Hi all;
I'm Rudy and I have a 1989 126 BIS. I live in Germany because I'm studying mech. engineering but I was born and raised in Luxembourg (and therefore my cars have a luxembourger registration).
My 126 belonged to my sister's husband (they live in Italy); he bought it new. But around 2000 the car gave him more and more troubles so he bought something more reliable: my VW Lupo. I only had one thing to say to him: do not throw the Fiat away! And this he respected
I then began my studies and somewhat forgot the car, after all it was 1000 kilometers far away. But then, 3 years ago I was in Italy and decided it was time to do something about it!
That's the moment I began checking everything and making lists of stuff that had to be bought new. Of course the tank, the roof liner, the seats and the tyres were done. I took the engine out, couldn't turn it by hand so with my dad we unbolted the head and it wasn't pretty... the valves and the piston rings were rusted. Coolant must have frozen and leaked during winters. After a whole can of WD40 we were able to move the pistons again. The head got repaired (new valve seats, valve guides and valves), I honed the block in a very amateurish way and put everything together again and it worked flawlessly or at least so it seemed.
I put the car back together with everything that would be needed to drive and went back to Luxembourg. There, I got an insurance for the car, some plates and off I went, to cross the alps on my way north...
Yes, we did it. It took us two days and after this the engine wasn't really performing well anymore and because of some high pressure in the crankcase it blew the dipstick out and the engine lost nearly all of its oil, when I was in sight of the german-luxembourger border. I literally rolled across the border and then I called a tow truck.
I bought a new engine after that, I wanted to keep the original as a spare, maybe for a tuning project later on. Slowly I restored the interior too, the only thing missing is the headliner, but I am not really missing it.
Now, after WAY TOO MUCH text, here are some pictures:
How it's been sitting for 7 years in Italy:
The head:
The journey:
Being silly:
New engine
And that's it for now!
