1974 Fiat 126 'Tetto Aprible' Restoration

[Kent126]

Hurrah! New rear swing arms have arrived. Hmmm shiny!

Been cleaning up and restoring some of the smaller bits today. Handbrake connectors, stub washers, stub ends and all the bolts have been cleaned and sprayed ready to go back on. Just need to do the rear wheel bearings and I can rebuild the rear swing arms. )





















Tom

[shielsy]

man after me own heart working in flip flops 

[1973/126]

 Yep he loves flip flops and latex, lol.

 Making a good progress though

[Kent126]

Ha ha I hadn't noticed that in the photo! I literally live in flip flops and shorts!

Who told you about the latex?

[Kent126]

Never changed a set of wheel bearings before, but you get by with a little help from your friends ) shiny new ones now installed for the rear.





Tom

[Kent126]

Well I'm not gonna lie, what a pig of a job that was! Today I started putting the rear suspension back on the car. Because the springs and shocks are shorter being sports suspension, it was a pig to fit.

The spring is so hard I had to really jack the car up and compress the spring so much to get the shock connected at both ends. I can already tell the ride is gonna be hard! There isn't much play in the suspension and I had to also modify the bump stop by cutting it down to give the arm some clearance.

Pictures attached. Looks sweet though and with the wheel offered up, it looks like it's gonna be low! )

Anyway, one side down and one to go.







Tom

[1973/126]

 It`s looking good. Going to be nice and loooooow. And those wheels are so 

[Kent126]

New steering rods arrived today from Germany. More shiny new bits.



Tom

[Gadge]

Excellent work......as usual :

[Kent126]

Finished painting the underneath of the car in black underseal today. A job I hope I will never have to do again. Super messy! Took off the track rods, steering box and idler today. All filthy and a pain to remove. Cleaned the steering box and idler up. Bushes on the idler will need replacing, and the box needs new seals.

Had to borrow a ball joint splitter as I didn't have one. Nightmare job as everything was rusted in place.

Anyway hopefully some more progress tomorrow.



Tom

[Bar Vitelli]

Ey up, Tom, is this done? Great work so far! Hoping to pick Mrs BV's mintathon up at long last later this week! 

[Kent126]

Sadly not yet BV, but now that the house is almost finished I can crack on over the winter. I have promised myself that it will be on the road for the spring for definite. 

Few jobs to do, few more bits needed to order but it's getting there.

Hoping to really use it next year and get it to a few of the shows finally!

Have you got some more pics of Mrs BV's minter?

[Kent126]

Dropped steering box off today to a friend for him to have a look at for me, hopefully new gaskets and oil and it'll be good as new.

Also dropped a box of bits off today at Custom WyteLyne in Medway for shotblasting and powder coating.







Tom

[shielsy]

cracking  :Don

[Kent126]

Well the bits have been powder coated already 😊 picked them up today and they look all shiny and new. Well worth powder coating old parts if you have them.









Tom