Fiat 128ski - Really, even that I can't find?!

So, as I worked on the "refreshing the engine, things where going pretty well.

 The body is being painted and Enrique, the painter, is invested in the project, and seems like a true "Craftsman" who wants to do his best. So even though I worked on the body, to a level I thought was acceptable, he worked over it some more. Now, all that is needed is to color sand it, and it comes home to be assembled! So back to prepping parts for assembly.

The original MiniLite wheels got stripped, and we found a Burgundy that matches the original wheel color. So they where powder coated in this, then I set them in my lathe and cleaned off the rim, then they would get cleared, giving them a shiny aluminum rim against the burgundy center.

Turns out my powder coat guy had not a clue. He didn't preheat the rim to off-gas them, so they bubbled. Then tried to BS me about not being able to clear coat them because there where finger prints on the burgundy centers. Had no clue of chemistry or how to clean the surface, then the clear came out blistered. I finally said, just give them to me, and I'll fix them.

Girling AR 1 Brake Calipers: These little buggers are expensive now. At least all 4 of mine seem in serviceable shape, and after some cleaning and disassembly, they seem fine. Master cylinders were not so lucky. I had purchased new rebuild kits for them, but upon disassembly, they where very corroded. I think they where in a bucket that got filled with water....oops.

Well, that was easy, Pegasus Motorsports has brand new, original Girling master cylinders.  Well, you can always use the rebuild kits at some point,...right?

Thought it wise to buy new fuel pumps. The old Bendix ones could be OK, but while at the track, I'd hate find out I was wrong. Bendix must have sold the design to Facet, because it's nearly the identical pump. But, I figured, they should at least look like the Bendix ones. So, a little time on Corel- Draw, and I made new Bendix labels. Strip off the Fact label, add a little blue paint t the top of the pump, and Bam, Bendix fuel pumps.

I needed to clean the transmission, and thought, maybe I should pull off the end cover and look at the end of the gear shafts..... Well everything seemed fine, but then I saw a small chip of metal, hmmm? Turns out, it was magnetic, that's not as good as it could be. I then took off the back half of the case. Things looked clean, well, no, there are some "chunks" out of the inside of the casing!
Oh!, here is the problem, second gear is missing a tooth, well crap. After a bit of looking around, I found the missing tooth on one of the internal magnets and it seems it only damaged the case and the ring gear bolts. Well, now I have to find out if Colotti has a new gear. (After 40 years, Not likely, right)

Marco Colotti got back to me, "Not our work". Well dam, That was not the answer I expected, who made this set of gears? After hours of searching over the next few days, and many emails, nothing.
I talked with Midwest / Bayless and Matt chuckles a little at some of my questions or things I suggest I may be able to do. This is not encouraging. But Hey, I'm a lucky guy.

Finally, I figure, the only way is to have the broken gear copied. I get a tip from Grassroots Motorsports forum, about a gear maker in Canada and he quickly sends me a quote. Quite reasonable, but I still need a final drive and the one I have does not look like a stock Fiat drive. Based on the cost of one simple gear, I'm hesitant to ask what making a new Pinion shaft and crown gear is going to be.
Then, One morning, I'm sending emails in a last attempt to find who made my dog box (straight cut gears) and, Marco Colotti sends me an email; "Sorry, after searching our records, this is our work, it is our T.127, 4 speed."
Fantastic news. After a couple more emails, He confirms, they can make a new gear, and can make a new lower final drive.

OK, I need to do some simple less stressful work on the car. I know, I'll clean the stainless trim pieces for the exterior. When my brother was originally going to have the car media blasted, he chose to tape over the trim, instead of removing it. Well, now, I have 12 year old masking tape "welded" to the trim pieces. Turns out, if you soak old, crusty, fossilized, paper masking tape in "Purple Power" cleaner for 2 days, it falls right off. ("Goo off" didn't do either, goo or off)

Hmm, what else can I prep? I know the wink mirror needs to be checked. There is a new one in the box, lets see if it needs anything. "Oh, no, this won't work." The old mirror is 31" long and the new one is 36". The mounting brackets are welded into the car. The freshly painted car..... Well, no problem, I'll search the internet and find the correct one.

Turns out, there are none like this. I couldn't even find a picture of one like this! First, they all are different lengths and have square ends, so each of the five mirrors are the same. Mine is 31" long, and the two end mirrors are tapered. But, after looking at the way it was made, the original mirror was 2 nested thermo-formed pieces of ABS plastic. I can do that.
So a few hours at my shop, I made an MDF wood pattern, put it on my thermo-form machine (Vacuum former) and made a new mirror. A few pieces of glass mirror later (Quite a few and some swearing) I had a new, exact copy of the original "Wink Mirror".

Now, next week, I travel to Phoenix and learn how to drive cars faster!