my 1985 fiat 126P from holland

[sleurhut]

Hello everybody.

I'm Sleurhut from the netherlands, 19 years old and proud owner of a 126P carcass  . In the Netherlands we dont have a fiat 126 dedicated forum so i started searching the internet and came across this forum.

I'm a trainee (guess its called like that in english) at a local universal garage. We do all kind of cars. recent makes and models but also oldtimers. We have a guy working there that had a fiat 126 for ages and he had plans to restore it to its former glory. The car got stripped down and some welding was done. After that he lost the drive to finish te project and the car ended up next to our scrap metal bin outside for about a year.

When we moved to a new workshop it ended up next to the bin again. a few months ago i decided it would be nice to have a little restauration project for my own. I work all day long on other persons cars but seldom on my own. I did the guy an offer and dragged it inside to start the work on it.

this is how it started:





<a href="http://s683.photobucket.com/user/sleurhutje/media/WP_20140411_003.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i683.photobucket.com/albums/vv200/sleurhutje/WP_20140411_003.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo WP_20140411_003.jpg"/></a>



I had to pull the car inside on a jack because the brakes were seized solid. Time for some fresh brakes.

first removed al the junk from it to get a better look at it.











it needed 2 new outer sills, a new section in the front plate and 2 new floor boards. The doors also were rotted away.

the engine was not seized and had pretty good compression. It had not run for about 10 years but decided to give it a try before taking it out of the car. I connected a battery to it. Removed the plugs and soaked the cilinders in oil, squirted some oil on the rocker arms and turned it over bij hand. After fitting the plugs back in. i did a basic check to make sure i couldnt hurt the motor by trying to start it, The point looked pretty worn out but i had a strong spark. climmed back intro the car. gave it half choke and it started right up. sounded pretty smooth for something that had not run in 10 years.

The following days after work i removed the gearbox and engine. stripped it down. degreased the gearbox, replaced all the seals and gaskets and changed the boots.









the engine was the next to be stripped down and rebuild.









In the meantime i got more familiare with the fiat quality : 



this car was brought in for MOT, the chassis girders (guess its called like that in english) were rotten out and the whole coachwork was rotted loose at the rear. Got me welder out and got it back to how it should he.

A few weeks later they brought a grande punto. the gearbox locked up on the motorway. A common problem with punto's.



but there was also good news. Reconstruction had started on the engine.









nicely painted cilinders back on there. cil head got new valve seals and i grounded in the valves.









it really is super clean.

rebuilded my alternator with new bearings etc





and got a nice alu oil carter



and fitted a bit more stuff to it







Im currently working on getting al the engine cooling covers painted black again.

I want to build a 126 in the same style as abarth and giannini did the fiat 500. so white body, red abarth logo's. hood a bit opened up. 4 point harness. bucket seats. lowering it.

i will post new photo's when al the cooling covers are on there. please tell me what you guys think about the work that is done.

sleurhut

[pietschokkenbroek]

Hee ' Sleurhut'

You did some great work on the car! Please keep us posted!
And I'm jealous of your well equipped workshop!

Keep It going!

[Rusty's Uncle]

Very good work there, I am sure that you will have fun when you fire it up and all that effort will be rewarded 

[sleurhut]

thanks for the comments guys.

yeah its a very complete workshop. Its the workplace at my work where we do clients cars. Just made a little space free to put it there. When the welding begins i will put it on one of the lifts to make working on it a bit easier.

Got a little fiat 500L from 1970 for a new rear wheelbearing and regreasing the front ones today. When i hear it run it makes me wanna finish the engine and test it  .

[sleurhut]

Got a parcel in the mail friday containing my exhaust. The mounting brackeds got a few coats of heat resistant matt black because they were coaten pretty thin from the factory in poland and it was already scratched. I also dit my air filter housing.





the heater cowling is getting degreased, stripped to bare metal and zincsprayed again.

[pietschokkenbroek]

   NICE! 

[Fiatos]

Looks good!
On 25.Juli-27.Juli we organized a Fiat 126/500 meeting Münsterland

Adress:

Schützenhalle
Doemern 12
48691 Vreden
Germany

It lies close to the Dutch border.

[skoda_norman]

Wow. Amazing work in a short period of time!

[andyzeetec]

Looks like new 

    Great job

[sleurhut]

Thanks guys. im pretty satisfied with it.

The engine is almost finished. some last things have to be mounted. I made a pipe to replace the inlet sound muffler that is mounted between the filter housing and the carb manifold. Waiting for parts at the moment. New boots for the filter pipe and some little things.

i tested te thermostat. it worked exactly 3 times, after that it was permanently stretched like this. So i ordered a new thermostat and mounted it. Normaly you dont have a fuel filter installed between the carb and the fuel pump. Made a nice little bracket for it to mount it properly.


















after it was almost finished the body was next.

made an assessment of the rust damage, wanted to start with a few small jobs to get back in the 'vibe' . Most of my welding jobs are under the cars and only needed to get it to pass APK (MOT) you cut out the rot. make a plate to cover up the hole and weld it on. There is no need to do it neatly. It costs more time that has to be paid by the owner of the car.

First job was the right corner of the windscreen. around the drainage hole the metal was eaten away. someone mounted a big antenna to it back in the day and did it with a step drill busting up the whole corner. welded a little plate in, grinded it smooth. welded a small plate on the inside of the frame and filled it up with weld. got it almost good without filler.





will have to upload more photo's tonight. the battery is going down on the phone

[sleurhut]

next up to be taken care of was the floor. I hoped a few patches would be sufficient. Wacked the floorboard a few times with a pointy hammer. under the sound deadening it was all rusted out. Got me grinder out and cut out the floor. drilled out all the spotwelds and ripped it out. got the car on its side so it would be easy to clean up the rust





the big support beam that runs between the sills turned out to be rotted out to. It is not orderable here in NL. Had to make one from 2 mm sheet metal and a angle folder.



first cleaned everything up nice and fitted the floorboard in





and welded it all around

made a patch for the middle of the bar, had some small holes in it. made sure to have some good penetration in the metal.



the hole at the top is there because some rust burned away while welding, have to weld it up and grind it smooth

put the car back down on it wheels and welded the inside of the floor to the center console and the inner sills. and the floor to the new bar











put the car back on its side again and welded the new supports for the seat rails to the floor and the bar. welded one a jack support and did some grinding to smooth out everything. still have to put a small plate in the corner at the foot end cuz i cut the floor a bit to wide 

removed the ugly plastic bumper supports





ready for sanding

now i'm trying to find out how to remove the right wing from the outer sill so i can replace the outer sill. cant find out where it is welded. can someone give me info on that?

sleurhut

[shielsy]

fair play to ye  lovely job owen nw 

[baron_matt]

I'm sure someone advised on here not to fit the fuel filter in that position as it can be effected by the heat from the exhaust.

Best to put it before the pump.

[sleurhut]

hmmz yeah thought about that to, maybe the way i did it will cause vaporlock. But we did it this way on a 500 before and never had a problem. Maybe change it back to mounting it in the line between the tank and the pump

do you mean affected in the meaning of melting of causing vaporlock?

[sleurhut]

a few weeks passed. this is my last vacation day. Time to go the pub but first an little update:

next up is the right sill, cut the old one out (almost broke it out, only rust and filler held is to the car) cleaned up the inside and catalysed the rust, zincsprayed it. also zincsprayed the inside of te new sill and made it fit.





first i wanted to remove the fender, but when you remove it the chances it will fit back on in one piece is small. cut the sill just before the fender started and made the new one fit against it. welded it around







left side was up next, again drill the spotwelds and cut the edges:



and made the new one fit, welded it in



seatrails are nicely positioned, everything fits like it should



left sill had to be reinforced before i cut out the sill. it was so bad it the only thing holding it together was a spotwelded piece of 0.8 steel and a lot of putty.



did the same as on the other side:



used seamfiller (we call it strijkkit/carrosoriekit) to seal of all of the overlapping pieces and welds,










put the car on the lift to cut the front nose of, first checked the underside to make sure it looked right













when the bodywork is finished i will remove the suspension, remove all the bitumen and underside coatings. spray it with 2k expoxy, paint it and redo it with black tectyl and bodyschutz.

cut out the nose, battery tray was rotted out so that must go too



cleaned it all up and fitted the new nose, fits pretty good needs some brazing where the nose meets the headlight surround at the fender. removed it again and drilled the spotwelds to remove the battery tray. but thats something to do next week.

Did some small work today cleaning the dashboard with dasty



and resprayed the instrument binacle in matt black. flamepolished the switches to the original blackish color back up. polished the plexiglas with silvo silver polish. it will leave no scratches.

is the dashboard also avaible in black? i rather want a black one than a grey one, fits my interior better