The Isetta Bubble Cabrio

After spending some time with this car and tearing it all apart for restoration we learned
a great deal about its history and demise.  For one it is a pretty low mileage car with only 11007
original miles, my other 56 bubble had about 36000.    The low mileage was  obvious when we tore into the motor, gearbox and chain drive.  All the internal parts had little wear.  This Isetta has all
original matching #'s,  including the bubble only gearbox.   The demise of the car was a broken exhaust valve that was found embedded into the piston next to the chewed up cylinder head.  After the motor blew the Isetta  sat for who knows how long.  The rarity of this car is quite interesting
considering it is a American spec bubble cabrio with original fresh air vents in the door.  Supposedly
most all 56 bubble cabrios were exported to South America and only a hand full of them had the fresh air vent option in the door.    How this car ended up in Ohio is strange.  This is a true  America spec Isetta.    I have to wonder how many out of the 50 cabrios made were exported to the USA with the fresh air vent door option?  Not to many...   Signal Red appears to be the original color with a matching red plaid seat cover.    We will be restoring this car as close to original as possible.
Stay tuned for more soon.  -Austin

This isn't easy to do!

Vapor blasting

new wheel cylinders

rebuilding the gear box

chassis cleaned, painted and ready for assembly

 

The find of 2015!.... 1956 Isetta cabrio and 1956 Isetta Z-mold

Here are the pictures of the 2 cars as found spring 2015 in Perry County Ohio tucked under a overhang of a barn.
The farm they were found on was going to be auctioned off and the buyer was let on to the land before hand and was able to make a deal with the owners before they went to auction. Paying a whole $1800 for the both of them!    Imagine seeing the bubble Zmold car sitting there in the sticks and then looking further behind it and seeing a bubble cabrio!  Amazing find..........

The owner did a bit of research on the cars and made a few phone calls and couldn't believe he had found 1 of 50 made bubble window cabrios with only 35 known to still exists.  This one made it 36!
The owner kept the cars for a few months and then decided to list the cabrio on Ebay.  This is when
I saw it listed and immediately jumped on it and was able to make a deal.   Once we made a deal the owner then informed me that if I purchased the cabrio car I would also have a chance to purchase the other car.    I said well what is the other car and what do you want for that one?   He said its another isetta bubble window but with the Zmold trim on it.   How much is that then?   $2000.   I said Ill take it!  (:    We then hit the road with a 16 foot trailer and drove 11 hours to Ohio to pick up the cars.
The 11 hours back home to Iowa was basically a Isetta parade with lots of people waving and thumbs up..  Every time we stopped to get gas people would just swarm to the trailer with every question imaginable.  What are those? Where did you find them ? ect. ect....

mounting the body to the frame

After 14 years of being apart this Isetta is finally one again!

Isetta Chassis

Isetta chassis ready to be united with the body.

The Isetta 300 engine

First off my Isetta motor #'s do not match my frame and vin #.  But they are close and I have a very hard time believing that the motor is not original to the car. So someone can chime in about this if they like.  My vin # is 493784  and engine # is 501001.   The motor seemed to be well maintained through its life and was in pretty good shape.  The gear box on the other hand lived a rough life and I found a complete replacement for it.   We had CycleWorks in Kansas rebuild the crank with a steel conrod.  They also did a valve job and rebuilt the head for us.   The cylinder got a new oversized piston and the motor a standard rebuild.  The dynastart and electrical all seemed to work as it should with replacement of the points and condenser of coarse. The motor is up and running and sounding great.   I accidently fried my original ignition coil setting the timing. as seen in the video. Luckily I had a old 12volt Lucas motorcycle coil lying around that did the job until I get a new one. 

Isetta chrome parts

Here are a few shots of all the parts I sent out to get replated.  thechromeshop in Rock Island Il. did a great job.   I had to take apart my original pop out brackets to get it all replated   It was a challenge putting the brackets all back together correctly.   Also decided to chrome my Ebrake handle and cover to get some more bling in the interior.