600 (Classic) 1960 600 EV conversion

[bb17660]

So great you found a shop willing to give it a go. It’ll probably sit, fit, and drive better than before! I appreciate the need for a distraction. Oy. Ditto.

 

[summersc]

Howdy yall. Its been a bit, but things are still cooking. I used this repair project as motivation to update my garage. It is now insulated and has heat. It also needed a new roof, which is finally done, and I had them add skylights, so its even more lovely to spend time in there. I am particularly excited about the roof. I had it replaced with a metal roof but I requested the metal NOT have any paint or rust protection, so it will rust (on purpose). My lovely neighbors installed the same roof over a bump out on thier house and it looks amazing. My garage roof will match... in time as the panels develop the beautiful rust layer. I digress...

The fiat has been waiting patiently for the garage stuff to wrap up. We had a long weekend in the US, so I was able to focus on the fiat. I now have all three new body panels lined up and in place ready for welding. Its not particularly exciting except that, after the accident, the seams and features I would typically use to line panels up are all gone or severly damaged. This means I have no "truth" on where to put these panels. What do I mean? Well, the last time I did this, the seams that drop down from the headlights were a wonderful anchor point for the new wings and nose. I forced them to align to those seams and everything fit and wheels were centered in the arches and the hood closed. I no longer have those seams, nor do I have the bumper brackets. I spent this weekend recreating my source of truth. This is now I did it, and I sure do hope I did it right....

First off, I leveled the car. Then I used a laser level to determine the midpoint of the car. I did this by aiming the laser at the center of the rear-view mirror (which i measured to be in the middle, as best i could). I also lined up the laser to the middle of the back of the car to make sure it was aimed perpendicular. I started putting panels on the car and found nothing was level AND the nose was not in the middle. Here you can see the laser level line to the left of the nose center:

Clearly the panel needs to move to the left... assuming my laser is in the right spot... but I have to trust something! The inner fenders are all mangled so moving the panel left required some cutting, bending and banging. Here is what the inner fender looked like... no wonder things werent lining up:

The red circles show where my panels are not even close. Bah. I do have some bit of truth... the wings need to line up with the doors nicely for an even gap. Even that has proven tough. Here i got the top to line up, but the bottom is 10-15mm off and will require some massaging:

For anyone who has experience with stuff like this, you can attest to the amount of moving these panels are capable of. In the end, I was able to bang and convince parts into the right spot. I also cut off the bumper brackets and rebuilt them, so they now line up with my new "center". I also have most of the seams in good enough shape that I am preparing to weld. Here is the newly centered nose:

And now with the wings. Please note the gaps circled in red. These still need some work (the left is better than the right), but I will be mig welding those, not spot welding, so they will clean up nicely:

The next post should have panels that are wire brushed and welded into place. I hope next weekend I will be doing the roll-on epoxy.

While the body panels get fitted, I am also working on updating a few things. The brakes will get some attention as will the HVAC. It's gonna be good.

 

[Googlebot]

Thanks for posting this, I have just read the entire thread.

Amazing!

Hope you get it fixed.

 

[summersc]

Progress has been steady! The body panels are all welded in, wire brushed and sealed with epoxy. I smoothed out some rough spots and the weld seams with body filler. I hope to have it ready for the paint shop in a couple of weeks. Exciting!

Before sealing (this looks eerily familiar, doesn't it?):

And now, after filling and sealing (please note that I rolled the fenders BEFORE paint this time. Good job Summer for remembering!):

The damaged brake lines have been rebuilt, and the system is bled and ready for use:

and I have been redesigning the HVAC. In previous pictures, the AC units I installed had undesirable locations for inputs and outputs for air flow, and I had to run long tubes which I did not want to do. Since I am starting over, I tore that thing apart and modified it. I moved the output of the blower motor to match up with the inlet into the cabin. In this pic, you can see the old output on top and it moved to the bottom of the side... it should now be a simple 90deg elbow to get into the cabin. Perfect:

The input to the air box is also in a better location and it will be easier for me to filter and add the ability to get recirculated air from the cabin. Rad.

Speaking of AC, my new plan is ambitious. I will be piecing together a system, on my own, with parts from a 1998 Dodge Caravan, but with a compressor I ordered from rigidhvac.com that runs on 48V (remember, I have a 48V DC to DC converter in this car to run stuff like this). The compressor has 3X the capacity of the system I am replacing, so I needed to increase the capacity of the condenser and evaporator. Thats where the minivan parts come in. It turns out that those minivans had an optional rear (?) AC system with smaller parts, which seem just right for the 600. Here is a pic of the evaporator inside the airbox I am reusing... the fit is amazing:

And the condenser for the minivan must have been located in a tricky spot, because it is very wide and very short. Most condensers I found were square, or close to it. I could not package a square one gracefully... here is the Caravan condenser, which should fit across the bottom, between the suspension and the nose, where the old steering linkage was located before the rack and pinion swap. I will be able to tuck it up nicely.

Not only was the condenser a promising size, but it was also on clearance for 10$ from rockauto.com. Not too many folks are updating the rear AC in their 1998 Dodge Caravan. Go figure.

I give my AC plan a 50/50 shot of working at this point. When the compressor arrives, I will begin the daunting quest of learning about all the different fittings in the automotive AC world, having custom hoses made, and sorting some odds and ends (like figuring out the orifice tube stuff and finding a spot for the dryer/accumulator thingy). I have plenty to learn. And then I will find out if my the parts of my system even like to work together. I will have heat right away, but I will likely take my time getting the AC parts installed. I am itching to get this guy back on the road.

Next up is to do the primer and I have some heavy rebuilding of headlight mounting ring assemblies. They both got mangled and will require some rework to reuse. They also seem very hard to find? I can salvage mine, thankfully.

 

[summersc]

Good news. The 600 is back and is blue again! I am deep into re-assembly. Its going well so far.

Headlights, turn signals, horn and wipers are all fully functional. Next up is to rebuild the charge port and heater. Fun times!

 

[AnthonyH]

Looks good!

 

[Googlebot]

What a beautiful motor.