Vehicle History

The original car was a personal import into Canada from Italy. It arrived here as a 1970 Fiat 500L. Fiat in Canada never sold them, so this was very first Fiat 500 brought to Canada! The L stands for “Lusso” or luxury version.

I bought this car on the 24th July 2004. From then on it was tucked away during our Ontario winters, and used only on good days. Considering it age, it had a very limited road mileage, and after much research, I  determined what modifications I wanted to make during the build.

During the 60s, Abarth managed to homologate his small, agile, winning racing cars, with a propped-open rear engine cover, using the pretence that he required this for extra cooling, when in fact he had realised that he would gain 10 mph on the straights, due to the improved aerodynamics. And this was over a decade before Porsche arrived with the 911 and its rear spoilers. These Abarths competed with much larger and more powerful cars including american V8s, yet still were successful in winning races.


My love for the 500s in open-engine-cover style, with european group 5 arch flares, made this an easy  option, as basis for styling. I henceforth set about acquiring the parts to get started. The parts came in from Italy, U.K., and Poland. After ordering the first set of parts, work began in 2005, when the car had completed 63,000km.

Please note : I will go through all done in sequence, but will delve into each item in more detail, later, in other forum areas. For example, I say here about installing suspension, but the technicalities, such as spring rates, etc., will be expanded upon elsewhere.   


The First Set of Parts

Parts’ choices need to be made and acquired before beginning modifications. For instance which wheels and tyres (and arch extensions) to have. If you intend to go to water cooling (for a bigger engine), means getting the right engine cover stays/struts. It’s vital to have those parts present during the build.


Parts - Mechanical


It is important to match the modified reverse-eye front spring height with lowered rear coil springs (note on the transverse leaf spring, that the lateral spring eyes are substantial and located above the spring line to increase lowering of front). Below, Koni dampers and coil springs.


 
Nice big front disc brake conversion kit (from european Ford Fiesta MkIII).

It’s important to keep the front and rear brakes in balance, as the tendency is to assume that bigger front brakes are sufficient, but the 500 being rear-engined and rear wheel drive, larger rear hubs and brakes should be installed. With that in mind, I have purchased larger rear drum brakes from a Polish 126P, and refurbished with new bearings, shoes and cylinders (in bottom-left of image above). Keeping shoes and drums on the rear still work well, and provides a better handbrake, but there are rear disc brake kits available.

 
Nice big abarth drive shafts. As I was installing the larger 650cc engine and transmission, I required the different and beefier driveshafts from the 500R.

 
 
Parts - Body

The famous Abarth engine cover struts.



A big choice for the look of the car is the wheel tyre and arch flares. These are european groupe 5 arch flares, but the amount of work to prepare the wing and arch area is considerable, as it intrudes into the car a lot on such small car. It’s also important to size the wheels and tyres precisely to the car.



Parts - Wheels & Tyres

A new set of 7” x 13” Minilite wheels, from UK, were selected, after much searching and determination of fit and correct ET/offset for the 500. These were required to clear larger front and rear brakes, along with the change of wheel stud PCD of 4 x 98mm.... (the standard PCD for modern Fiat Group cars). New low-profile Radials (175/50HR13) were also installed.



Interior Parts


                   

At this stage, I had decided to retain a standard interior, except for alloy pedals, gear knob and gated shifter. The carpet is new and rear seats are removed (weight reduction), and the rear area to be soundproofed and upholstered (possibly an area for battery stowage if later carrying out an EV (electric vehicle) conversion.