Fiat lux

 I had a go at fixing the stripped rear lug by welding it up, drilling, and retapping. It seems to have worked, we'll see if it holds up if i need to take the wheel off again. 

Fiat wiring is notoriously bad - it's generally undersized and over the 47 years and multiple hardships this car has suffered, the grounds are corroded and things just don't volt up like they were designed to do. Also I realized the battery I remembered just buying is 3 years old now and suffering somewhat. I replaced the clock with a voltmeter, and during the drive yesterday with the headlights on and wipers going, I saw the voltage was not exactly where I would wish. The car has one of the slightly larger 65 amp alternators, but the voltage was sitting at about 11.5-12 V, so I think the battery hasn't held up on the top end, and the lights, radiator fan, wipers, and  battery requirements pretty much kill the spare capacity.

I'll pick up a new battery, but the headlights have always been fairly bad and I found a set of Grote LED round DOT lights for not a particularly reasonable price. I swapped in the LED lights and also did the side markers and taillights.

 They work great. It is a little sad that they're super white and flash instantly on, bam, there is light instead of the timely glow of the halogens. But I'll be able to see where I'm going, and the voltmeter is sitting above 12v volts now. Still need a new battery, but the electrical load should be more suited to the elderly wiring. 

So, at this stage, I really just have the exhaust leak to fix, replace the panhard rod, then it's maintenance items. The passenger mirror is tightened down, the sun visors don't flop down in your face any more, and the turn signal wiring is nicely soldered down. It is still running a little rich but nothing terrible. I want to install the set of Cibie driving lights I found, and maybe get some better speakers working for the radio, but the big stuff on the list is just about done.