1967 Fiat 850 Coupe - RetroRides Build

johnt

Daily Driver
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The Largest group of running 850 Coupes in the United States pictured here in the Malibu Canyons (July 2016).
Any rear engine Fiat/Abarth Spyders, Sedans, Otas, Sportivas, Gianinnis, PBS conversions or 500/600 based would also do well on these canyon drives. :grin:
Click on this picture to see the Retro Cars Build thread.


850 Party April 2014. The Racer is Mike Pellagrino's daily driver and the Coupe is Chris Griffiths 68 Coupe. Both cars drove between 15-25 miles to meet at my shop. If we had to travel farther, then we probably wouldn't have met. Seems that distance is a major issue when it comes to getting together with other Fiat owners. Other owners we can be over 60-90 miles away which can be hard on an a 50 year old car and time prohibitive due to work/jobs and projects.
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The Spax adjustable shocks are designed to fit 1966 VW Bugs. These are not the best choice for use in 850's as both top and bottom Pin/Loop need to be modified along with the shaft length. Finding shocks that require one of these three mods required on these shocks would be a better choice. Here's a couple of links to show you how to do this modification.
KYB shocks
SPAX shocks
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Memorial Day weekend 2014 Santa Monica Ca. Chris Griffiths shop with his dad John Griffiths and Helen; Dorians GF.
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Mike Pellagrino's modified Fiat 600 and my 850 invited to a Long Beach California Lambretta/Vespa Show Sept 2013
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Sweet!


Hi John!

Nice little write-up on your 850 Coupe. I think I remember this car from what, 21-22(?) years ago? IIRC, you were still driving the light blue 850 Spider & just starting the body/paint on your 600 Cabrio. Was this the Coupe that was always under a tarp/cover on your back (covered) patio area, parked next to the Spider? It's certainly come a long way since then, both in ownership & overall condition. And I agree with your wife - that is indeed 'Karma" with this car. :thumbsup:
 
Yes...This is the same car. Amazing, even you remember that car from years ago; I even forgot it was privileged enough to get a spot under my patio. I really can't believe how it kept coming back. It's a keeper now.:)
Now for the blue spider; I think you helped do some bodywork on it. You won't believe what happened to that car. It still looks cool but it's now a VW....have a look for yourself.
http://www.sdsefi.com/features/may06fiat.htm
The buyer was only looking for a body for his VW project, so I stripped the car of all the mechanicals. It funny how it still carries my painted front bumper. The engine in the coupe actually came from the blue spider.
ciao
 
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Yes...This is the same car. Amazing, even you remember that car from years ago; I even forgot it was privileged enough to get a spot under my patio.

Yeah, I never forget an 850 I've met, even the derelict ones. :grin:


Now for the blue spider; I think you helped do some bodywork on it. You won't believe what happened to that car. It still looks cool but it's now a VW....have a look for yourself.
http://www.sdsefi.com/features/may06fiat.htm
The buyer was only looking for a body for his VW project, so I stripped the car of all the mechanicals. It funny how it still carries my painted front bumper.

Yes, I've seen that car before - very nice. I've met the guy who built/owned/drove it. Unfortunately, it was crashed a while ago. :(

Good news is, he's building another one! That's sorta how I met him; he bought an early 850 Spider front bumper from me on eBay, & opted to come pick it up instead of shipping it. We got to talking &, long story short, the bumper he got from me is for car #2. He told me he got the old Spider body from a guy in your area, & I immediately knew it had to be you & your old car (which he then confirmed). :italia:

The first car he built was awesome enough, but he said he learned a lot doing it & has better ideas for when it comes to building the second car. I have to say, his car was one of the most tastefully-done Fiat 850/VW builds I've seen, probably second only to the old Darrell Vittone 850 drag car.

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My old car crashed! :shock: I've got to hang out on this forum more often. :laugh: We can get the latest news report on all the cars we've had.
I also like what he did with the car; too bad it's gone. Wonder what his new one will look like?
Yes, the Vitone car is one of the best. Getting out of this forums topic, but have you seen these VW powered Renaults? This one even has the "Abarth" deck prop. Even if I don't like a 4-door, the shape of these cars is very cool. :cool:

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Wow that is a great build. My favorite color too.

Any chance of seeing a bit more of your alternator bracket? I am looking to go to an alternative to the Fiat alternator and its unusual attachment and adjustment. I have been thinking about a bracket but always am interested in how others think through the problem.

Keep up the great work and please post up some more pics.

Its nearly 23 years ago that I picked up my 69 Sport Coupe from a parking lot in Burbank. Sadly mine is in nearly the shape it was then (or its a good thing in that I haven't screwed it up further...)

Karl
 
Any chance of seeing a bit more of your alternator bracket? I am looking to go to an alternative to the Fiat alternator and its unusual attachment and adjustment. I have been thinking about a bracket but always am interested in how others think through the problem.

Karl
Glad you like the Coupe :woot:
Here's the story on the brackets...
The little reinforcements (front and back of the slotted arm) are there because the bracket is made of thinner steel plate than I would have liked. I wanted to create a prototype with the thinnest metal possible, since it's more difficult to manipulate thicker metal.
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Initial base plate cut, drilled and mounted to allow clamping the alternator on to test fitment. At this point the belt size is being selected and the slotted arm template cut from cardboard.
Pipes/hose on the floor are some leftovers from the cooling system fitment. ;)
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Sharpie marks on the upper arm where cuts were made to clear the engine mount. The lower mount also shows markup where the shape was made more compact and rounded.
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The lower bracket also has strips of steel reinforcements at 90 degree angles on both edges of the plate. It couldn't be made with much thicker plate since the belt wouldn't align with the crank pulley.
Not related to the alternator mount are the twin chrome tubes of which one is the water pump inlet and the other was supposed to be some sort of by-pass which just never evolved.:hmm:
Now the water by-pass is through a huge X1/9 expansion tank which extends the warmup making the car difficult to drive for more than I'd like. For now the extra tube was threaded and I use it for a engine block drain.:rolleyes:
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The lower mounting hole needed some paint removed to provide a good ground to the alternator housing.
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Here's a closeup of some extra reinforcements I added after the whole alternator setup was completed. I wanted to avoid cracks until I got some miles on the car to test everything else out. Mid 2014 the car has collected 1600 miles and the alternator setup has worked flawlessly.
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If an 850 has an alternator setup already, it's easier to bolt on factory Marrelli 850 alternator. But in my situation the car was equipped with a generator and I would of had to install all the wiring for the relays, idiot lite and regulator.
I chose the Motorola approach like Abarth did as they are easy to find on Ebay and parts are easier to find than Marrelli's or Femsa. Any early AMC, Jeep, International and even Kubota fork lifts, tractors and boat engines use these alternators. Leece Neville and Prestolite took over from Motorola and continued using the basic same castings and internals; so there is even more availability.
The alternator Abarth used were made in France by SEV Motorola which is nearly identical to a Jeep alternator. Only thing is the mounting ears are all wrong on Jeeps; should be in the 6 and 10 o'clock positions, a Jeep/AMC is 6 and 12. That's why my brackets needed more fabrication than I would have liked.
These 6-10 o'clock eared SEV alternators are difficult to find. Could be because during production, sometimes Bosch alternators were used. So the car Abarth actually sourced his alternators from is still unknown to me. One part number I have is from Al Cosentino's TCR; pn 26685 which I think is for an Giulia or Flavia. I haven't found many SEV alternator's with that part number. Maybe I've run across one but it was nearly $300; AMC alternators cost $50. For Lancia/Alfa alternators in catalog searches a Bosch replacement is recommended for.:help:

I still like the compact LooK of a Motorola housing and it's unique ID plate. I made my own rivet-on ID plate in US spec since I think it looks better than the red SEV stickon ID.
Reproduction ID plates are available for AMC Javelin and AMX muscle car restorations. I wanted to learn how to make my own stickers; so I made my own; using a soft aluminum plate, tiny machinery ID plate rivets, computer/printer skills, clear laminate and clear model car dullcoat.
For now, it's fighting UV rays, and holding it's color since I used pigment ink instead of ink dye. I'm still testing and learning about this stuff. :geek:

Here is the initial mockup for the Crane electronic ignition wiring to the distributor using Cranes cheap Molex connector. I didn't like the connector since it wasn't sealed from the elements and was made more for connecting a hardrive on your computer than being on top of a hot/vibrating motor.
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I found a 4-pin sealed wire coupler from a late model Audi/VW and combined it with the water temp sensor wire. You can see it better below in it's a Orange/Purple color. It's easy to see how I just unplugged it to remove the engine.
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Thanks that explains it more.

I changed mine over to the factory alternator a long time ago but have had trouble with it several times. The alternators are very delicate and hard to get folks to work on them. The relays I have are old and don't seem to be entirely happy with their lot in life.

The OE alternator also don't fit well with the 3 bolt water pump as it interferes with the upper part of the water pump casting.

Merkel Weiss used to have a Bosch internally regulated alternator put into the OE front casting to get to a more reliable, OE appearing solution. I should ask him about that as well but still don't like the OE mounting and belt adjustment process.

Thanks
 
I am looking at a Delco Remy unit used on VWs Rabbits back in the 70s which has the right clocking and has a fairly shallow but stout lower mount.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/121115704721?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649

This is a Remy 14412, 65 amp clocked 10 and 6.

The vanes of the fan look like they should run the right way for a CCW engine as it will push air from the front of the block towards the back of the alternator. Is this right? Or does the air from the coolant fan make it less effective?

I am looking at using the VW geared upper quadrant for adjustment and making a lower bracket that uses the two bolts to then grab the front of the lower alt. mount and reach to the back of the mount. There will be another arm like yours that reaches upward for the adjustment quadrant mount. I will do a drawing to illustrate what I am thinking of this weekend.

Thanks for suffering my questions.

Karl
 
Karl
Some things to watch:

  1. The OD of the GM alternator case is usually larger than a Motorola. So it might not fit as compactly as you'd like and might need longer belts. Also watch the clearance for the water pump.
  2. The bottom mount looks like it might make the belt positioning to far out from the block, but you could cut some off.
  3. Dual groove pulley fitment. Need dual groove pulley if using stock rear radiator setup.
I like your mounting ear positions. :) Also if this is a three-wire alternator then the voltage sensing can be improved. The one wire does not allow this. MAD enterprises has good info on this. One wire is easier to install but has some setbacks.
Here you can see the ear positions used on Abarth engines with the Motorola alternator. This is what I wanted to do but didn't have the correct mounting ears.
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The fan normally pulls air thru the alternator to cool the diodes first (I assume this as I was not the engineer). There are fans available for marine applications which are unidirectional or you might try to fit a Corvair fan since it ran CCW. The fan on that Ebay auction looks like CW. You could do what I did and reverse the blades, but you could get many miles using an improper fan. We have all seen many 600's with 850 alternators that seem to run fine.
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Air should enter the rear and exit from the fan side. Objective is to keep air flowing over the diodes. If the air is reversed, the base of the diodes will not be hit with air.
The VW upper adjustable arms are nice; I was going to try one but I decided to keep the original Fiat/Abarth look with the basic slot.
I find diagrams like this to determine the size of the alternator. This is for a Delco.
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The idea you mentioned about the Bosch rear section into the Fiat front half I tried with the Motorola, but it was all wrong. I may have tried it that way if I had any Bosch alternators that were not a small OD as the Motorola.
In my situation, I'm trying to get a certain look on the car; which is not always easiest or the best.
It would have been easier to use a Delco, but I wanted a more compact look and to clone what Abath did.
If you don't mind the Japanese look; consider the tiny Nippondenso. I really like the size, internal regulator and easy to wire. Early Geo Metro's have them ready to install with a single groove v-belt style pulley. Now if you need a dual groove version; I can't help since I never looked for one.
"Sano" install using a well designed bracket.
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This is an Nippondenso alternator off a Kubota (and others) forklift or tractor. A lookup on eBay for "forklift", "tractor" or John Deere alternator gives some interesting options for alternators.:nod:
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See this link for ideas on how to cut mounting tabs down for those thicker mounting tabs. A hacksaw is all you need.
http://xwebforums.com/forum/index.php?threads/25810/
 
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Thanks, all kinds of learning for me today. I really appreciate you taking the time to provide all of that. Really a great deal to learn.

The air direction over the diodes makes sense, so I will ensure the airflow is back to to front regardless of what alternator I end up with.

I recall the Geo/Suzuki alternator fitment from another Retrorides thread (Ditchdiggers' 850 Sedan) although I like the size, fitment options and so on but I share your dislike for the look of it.

Great image of the section of alternator, I will look into finding others.

I did find an R5 alternator which is CCW but the clocking is 6 and 2 which when I look at your 600 Abarth fitment might not be a bad thing at all.

Thank you for providing me and others with some significant education.

Karl
 
HeadLight Chrome Trim Ring - Trick

Difficult to see in the picture below, but the drivers side headlight trim ring is stock 850 and the passenger side is from an early 124 sedan.
The 124 ring is about half the width/depth of the 850 where I thought it might improve the front end appearance. It always seemed to me the coupe had "fat" looking headlight rings.
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This is how I got started on all this......
I happen to have an NOS 124 sedan trim ring which made my old pitted 850 ones look terrible. So I decided to improve the looks of the 850 coupe by using the 124 rings since they are slimmer, more delicate looking and have good chrome. Only thing is they don't fit.
I did a bunch of cutting and bending to get it to fit and finally made it work. But now I had to search for another 124 ring.
Chris Obert happened to have just what I needed to to match what I already had. So I thought I'd take a few pictures and share some ideas on how to change the look or use something else which is more plentiful or less expensive.

Sometimes trim like this is "UN-obtainium" type stuff and it's nice to have options. In the case of an 850 coupe, I think NOS trim rings are more rare/expensive than from early 124 sedans. That's at least what I found, and also in my case I already had one 124 ring on hand. :nod:

The one on the right is the first one I made which is already cut and the one on the left with the bluing is the one I just got from Chris. He probably wouldn't have approved of me cutting up a perfectly good chrome ring :whistle:. After marking it to copy what I did on the other side, most of the blued area was removed. This kind of thing isn't really new, since I got the idea from old Southern California customizer's that did this kind of stuff all the time.
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Below is another view of the front end. The headlights are old French Cluteroche's which I tried to restore. The mirror finish on the buckets rusted and I thought I'd try bright silver paint instead; Not that good. Someday I'll have to salvage the buckets off some other brand.
The fog lights are just something I had in stock that had rusty/pitted chrome. I painted them for now till I get a chance to pickup something better.
The bumper was also in bad shape; lot of dents and bad chrome. It's also just painted till I find something reasonable with good chrome and no damage.
Lots of temporary assemblies on the front of the car; but that's just how it's been due to funds, talent, knowledge and time.
I hope other vintage car enthusiasts do the best with what they have and get these cars going again.
It's been over a year now since assembling the front end and 1600 miles later with still no luck on a better bumper, but at least it's been drivable.

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Very nice but subtle mod. I like it. Reducing the extension of the ring does look much better.

I suspect it was originally extended to carry the sweep of the fender just a little farther. It is a short little car and needs every bit of visual weight it can get :)

Love those deep dish steelies, damn they look good.
 
Autobianchi Bianchina - FIAT 850 Engine + SIMCA TA

Before I had the 850 coupe the same deep dish wheels belonged to my 850 powered Bianchina.
Just found this old picture where I mounted 50 series P7's on all four.
This car had a A-arm coil-over front end and the rear suspension section from a Simca 1000. The Simca TA (transAxle) was used since the suspension unit has a special center mount for the TA instead of the side mounts of the 850. An 850 bellhousing was fit with a few modifications along with modified 850 input shaft which mated to the Simca trans.
Due to the Simca final drive this car seemed to have an endless top speed. I never got close to it's top speed, since it felt too uncomfortable going over 100 in such a small, crude car.
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Showing some wear after several thousand miles in Phoenix Arizona and few years of snow/salt and Detroit Michigan potholes. This car even spent time in Canada before being retired in California.
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Here it is before it got cut-up for scrap.
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The little pod to the left of the original speedo is custom made out of aluminum sheet to house the water temp and oil pressure gauges out of another Fiat. The radiator came from Chevy Vega due to it's efficient cross flow design, inlet/outlet positions, small size and it was free. It was enclosed in a very efficient thin sheet alloy housing with 2 fans pulling air from the back. If I were to do it over again, I would install the radiator like Abarth did on 600s, since things were very cramped in front of the steering tie rods and center link making all the fitment work difficult.
The appearance of the car would probably have improved by using a front air dam/shroud to enclose the radiator. I never had any cooling problems using this setup since the system included the Ford expansion tank and lots of coolant.
The car was carpeted, but in this photo I was doing some work where it was removed and you can see the white aluminum floors. I dismantled a motor-home where I was able to collect lots of aluminum and steel sheet metal that I used for the project.
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Below is the only photo I can find that shows the Simca subframe in place. Here the throttle and clutch cable are disconnected, but you can imagine where the clutch cable would have needed to cross right in the middle of the sub-frame structure. So the clutch cable just rode under the cross member, rubbing on it making it's final pivot up the the clutch arm. I never got around to redesigning the clutch actuating setup or installing a hydraulic slave cylinder, so the clutch always felt a bit hard and always wondered when the cable would break due to the strange path it followed and all the friction. The cable was also custom made as nothing off the shelf was the correct length or had the right fittings on the ends.
The clutch cable was the only thing that ever left me stranded on the road when it snapped. I still managed to get home by push starting the car by myself (the car was so small you could almost hug it :love:) in one gear by clutchless shifting and timing the traffic lights :hypno:
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Various 850 engines were installed throughout the life of the car. Most of these photos show an 817/843 with a single barrel Weber. Only reason for this low performance motor is either I sold the hotter motor I had in the car or I was using it in another car.
The electrical system was based off late model Fiat 850 alternator (shown below) which worked well other than replacing relays as they became faulty.
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The photo below gives some perspective of how small the car is compared to whats on the road in the US. The color of the car was intended to be a bright color like yellow, blue, red or white, but due to some mixup with my painter it ended up in a late 1970's Fiat Brown that made the car look like a small brown "turd" IMO.
The body is mostly steel with some aluminum to lighten things where possible. The front air dam still needed some redesign to make it look more like an Abarth design, but I just got involved to too many projects and ran out of time.
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The car had a mishap with a center concrete median that damaged the front lower drivers side.This loosened-up the front-end bodywork and punctured the radiator too. I thought about repairing the car, but along came my 600 sunroof and I ran out of parking. The car was dismantled into small pieces and put in a Hollywood Ca dumpster.
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The Simca suspension assembly mounted easily to the 500 frame (Binachina's underpinnings are Fiat 500). The only problem was there was no way to properly to route the clutch cable up the the bell housing clutch arm. The triangulated assembly was in the way. The Simca clutch arm was in a different position which made it route correctly. Since I was using an 850 bellhousing the angle was all wrong. Eventually I was going to fit a hydraulic clutch cylinder, but I never got around to it.
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Here is the adapter plate for the Simca suspension. It bolted to the lower frame cross member. Then the entire suspension unit bolted (#6 bolt in the diagram above) to the welded-on nuts and the bump stop extensions. You can see this plate in one of the photos above where the car is dismantled and on it's side.
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Here is my Red 128 powered 1967 600D and my 1959 600 when I first bought it. The red car finally got sold and the the brown car was scrapped.
The red car still used a stock 600D transaxle and suspension except for an Abarth front leaf spring. The stub axle flexible rubber couplers where replaced several times along with: axles, stub axles and splined couplers since the 128 engine was too much power/torque for a 28 HP drive train assembly. The metal splines and rubber in these parts just couldn't hold up to the power of the modified 128 engine.
I've been asked many times about installing a bigger engine the 850 coupe. I don't start making plans as I don't want to go through the trouble/expense/downtime again since I've done it many times over with several cars. If I want to go fast, I just get into another car that's already built to go faster. :thumbsup:
That doesn't mean I'm still not tempted to install a Mazda Rotary or Suzuki Hayabusa whenever I see them on uTube.
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The DiDato wheels also spent some time on my 128 powered 600 Sedan. The blue car was out of Echo Park Ca.
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Nice!

Mike Pellegrino's 600 and the 850 invited to a So Cal Lambretta/Vespa Show
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Whaaa??? I can't believe you guys didn't invite me... :hrmph:

I don't think I've ever seen Mike's 600 with paint on it - looks great! Whose red 850 Coupe?


Van Nuys Ca 2013 with Sam Alam's spyder
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And my 128 Wagon between them in the background - woo-hoo! :) Judging by how low (level) the rear of my Wagon is sitting, this must've been after I'd packed everything back up at the end of the show.
 
Looks like the owner of the Dauphine in the post above also owns a Fiat 850. :)
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:thumbsup:
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Nice stance :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:
Almost looks like a funny car with those front mag wheels :)
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Originally Posted by Jeff Stich
Yeah, I never forget an 850 I've met, even the derelict ones. :grin:




Yes, I've seen that car before - very nice. I've met the guy who built/owned/drove it. Unfortunately, it was crashed a while ago. :(

Good news is, he's building another one! That's sorta how I met him; he bought an early 850 Spider front bumper from me on eBay, & opted to come pick it up instead of shipping it. We got to talking &, long story short, the bumper he got from me is for car #2. He told me he got the old Spider body from a guy in your area, & I immediately knew it had to be you & your old car (which he then confirmed). :italia:

The first car he built was awesome enough, but he said he learned a lot doing it & has better ideas for when it comes to building the second car. I have to say, his car was one of the most tastefully-done Fiat 850/VW builds I've seen, probably second only to the old Darrell Vittone 850 drag car.

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Basic Bodywork at my backyard shop. The car was always light blue and I had a new batch of acrylic enamel paint mixed from Fiat paint chip specifications.
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This engine installed in the spyder is now what's in the coupe. I just changed a few of the accessories like the alternator, exhaust, air cleaner and ignition.
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The painted bumper was only supposed to be temporary until I could find a better chrome version. It ended up staying on the car even when turned into a VW drag car.
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Pat McDermit
purchased and then crashed my blue 67 850 spyder pictured above with my 600. It's not as bad as it sounds since Pat was okay after the crash and at the time, I probably needed the space for other projects. I took all the parts off the car since Pat only needed the body sheet metal. Some of the parts, like the engine, brakes and transmission ended up in my coupe.
When I sold the spyder to Pat he told me what he was going to do with it. I didn't really want it to become a VW drag car and I didn't think he would do it and I would never see it if he did, but here it is in the pic below.
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I recently found Pat on this forum along with some other Fiat-VW drag racers. This forum contains some interesting material on 850 and 600 dragcar builds.
http://ultimateaircooled.com/aircooled-forums.php

Here are a few pics of his most recent Fiat drag racer. Looks like he couldn't find an early covered headlight car this time, but he did use most of the same motor. He is an excellent fabricator and really does nice work. :wink2:
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http://youtu.be/ZUAp0xiKUbA
 
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Orange County Fiat 850's - Mikes Shop

Huntington Beach Ca. Mike Pellagrino's shop.

1968 850 Coupe imported from Germany many years ago. We are guessing in came over with with a military GI. See that large German ID tag right above Fiats ID plate.
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Mike is busy doing the bodywork and suspension on his 68 when a couple of us 850 guys showed up at the shop. He'll be installing a Simca 8-35 ring & pinion and a tuned 903 with a PBS staggered timing ST-280 cam.
We think the valve clearance on these cams is .010 intake and .012 exhaust. Would anyone know what the PBS spec was? :hmm:
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The OTAS also takes it's parking spot in Mikes Shop. Mike says he takes the Otas out for long drives and always has people wondering what just drove by. :italia:
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Looks like a Fiat Abarth 1300 Coupe. Mike has owned it for many years and probably should go to a new home.
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All the trunk modifications look like Abarth and his crew went wild with the Air Chisel making room for the radiator, fan and spare tire.:excited:
My coupe has some of the same chopping and modifications, but not as extreme. Mostly because I wanted to keep the battery in front, where Abarth moved it next to the engine in a special tray.
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Here's Mike showing us the fabrication he did replacing the entire sheet metal piece which holds the heater core and the brake fluid reservoirs. The drain holes got clogged and did some heavy rust damage where the water collected. Also note one of the unique hood springs on a coupe with the oblong loop instead of the more common round loop.
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Re: headlights

Sometimes trim like this is "UN-obtainium" type stuff and it's nice to have options. In the case of an 850 coupe, I think NOS trim rings are more rare/expensive than from early 124 sedans. That's at least what I found, and also in my case I already had one 124 ring on hand. :nod:


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Did you try fitting a 124 Spider headlight ring? They have a much shallower profile than the 850 Coupe one. And they're still fairly available in our local junkyards.


Below is another view of the front end. The headlights are old French Cluteroche's which I tried to restore. The mirror finish on the buckets rusted and I thought I'd try bright silver paint instead; Not that good. Someday I'll have to salvage the buckets off some other brand.

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In case you try to go find more of these headlights, the brand name is "Auteroche", not Cluteroche - that's what the big capital "A" in the center of the lens stands for, though it tends to look more like a "W" instead (it's a fancy "A" in the handwriting-type script just below it, I know).

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I had a pair of these on my old brown 850 Sedan (remember that car?) & I really liked them, much nicer than our generic GE sealed beam lights.

FYI: there's a guy sort of near you selling a pair of these at a decent price:

http://losangeles.craigslist.org/wst/pts/4634202771.html
 
The Coupe!

Huntington Beach Ca. Mike Pellagrino's shop.
1968 850 Coupe imported from Germany many years ago. We are guessing in came over with with a military GI. See that large German ID tag right above Fiats ID plate.
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Yes, I've seen a few German (or imported-from-Germany) 850 Spiders with this same tag. In those cars it was riveted to the passenger side inner front fender with the VIN tag next to it (inside the trunk) with no VIN tag in the engine bay.







Mike is busy doing the bodywork and suspension on his 68...

Mike made the trek out to my place yesterday in his 850 Racer(!), to pick up some front brake/spindle assembly pieces for this Coupe, which currently has the early front spindles & brakes on it. One rotor was really thin (8mm!) & he needed a replacement asap since he wants to get the Coupe up & running soon. I didn't have any early brake parts or spindle assemblies left in my parts stash, but remembered that my early 850 Spider project car still has its original bits. Since I'll eventually be converting that car to late-style assemblies anyway, we got to work & simply swapped his rotor/hub unit for one of the ones on my car that was more within spec (9.28mm).

I also hooked him up with a decent set of late 850 front spindle & brake assemblies, which he'll take the time to do a full proper rebuild on later. The goal is to get his Coupe up & rolling quickly with the early brakes still on it, then swap in the late-model parts at his leisure. This will also make it easier to service the brakes as needed in the future, since the late rotors are much easier to replace & the late rotors, pads & caliper hardware/rebuild bits are shared with the Fiat 124, 128 & X1/9, so they're more readily-available & cheaper/easier to obtain. :thumbsup:

We think the valve clearance on these cams is .010 intake and .012 exhaust. Would anyone know what the PBS spec was? :hmm:

I thought I had this cam info saved on my computer from the old PBS website, but apparently not. I can't find it in my notes either, so I've asked a friend (Feig) to ask Paul (PBS) what the specs are for this cam. Hope to hear back in the next day or so... :wink2:
 
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