1974 Fiat 128 Sedan for the Bride of Burrito.

Desert tan? Oh, no!

They're... not great. I'll shoot some close ups of their flaws and explain myself later. They are good enough to hide behind steel wheels, though, so they're staying.

I'm not seeing it. You're gonna need to gold me up some more parts of the car.

All assembled and ready to go on. I probably should have taken a few before pictures, because I definitely put them back together incorrectly multiple times.

I also just picked up a pair of E30 front strut mounts. They might take a little modifying, but I think they will work.

When you put those calipers on the car, remember to slather the slider surfaces with antiseize.

Ran back down to the shop really quick so I could put my mind at ease. I knocked the studs out of one of the mounts really quick for mockup purposes.

E30 strut mounts are going to work a treat. Gotta decide of I want to redrill the strut tower (Fiat) or the strut mount (BMW). I see benefits on both sides of that coin.

The Rabbit strut slips right into the E30 mount like they were made for each other.

Due to the design of the strut mount, I will be losing about an inch of travel over the stock Fiat stuff. Luckily, the Rabbit strut setup effectively lowered the car 2 inches while retaining full travel, so I see this as kind of a moot point.

We are getting close!

I still don't see the gold but I sure do like them regardless. I hear binder clips are the latest thing in performance braking technology, too.

If it weren't a front strut mount I'd be tempted to see if you could get that travel back by flipping it over, but I doubt the ball bearings would like that.

Should be pretty cool with that setup. I think it will look just right and probably drive smooth as well.

Are you planning on anything geometry-wise to avoid bump steer in the front now that you're artfully lowering the car? I don't even know where I would start on a car that didn't already have pre-made spacers to solve a problem like that.

If the car didn't have bump steer, lowering it shouldn't effect it. If it did, lowering the rack or drag link should solve it. How is the camber gain with it being lowered?

Good or too much. I think this car is a macstrut? So it shouldn't matter that much if you are still within normal travel....

I'm not planning any changes to the geometry as of yet. If it handles horribly and is a liability, we will look into fixing it.

I finally got back out to the shop today and started working on the front suspension components again. I still hadn't decided whether I was going to redrill the strut tower or the strut mount, so I started there.

Here's the Fiat strut mount pattern scribbed onto the e30 mount.

That's not going to work. Too close to the inside edge. No way to fit an 8mm stud in there.

So, lets make a template and redrill the strut tower.

And the same on the driver's side.

I will weld up the old holes before this is all finalized, don't worry. It will also get a upper strut bar to tie the two towers together as this is a known issue/improvement.

Nothing left to do at this point but to offer up the fancy new strut tube.

That's all looking pretty sweet if I do say so myself!

Unfortunately, there's been a but of a mixup with some springs Ditchdigger sent my way.

Those are definitely not going to work with 2.5" perches. It's ok, though, 275 really is too much spring (I think).

So, current issues and needed items: 2.5" ID 8" free-length springs in the 225-250lb/in range, dustboots for the front shocks that fit inside said springs (because the Bilstein ones don't).

Love watching this little car come together. The fab work in this build makes me very happy on the inside.

Burrito wrote: Unfortunately, there's been a but of a mixup with some springs Ditchdigger sent my way.

Oops! Wonder how I missed that?

Did you measure the OD by accident? I've done that before when I was in a hurry.

Fiat sure didn't like to support those front strut towers, eh? Reminds me of the X1/9 design where they're just hanging out in space and the sheet metal 'boxing' to the firewall is at best ornamental.

Dang, another unfinished project thread I get to follow.

Productive night!

I found that a MK1 VW steering rack bellow makes a lovely strut dust boot.

But I only have one of those for some reason... oh, well. They are cheap and easy to source.

I wrapped some Velox bicycle rim tape around the strut to bring it up to the right OD so the coilover sleeve wouldn't knock around.

Swapped the master cylinder for the one from the ill-fated Spider project.

And assembled and bled the berkeleying brakes!

Please excuse the (very) temporary springs. They are merely place holders.

That's right, we have brakes! Still a little spongy, but brakes nonetheless! This forum really needs a little dancing emoticon.

Tomorrow might be it's maiden voyage around the compound!

Looking good!

Still not off to paint yet eh?

bgkast wrote: Looking good! Still not off to paint yet eh?

Give the poor guy two weeks. He just go married, other stuff to work on

Yeah, so he got married, that means he had time off work, could have been working on the car instead of a honeymoon

Note. THat would have been grounds for justifiable homicide I think

You guys crack me up. The reason I wanted to have the car off to paint in the first 2 weeks was because I knew from the get go that July was going to be berkeleyed. The only weekend that I haven't spent out of town this month was spent at work and we left for our mini-honeymoon that Sunday night.

I have discovered a fair amount of, uhhh, not the R-word... oxidized steel that is in a difficult to get to location. There will be some not-too-serious surgery involved to fix it "right", so the car is going to be driven in it's yellow and gray panda state for a bit.

So what are your plans to actually get a little negative camber in the front? It looks like you drilled the new strut top holes so the top of the strut is still centered. It wouldn't have taken much to get at least -2 degrees.

In reply to subrew:

You raise a good point, as something I was too tired/lazy to post about last night. I think the E30 strut mounts are a temporary solution. They are just too big in pretty much every dimension, except the bearing ID. The outside diameter of the mounting plate is so large I can't move them inboard to gain negative camber. By the time you stack an upper spring perch on them, I'm losing nearly 2" of travel and, now that I've had a chance to cycle the suspension, looks to be a bigger deal that I had originally thought even with the shortened struts. Luckily I think I can still return them to recoop that money.

The current solution on my mind is to get a 14mm ID spherical bearing and weld cup and make some "Camber Plates". I really wanted to stay away from spherical bearings because of NVH, but then I remembered its a berkeleying Fiat from 1974 and, hey, whats one more squeak or rattle?

These are $12 a pop (plus shipping) for the cup, bearing, and snap ring (the bearing quality is probably a bit suspect, but the sizes are standard and the cup is the hard to source part here). The OD of the weld cup is small enough that I could leave the opening in the strut tower alone and still gain camber, caster, or a little of both.

If anything, the spherical bushings will be race car rattle, instead of regular old rattle.

In my experience, that makes all the difference. In related news I have a racecar head unit with a racecar detachable faceplate.

I have a 131 and the strut mount for them sits on top of the tower. Have you looked up if you can get them? Might be a easier solution than what you're contemplating now. If anything you can notch the bottom strut hole and use a vw offset washer bolt to get your camber adjustment. That should be more than enough for street use.

Here is a pic of my 128, right after I bought it. Please excuse the somewhat faded paint and messy engine bay. But this was the best photo showing the top mount above the sheet metal. These were a simple mount using a torrington bearing. Upper holes were moved inboard a little, and I used an eccentric upper strut to spindle bolt. Could get upwards of -3.5 camber, but usually ran around -3. That seemed to be where the 215/50-13 Kumhos were happiest.

This was before I changed springs and ran a bigger bar.

In reply to subrew:

Very interesting. Feel free to post as many pictures of that car and it's modifications as you see fit. I went ahead and ordered those spherical bearings and weld cups. The probably won't make it here by the weekend, but I can make some of the parts for the new strut mounts before they arrive.

In other news, the car is back on the ground and mobile again. The front suspension is almost at the top of its adjustment range with 6.5" springs here. I'm thinking about swapping the 275lb springs on the rear of the Scirocco for the springs that are currently on the Fiat.

And the cooling system is all patched back together and topped up for the first time in its tenure with me.

So, I guess we will take a little cruise tonight and see what problems present themselves.

Have fun on the cruise!

Can't wait for the report.