More Progress

The latest progress on the MRGOOOZIE.
As you can see when we last left you we had no floors for the passengers. This can be quite a problem, not only can small animals and screaming children be lost on the road but all of that precious food and fine wine can also be lost. As the Italians would say " Diomio! Che disastro! Miseria!" (my God, what a disaster! what misery!)

I don't know about you but some of my cargo is very precious so I went about fixing the problem.


Another issue was tying the old part of the Fiat door jamb into the new floor while making sure the doors would shut in their normal but rusty position.


Now that the passengers are somewhat safe it is now time to move onto the drivers floor, even the driver isn't safe anymore!

Support for MRGOOZIE

For those who are following the blog here is the latest on the project.
One issue that came into play is where to put the gas tank. The original actually sits in a tray just behind the rear passengers head and is inside the vehicle, something I am not really a fan of. The Idea is to use the MR2 fuel tank in its original placement which is mounted outside and in the middle of the car under the center rail as I call the hump. Here is the progress of tying the Fiat into the center rail.

I needed to cut the last 18" of the rail into two pieces in order to get a fairly accurate measurement so that I didn't cut into the steering arms that are just under the old rail.






Once I positioned the pieces back into place I tack welded the top to secure it. I then cut off most of the tabs I was using to hold the tunnel in place and welded the rail in place from underneath to have a cleaner finish.
Next was getting the old Fiat framework to line up with the MR2. The biggest issue is that the Fiats front main support skids that tie all of the front steering together really don't exist anymore thanks to RUST! I needed to build a new support structure that would allow me to move the car around and also replace those skids at a later date without having to do more unnecessary cuting.

Not my greatest welds but anyone who has worked with a welder will tell you, RUST is pretty much impossible to work around. After cutting out what I could this is the support structure I came up with.


Now that both sides of the center support structure are finish this will allow us to lift the complete car off the ground so we can work on the fuel tank and suspension.

Next on the list are the new passenger floor boards, the old MR2 pans were cut out, Why may you be asking? Well of course more RUST!

The MRGooozie has arrived!

So for those that follow the progress of the MRGooozie as Larry calls it, here is the latest. Saturday morning I went into the shop and started marking the areas that may be an issue with getting the Fiat to drop down over the MR2. Larry arrived and I gave him a marker and we went to town. Surprisingly we found only a few areas that needed trimming. The strut towers needed to be trimmed back about an inch and a half so that's where we started.

Towers are welded back in place so that the structural integrity was not compromised.

A simple but effective fix to make it fit.


At this point we started lowering the Fiat down, taking great care so we didn't smash any thing that might still be in the way.



At this point we had to maneuver the rear of the fiat over the frame in order to drop another four inches.

We are so close so we decide it's lunch time.

After lunch Larry and I did another inspection to find what might be hanging up the last two inches of the project. At this point Judy makes some rude comment about another two inches! Thanks to Judy by the way for being totally patient and awesome, she took some wonderful pictures while we were puttering around in freezing conditions.



We found one culprit, the internal frame of the Fiat door jam needed to be trimmed back about an inch on both sides.

Grinders are so cool! until your fingers get in the way, fortunately not today.

We are trying to save the original MR2 center column and incorporate it into the design. This would be an engineering marvel if we did. This would allow us to use the original MR2 fuel tank in it original placement which will give us 5 more gallons of fuel storage over the the original Fiat gas tank.



Welding in some 1" straps to temporarily attach the body down so we can move the whole car as one piece.

The plan is to create a step side entrance for the passengers in the back of the car.

One thing I didn't expect is that when you blend a Fiat Multipla with a Toyota MR2 you get a Volkswagon Beetle on hormones...


Stat tuned in for the latest. Also look at Larry's blog in the next couple of weeks to see the second project we are creating.

The latest on the Fiat

Over the last two day's Andy and I have been cutting and measuring and re-cutting areas of both the MR2 and the Fiat. Here is the latest.

The first thing that needed to be done is separating the back of the MR2 from the front. Here you see a bonafide rickshaw in the making.

Here you can see the cancer being removed from the patient.

More trimming of the rust.

Flintstones eat your heart out!

Still more trimming.

Removing fenders and wheel wells for the sub-frame removal.




The Multipla with the rear sub-frame and suspension removed.




More trimming to make the panels fit.

The rear fenders will be tied into the existing body, and then flared out to make a seamless panel.

The body fits over the subframe, at this point it is a matter of trimming to match and then spot welding the two pieces together.

So here is the latest on the Fiat 600 Multipla Abarth X2S