Saturday, November 9, 2013

Tucson Cars & Coffee - November 9, 2013

My better half and I took our Spider up to Tucson Cars & Coffee (2nd Saturday of the month, La Encantada Mall).  We had the pleasure of meeting Blair in person and talked shop about his '69 Spider and Fiats in general for a while.  There were 3 Fiats on site - our '82 Spider, a 2013 500 Abarth (welcome to Tucson, Matt!), and a 2012 Pop.  I also met the president of the local Alfa Romeo club and am looking forward to getting together with him at some point in the near future.  There were several exotics at C&C and some great classic sports cars along with the traditional showing of "American muscle." 

If you haven't been to C&C it is worth going once in a while.  There are some cars you just don't normally see at a traditional car show.  It only lasts about 2 hours -- a grass-roots car show "flash mob" style.  By 10:30 AM you'd never know that there had even been a C&C gathering.











Tuesday, November 5, 2013

A Few Photos From the Best of France and Italy

















There were a couple hundred cars on display.  To say the event was overwhelming would be an understatement.  So many cars I've never seen before or even heard of!  A crazy number of Alfas, and an equally alarming collection of Citroens.  Who knew they were still making the 2CV in 1985?  If you have never been to this event, you have to make the pilgrimage.  It was a 25 hour round trip for us, towing at 70 mph.  We were welcomed on Sunday morning with a pancake breakfast at a local body shop, and met some great people from the SoCal X 1/9 Club and FIAT America.com.  We rolled out en masse and made a strong showing in the FIAT camp.  There were a handful of exotics, but mostly people's pride and joy on display, warts and all.  Many of the Alfas were in race form.  After playing with them in video games for all these years, it was awesome to see them in person.  Two Lancia Scorpions showed, which was also a first for us.  Theresa had never seen another X 1/9 until the event, where there were probably 20 of them on display.

Sunday, October 27, 2013

Best of France and Italy 2013

The Best of France and Italy (BFI) is held each year in Van Nuys, CA at Woodley Park.  It's a swap meet/hang out for those of us with um, non-traditional automobiles.  I have never been, seeing as our little gem was a basket case this time last year.  Anyway, sorry for the late invite, but here's the link:
 http://www.franceanditaly.com/

We are heading out early to get some real New York pizza at Johnnie's in Santa Monica.  If you're from the Northeast, you know what a problem it is finding legit pizza. This place is on the Promenade a couple blocks from the pier.

You could accuse me of having no sense of adventure, but I chickened out and decided to tow the car on a dolly.  Between the old truck and the old car, at least one of them should arrive to see some of our ilk out on the Left Coast.

Please comment if you're going.  We will be spending Friday night in Blythe and hopefully make it to LA for lunch Saturday.

Monday, October 14, 2013

Ever been chased?

It's kind of freaky, really.  You're driving down the street in your Italian car.  The next thing you know someone is getting a bit close and yelling out their car window to pull over.  Um, yeah.  Right.  Questions start rolling through your head.  Is this guy a cop?  Are they going to kill me?  Did I cut them off? Are they going to steal my car? Is my car on fire?  WHAT THE #$&%!!!  Do I make a run for it?  Do I head for the nearest cop shop?  Or does this person just want to talk with me about my car?

I've been on both sides of this issue.  I inadvertently scared the hell out of someone in a '77 Spider one evening just after dusk (If that guy with the '77 is reading this, I'm sorry!).  I just wanted to stop and say hello and talk with him about his car.  It probably would have helped if I wasn't in a full-size truck!  Being on the other side of it is scary, so I understand why he high-tailed it outta there.  My experience being chased was by a darkened Jetta down Kolb by Davis Monthan.  I was in my Spider on my way home after getting the exhaust system installed.  The Jetta came out of nowhere.  When you get chased by a black car with dark tinted windows and they're keeping up with lane changes (ahem!) you get nervous!   He turned off at Valencia but not before slowing WAY down and rolling down the driver's side window (gulp!) and then gave me a nod and a thumbs up.  Whew!

In any case, exercise caution and good judgement out there.

Do you have a chase experience? Add it to the comments!

Ciao!

Thursday, October 10, 2013

Preparing for Cars in the Park


While I am not a stranger to preparing cars for show, this one has been a real challenge.  It has been under construction for a year now.  I bought a 1980 FIAT X 1/9 from a friend for the price of the windshield installation he had done before he parked it for a year in a field.  It came equipped with a black widow, french fries, mummified oranges in the trunk, and most of the owner's manual.  Missing was the glove box and the stitching for the seat bottoms.  It seemed to have a bad clutch, but it turns out the pressure plate fingers were bent and wouldn't hold the clutch at higher rpms.  Somehow I drove it home despite almost all of the engine bolts being loose and the fuel lines dry-rotted.

 

I tackled some small stuff like the cables that open the hatches, windshield wipers, blower motor, and rearview mirror, then finally got around to doing the clutch.  After the transmission refused to be rejoined to the motor, I just pulled the whole thing out and decided it needed rebuilding.  Oil leaked from every gasket and seal, and the fuel lines were a fire hazard.  Turns out a lot of people I know owned an X 1/9 at some point, and all of them met a firey death!  Hey, what more incentive do you need?


The head was very attached to the block, and I ended up using "Coke and a rope" to free it.  FIAT owners are pretty resourceful, as I found this trick on the XWeb forum.   Being pretty resourceful myself, I removed the motor without a cherry picker by dropping it out the bottom.  Of course, this is rapidly turning into a money pit, as I felt the need to add some stuff while the motor was out; namely a lightened flywheel, hot cam, Isky valve springs, and new fuel injectors.  My attempt to remove the valve springs led me to the decision that a professional should do the headwork.




I found a guy named Dave at Precision Machine in Huachuca City [sic].  I could tell by our conversation that it was in good hands, and I was getting a great deal.  A 3 angle valve job, decking, leak testing, bowl work, and mild porting was done, plus he assembled the head and set up the valve shims.  I replaced all the gaskets and seals and got even got the transmission mated to the motor.  After a few false starts and some help from a timing light, she fired up and has gradually been running better and better.  Here she is all cleaned up for the show.


I put a lot of time into rebuilding the brakes, front end, and getting all the lights to work.  The body is really all that's left.  The paint job was done by someone whose application for employment was refused by Earl Shieb.  Overspray, sags, poor prep, just depressing.  So I focused on the wheels, interior, anything I could refurbish with a rattle can.  The door seals have been replaced, the carpet cleaned/painted, and the seat bottoms reupholstered by Dadd's in Sierra Vista.  The goal this year was to show the car.  That was done to prevent me from blowing all my cash on racing parts.  Next year may be more of the same.  She looks so nice with the exception of the paint and body.  It would be a shame to stop now.  I will take some photos at the car show and add them. 
 



Sunday, October 6, 2013

Great Blog!

This is a nice blog. Thanks for putting it together. Can't wait for the Mt. Lemmon trip. See you at the top!

Monday, September 16, 2013

Mt. Lemmon "Breakfast Drive" - 20 October 2013 (updated with video)


It was a gorgeous day to go up to Mt. Lemmon!  Seems like most folks must have been recovering from the celebration of the UoA Wildcats defeating Utah or they were at the SABA Home Show in Tucson because Catalina Highway was wide open (relatively speaking) and not too many bicyclists, either.

I finally assembled a video of the drive going up and posted it to YouTube.  Unfortunately YouTube downgraded the resolution regardless of the settings I tried but you can get an idea of how nice of a drive it was.

     Video: http://youtu.be/Dhu_2-t_2ww


UPDATED 28 September 2013

A drive up to Mt. Lemmon on Sunday morning 20 October 2013 for breakfast/brunch is coming together.  This will be a good incentive for you to get your Italian car out and stretch its legs!  If your car isn't ready come anyway with your "other" car.


If you're interested in joining this non-competitive casual drive contact the organizer through this email link.