Isetta - Chassis Restored

The chassis restoration on our white Isetta is nearing completion. I still need to do the brake lines and a few other little things. I've also been going back and nickel plating a few things that I had painted earlier in the restoration. Over the winter I plan on working on reupholstering the seat and remaking the interior panels. Also next spring I would like to do a test drive with the body off, so I'll be rigging up a temporary seat, gas tank, and battery. I'll also need to make some kind of support for the steering wheel and shifter.

Isetta Brochure - German 300

Isetta - Chassis, Front & Rear Axle Reassembly

My Isetta frame completely stripped and ready to go to the bead blaster. One of the biggest problems I encountered disassembling my Isetta was removing the wedge screw (Plate 3 Part #15) that holds the steering knuckle king pin in place. Man those suckers were hard to get out. Needless to say, I completely destroyed them in the process. I'm sure glad replacements are available. One other slight difficulty was removing the bolts (Plate 3 Part #126) that connect the drop arm spindle, steering fork, and driver side steering knuckle. The bolts had become one with their respective silent blocs. I ended up having to carefully grind the heads off these bolts and drill them out before I was able to disassemble these parts and press out the old silent blocs. A new style of polyurethane silent bloc was not available when I was working on this part of my car, but now Greg Hahs sells a two piece bushing that replaces the original style silent bloc (Plate 3 Part #8) that I have heard greatly enhances the steering of the Isetta.

Along with the frame, I had the leaf springs, wheels, tie rod, and front springs bead blasted.

Some additional parts that I bead blasted myself that will be going to the powder coater with the frame and other parts that I had Eagle Auto Stripping bead blast.

A couple of pics of the newly powder coated frame and leaf springs with the brake master cylinder, lower engine mounts, and muffler (semi) attached. The muffler I ordered from Group Harrington arrived missing the hanger bracket and had incorrect front mounting brackets.

Mounting the chain case and rear shocks

New bake pads and rebuilt brake cylinder

New brake pads, shocks, silent blocs, seals, and bearings. Brake cylinders have been rebuilt, and misc parts were nickel plated.

Pedal linkage assembly.

New master cylinder and cables

I purchased this steering damper from a VW parts supplier. It was inexpensive and fits the Isetta perfectly. I have a link to the supplier in my sidebar microcar links.

Baby's got new shoes!

The engine and transmission are ready to mount to the frame.