Saturday, May 16, 2009

This shows the completed rear suspension assembly less the brake drum. I was asked what the silver disks are on the brake shoe web. They are Fiat's self adjusters, just some friction pads that prevent the shoes from completely retracting after brake application. Simple but cool as hell.
As I mentioned I couldn't get to the other side of the car, so I started cleaning up the interior of the car. Everything except the seats, instrument panel and door panels was spray painted blue. The pedals, gear shift lever, the choke and starter assembly, the parking brake and the door sill moldings were all a very bright shade of robins egg blue. I started removing the paint on the heater lever just to see how easily it came off. I was lucky, the paint was real brittle and flaked right off with an Exacto knife used very gingerly. I then started on the emergency brake handle. It was removed, dis assembled, bead blasted except for the plastic button in the end, and then painted black. The choke and starter lever assembly was next .I used paint remover on it after taking it apart. I discovered it was cast aluminum so off to the buffer I went. After getting a high luster on the parts they were washed with hot soapy water to remove any traces of compound and then I coated them with clear wheel coat which is a tough clear coating made for refurbishing mag wheels. After putting it back together I was very pleased with how it looked. I don't know if it is stock or not and I don't care. It's my car and I like how it looks. So there! GGGGGG. Next was the gear shift lever. It went through the same procedure as the brake handle and I also cleaned and greased the ball and ring? joint in it. I was trying to figure the best way to clean the shift knob when I started rooting around in my Corvair stash. I found a brand new walnut shift knob that had an unknown application but looked liked something I should keep 'cause it looked so neat. As I was eyeballing it, it dawned on me, that's the same shift pattern as the Bianchina. A quick call to my cousin, the "master machinist" and a new insert was made to fit in the knob and screw on the shift rod. Yay! a good day! Next up , the accelerator pedal. It was taken apart and all the kinks and bends that didn't belong there were removed. Blasting and paint, assembly and it was done. Now for the clutch and brake pedal assembly. Again, separate the parts, protect the pivoting surfaces, blast and paint the pedals. The base was again found to be cast aluminum so it got the clearcoat treatment.

No comments:

Post a Comment