Fiat 131 build

[cbxer55]

Ha! Back in the day FIAT was well respected. The car I'm replicating won the world rally championship 3 times; 1977, 78 and 80

I had a Fiat a long time ago. 850 Spider. Fun little car. My dad and I rebuilt the engine. We could lift the engine out by ourselves, no hoist required.

 

[BlackBII]

I had a Fiat a long time ago. 850 Spider. Fun little car. My dad and I rebuilt the engine. We could lift the engine out by ourselves, no hoist required.

Ah yeah those are tiny little things. I've driven an 500 and they are no bigger than a go-cart

 

[BlackBII]

Small update. Added some stuff on the rear

 

[rumblecloud]

OMG...it looks like the Mirafiori emblem is tilted about a half a millimeter ....
Have you no shame?

 

[BlackBII]

OMG...it looks like the Mirafiori emblem is tilted about a half a millimeter ....
Have you no shame?

Ha! Someone noticed. But it's actually the lip of the decklid; the entire thing is bowed or arched, it's higher in the middle. It came that way and I actually fixed it a little bit but it's still there. The badge is straight

 

[rumblecloud]

Glad you have a sense of humor.
Your work is stellar.

 

[BlackBII]

Got all the glass in. All the glass is original to the car except the front quarter windows; I made those from cast acrylic as they need to have the mirrors mounted to them. The windshield is a lucky find - NOS and gasket too

I painted the taillight surrounds black and started on the wiring, dash and interior. A million things left but at one at a time they'll all get done

 

[ryan]

I physically reacted to all the wiring. Not at the quality, just at the thought of having to do a bunch of wiring. I dont mind it, but bending to get in the dash kills my back these days

 

[Blmpkn]

I love all of that. Door panels.. headliner.. super sweet rear view... gah

 

[Chapap]

I physically reacted to all the wiring. Not at the quality, just at the thought of having to do a bunch of wiring. I dont mind it, but bending to get in the dash kills my back these days

I imagine that's a minimal setup too. It's amazing how much wiring it takes to make things work.

 

[BlackBII]

I imagine that's a minimal setup too. It's amazing how much wiring it takes to make things work.

Indeed, as minimal as I could get it. I am running AC, power door locks, full stereo, system and fuel injection so there's quite a few circuits. The idea with this dash I made though, is that the top and the 3 front panels come right off, so there is quite literally no work that needs to be done "under" the dash, which is nice. The harness is a universal 28 circuit one from Painless, so a bit overkill. I'm using the extra circuits to power an additional relay/fuse box for my ECU, injectors, coils, fog lights, etc. I haven't finished it quite yet, but all the wiring will get wrapped in fabric tape and tucked/zip tied up. The Android head unit is nice because it can do music, GPS, and I can adjust my engine tune with it connected to my megasquirt ECU

Here's the newest pics

 

[Blmpkn]

Are you doing all that upholstery work?

 

[BlackBII]

Are you doing all that upholstery work?

Yep I have an old Consew machine that makes it easy

 

[Blmpkn]

Yep I have an old Consew machine that makes it easy

Awesome! That's definitely a cool skill to have. Interior work is big bucks for how relatively simple it is.

 

[BlackBII]

Awesome! That's definitely a cool skill to have. Interior work is big bucks for how relatively simple it is.

Yeah and with this car they were all rather easy; add a top stitch and then wrap it around the aluminum panels