Engine disassembled

State of the engine is not looking too bad. cylinder no.2 was rusted and a few piston rings were broken. Time for a thorough re-assembly, including re-honing of the cylinders, balancing the crankshaft and replacing all the bearings. this will make a nice project, when it's too cold to work on the body. 

In the meantime, the bare engine block has been dropped of at the revision company for extensive research. They told me there are no big issues, so I will have all the cylinders rebored for oversize new pistons (77.2). A new oil pan came in today because the old one lost a 'head-to-head' with a speed bump. 

Gasket set and new piston set (77.2 oversized) are waiting for re-assembly. All kinds of engine parts will come in later this week. Pictures of re-assembly will appear here later. First wait for the engine block to get back after re-boring the cylinders

27-2-2015: After cleaning the engine, drilling and honing the cylinders and grinding the mating surface, this is what the engine block looks like. I like it. Can't wait to paint and reassemble......

now also possible to leave messages for anonymous viewers. Let me know what you think.......

Wiring out.

November 9th: Took out wiring harness

 

I hope I made enough pictures to get it in again. :-)

Engine and transmission out!

November 2nd...

Today I took out the engine and transmission. Another step in the right direction!

The engine was full of a mixture of oil and a lot of (very old) gasoline. That can only mean some serious damage to cylinders or piston rings. Maybe I'm lucky and it was just a serious leakage at the fuel pump... Let's hope it's only the piston rings. First do a little work on the car and clean out my workshop to start working on the engine and tranny. These will make a nice winterproject.....

Meanwhile..... the car is almost an empty shell. Few parts to go before actual bodywork can start.

4 weeks after delivery. Almost a bare chassis.

4 weeks after delivery....... 21-10-2014

80% of the car has been disassembled. Rust is coming out underneath virtually every piece of upholstery etc. Also the remains of mice nests are found through the entire vehicle. The heaterbox is packed with insulation material by mice and so is every other hollow spot.

Having said all the glass looks ok.... Unfortunately the windshield was broken during disassembly. Partly because of my own carelessness and partly just because it's old. New ones are quite expensive but now I will need one.  Fortunately they are still available (new!)

I try to disassemble little bits every day and hope to be taking out the engine and gearbox in the next few days......

Two weeks after delivery........

Well, a few weeks have gone by and they were mighty interesting ! !

On September 19th, the vessel delivered my Ghia to Rotterdam from where it was transported to my doorstep on Wednesday the 24th of September.

Almost two weeks later, the extend of the project is becoming clearer and clearer. I bought this car to stretch my limitations and...... oh, they will be stretched. Apart from the bad parts that were clearly photographed by the seller, the spare tyre box was pretty much gone altogether. Under the dashboard were some metalwork-surprises but overall it look 'manageable'. I will be having a challenge on the front end though. The left front fender seems to have moved a few millimeters caused by the little crash it had. This causes the left door to collide with the fender. I will have to find a solution for that, but I will. Also some Bondo-expert 'fixed' a right front headlight damage. This will need some thorough rework also.

Actually the metalwork 'from the waist up' looks pretty much ok. The lower 30 cm is rotten all around, but above the thick 1 mm sheetmetal held up pretty good. It also seems the car has been very comfortable to a number of mice in the glove box, some squirrels that used the car as a pine cove stash and a family of bees building a hyve inside the side mirror.

The car is pretty much complete as expected, the glass looks ok and the engine doesn't look too bad either. The no.1 cilinder has a piece of plastic stuck in the exhaust valve and no.3 cylinder has some rust issues, but nothing too complicated.

Ok, a few pictures; (Of course, you can see the entire restoration on https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/108612059034629510372/albums/6030825514521831649

The spare tyre box:

The front end, with the grill detached:

But even after all this abuse, she is still a very, very pretty car.

Now I am deciding on how to proceed this project. I have to do the rest of the dismantling first. The dashboard needs to be stripped, The engine and gearbox taken out, the last carpetry and headliner before metalwork can start. At some point the entire car will be sandblasted. I think restoration will start fabricating brand new metalwork in the trunk, including the spare tyre box. After that I will start on the rear fenders.

Wish me luck !

Vessel has left Los Angeles Port !!

Finally..... the vessel with my Ghia on it has left the Los Angeles Port !

Update 28-8-2014: Vessel parked at 'Puerto San José'....... another port to pick up more containers ! Waiting, waiting, waiting..........

19-9-2014: And there it is, on dutch soil, finally. Now just a few more days before it gets here. Pictures will follow a.s.a.p.

Test Drive another Fiat Ghia 1500 GT

Last week I was fortunate enough to meet up with another Fiat 1500 Ghia-Owner in the Netherlands.

So for the very first time ever, I saw the Ghia in real life. And what a pretty car she is !!

The owner was even kind enough to let me drive his car for a while and I'm super-thrilled about it. Having a similar car, pretty close, could come in handy during my restoration and I'm very happy the owner agreed to have me sneak in once in a while.

(Thanks a lot, Gé)

Which part from which car?

Ghia built this beautiful sportscar on a modified 'Fiat 1500 Berlina' chassis. The engine was moved to the back (40 cm) and therefore the drivetrain was shortened. This resulted in a more or less 50/50 weight distribution on front and rear axles.

Of course the body was handmade by Ghia-workers. Most of the bolt-on parts however come from other cars, mostly the Fiat 1500 Berlina of course.

 

I will try to make a list of 'which part from which car' in this post and continuously update it. If anyone has any information on this,  please comment. (Also, if I write faulty information, please comment. In the end, I'm only human.......)

 

Sill chrome side strips - Fiat 1500 Spider
Door handles /chrome bars inside - Fiat Dino?
Head light rings - Fiat 1500 Ghia specific
Rear lights -
Front lights - Fiat 1500 (I assume)

The Purchase

After restoring a few more 'obvious' oldtimers, I am confident taking on a new, real challenge. For this, I purchased a Fiat 1500 Ghia GT. I fell in love with this car, while roaming the internet for a restorable Italian sportscar.

I purchased this car from Beverly Hills Car Club, and now I'm patiently waiting for it to arrive in the Rotterdam Port. Estimated arrival is sep 19th, 2014. Can't wait!

In the meantime I'm already looking for the parts I will need anyway. I already purchased a fuel tank and a trunk lid, because my trunk lid looks terrible in the pictures......
The fuel tank is 'new old stock' and the trunklid, I bought in Germany. Only two trunklids on sale on Ebay-worldwide and one of them is for sale 40 km from my house. What are the odds??

Having said the original trunklid looks terrible.....So does the rest of the car bytheway. :-)

Somehow I still feel optimistic......

The reason I bought this one, is that it looks pretty much complete in the pictures. Parts may be bad, but at least they are present. I feel this is better than scorching for parts all over the world.