuel and air for a N/A 843cc motor. The radiator/shroud/fan was scored off CL for $150. The guy had it custom made for a Samurai with some wonky swap and his plan never came to fruition. It is a really well made unit, complete with Spal fan. Probably the nicest piece on the car by far.

(I'm trying to do this at work, so the updates might be short like that one if I get "interrupted". Hi Kenny!)

Following suit, the front brakes were addressed. There's about 10lbs per side missing in this photo. Radially mounted GSXR 600 calipers that have been spaced out 3/16th to fit over the much thicker Fiat discs, rebuilt kingpin housings with drop ears for an additional 1.5" drop, and stainless brake lines. Shaved 1mm off the front hub to bring it down to 57.1mm so I can run VW wheels.

22 reasons why speedholes make everything more awesomer. I'm not big on paying out the nose for a piece of formed channel, so I made my own. This will effectively lower the front by about 1.5".

All of the stock steering parts were pulled out. I proceeded to cut off all of the balljoints/tie rod ends and replace them with quality rose joints with boots and grease zerks.

There are effectively 3 ways to lower the front of a Fiat 850. You can reverse the eyes on the spring, add drop ears to the spindle, and you can make a lowering block. We've found it's better as a "Choose any two" situation. I put the stock eye'd spring back in place and everything is honky dory now. Before selling my beloved Scirocco I swapped the wheels out for the "Euroweaves". I think the Revolutions fit this much better than the 'weaves ever did.

And that's pretty much it. That's about where I was last spring when I jumped ship. The company I was working for got bought out and it was either be unemployed or move to Portland/Vancouver

Here's how she looked when she arrived six days ago.

Enjoy.

Modifiying a rare Italian car...the horror.

Nice to see someone screwing with one of these. They are fun cars and make good autocrossers in the right hands. I owned one too early in my wrenching career to do this (coupled with my then-mindset that everything must be stock restored). Keep it going.

Awesome!

The front of my car has been crashed up pretty bad. Mostly on the front right corner. The "repair" consists almost entirely of cracking body filler. The craftsman that performed the repairs apparently couldn't be bothered to put the headlight bucket mounting holes in their proper places. The passenger headlight sat just off level, maybe 3-5 degrees out. I can't stand that kind of thing, so I did a quick little fix to it.

I took the front half of one very blurry headlight bucket

Located the slots for the headlight adjusters and poked a similarly sized hole about .25" to the left on both of them.

Turned the hole into a slot with a combination of your standard hacksaw and file.

But that looked too weak. I didn't really want my brand new H4's cascading onto the asphalt. I also didn't want to distort the bucket and blow big holes in it with .035" wire from a 240v MIG gun, either.

Luckily, I found some copper pipe to crush into an impromptu welding spoon.

Which made it look like this. Which doesn't look very good, but that's what roloc discs are for.

Much better!

According to the image data, it took 26 minutes start to finish. And now I don't cringe every time I look at the front of the car. Success!

In other news, Pick-N-Pull in North Portland just took in an 850 Sport Spider. I got to spend the morning over there pulling some much needed bits to make mine a little more complete. I grabbed all of the convertible top latches and clasps, a drivers vent window and frame, the front bumper, and a few odds and ends. Made it out of there for $100 even, which I didn't see as a great deal, but I will really need that stuff down the road a bit. Thanks, other Spider. I'll be going back to steal the cylinder head of the 903 that's in it's rear later next week.

On the great autocross we note, I ran mine last weekend, my first attempt last month was a disaster (poor brakes) but after adding a bias valve, it's first real run with me still scared of it I ran a 79.9 vs my dads 79.7 in a s2000, I sti have tons of room to improve

Don't you love finding the EXACT car you need in the junkyard? I found my car's twin last Saturday...friggin' sweet!

icaneat50eggs, I couldn't help but notice that the junkyard car has a very nice windshield. Shipping would be a bear, but I would be willing to nab it for ya.

Seth, I really do! I almost couldn't believe it when I saw it on Row52 the other night. It's nearly untouched, too. I guess there aren't a whole lot of people actively looking for tetanus... er... Fiat 850s. The counter clerk at PnP just stared at me when I told him I was there for Fiat parts. HA!

actually I'm going to be in portland next week. Let me talk to the wife and see if there is room in the minivan....

This is friggin' sweet! Hats off to you sir

sethmeister4 wrote: Don't you love finding the EXACT car you need in the junkyard? I found my car's twin last Saturday...friggin' sweet!

I'm a bit stunned that a car that rare just happened to pop into a junkyard like that.

Granted, any stray New England examples have been returned to the Earth at this point.

This continues to be a helluva great project.

OOOOOHH I WANT IT!

Cool project. I'm just entering the Fiat fray myself and am learning a lot about them, so I'll be glad to follow along. My shop space is only a few miles from that North Portland junkyard, you drove right past me to get there...so don't be a stranger if you want to let me absorb some of your Fiat knowledge!

Bryce

Believe it or not, I see 3-4 850s a year in that yard. Most are much further gone!

Good news, everyone! I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Yesterday a buddy came over and helped me get the brakes sorted. It was a long drawn out process thanks to my stupidity. I had the calipers swapped left to right, thus putting the bleeders on the bottom. It took a good hour of fiddling, bleeding, and a whiskey break to figure out the issue. Once we swapped them side to side, the bled right up. I was left with a nice high, firm pedal! Excellent!

Today I got all the holes plugged up in my tranny (lol), and filled her up with fresh fluid (lol). I figured she has brakes and she runs, might as well take her out for a spin.

I made it about 7 blocks round trip (no plates/insurance so I didn't want to press my luck). Got into third gear, mid-range and I'm still alive. Must have done something right! It's absolutely fueled the fire and I'm itching to get it all buttoned up in time for some summer cruising.

My little corner of the world; now with 100% more ability to burn holes in post-war Axis metal!

and yes, the garage is a sty right now.