Club126UK
Welcome to the CLUB126UK Forum => Introduce Yourself => Topic started by: westfieldman on April 27, 2011, 10:45:21 AM
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Hi All,
Well - gone and bought a 126 Black which I think is described as a "special edition" - which has been stood in the owners (very dry) garage for the last 28 years.
Well used to tinkering as I own and race a Westfield for my sins - but never encountered one of these little babies before - so expecting lots of the unexpected!
First problem is that the brakes are locked on - so will need to overcome that one to load it on my trailer to take it home - any suggestions?
Beware - will be after lots of advice and guidance when I do get started!!
All the best
Paul - aka Westfieldman. :)
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Welcome, you came to the RIGHT place.
Loads of info and knowledge on this site :D
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Personally I would just drag it ???
removing the wheels, drums and shoes is a really quick job though. Did my rears last night only takes 10 mins or so.
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Hi Paul & welcome , interesting that you have a Black as a Silver was just up for sale on eBay. As for moving your car I would suggest the following to free your wheels. Jack up a wheel and remove it. Remove the two bolts that secure the brake drum to the hub. Be very careful with these bolts , they are 12mms heads and the bolt head is very shallow so an ill fitting spanner or socket will quickly round off the bolt head. Best to use a ring spanner or socket. Refit the 4 wheel bolts then take a decent size hammer or club hammer and keep tapping/hammering on the outside of the brake drum. Have a decent lever or bar that you can fit between the wheel bolts to turn the drum. The vibration will break any rust seal on the brake drum plus the brake shoes have friction self adjustors so any slight movement wil help to move the shoes away from the drum. Good luck :)
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Thanks for the advice chaps - think I will try to drag it onto the trailer first (as the tyres are shot anyway) if that does not work - Rusty's advice will be put into play!
For info - this car has not been advertised anywhere - it belonged to a mates mother, who parked it up 28 years ago and simply stopped driving. Had a pretty decent look around it - and there appears to be minor surface rust here and there - engine crank turns by hand (until the compression kick in) - so quite a good find I think.
Will confirm that once I have got it home and blasted 2 inches of dust off it!
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Hello and welcome to the forum. Looks like it is a great find. Let us know how you get on and post some photos of the car please.
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Picked her up yesterday - here goes with the photo's...........
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Another pic
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Getting carried away now
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Last one for now - suprising how well the bodywork has stood the test of time - thank the lord for a dry garage!
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Very nice, I love the seats, retro chic. Out with the tcut and polish now ;D
service, then the real fun begins.
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Hi Paul.
Welcome to club, Nice find with the Burberry interior Your all chaved up and ready to go, Don't forget the baseball hat :P
(http://club126uk.co.uk/smf/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=5841.0;attach=4387;image)
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Hi Paul..love the car, outrageous interior..seriously cool,reminds me of 70's trousers!! :D great colour too,great find,welcome,keep the updates coming..how's the engine looking?
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Yep - loving the interior too!!
Deffo needs a pair of rear shocks - polished the hell out of her last Thursday - the back end bounced like a nodding dog under the immense pressure of my duster! Came up pretty good though - will post pictures later.
The engine "looks" pretty good - given it the once over and wanted to start her up - only to find the starter would not turn over. Total strip down and refurb - now working but not had time to put it back on the car yet.
Scared my self when I connected the battery for the first time - massive hissing noises coming from inside the car. The little red box on the dash that I thought was an anti-theft thingy turns out to be a radio!!
Fallen for the car completely - huge amounts of laughter already (not just by looking at the seats) and she ain't even out of the garage yet!
More to come.............
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A couple more pictures......
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Any tips on what to use to get the bumpers and side rubbing strips clean?
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well if you want them clean just give them a good scrub howver if you want them back to the original colour then you might have to respray them, i have found "back to black" to be as good as useless for this job and have always resorted to priming and spraying with paint.
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In the past i have used a 50/50 mix of boiled linseed oil and white spirit with great results (available from your local DIY store) It Beat all the back-to-black treatments and lasts for months, use a sponge to put it on and rub in, The sponge side of a pan scrub is ideal, coat the bumpers and side protectors and smooth off, usually i go over them with an old nylon sock to make sure the coating is uniformed, Leave to dry overnight.
Things to do if you use this method:
Ware gloves. Its quite sticky.
Don't use anything cotton as you will be picking the bits out for days
Don't drive the car till its dry. Dust will stick to it
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The only thing with the "Black" edition is, that it actually has grey plastic bumpers and covers, so your best bet is probably repainting.
By the way I love this car. You`ll have to post up some better quality pics. You lucky, lucky man.
http://img212.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=69019_schwarz-silber_1_fertig_122_411lo.jpg
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The above method will restore the bumpers and side protectors too there original colour whether they are grey, red, blue or black. If you want to change the colour the only alternative is to paint them.
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:$ I thought it`s supposed to make them black. It`s because I`m foreign :P Me no understand.
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That's a very rare car :D Tailights are diferent too. Has to be worth more than the average 126 because of this.
Hey 1973/126 me foreign too ;D even more foreign than you, you at least from not too far away ;D I put it down to the druid coming out in them. They just can't help standing around a pot and boiling something ;D
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You buy Linseed oil at a DIY shop either Raw or Boiled :D Don't have to do any cooking and usually with the Wood Preservatives :P
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Thanks for the tips guys - good stuff.
Took the sunroof off last night - who's idea was it to hold the rear of the cloth part in place with tiny nuts and bolts that are impossible to get to!!! Found a very old box spanner that fitted perfectly in the end - but much fiddling was needed to get 6 nuts removed! I am having two very small tears repaired where the hinge mechanism seems to foul the fabric - and strengthened to (hopefully) make sure it is a better job than the existing - seems to be a bit of a weak point....
I am taking her to a very good friend of mine - who owns a body shop and is a pure genius with a spray gun - should come up looking like a new pin. He has some ideas for the side strips and bumpers - which includes a special primer (v sticky apparently) and two pack top coat to take the mouldings back to their intended and original colour. Wont be for a couple of months yet though...
I am struggling with adding pictures to this site - it appears that you have to make them so small to overcome the bandwidth limitations that the eventual picture is quite grainy. Any suggestions as to what I am doing wrong??
Hoping to have her engine running this weekend - more pictures to come. Fallen in love completely - so quirky but great fun to work on!!
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Sorry - one last thing;
Where the hell is the horn? It doesn't work - so I can't "peep" it to find it!! :D :D
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The horn is located underneath at the front centre about 12" back. With regards to the painting I wondered if you should keep the original bumpers & side strips as they are so rare and try & source standard ones to be painted then the car can always be returned to original. :)
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Hi there, I have one of these special edition "black" 126's. I thought maybe I had the last UK one left, alas not. Yours is original and mine is actually a replica. I dragged one off a drive in Nuneaton, but when we go it back to Brighton it was far too far gone. There wasn't a single panel that didn't need replacing! I bought a decent one and painted it and transferred all the interior. I replaced my bumpers with NOS from Italy, they have some on ebay.it. Side strips are impossible to get, I have near side rear but still looking for all the others! I made up the graphics from vinyl off ebay, the nearest colour I could find was light brown. I cut the black lettering out with a scalple. However, FYI, there is a graphics kit available now, again it's on ebay.it for the black edition.
Gearbox giving me jip at the mo. Black oily hands again this weekend!
My cousin had a black edition in the early 80s, it wasn't very old but already pretty rusty. She saved really hard to buy it and didn't have it long before it exploded on the oakham to melton road. She was none too impressed!
When i fathom out how to reduce file sizes on a mac book, i will post some pictures.
Enjoy, looks a real find!
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Love this car, a great find! Look forward to more pics ;D
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I think that I have got some side strips up in my shed , also got a spare front bumper :)
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Wow..uncle, your the man! What other goodies are in the back of that shed!?
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Ps...Paul, have you got an eBay account, ? ..just seen a great period advert for a black special just listed an hour ago..get a bid in there! think its a ten day auction, will win it for you if you like it and haven't got an account! ;o)
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When I said I had the strips I meant the normal black/dark grey type but I mentioned them as they could be painted rather than paint the rare light grey ones and yes green-fly I have got all sorts of bits & bobs in my shed , loft & garage :)
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the side strips on the specials are the same type as the deville versions and are far more robust than the later editions also the fitting is different as the early side stips are connected solely by screws through the doors where as the later side strips have a bolt securing them at the centre and holes cut into the doors to allow them to slot into so all in all a pain to make them fit pus the earlier side strips sit higher on the door than the later type, and before you say it rusty i know i should have an anorak on as i type.............
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Quick question;
Do you have to remove the trailing arms to change the rear shock absorbers - or is there a "short cut"??
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The rear shocks/dampers can be removed by undoing the top nut in the cab under the rear seat and the lower nut on the underside of the trailing arm. Comperss the shocker and it can be passed through a hole next to the bottom fixing point. Fitment is the reverse.
Ralph