Took the car to the car wash and noticed a water line inside my door panel. Looked at the vent window seals and both were bad. Began looking online for a replacement. Wow! $80 for both. That is a lot of money for rubber but I need them. Sucks.
Thought it was going to be an easy task. Take one out put new one in, right? Wrong! Had to take out the entire window assembly and replace the seal outside the door.
Also ordered remanufactured front brake calipers from Advanced Auto at $32 each. Beats the ones from IAP at $72 each. The photo actually shows a FIAT stamp on the body.
12/2009: Deep Freeze
Today was 23 degrees in Atlanta, GA. Not natural but I wanted to record how a 34 year old car starts without hesitation on this deep freeze. The car has a carb choke but it is not needed for the thing to start by just touching the key.
Sorry that the video is sideways but it is my first video with the new Motorola Droid. Great phone and nice operating system but since I am a Yahoo man, it is not for me.
11/2009: SeaFoaming Day
So I read on the FiatSpider.com about the wonderful world of SeaFoam. Watched videos on the web and saw some cars with an insane amount of smoke after the treatment. I watched the how-to at their website and decided to give it a shot.
Since the car had a valve job less then 5,000 miles ago, I did not expect any major clouds of smoke or issues. What was expected was exactly what happened. Followed the direction, the car started after a couple of turns and some smoke came out but not a lot. After 5 minutes of so everything was back to normal. Did a full oil/filter change after the treatment.
Not sure if it helped because the car stared quickly and drove nice before the treatment but it feels good at higher speed.
10/2009: Italian Car Day
Weatherman: I have a one million dollar super doppler radar that tells me that it will be a dry weekend. Reality: Rain the whole day.
So it rained the whole day during the 2009 Italian Car Day in Duluth, GA but a lot of people and cars showed up. Got some great ideas from other Fiats in the show. Talked about cars, looked at cars and talked some more about cars.
1st place: Nice Spider with a great engine and sunken bumpers. 2nd place: A mint example of an 80's 124. 3rd place: A cool looking 850. All three deserved to win. They were all great examples of nice Fiats.
Velozi won 'Best Modified Vehicle'. Completely surprised and happy as heck to know other people enjoy the car the same way I do. Thanks.
9/2009: 72 and sunny
People call it Hotlanta but last week it started raining on a Wednesday and continued for 8 days. A lot of flooding and damage so I was not able to drive Velozi around. With nothing to do, I began working on the wipers. Took out the cowl and cleaned out a lot of leaves and junk. All looked fine. Replaced the seal around the heater box and covered the two tube beathers with 2" punch outs for PVC tubes. Got them at Home Depot for 50 cents each. Fit perfect in the holes.
The motor was dead and the assembly was frozen solid. I never drive in the rain so never noticed that my wipers stopped working. Replaced the motor, assembly and painted both sides of the cowl for rust protection. Got some aquarium air lines and 'T' connectors from Walmart and replaced the old water lines.
9/2009: Shock Tower TLC
After I looked at my bushings, I noticed how ugly the shock towers looked. They are in good condition but crusty, dirty and just plain ugly. Took out a screwdriver, scrapper and metal brush and went to work.
Took out some surface rust and old paint. Found a couple of rust holes and took my screwdriver and started taking ugly stuff out. Not really serious but glad I took the time to work on it before it became a big problem. Surprised that the crossmember was in very good condition. All connection bolts were solid with no play.
After scrapping old stuff out, got some Purple Stuff De-Ruster from Advanced Auto Parts and wet all parts inside/out. Let it dry overnight. Did it again the next day and let it dry. J-B Weld Stik the rust holes and J-B Weld Epoxy on top of it to cover those parts. After drying overnight painted the shock towers, wheel area and crossmember with Rust-Oleum flat black paint.
9/2009: Miles
Still very reliable. Not much maintenance or needs apart from the normal adjustment, gas and checking levels.
Driving it around town and waiting for the Atlanta Italian Car Day on October 10th in Duluth, GA.
8/2009: Crappy bushings!!!!
So I changed the whole top control arm in August 2008. About 1,000 miles later the things are gone. Looks like the rubber was dry and useless. After checking it, the arm is from 2002 and probably not stored well. The rubber boot on the balljoint it also gone. Bottom ones are good.
I also need to condition and recoat the shock towers and the inside. Some of the protective coating is gone but the metal behind is still good.
5/2009: Driving
So yesterday I had a lot of business to take care off. Many places to go all around Georgia and great weather. 75 miles and 6 hours later, I was back home. A lot of miles and not a single hiccup, strange noise or concern. Perfect day.
5/2009: Every engine has its plug
I believe that every engine has its specific spark plug. I have tested most of them; from fancy Bosch Platinum +4 to original Marelli plugs. Found out that they either run too cold for this engine or do not give me the performance I want.
About six months ago I switched to NGK BPR5ES (p/n:7734) because it is a slightly hotter plug. Today I took them out to check and they looked perfect. Good news.
4/2009: Strange noise
For a couple of months I hear this 'gasping for air' or 'drowning in water' sound coming from the engine block. Maybe air in the cooling system or worst, a blown head gasket. I bled the cooling system and the noise remained. I changed the oil and it looked very clean, so it is not the head gasket. No lack of performance or problems. You can hear a recording by clicking on the link. Listen to a recording of the noise
After a while I found my crankcase breather hose, that I took off when I changed to an ADF carb and a Sprint air box, was making all the noise. I added an oil trap and a small air filter to the end of the hose and the noise was gone. A $10 PepBoys solution that also looks nice.
4/2009: Car Break In
Get ready for some crazy crap: After coming back from PepBoys with break cleaner and an oil filter, I parked in a common parking area and went inside my house. Came out about 20 minutes later to do some groceries and noticed a shadow inside the car but thought it was a reflection. I approched the car and noticed that some crazy son of a b***** was sitting in my passengers' seat.
So I walked by like I was going to another car and got my camera phone ready before I busted his a$$. Walked around the van next to the car and snapped this bad photo before pulling his a$$ out of the car (Top Photo). He was taking out my stereo and when he saw me he almost messed his pants. I confronted him and he took off running. I got on my other car and hit the road looking for him. Found him a couple of blocks away. We got into an altercation where I searched him and took his backpack before he ran off again.
He looked like a guy who was down and out so I debated if I was going to press charges. He did not steal anything, in fact I ended up with his bag. He busted my passenger's vent window out of the frame and took out the center radio console. Both are easy fixes. I called the cops and did the whole report thing, he looked for fingerprints (Bottom Photo), I gave him the guy's backpack and a description. I do not think I was targeted, just a crime of convenience. The thief keep appologizing and telling me that he was hungry and did not take anything of mine. Feel sorry for the guy but if I see him again, it's on!
11/2007: Mother#@%$&!!!!!!!!!!
After the body shop, I took the nice, shinny, awesome looking Fiat Spider to my mechanic for a tune up. Change all the basic parts, fuel pump, and flex joint. Driving out of the shop I felt the steering tight. Did not think much about it since I thought it was related to a 'performance feel' from the new parts and tune up.
Driving down Piedmont Road around 30MPH, the freaking drivers' side front wheel came the hell off and traveled 4 lanes of traffic. I kept control of the car and was able to slide to the right lane. The whole thing came out damaging the hub, rotor and cover. No major damage since I was driving slow but scary and the car is now dissabled. The worst thing about it is that the newly painted fender is now destoyed. Only damage on the fender, no other panels but enough to mess my driving time for the rest of 2007. Now dealing with the shop since my lawer said they are liable for negligence. When I took the car in, I told them to check the front suspension and joints and they admited not doing it. If they did, they would have noticed the loose suspension.
The top photo shows what happens to pavement when you drive on your rotors instead of your wheel. The bottom is the crack on the top fender and the bent on the rear arch.
