Norfolk Street Cruisers .

Club Cars , Lionel

If I manage to get time and remember to take photos I will endeavor to keep a log of the work on the Fiat 600 Abarth Tribute'

12.12.15

As some will know I sold my Model A, Now I intend to go back to my childhood, My father was a manager at the local Fiat dealership so I grew up following Fiat in all forms of racing.
My favourite was always the 600 Abarth, the giant killer, a moniker also taken up by a 600 dragster.
My plan is to build a Tribute to the abarth but use hot rod influancees when possible, the original idea was to fit an ST1100 Honda motor bike engine but after buying the engine trying to get to fit onto a suitable gearbox could be behond my budget. Currently plan (2) is to use a fiat twincam plus supercharger


The original Dutch Add
Original Engine
Original Interior
At Bear's Grill
At Tot Rod Registration

First Engine choice
Current Engine Plan
Seat Idea
Dash Idea
Steering Wheel Idea

02.01.16

Bought front disc brake kit, as this entails changing the upright to the 850 unit with larger bearings I thought I may as well change the front spring, the abarth one lowers the car by about 40mm the CSA race one lowers it by 80/100mm so that is the one I had to have. no point replacing the front and leaving the back in the air so I also bought two new rear springs to match the front drop. then I got told the original dampers would need to change if I went the CSA route so I have 4 new dampers.

taking the old set-up off went without to much fuss but fitting the new parts has been fun and is on-going. Getting the spring to sit in it's cups and the caps back on, the dampers are not marked so we fitted the pair that looked to have the same rubbers as the ogiginal but they were at full extension when the spring was not under loaded, so we swapped for the other pair, these fit top and bottom but we can not compress the rubber enough to get a nut on

A trial fit of the rims also hilighted that the disc kit I bought was for 13" wheels not the 12" ones I have, I have an old set on crosswire wheels laying around so I may have to get tyres to fit, and run with them for now.


Remove old suspension
Front cover off
Springs old & new
Drilled disc
13" Crosswire alloy (X/19?)

22.01.17

1 year on and still not on the road, the use of the 13" wheels to fit the front disc conversion fouled on the rear arch, the solution was to get Paul to hammer out the rear arches to replicate the 60s abarth ones.
I went with the Honda ST1100 engine, but decided to get rid of the bike carbs and opted for a single twin choke, easier to tune and control on acceleration.
The £25 pound swap meet seats had a make over as a christmas pressant from my son, they turned out better than I had antisipated.
Wheels now have a set of Nankang tyres, I have the early abarth snout along with a custom radiator. I also got all the door & 3/4 cards recovered, Paint has been bought for the respray, same colour but with a matting agent, I have also had artwork printed for the decals


seat from swap meet
Recovered
Lowered on X wires
Re-worked Arch
Intake start point

17.09.19

Still plugging away at this little car, had a dash built getting on with the adaptor, to keep cost down I aquired a mill and lathe so spent time re-aquaiting myself with them. thanks to Chris at Sadd Engineering for geting the dimensions I needed to get the little transfer case made. fitted the fiat gearbox with a subaru diff and then fitted a higher ratio CWP to get better cruising speed at lower revs. intake manifold got finished.

I had the car re-sprayed the same colour but with a satin finish, had graphics made and fitted, checker roof and side stripes, had a front rad made to fit within the early nose cone


Carb clears- Just
engine-box
new case sides
custom dash
Grasshopper Mouse, look it up!

Door Graphic
Roof Art
Lowered on X wires
3D printed badge
Stop Light & 1100 Badge

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