My next project -

1973 FIAT 124 Familiare

This is the condition I found this car.

First thing I did - I got rid of the broken plastic grill.
Luckily I had a chrome grill hanging in my garage.
Looks much better already.
Don't mind Lada's badge.

Few parts came from Italy : headlight rings , turn signals , early overriders , bumper brackets , badge.
I wanted to order a new bumper too , but I could not find it for less than $200.
Then I remembered about my Carello foglights laying in my garage for years.
I tried them on and they fit almost perfect into the bumper cavities.
I am happy with this look , in my opinion car looks much better now.

I used to have these wheels on my sedan and I loved them.
But I was stupid enough to sell them long time ago.
And almost immediately I regretted that decision.
Later on I found another set in a pretty bad shape.
Well , after a few weeks of manual labor I brought them to useful condition.

I attached the wheels , rolled the car out of the garage and rolled it back in immediately.
Looks like a Jeep Cherokee.
Horrible !



Next morning I performed plastic sergery .



Much better now .







Also I installed normal real lights and the license plate illumination.

Door card holding brackets were in horrible shape.



I couldn't find replacement ones anywhere.
One day day I was in Home Depot and accidentally I found these things.
They are aluminum tile ends and they look almost identical to the original ones.







I cut them to size and riveted them to the doors.







This is the original



And this one is not



As you can see - no difference .


.

Found rare Vitaloni mirrors

Original plastic steering wheel was all cracked , so I replaced it with the wooden one.

Brand new , original , 45 year old mud flaps.

Then , I decided to put a new core on my radiator , and while I was waiting for it to get done , I sorted and cleaned few things under the hood.
It was by far the dirtiest engine compartment out of every car I ever owned.
I purchased a pressure washer on sale and some simple green and I am glad I did.
Very satisfying process.

Before :







After :

My fuel pump was making so much noise - I was pretty sure it's on it's last leg.
It was screwed to the body without any rubber mounts.
And I thought the rubber mounts won't make much difference anyways.
Last week I ordered some stuff from Auto Ricambi and I ordered couple mounts as well , since they were so cheap .
I fabricated a corner bracket and mounted the pump with rubber mount on it.
When I first turned the key on , I had to come out of the car and put my ear close to the pump to make sure it's on.
What a difference !!!!
And with my new trunk floor it became totally silent.
Another great improvement .

Replaced the chrome strips on the the door handles.





Refirbed handles , new cranks , new pulls and new surroundings.





New outside door handles and locks as well.

Then I bought this radio for $10