Projects back driveway find,,,

well i guess as to being a topolino owner, yeah the italian hot rods, i found one of these today, which i guess is kinda in the barn find cat..4 door that when ya open all the doors, it makes a huge hole straight thru the car...the doors open away from each other, rear sucide, and there is no post between them.


looks like the rear section of the roof is the same as what i need to fix the rea of Lil Beast's roof....

so i thought about getting it and useing the left over after the rear roof removal to make one of these...


and modify the bed and

gonna go down and see if guy is home tomorrow, he wasn't in whan i was shown the car......

 

pic of one with doors open...

 

I had one of those Fiat's. I never saw another around these parts!

 

Dude. Your fly is open.


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Thats just to take your mind off whats written on the side of the Fiat!

 

Here is one owned by east coast gasser member John Lang.

 

good looking hot rod..but i really like the looks of the truck..



and if the roof would fill in the rear curved area and window of my topo, well..........today i'm going back and check it out underneath and all that..hopefully the guys home,...i was told it is for sale, just not advertised....

 

That's the Topolino's big brother, the 1100 series. Bigger engine, longer wheelbase and seldom seen in the USA. Simca also built them under license from Fiat. There are also some 1:43 scale models made by Brumm in Italy floating around.

 

That's a really rare Fiat in the States. I've been messing with them for 25 years and never saw an 1100 that old over here. You see alot of the mid fifties 1100s but not the early ones.

Did you find a truck or the sedan? Post up some pix of yours, I'd like to see it.

 

I REALLY like the looks of the low-sided cargo truck, too. Too bad the Italians kept some stuff to themselves. Gary

 

has flat on the left front, that is why it's leaning...also has the left front headlite lens and trim ring...all the car is there, rad and head included

 

It would be a shame to cut that one up. Put it on the shelf for a future project. Nice find. What are you gonna do?

 

and a few more.....looks better then the pics show

 

Swoopy design! Yeah, it will make a great truck or whatever. I vote YES!

 

Looks like it has been a good car which has needed a valve job or something and someone has given up through lack of parts ( head gasket would be hard to find anywhere).
I would tend to buy it,keep it as is and advertise it onhttp://www.prewarcar.com/where all the moneyed collectors are looking all the time and use the funds to get a fabricated roof for your project.

 

That'd be cool to have. How far away is it? Not that I need another project but I'm always up for a truck!!

 

gonna drive it home.....i'm going down and check it out...jack it up ect..today i crawled all over it but didn't open the doors cause no one was there..talked to the owner on the phone, said he'ld set on it till tomorrow and i could come down and jack it up , ect and check it out..i don't have a clue as to what it is worth...so that puts me a bit in a bind for knowing if his stated price is hi or not, but he did state it had been a good long time since he'ld last checked it out..said might be a lil room in the price.....its obvious that its sat in the same spot in the drive way on black top for a good long time...no trees overhead, ect..he has all the parts, head lite lens and trim ring, head radiator..only thing missing is the rusted left rocker and the running boards, but the car is solid where they bolt on...and the rockers i already found new as repops..should be able to get the running boards from what i'm told..
i'll take any info to help find out it is worth ...i did look under and the floors are all still looking intact, and the frame is brown but still looks solid...

 

i guess i should have said i got this one******** already...lets just say it took me several hours driving to get to it...and right now its still a "saloon"...as they called it..the green truck is same platform though..i really like the truck....but i do have a thing about wheither or not to cut old tin...ain't like its a duece or something in so far as how many are state side...likes like a good resto with modern upgraded motor maybe??i figure after i stare at it long enough, it'll tell me what i should do with it...right now Lil Beast, remember him?? is first ..but he has expressed a warm fuzzy feeling about havein a new friend from the old country come to stay with him

 

I think it would be easier just to get some Topolino sheet metal than chop up the 1100. There seem to be alot more Topos over here than those (I have no idea why).

As far as the value, old and rare doesn't always translate to valuable and that's the case with that Fiat. I'd say Topolinos are worth more because more people know about them and are interested in them.

This car probably has more appeal to restorers or Fiat guys than hot rodders and it's just my opinion but I don't think it would make a very good looking hotrod, it's just not got the best lines for it.

BTW, the truck isn't a modded sedan, it was made that way by Fiat.

Whatever you do, make sure you save the peices you don't want - you can probably easily get back your money on ebay with them as this is a pretty rare car and anyone trying to restore one will probably want them.

PS: It's not really that hard to get the head gasket for it if you wanted to. And it'd probabaly fly with a hopped up twin cam in it

 

Check out the louvers in the fender well, pretty cool.

 

well at this point i am thinking maybe to just try and turn it..i would love to get Lil Beast together...but if i could, i'ld like to set on it a while and just think on it........

 

I still like the pick up idea!

As for 'updated' drive train, you could score a civic motor or something cheap, mate it up to a T5 and have something to run. Or follow along Scary Larry's lines and just gut a Ranger for the 4 banger!

I've got a running 4.3 but I suspect it may be a bit large for the compartment.

 

Just thinking out load, isn't the 90s Tbird Turbo Sport Coupe the same bottom end as a Ranger? You could give it some air that way! Might as well be fast, too.

 

For the interested Fiat faithful, I've had this photo in my files for a couple years. Wish it was better quality, but it's unique enough to post.
Being built on the Topolino 500 platform, with 13 mighty horsepower, I always wondered how the engine could move it with all the potential weight in the tandem bed...then, how's the thing going to stop?

 

Stopping would be a challenge with a load on that little truck. I just measured the original brakes on mine and the drums are only 7" in diameter.

 

maybe with a set of buick finned drums on a 40 ford front axle with a 42 banjo in the rear.(which i just happen to have laying around)..and a slightly lower bed side all supported by a boxed model A frame
with a slightly over stock sbc in it...5 speed trans...

 

Found a couple more photos of the little mouse's big brothers, the 1100 and the 2800. Model's were identified by the cc displacement.
The proportions of the 2800 on the right almost look like it has a mild choped top.

 

i emailed Mr Bluto the other day, and sent him pics...he has a 1100 sedan..and a simca version of the 1100, i think it would be a simca 8? pickup truck..he also informed me that the green truck i posted is a 1 ton flatbed version...he has quite the collection of fiat tin, to say the least

i finallized the purchase of my 1100 sedan yesterday....don't have room here for it, hell i've had 3 cars in a 24 x 24 2 car garage for 8 or 9 years now, with only one being the same...my 72 vega wagon..so we moved it to a friends garage for now..( the vega is going up for sale)...and i promised the wife i'ld finish putting together the new head on her 944 porsche...so i should have just the 2 fiats in the garage by the end of june...hope to have the 1100 here with the next week or 2..

still not sure what i'm going to do with it, restore, resell, or part it..still likeing the truck...will have to get it into the garage and size it up..would make a good driver as a 4 door, but i don't want to take money away from Lil Beast , maybe custom frame, 40 axle and banjo rear..split bones,,,drop in the old flat head 6 plymouth i have hanging..........i was also suprised how tight of a car it still is..opened up the doors and they are very well built..can open the back door and not the front or vise versa...really cool when ya think about there NOT being a door post between the 2 doors...thought i saw running boards for the 1100 on the net as repops, but haven't been able to find them since i found my 1100...

finding a pair would help me decide what to do with it........

but this weekend will be spent final stripping the last bit of paint off Lil Beast, around door hinges, roof gutter ect...

 

Like father, like son....and daughter. All in overalls. That's a good pic! Butch/56sedandelivery.