[Stanher]

Originally Posted by manishalive

Now with the car in safe custody, the big task remaining is to get the car registered in my name at Hosur and I seek help from members in this regard. Do any one has contact to get this done.

We started to work on the car and quickly dismantled the remaining bits on the old car. Plan is to use which ever is good from the 2 cars, refurbish and fit back.

Just to clarify - you're not going to start restoring the 'new' fiat for now, are you? Looks ok to me at present!

[manishalive]

Originally Posted by Stanher

Just to clarify - you're not going to start restoring the 'new' fiat for now, are you? Looks ok to me at present!

No not a full blown restoration. But mechanically correcting the things. And installing the new wiring.

[SHAHBAAZ]

Originally Posted by manishalive

Continuing further -

The registration book still retains the old information (what a nice thing to have)

Attachment 1585327

Now with the car in safe custody, the big task remaining is to get the car registered in my name at Hosur and I seek help from members in this regard. Do any one has contact to get this done.

Moving ahead found that the car has original seat cover on the rear seat -

Attachment 1585328

The front seat is non original tough.

Between my 2 cars there are now lots of good stuff and largely my new car will become original.There are few bits and stuff still remaining of which I have a list and am on it.

Meanwhile some more progress -

The horn button is refurbished

Attachment 1585330

The original water pump pulley

Attachment 1585332

The original rubber gasket for park lights (I have similar for tail lamps as well). These will be reproduced as well, waiting for raw materials.

Attachment 1585333

The original Sipea flasher units

Attachment 1585335

Now comes the task of mechanically sorting out the car. Recently my ex colleague has returned back from Canada and has build up his hobby work space at ground floor of his house. This is fully furnished with TIG welding, 2 post lift and a mini lathe to name a few. Having this facility available I dropped my old car at his place.

A look at his place -

Attachment 1585337

We started to work on the car and quickly dismantled the remaining bits on the old car. Plan is to use which ever is good from the 2 cars, refurbish and fit back.

Attachment 1585338

Attachment 1585339

More updates as and when we work. Also on a side note I have 5 numbers of 5.20-14 tyres that I had purchased new some time back. I also have the white wall seat inserts to go on these.

Attachment 1585340

Good to know about the progress and purchase of a donner. It seems that your hands are full in the Hobby workspace. Best Luck.

[manishalive]

Originally Posted by SHAHBAAZ

Good to know about the progress and purchase of a donner. It seems that your hands are full in the Hobby workspace. Best Luck.

Thanks Bro, yes we are busy bringing her up to level. Lot of things to do. We dismantled the old car completely. We found many original bolts and stuff. We also found that on the Brake shoe holding plate we have a different color than black (on the rear ones). Could this be the original color -



Karlos has once told me it's not black. Need help guys.

I now have a new wiring harness (pin type) but with plastic sleeve. I would like to ask how to go about the cloth sleeve for the period correct look. I have seen tape rolls coming that do the job



But what color should be the cloth sleeve. So far I could not see any reference online. Jay Leno car does not have seems to have any sleeve



Also an a similar note the door seal was made of cloth. Which color was that and where do I get that.

The current number plate for my car is in this style, what should be the period correct one -



Lastly I have one question on the instrument panel. Do we had these in Indian Fiats as well

[manishalive]

Time for some updates guys. The body work is in good condition but mechanical's were needing urgent attention. So over to my friends shop for rework

At the workshop -



The chassis is being worked upon (note the single radiator mount as opposed to 2 mounts on original) -



Upon dismantling found these rather amusing rear dampers. As per Rony these would be rare vintage items but not sure of originality



The previous mechanic had cambered the springs to have 11 inches of height and thus providing wrong working angle for the shackles. These were re-cambered back to specification of 6 inches.



The wheels were sand blasted & straightened on the machine.



Painted and new tyres installed along with white wall inserts.



Search for original paint in places found to be of no use. So plan to have a shade of blue green as the new color.



Engine no found on the 58 Fiat has 103E designation and is a numbers matching. The 59 Fiat engine is good with all new parts and will be used. Old numbers will be punched tough.



The 59 Fiat engine is prepped for installation, the old mechanic did some wrong doing here too. All is being bought back to specification.



The engine block is prepped with high heat primer and silver. Further sealed with clear coat. This is what originally came on the cylinder blocks

[KartikeyaL]

Wow,apart from a great restoration, your friends work shop looks just amazing, neat and clean, unlike most in India.

[manishalive]

Originally Posted by KartikeyaL

Wow,apart from a great restoration, your friends work shop looks just amazing, neat and clean, unlike most in India.

Kartik,

Yes, that's the best part of all the process. Thanks for the complements. He is the best guy so far I have seen. He is taking care of the minutest of the minute details.

Continuing further -

All components were sand blasted and painted



All of the hardware was galvanized, this was done in batches so as not to loose track and miss the rare fiat bolt.



A hydraulic press was fabricated for pressing the bushings correctly and also to straighten the bent hardware as well.



Rear end gets buttoned up.



Engine bay gets ready for all the mechanical stuff



The engine bay is painted from a spray can, Ford tractor blue. This will be the right match to the exterior color change.



The steering box was get's attention too, lot's of year of use had the oil caked up, also the hole to support the gear shaft is being mended as well. The earlier mechanic didn't bother to even look at this. This is what I like about my friend, almost every mm of the car is now being looked and perfected.



The steering shaft also got attention by way of re threading.



The original type wiring harness that I had. I also procured the same type bullet connectors from Aliexpress for any eventuality. Most of my electrical components are having bullet connectors.



To replicate the authentic vintage style harness, I purchased wiring sleeves from the market. I also procured the glue backed cotton tape from Aliexpress.

I also purchased varnish to be applied once we install the sleeves / tapes.

[manishalive]

Continuing further -

The original made in Italy bearings are in good condition and are being re used. Except front wheel outer ones as they were damaged.



We wanted to change this front wheel inner bearing as well, but being of imperial dimension a replacement is hard to find so clean and reuse then. This problem comes only if you use the original hub.





A single wheel cap and a single tail lamp glass was found with a seller in Italy (through FB). Both are original items





Thanks to Indrojit Sirkar, I got this original lamp glass. Carello stamped



The original fuse box with original fuses



The original cut out with the lamination plate. This will be installed with dummy wires running to make it look authentic. The original Dynamo will be placed in a box for show purpose.



The original Carello headlight connector is procured from a n Italian seller on eBay, they are on the way.



The speedometer is all ready.

[crdi]

Originally Posted by manishalive

A hydraulic press was fabricated

Attachment 1663051

Very neat! Is it an original idea? Is it a bottle jack?

Vaguely remember the dual damper set-up on some diesel transplant done old ambassadors. That was jugaad work by local mechanics, not sure about factory cars having dual dampers.

[manishalive]

Originally Posted by crdi

Very neat! Is it an original idea? Is it a bottle jack?

Vaguely remember the dual damper set-up on some diesel transplant done old ambassadors. That was jugaad work by local mechanics, not sure about factory cars having dual dampers.

I am pretty sure this would have been done before. My friend encountered problems by the way people work here so this was fabricated.

And what do you mean by dual damper?? My setup is all stock and original to 58 model year.

[crdi]

Originally Posted by manishalive

And what do you mean by dual damper?? My setup is all stock and original to 58 model year.

Sorry, my bad! The picture of the damper confused me. Thought that two dampers were fixed on one side itself, to one link. If that was the case, of course you would have recognized that to be a jugaad.
Such stuff were done by resource scarce mechs of yesteryears, supposedly to improve load bearing. Not at all judging the quality of work or the originality of the car

[manishalive]

Time for some update guys, All this work has paid off and the car was successfully fired a few days back. Some pictorial updates -

As suggested by Karlos, Gypsy filter element was modified to fit the original air filter body. My friend did a good job there.



The original made in Italy carburetor was refurbished with all new and original parts.



Engine bay getting there, some of the original parts are yet to be installed as they need to be better prepped and since they are bolt on can be done any time.



Original wheel caps coming from Germany.



Car is finally back on all 4 legs again, The rear suspension (leaf spring) height is not looking good, we will get this sorted tomorrow.

[manishalive]

Finally my car is back on road. And it's working fine. 3 small issues remain -

1.) Wheel Alignment - definitely need castor adjusted. Steering is too hard.

2.) Slight Oil leak from the filter body. Will tend to it.

3.) Air lock / Vacuum in the fuel tank. Need to have vent hole cleaned up in the cap.

Other things are - original horn, distributor, fuel pump, carburetor and headlight connector need to be installed. Few glitches remain in them. Will sort one by one and install.

[manishalive]

While we sorted out the small mechanical issues and all the original (the horn, the carburetor, the radiator cap, the fuel pump and the distributor) parts were mended & back on car. We did nothing on the cosmetic division, this will be attended soon.

In the mean time I had been on a shopping spree and managed to find some rare original spares. They did cost a bomb but then this is the hobby .

[M00M]

Good looking restoration, my padmini 1986 model has been under restoration for over a year now. unfortunately even after painting the car entirely from scratch has caused rust to appear in less than a year.

does your friend do restoration professionally or its only one off for you ?