Cleaning and Dismantling

I've been working on the Fiat a little bit this week.  I have Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays off from work.  It looks like Fridays, and sometimes Saturdays, will be Fiat days.  I'm excited to get started, but also a little overwhelmed.  I've never done anything like this.  I've never been a car guy, other than admiring great cars.  I've got a feeling that I'm going to have a steep learning curve ahead of me.  

So, this week I finished cleaning out all the extra parts and junk that was stacked inside the car.  I pulled out the front seats, which weren't bolted down anyway due to rusted out floors.  I also pulled out the back seat.  I'm not sure it will be worth saving, even the frame is rusted and the coils are pretty worn.  We may have to have a new seat cushion made.  

This is a picture of the drivers side floor.  See all the rust!  What is hard to see is all the holes in the floor and the sagging that's happening.  I'm not sure if I will make some new floor panels or buy them.  I did find some for sale on a Fiat website, but they are $198 each.  At this point, I'm not sure if this is a good or bad price.  

I had to remove the back seat bench, then fold down the backrest to access the differential.  You can see that I pulled the top two bolts out, getting ready for the engine to be pulled.  

This is the frame bracket that holds the lower rear body panel and the rear bumper.  I had to remove these as well, so that the body panel can be taken off, making room to remove the engine. 

The corner frame brackets have been removed.  On the right side you can see the exhaust.  

I also disconnected and removed the exhaust from the exhaust manifold.  

The exhaust pipes and muffler are removed.  

Next week I will put the rear of the car on jack stands, support the engine, make the final disconnects and remove the engine.  From that point on, I will work on rebuilding the engine, as well as continuing to strip the car down so I can get it ready for body work and sanding.