Hello again from NZ (Italy 1 NZ 1)
Well here we are home. My newly aquired 1981 Fiat 126 Personal 4 and I. After much delay I finally made it to Timaru to collect her. She was as described to me so that was pleasing. Set off tuesday at 7pm to drive the 170km (106 miles) to Christchurch but didn't get out of Timaru before the throttle fell apart. Jury rigged that and carried on for another 10 miles before she started to miss and finally die. Managed to get it back to the previous owners workshop and tried to repair it. Thought the problem was fuel so fitted an old electric pump to get me home. Finally gave up after trying everything we could lay our hands on to change. Next morning fitted a new coil and condenser and a set of second hand points which improved the problem but did not cure it. As a last ditch we changed the plug leads and problem gone. Supressed leads. Set of at lunch time on wednesday for the interisland ferry at Picton. Made Blenheim at about 7pm and stayed the night. Onto the 10am ferry thursday morning and a pleasant crossing to Wellington. Drove of the ferry at 1.45pm and headed for home. Only one small problem on the way. The points closed up so it was an easy fix. Arrived home at 10.45. 630km (390 miles) in 8 hours including stops so not too bad. Headlights were terrible but I will fix that in due course. So I am very pleased with my new old car. It has done 74500 miles. Initially I was going to name it the "Orange Roughy" after a fish caught on the west coast of our south island but have decided that "Agent Orange" is more appropriate. It will be a while before I attempt any more long trips in it. I've got to give it a good service etc so at the moment I am gathering the parts required. I'll keep you posted.
Kind regards to you all. Allan
