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....
After 14 years of being apart this Isetta is finally one again!
Isetta chassis ready to be united with the body.
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.
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.
Fresh out the paint booth! The paint job went really smooth. 2 coats of DCC single stage color
with 2 more coats of clear over that. Single stage paint with clear over it always looks awesome
with that deep gloss. Still going to sand it all down with 2000 grit and polish it to a mirror finish.
Im really happy with the results so far..
Bottom and interior all painted and masked off. Now we're finally ready to spray the outside.
Up next! GREEN.....
