Rebuilding Sofia - 1971 Spider in Oz

[Auspider]

Which part of the suspension is fouling the stand? You could just remove the whole hub assembly intact by undoing the two ball joints, and then take off the upper control arm leaving the lower with spring and shock still in place.

[Sambo42]

A quick update after a reasonably productive weekend. Using the mini external compressors I have now removed the front suspension on both sides and finished off the R rear wheel arch (except for grinding back some of the welds) including the bottom edge of the quarter behind the door (see pics). The door looks reasonably good (a couple of small holes only) so I think it's time to work on the front end and get the conversion to RHD done. then off to the blaster/paint shop....

Suspension removed


Wheel arch complete...(before welds being ground back)

[Sambo42]

Oh yes - one little tip I forgot to add. When trying to undo seized brake hoses, don't apply heat to the nut. otherwise the rubber hose will explode......

[Sambo42]

Another question for you all. Just in from removing the steering and I'm contemplating a few things such as starting the RHD conversion. But the other thing that has occupied me is the transmission. When I bought the car it the PO reported changing the differential to give it better acceleration with the 1600 motor. When I changed over to the 2L and used the car for my daily commute the high revs highway driving was a bit painful. I'm guessing the original ratio was 4.1 and changed to 3.9 - would that be right? Important question - can I just change over the internals rather that swapping over the whole transaxle? Here in Oz new transaxles are available but not cheap...

[Fi8spider]

Hi Sambo,
If it has a 3.9 in it leave it in if you want to drop revs at high speed, the 4.1 will rev more at the same speed and gear.
3.9 means that the pinion gear is turning 3.9 times to make the crown wheel turn one full rotation.

Answering your second question, yes you can just change the crown wheel and pinion although I wouldn't just do it in the back yard mate, they have a crush sleeve on the pinion shaft that needs to be set up correctly otherwise you will have incorrect preloads and cut the life of that diff.

In Melb I'd say that Charlie and Sam from the Italian Job could probably carry out the work or in Sydney I use Fiatorque.

I've carried out a number of RHD conversions and if you get stuck on anything with regards to that drop me a pm so i get email notification.

Tip, reinforce the areas on the firewall (to double skin) where the brake booster will be mounted and where the clutch cable will go through.

Hey, nice work BTW!!

[djape1977]

original was probably 4.1 and swapped for 4.3
4.1 would be right for 2 litre, and 3.9 if you're not keen on great acceleration

little tip, diff from lada niva and from fiat 125 is a straight bolt on to 124 diff if you have early type, and fiat 131 diff if you have later type. which one do you have? take a pic from behind and we'll tell you

[Sambo42]

Here you go - before cleaning it all up...

[djape1977]

any 124 sedan/familiare, any rwd or 4x4 lada, any 125 will fit. this should drastically widen your local options.

124 sedan should have 4.1, 124 specialT 4.0, 1200cc sedan might be 4.3 and familiare probably same
rwd ladas range from 4.44, 4.3, 4.1 to 3.9
4x4 lada 4.1 early, 3.9 new (ish)
125 is 4.1

[perthling]

FWIW, 124 Familiare (wagon) was 4.4:1.

[djape1977]

correction taken, then it was the same on lada 2101 karavan with 1200cc

[perthling]

correction taken, then it was the same on lada 2101 karavan with 1200cc

No surprises there... the 2101 'caravan' (aka 2102?) was a close facsimile of the 124.

[djape1977]

a little thread hijack...

2102 was pretty much the same as 124 familiare, but there were quite a few diferences to fiat. same goes for lada 2101 vs fiat 124 sedan.
suspension was jacked up by about 2cm.
balljoints are a little beefier
shock absorbers are also stronger than on 124, upper mount bolt is m8 instead of fiats m6
completely diferent engine, OHC vs OHV. more modern, but worse build quality
thicker sheet steel on the body. sills are 1.2mm for example, VS fiats 0.8
massive brake drums in the back, twin piston calipers in the front and 240mm discs tucked into 13" wheels

however, ruskies came to conclusion that there's no need to make two diferent versions of floorpan and they used floorpan from 124 familiare on all ladas. this resulted in spoiled handling of the back end because familiare has shocks that are outside rear springs, angled towarsd the centerline of the car.

since ruskies continued to produce derivatives of 124 untill mid 2013, there were many modifications over the years, 3.9 diff amongst others. some were good, smart and useable on 124s, some not so much. the fact that more than 4 million ladas based on fiat 124 were made, and many of those are still around, means that parts are widely available and will be for decades to come. also, there's a HUGE demand for aftermarket parts such as thicker sway bars, LSD's, rear sway bars, progressive springs, poly bushings of various stifnesses etc

[majicwrench]

On that rear end ratio... the diff in rpm tween something like 4.4 and 3.90 aint gonna be much. Somebody else can do the math. And don't be scared of some RPM cruising, these were made to rev.
You're a braver man than I will all that welding/body work. keep it up!
Keith

[Sambo42]

Just a quick update - finally some progress. The RHD is done (for now - until I test fit with the seats and dashboard and discover the other mistakes I've made....) - for which there is a whole other thread. But she's just back from the beadblaster:







She's so clean! Some small scraps of sound deadener to be removed, but the underside is all bare metal now and looks OK. Now on to the paintshop...

[cos]

impressive! look forward to seeing more