Johnson Family - 80 Spider Restoration

[jimj]

During the 2012 Christmas Holidays my daughter spotted a car which she decide should restore with the help of her brother and I, a family project...


My son and I made three trips to the car to try to get running but on the fourth…


Even at home we could not get the cam intake pulley bolt loose on our first try (See post “1980 FI Will Not Start” for not running back ground) so we decided to start buffing it out. Thankfully we were much more successful on this endeavor. The finish came back better than expected. We also removed the cowling to see if the linkage is the primary reason why the wipers moved at far less than the speed of snail. The good news is the cowling area looks pretty good. The only notable rust is on the back of the cowling itself. The linkage will be refurbished but does not appear to be in bad shape, maybe a grounding issue.

Buffing Results:


Cowling:





Below are my first set questions.
1. I was thinking about using POR 15 for the back of the cowling and possibly the drain area. I assume the area bellow would need to have all paint removed before putting the POR 15 on but what about the back of the cowling, if I understand correctly POR 15 can used directly over the metal after cleaning it with their suggested cleaner. Has anyone tried this or should I prep the metal with a paint remover disk?

2. The clamps attaching the wiper linkage appear odd and old. Is there a trick to removing them and are new replacement available if I break one?

3. If I can find the foam gasket around the vent door open I am considering replacing if I can find one.

I will post more as the work continues and as always I thank you all for the help.

[vandor]

I've used POR-15 on bare metal, but my understanding is that it's not ideal.

Which wiper linkage clips do you refer to? The ones at the pivots that are basically a circlip made out of wire? I don't think they are available new.

The vent window gaskets that are available now are a bear to install, and once installed they are a bit too big. Once you open the vent window you will struggle to close it again. If you don't open them you'll be fine

[courtenay]

Hey Csaba, I think he was referring to the gasket for the heater vent under the cowling rather than the vent window.

[jimj]

Bruce you are right, thanks for the clarification.

[SLOSpider]

If the clips brake you can use any C style clip there. I removed all my linkage and clean and greased up and reassemble and works much better. Make sure your motor is working too while its apart. The foam you can use any style thickness that fits at any hardware store. The paint looks great!

[supplyguy]

Thanks for asking the question Jim - I'm in the same spot. Turning my car in to be painted but want to treat the underside of the cowl and cowl area before I do. If no better ideas surface, slathering POR-15 on the whole kit and caboodle.

[jimj]

I got tired of sanding and decide to try to unfreeze my frozen clutch by driving the vehicle for the first time. Car drove great but my speed shifting was not perfect. It was however, good enough to put 6 miles on the car and fill up the tank. I pushed the car quite hard in first and reverse with the clutch pedal on the floor but no luck unfreezing the clutch but it was still a nice first ride with my son.

Clutch questions/thoughts:
1. If anyone has some additional ideas for unfreezing this clutch I am all ears.
2. If I do need to tear it down and replace the clutch is the Flex Coupler compression tool a must or just a nice to have specialty tool?
3.The top two bolts in the bell housing look like they will be difficult to get at. Are there any secrets at getting to them?

Restorations effort:
I disassembled, cleaned, reassembled, and lubricated windshield wiper mechanism. I think it will pay off as the mechanism now moves with a 10th of the force as it took to move it before I disassembled it. I will not install it until I get some POR 15 for the under cowling area. Probably be a week or two. I also painted some of the mechanism with a Krylon rust encapsulate. Also painted the back of the cowling with the same stuff. Went pretty well but it definitely takes longer to dry than the instructions indicated. Questions:

1.Can I buy the windshield spray nozzles? One of mine is broken, also how do they mount. I did not see any bolt or lock ring.

Cowling Photos



I also took a look at the notorious shock towers and got some good news. I am by no means an expert but I think I am in ok shape from this perspective. Please see the photos below. Looks good to me but if you think there maybe issues please let me now. New shocks and steering cross member too. Also found new tie rod ends, another cross member, oil filters and fuel pump in a box that came with the car. Not sure why they were not put on. The only bad news is the car will need front breaks soon and the A frames have significant surface rust.

Shock Tower Photos:
Passanger Side


Drivers Side

[SLOSpider]

First What is going on with the clutch? The pedal you say is on the floor? Did not take time to look thru all the post so forgive me. If its on the floor and its in gear are you sure the cable isn't broken? Possible the clutch fork has came off its pivot point too. If you have to take out the trans then the top rh bolt can be got from above with a box end wrench - 17mm I believe. The other top lh bolt is best got after you remove driveshaft and trans mount. With the tail shaft hanging down its easier to use all your long extensions to be able to ratchet from the rear of the tranny. You don't have to remove the doughnut but if you do I would tighten a big clamp around it as its almost impossible to get all the bolts to line up again. I found that you generally have to remove the shifter or the plate under the center console to get the trans out.

You can get new nozzles and they are snap in the ones on the car I worked on last, maybe different on other years.

You shock towers look ok by those pics but I would get some good undercoating on there. Not much help for shock tower rust as the rust from the inside out due to poor drainage when water gets in there from the snubber mount and from behind the coil mount.

[jimj]

SLOSpider thanks for the help. The clutch cable and firewall socket appear fine and appear to be engaging the throwout bearing. I beleive the clutch plate is rusted frozen to the fly wheel. My foot was hoding the clutch pedal to the floor in an attempt to get the engine to break the clutch plate free.

As far as the flex coupler goes, that sounds great. If I understand correctly I leave it on the trany and just unbolt the drive shaft bolts. Am I correct?

Thanks for the insight on the bell housing bolts.

Also I will look at some other post on the shock towers to see if I can get a better idea of the rust. I did not realize it comes from the inside out.

[SLOSpider]

You can pull the driveline out without touching any of the doughnut bolts. That's what I usually do.

I would make sure the Clutch fork is adjusted proper and it has good travel. If so then maybe just a matter of time and pedal presses before it will release.

Here is how I know all too well about the shock towers :

http://www.fiatspider.com/f08/viewtopic ... 955#p75955

[jimj]

SLOSpider thanks for read. Replacing the shock towers had to be challenging. Do you think drilling whole in the shock tower and using a tube to spray undercoating in would be helpful? If so where would you suggest the hole(s) go.

Not keen on drilling holes in my shock towers but I am not dead set against it either assuming you think it would help.

Also I talked with a mechanic friend of mine and he too did not feel it was likely a frozen clutch plate as this is usually related hydraulic not cable clutches, so he says. I am not sure I understood his logic but I know he has been doing this professionally a long time.

I will try to video the clutch fork movement. I have zero gap on my firewall with the pedal up. I am afraid if I adjust any tighter I could damage the firewall fitting.

[124JOE]

just so you know,there is parts out there
http://www.internationalautoparts.com is in VA
vick auto sports.com is in TX http://www.vickauto.com
http://www.spiderpoint.com is in germany
surface rust isnt bad but rust all the way thru is bad
so just paint the the surface rust

[rjkoop]

That buffing job is amazing. What's the materials and process you used?

[bobplyler]

Sometimes my clutch will freeze (slight rust to flywheel/pressure plate). What I do is jack up the rear end, start it in gear, press in the clutch, then put on the brakes. It breaks the clutch loose every time.

[vandor]

Also I talked with a mechanic friend of mine and he too did not feel it was likely a frozen clutch plate as this is usually related hydraulic not cable clutches, so he says.

I suppose it is more likely to happen if hydraulic fluid leaks on the clutch, but it can happen to any clutch if it's not used for a long time.