Figured I'd start a thread for my spider.

Purchased it Memorial Day weekend last year. Work I've done so far is clean out the gas tank which was responsible for clogging the fuel inlet sock inside the tank and stalling the car above certain RPM/speed. New Carter fuel pump. The 2.0L stock intake/carb was swapped out for a 1800 intake and rebuilt Holley 5200 from a 2.0 early 70's Merc Capri. A 3" lunchbox tops it off. The air valves in the head were removed and plugged (that was fun - snapped one air valve off at the head.) EGR tube between exhaust manifold and head has been removed and the bung plugged under the manifold so that hole through the front of the head is just open now. My fan switch was bypassed and the fan running constant off the coil positive. Replaced the rad switch and restored wiring to stock. Cleaned up the radiator and fan brackets a bit with some fresh semigloss while I was in there. At that point the car finally ran consistently, throughout the RPM range and all gears, and had pretty good performance. I knew the front end needed work badly so it got driven a few miles here and there but nothing too far from home, high speed, or near other traffic.

This year my goal is to get all the floor pan rust fixed, fix my gangsta lean seats, get the front suspension restored, and my dented oil pan replaced before summer hits. The seat repairs are essentially done and they just need to be reassembled and a pulled stitch in one of the seats repaired. The front suspension is torn down and I just have to yank the crossmember so I can do the oil pan. I have a replacement crossmember (3 bolts w/ flattened threads and a really bad crack on one of the front bolts) that will go on. I'll probably stick with stock control arms but get the rust off in a bucket of water & baking soda + battery charger. Arms will get new ball joints, bushings, and outer tie rod ends.

So here's some photos of floor pan work I've been working on for the past couple of weeks. If you can't tell, I'm a hobbiest welder, and don't get to do it out too often. This was all done with a special .030 flux wire I found that is specifically for up to 20 gauge sheet metal. It'll all get primer/seam sealer around the edges top and bottom and then I'll probably coat the entire underside and cabin in Eastwood Rust Encapsulator. POR15 has let me down on other projects, and RE has not, so that's what the spider will get.

Pass. side lower control arm plate:



Pass. side rear footwell:



This was the first panel I welded in, and unfortunately it shows. I don't think I had used my welder for about 3 years prior to this. Driver side footwell area:



Same area from the top:



Driver side rear footwell and lower control arm plate (hard to see under the mount) from bottom and top:





Pass. side rear footwell from the top:

looking good so far you can always clean it up later
im sure if i was to try welding it would turn out about the same
back when i welded my header i had to grind weld grind weld and grind
that was the only time i have welded

Nice work! Think it will be ready by this AUG, so you can join me and 124JOE at the Botham Winery car show?

C'mon, Joe, it's in Barneveld, and Patty and I are tired of being the only Fiats in the show!

Any other Wisconsin Spiders want to join us? Sunday AUG 14, info here:

http://www.bothamvineyards.com/vintage-celebration/

Neil

(Come on, you too, Brenda.....time to get that red spider on the show lawn, not the parking lot!)

you may be on to something there

I'm hoping for June to have this year's work done - if it ever stops snowing. I don't like laying on the garage floor for hours on end below about 50 degrees, so when its 38 like today I'm inside working on some other project or relaxing.

I have a bullet heater but it makes everything sweat moisture when I run it, and I'm trying to slow down rust right now, not encourage it.

Spent a few hours on the car today but mostly just cleaned up the area.

I still had the factory sound deadening in 3/4 of the driver's rear footwell. I managed to get almost all of that out before I couldn't feel my nose/fingers anymore (high was 34 today, and that was hours ago.) Sheet metal underneath looks perfect w/ shiny black paint.

I wanted to take the outer sills off today but unfortunately in the space I'm working in right now (3 cars side by side in a 2.5 car garage) I can't open the doors far enough to get a few of the topside front screws and don't want to strip anything - those suckers are in there TIGHT.

So instead I found some 1" factory drain holes in the rear of the front wheel wells and also a small metal tabs in the rear wheel wells that I managed to tap down and open to get some views inside. Gotta love cell phone w/ flash.





Anyone recognize the item inside the driver's side sill?

The pass. rear seems to have a bit of rust but probably not too bad. The sills are going to have to come off once I get it off jackstands for a closer look though.

Your rockers look pretty good considering the repairs you have done on your floors. There's minimal debris in there. No idea what that unidentified objeçt could be. Use your favorite rust encapsulator or rustproofing agent and flush the bejeebers out of that area and you'll never need to stick your eyeball back into that access hole ever again. You might want to pop a couple more holes under the door sill plate and spray into outer rockers as well. These out of sight out of mind areas that most people ignore until it's too late.

Pulled the trigger on new ball joints, control arm bushings, oil pan (might as well replace the dented one while the crossmember is out, right?) and engine mounts today. Thank you AR.

Today I took a break from sheet metal repairs and started on some other things. Beautiful day - makes me anxious to get this on the road again.

Disassembled lower control arms using my trusty harbor freight 12 ton press.



and then started de-rusting them using electrolysis. you can see the line before/after.





pulled my crossmember to make way for one that doesn't have bolt issues. i have one loose stud on the pass. side but I can still get it to loosen tighten reasonably easy so I'm not going to cut open the frame rail to tack it or anything like that.



replaced my dented oil pan with a baffled one from AR. Clearance is still a challenge even with no crossmember in place. I still had to raise the motor 3/4" of an inch or so to get the rear clear. It was held captive between a connecting rod inside and the steering link until I did that. Oil pump pickup was not cracked so leaving it.



degreasing brackets to make way for replacement motor mounts. Mine are intact but pretty soft and bulging in the middle:

thats cool with the eletolites

Here's my recipe:

5 gal bucket w/ 4 gallons of tap water
1 tablespoon plain old baking soda per gallon. Some sources online say "washing soda" but plain old baking soda works fine.
A piece of plain scrap steel. not galvanized and not stainless. plain steel. about 24" of 2" angle in this case.
an "old school" non-computerized car battery charger like the old schumachers. I use the 10amp setting. I've also used old "wall wart" DC adapters from old electronics in the past - just try to get something 12-24v and make sure it is DC and not AC. They seem to work just as well.

Just connect + to the scrap steel, - to the piece you are derusting
I try to get them close but make sure they aren't touching.
Apply power.

You'll essentially see some tiny bubbles, occasional larger bubbles, and foam and junk collect at the top. The anode (scrap steel) will "collect" rust over time, so once a week or so I'll just hit it with grinder, sandpaper whatever is handy to clean it off. That keeps everything working at max speed.

You'd be surprised at what it can do to a part in an hour but I usually leave it anywhere from 4-24 hours in each position. It is somewhat directional so I have to flip the arms over, upside down, etc. to get everything.

I've tried the higher amp "jump start" on my charger but its marginally better so I stick w/ 10 amp so it doesn't sound like its going to blow up.

This is about 1000x better than naval jelly. And I'm not removing good metal like w/ sanding or grinding and it cleans out any pits. The leftovers are completely safe to dump. You can stick your hand in this stuff w/out gloves.

One caution - don't use stainless or galvanized as the scrap piece. you end up with a compound that is NOT "safe" to touch/dump out w/out special handling. Just plain old steel.

Once done there may be a black coating in areas. A wirebrush (even a toothbrush) will take this stuff off. I dry it with the air compressor and then hit it w/ etching primer so it doesn't rust again.

what do you do with the waste water?

how to build a soda blaster
you need an air compresser. 5 or 6 foot of copper line 3/8 with a air line fitting on the end and a 5 gal pail w/lid
bend the line to a coil and drill a 1/16 hole about every inch on the bottom half and pinch the end almost colsed
so it kicks up the baking soda add 1/4 to 1/2 a box of soda and run for half hour with part in the middle

124JOE wrote:what do you do with the waste water?

Dump it on the compost pile. Its just components of water, backing soda, and iron.

Ditto Joe's remark: very cool!

Lots of work and lots of progress; gotta feel good.

We'll have to get our Spiders on the same lot sometime; they look like they are twins!

Neil