1971 fiat 850t 3 years in and still welding

No, I stumbled into an old Porsche 901 gearbox..... I wouldn't actually recommend it for an 850 chassis. It is not a good fit. The input shaft sits lower in the 901 box than the 850 transaxle so you have to move the whole unit up in the car and end up having to do a lot of cutting and modifications.

With my Berlina horsepower wasn't the issue. Over 100hp in an 850 is plenty. Gearing was the problem. I would have happily kept going with the 100G block but CCW rotation caused so many problems. I was going to use an 80's Passat gearbox rotated 180 degrees but then I bought the 901.

After much handwringing about converting the 100G motor to clockwise rotation I decided if I am gonna go nuts, I should just go all the way

901 is the code for the 60's-70's Porsche 911/912/914 transaxle. It is essentially a 5 speed VW transaxle and was replaced by the 915.

The motor is a Suzuki G13B. The Swift GTi motor, GT1446 turbo from a 500 Abarth hanging off the side.

Again, I recommend NONE of this nonsense. No part of it works in a Fiat.

Whenever you see pictures of un restored 850ts or 900's they are always dented to within an inch of their lives.
As commercial vehicles, most won't have had an easy life but still.

The problem is actually two fold.
Firstly there is very little structure behind most of the outer panels so if you lean a little hard on it, it dents.

A supermarket trolley causes the kind of same you'd expect from a transit van



This picture shows the back of the side panel.
This panel is spot welded around the perimeter but no where else. It has a single strengthening rib tacked in at either end and then glued along the panel.
Mine wasn't even touching.

I decided to add an extra one but followed fiats method.



This should help take some of the "wave" out and hopefully keep it straight ish for longer.

Most of the external panels are the same.

The second issue is the gauge of steel fiat used. I managed to cut a piece out and get a proper measurement of it.




This why it's so tricky to weld with out warping it.
I did try welding thinner repair sections in but have finally settled on sheets of 0.9mm for all of the bodywork.

It still surprises me and I still have those "what the f*** have you done" moments but when I look back throught this thread at stuff like this



And then



And now


And I realise i'm actually well over half way through and it makes it a lot easier to carry on.
I'm now a month over my predicted completion date when I bought it and still welding.
Now I know this summer is a bust it takes the pressure off a bit so new schedule is to complete the welding by Christmas and then bodywork by easter giving me plenty of assembly and tinkering before sea trials commence in early summer.

This month also marks three years since I bought it.
What as I thinking?

Is this a possibility as a parts donor?


ebay item number 156330980491

It was engine, gearbox and running gear I was thinking of. The rest of it looks like a stout broom and a shovel would be all you’d need to clear it away.

One thing thats really starting to stand out as this project progresses is despite the internet and social media, just how hard getting specific and accurate information actually is.

What I thought would be fairly simple questions have repeatedly thrown up either bad advice/information or simply none at all.

Now obviously I exclude this particular forum as the information I often find myself in need of is very specific so most of these enquiries have ended up posted else where.

What kind of things am I referring to?
I recently asked in a forum dedicated to a single engine type what the over all width of the flywheel is.
I received a lot of responses, most quoting the clutch plate diameter and several claiming that all models and sizes used the same flywheel.
I've only recently discovered that this isn't actually true.

In another single model forum I asked for the width of a gearbox and gave a picture showing where I needed the measurement taken from.
So far, no response.

Another issue has been finding reliable reviews of various bits of equipment and it's with this in mind I've decided to take some time and properly review the stuff i'm using warts and all.
I hope its useful for someone somewhere who can see in this thread exactly what I've done with it.

First up is the 3in1 sheet meatal machine.

Not long after buying the camper I discovered that I'd need to rebuild the rear roof and gutter sections which included a stretch of metal folded at 13mm spacing.
The 4ft folder I have a access to cant do this.

I also trapped my finger between the disc and guard of an agle grinder forcing me to re think how I cut my sheets down.

The answer to both of these lay in one of these



www.machinemart.co.uk/p/clarke-sbr610-3-in-1-sheet-metal-machine-610m/?sv1=affiliate&sv_campaign_id=575373&awc=3131_1722767527_84ff9bf3d5ed8d24687f02e36b133cad

I read lots of reviews, most saying that a 3in1 would only do 3 things badly

So caught between need and dread I ended up buying one of the above.
I went for the 610mm version as the sheets I was buying were sold as 2ft x 4ft.
I should say it was much cheaper 3 years ago and I got it vat free.
I went clarke as I have a local machine mart, the same machine is available in a variety of colours and under quite a few different brands but as near as I can tell they all come from the same factory.

I didn't really have space for it but then I didn't really have space for the van either.

So does it do 3 things badly?
I only needed it to do 2 things moderately well so I assembled it with slight trepidation.

It's worth stating now that like most things these days it didn't work straight out of the box.
The folds were wonky and it wouldn't cut 0.6 steel with out folding and jamming up.
It took a few hours of stripping down and cleaning up before resetting everything.
I honed the cutting blade lightly with a diamond plate whilst it was apart.

I've had this three years now and use it almost every session I'm in the garage and apart from having to re adjust it a couple of times it's been faultless.

I recently needed to make up 4 small top hat section as strengthening ribs so took a couple of pictures along the way



These are 600mm long and 0.9mm thick.
Chopped off a 600mm x 1200mm sheet in seconds






Straight into the brake and folded up.
It can repeat folds as close as 9mm together






One of the best things is the repeatable shapes


I needed two of these but at 950mm long so being able to fold up the same section and weld it together has been useful on many an occasion







This is the awkward first repair above the rear tailgate.

I think a lot of the poor reviews are down to two things.

1, people expected them to work
straight out of the box and just
weren't willing to set them up
properly.

2, people bought them and expected to
be able to cut and bend 1.2mm -
1.5mm sheet.

It's not perfect and only ever needs adjustment on the days I really don't have time to adjust it but it's not alone in doing that.
The limits of these are clearly marked all over it and most of the time i'm near the stated capacity without any issues.

I suspect it would cut 1.2mm and bend short sections of 1.4mm in the brake however I like this thing too much to abuse it.

I've used all three functions now and as long as you stay within the stated limits its worked no problems so I'd recommend it to anybody whose tight on space and money.

It'll never be as good as full size dedicated machines, but then it isn't supposed to be.

It's been a slack summer camperwise with little forward momentum.
Lots of parts ordered, some good, some not so good.

And some preparation for the comming action regarding the final and probably worst corner.

The nearside rear is not only rusty but also has some accident damage.

This had the double effect of distorting the arch and knocking some of the filler out




You can see here that the bumper took the brunt of it but being as weak as the shell was it it also caused problems with the tailgate alignment.
This was masked by a wooden trim that housed a rear tent extension that I'm not reinstating.

Usually when the project begins to slowsomething come along to gee things up a bit so hopefully that trend will continue.
In the meanwhile i'll putter on as best I can.

Round two of the trip hazzard is a good place to start at least then I can relegate it to the bin or shed, anywhere that's not around here.







I had thought that there would be a better way of doing this but in the interests of symmetry I'll try and do it exactly the same






Knocking the first curve in seemed much easier and quieter than I remember



Folded the return over

Good to see you back on it, couldn't you use the tooling on the inner arches?