Fiat, Second Time Around

A few years ago I built this fiberglass Fiat. It had a 406 sbc and was street driven and drag raced a few times. NHRA didn't like the car because I had to get in through the hole in the roof. So, I removed the Fiat body and put a Crosley wagon body on the chassis. Since the Crosley has doors, it passes NHRA tech. The Crosley is a drag only car.
The Fiat body has been sitting under some pine trees for a few years. Recently I got the bug to build it again.

Here's the body. I picked up a narrowed 9" Ford rear end with Strange axles for $250 at a recent swap meet. That is what got me interested in building the car again. The plan is to have it be easier to drive on the street than it was the first time around. Doors will be cut in and a roof added. It will have a full tube frame, sbc & 700r4 trans. Passing NHRA tech is a must. And I want it to corner like a go cart. It ain't gonna be easy to meet all these requirements.

Even though my main project right now is building an old school looking trailer for my dragster, I did start on the Mustang II based front suspension for the Fiat.
At Back to the 50's a guy had a box of free stuff. I got a pair of Fatman tubular lower A arms. They are narrow across the mounting points, just like the ones on my Anglia. It is not a good design but should be ok on a 2,000 lb. car.
A friend gave me the Competition Engineering upper A arms. They are supposed to use steel sleeves and an aluminum cross shaft as seen in the pic. I opted for Pete & Jakes sleeves and bushings. Here, you can see the P & J sleeves welded to the A arms.
A while back I narrowed a Mustang II front suspension for my Anglia. Unfortunately I didn't get it narrow enough and replaced it with a Fatman setup. I saved the narrow rack & pinion and that piece is dictating the width of the front suspension now being built.

Here's the uprights, top tube and tabs that position the upper A arms. BTW, All the work was done with an angle grinder, sawzall, drill press and MIG welder. I don't have much in the way of tools & equipment and everything I do is a bit on the crude side. I does show you don't need a lot to buld a car though.

The main crossmember is 2" by 4" box tubing. It is sleeved where the lower A arms mount. I built 2 1/2 degrees of anti dive into the upper A arms. Camber is set at 0 degrees and is not adjustable. I get about 1 1/2 degrees of camber change at 5" of wheel travel.

The tube and tabs the upper A arm mounts to is tilted front to back to achieve the anti dive. I used the stock spec for a Pinto.
Caster is about 2-3 degrees and is achieved by moving the mounting points of the upper A arm back 1/2" from the spindle centerline. Normally, MII upper A arms mount with a cross shaft onto slotted holes in the spring tower. Next time you see one notice how the A arm is angled to achieve caster. The method I used, learned from El Polacko on the HAMB allows the A arms to sit straight. Caster is not adjustable, so I hope I got it right! The setup looks a little spindly right now but as the frame gets built it will be well braced and gusseted.
Once I finish the front suspension unit, not much will happen on this project til Fall.
Just thought some of you might be interested how a goofy old man with a few tools and not much money bulds a hot rod.

bob w said:

Just thought some of you might be interested how a goofy old man with a few tools and not much money bulds a hot rod.

Click to expand...

well i fall into that same catagory so of course i'm interested.....[cl
and I think you do excellent work from what i can see......

looking forward to more on this one [P[P

im interested too.. you always do great work !

I'm sure this is going to be another really nice job by you Bob W. I enjoy your project threads. Lord have mercy...look at that narrow little steering rack. I also have a free box of MII front parts, control arms and such also. If you want, I'll send you a photo of what I have in the event you want to change or need anything.

I can't wait to watch this one! [P

ISore

It seems as though you have put a lot of thought into it , planning is every bit as important as building . Looks great [

Bob, cool as usual! That is gonna be a great looking Fiat! I can't wait to watch this build....CR

It's all tacked together and appears to be dimensionally correct. Once I start laying out the frame tubes, I'll know if I need dropped spindles. The MII brakes should provide good stopping power for a car this light. The rack & rinion might be about an inch too long. Not sure if that is enough to cause bump steer. There's room to narrow it but it is a lot of work so I need to find out if it is necessary.
Now back to the trailer project.

Little money, short on tools, I'm watchin' this one.

Very cool soo far.

Not much of an update because work really hasn't begun. Busy with other projects. Here's how the front end will sit in the car. I scored a pair of QA-1 coilovers on Craigslist for the front. Also bought a race prepped 700R4. And I have most of the needed tubing. I need to buy a 1 3/4" die for the tubing bender before I can make any real progress.

While waiting for the Plymouth truck frame to get done at the sand blaster's, I rolled the tubing bender out of the corner and started on the front framework. Probably spent 3/4 of the time just looking and considering alternatives.
The bottom tube will be 1 1/2" lower than shown. My two pallet frame table doesn't allow for proper placement of all the parts.

The tubes that go up to the firewall will sit on top of the short tubes where the upper A Arms attach. The rusty pipes with the 90 degree bends are outriggers that will pick up the body mounts and the roll cage. That tubing has to be 1 5/8" dia. (all the other tubing pictured is 1 1/2" dia.). I don't have a die for bending 1 5/8" dia. yet, but I did find a roll bar hoop I had made about 20 years ago and never used. So I cut it for this application. Nothing goes to waste around here.

Here's about how it will sit. The front tires will be shorter and wider. This is supposed to be a good cornering car besides being fast in a straight line. The large front fender openings will be filled with headers with side pipes. The side pipes dictate that the body has to be a bit higher off the ground than I would have liked. The hard part for me is making doors in the fiberglass body. Rodguy 1 (here on RRR) has given me good advice and I'll get ahold of him if I get in trouble.
Rear tires will not be real tall. Probably will use Mickey Thompson Drag Radials. at least part of the time.
I'd like to try a little autocross with this thing.

That car is just flat out COOL lookin Bob![cl....CR