The return of the Invisible Car.
Discussion
Remember this?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkUROKthl2w
Well having spent the last six months living in Corby (no irony intended) the car blew her head gasket and the owner couldn't afford to pay for the repair.
So I have bought her back from the garage and will be collecting the car tomorrow.
Will let you know what state she's in and my plans later.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkUROKthl2w
Well having spent the last six months living in Corby (no irony intended) the car blew her head gasket and the owner couldn't afford to pay for the repair.
So I have bought her back from the garage and will be collecting the car tomorrow.
Will let you know what state she's in and my plans later.
Shockingly bad on the outside...
....disgusting on the inside (smells like someone's urinated on the back seat).
The car's been used a little person transport from the clutch smell under the bonnet and the way the head gasket blew I'd say a woman driver as well. The hazard lights don't work because of the way the stereo has been ripped out and the engine oil hasn't been changed since the head gasket so the oil pump is probably full of emulsion.
M.O.T standard repairs?
I'll rip the interior out tomorrow so I can see how bad the floor is and get rid of the wee smell.
To be completely honnest (I usually am to the point that it annoys people and my sisters now refuse to go shopping with me) I have only recently understood the point of concourse. A well documented case was a guy who had spent years and a shed load of money restoring his pride and joy Citroen DS. He then drove to a competition in France only to come second to another DS that had one less dead bug on the grille. 
To make "The Ultimate" version of a shopping trolley just highlights the fact that the motor industry is full of bean counters and lazy gob s
tes in factories. All cars that roll off the line should be as good as the ones that have been polished to death and trailored from one contest to another. Having said that the cost and time that goes into concourse cars would be impossible to achieve on a production scale so corners are cut for the sake of being able to produce a car for £15,000 Would you pay £40,000 for a Ford Focus? That's how much a concourse S1 RST sold for recently. 
Sorry about the rant, but the invisible car was minging!
Gloves, mask, gogles, hat, industrial congealed Jelly Tot remover, vacum cleaner, upholstery shampoo, febreze, updated will and two hours later the car is almost bearable.
How can anyone drive something like that let alone have a child festering in the back in beyond me.
I've taken the parcel shelf out and looked at the hole where the stereo was ripped out.
Stereo + Speakers + cables = balast
So the hole may be filled with one of these.....
...plenty or room for a boost gague there I think.
To make "The Ultimate" version of a shopping trolley just highlights the fact that the motor industry is full of bean counters and lazy gob s
tes in factories. All cars that roll off the line should be as good as the ones that have been polished to death and trailored from one contest to another. Having said that the cost and time that goes into concourse cars would be impossible to achieve on a production scale so corners are cut for the sake of being able to produce a car for £15,000 Would you pay £40,000 for a Ford Focus? That's how much a concourse S1 RST sold for recently. Sorry about the rant, but the invisible car was minging!
Gloves, mask, gogles, hat, industrial congealed Jelly Tot remover, vacum cleaner, upholstery shampoo, febreze, updated will and two hours later the car is almost bearable.
How can anyone drive something like that let alone have a child festering in the back in beyond me.
I've taken the parcel shelf out and looked at the hole where the stereo was ripped out.
Stereo + Speakers + cables = balast
So the hole may be filled with one of these.....
...plenty or room for a boost gague there I think.
Solved the two issues with the engine at the same time. The sump breather pipe was completely blocked and the car ran like the timing was 1.5 degrees out and was gutless. Air line and a WD-40 soaked pipe cleaner later and she's purring like a 140,000 mile Fire engine again.
If this project does end up my £999 contender there's a tradition I have to live up to. I took the car to the mile long farm track in the Marsh to set a quarter mile bench mark and see what she can do flat out.
According to the sat' nav' I crossed the quarter mile line in 19.6 seconds at 88mph.
Half a second slower than last years BMW.
Flat out the car sat at an indicated 115mph that according to the sat' nav' was actually 109mph.
If this project does end up my £999 contender there's a tradition I have to live up to. I took the car to the mile long farm track in the Marsh to set a quarter mile bench mark and see what she can do flat out.
According to the sat' nav' I crossed the quarter mile line in 19.6 seconds at 88mph.
Half a second slower than last years BMW.
Flat out the car sat at an indicated 115mph that according to the sat' nav' was actually 109mph.
Been doing a spot of stripping today.
Of to eBay or a skip.
Took a window out, drew round it, put it back and cut the Pollycarbonate out.
Enough left to make a pair of window flaps for the doors so no electric motor balast this year.
Worst bit of Fiat-itus is on top of the passenger wheel arch so I cut it out....
...welded a bit in place (eventually I take back my previous critisism of the quality of repairs the metal these things are made off is s
te). 
More blow through than weld in the end. I was running out of daylight so instead of cutting more out and patching it up I did a "Dutch boy" weld instead. Not the tidiest (well not tidy at all) job but it's done at least.
I'll fill the new holes in the tailgate and weather permitting fit the new windows tomorrow.
Suprisingly comfortable. I'll give it a bit of a clean befor I fit it.
In the mean time....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jF0-y3pEmpc
Got the passenger door window done today. Not bad for a first attempt at making one with a hole eh?
In the mean time....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jF0-y3pEmpc
Got the passenger door window done today. Not bad for a first attempt at making one with a hole eh?
Started today working on a slightly larger Fiat....
...had to mow the roof before I could clean it.
Back to my car and the sunstrip http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Large-Yellow-Sunstrip-Van-Tr... is now fitted....
....much easier this time of year as it doesn't dry on contact and the soapy water doesn't evaporate making bubbles in the strip that you have to chase with a scraper.
I was tempted to get one like this....
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ABARTH-Red-Yellow-Screentop-...
...but that's an extra tenner out of the budget and Fiat never did a proper Cinquecento or Seicento Abarth just a cosmetic marketing exercise.
Started to clean the seat, then took a wet and dry sanding sponge to it.
I was hoping (but knew realistly) that after forty years of exposure to the atmosphere and various forms of motor sport that the Aluminium would be clean enough to be able to mirror polish (I haven't had my polishing kit out since my 7/11 streetfighter) but there are too many deep scratches, burs and dents to make any more than surface prep' for paint worthwhile.
The final Pollycarbonate sheet arrived in the post today from these guys...
http://myworld.ebay.co.uk/sheet-plastics
...I highly reccomend them as I was expecting the delivery on Wednesday. Superb.
...had to mow the roof before I could clean it.
Back to my car and the sunstrip http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Large-Yellow-Sunstrip-Van-Tr... is now fitted....
....much easier this time of year as it doesn't dry on contact and the soapy water doesn't evaporate making bubbles in the strip that you have to chase with a scraper.
I was tempted to get one like this....
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ABARTH-Red-Yellow-Screentop-...
...but that's an extra tenner out of the budget and Fiat never did a proper Cinquecento or Seicento Abarth just a cosmetic marketing exercise.
Started to clean the seat, then took a wet and dry sanding sponge to it.
I was hoping (but knew realistly) that after forty years of exposure to the atmosphere and various forms of motor sport that the Aluminium would be clean enough to be able to mirror polish (I haven't had my polishing kit out since my 7/11 streetfighter) but there are too many deep scratches, burs and dents to make any more than surface prep' for paint worthwhile.
The final Pollycarbonate sheet arrived in the post today from these guys...
http://myworld.ebay.co.uk/sheet-plastics
...I highly reccomend them as I was expecting the delivery on Wednesday. Superb.
The final Polycarbonate window is fitted.
Only used one tube of Tigerseal in the end. A major improvement from last years one tube per window effort. The gaps between the pacenote portal slide bearings allows any rain water to drain through to the bottom of the door and out of the factory drain holes. In a traditonal slide the water sits there and isn't pleasant after a while.
Now I need to sort out (decide on) an engine conversion and other performance upgrades.
Just looking at cooling solutions if I decide to go for a turbo.
Only used one tube of Tigerseal in the end. A major improvement from last years one tube per window effort. The gaps between the pacenote portal slide bearings allows any rain water to drain through to the bottom of the door and out of the factory drain holes. In a traditonal slide the water sits there and isn't pleasant after a while.
Now I need to sort out (decide on) an engine conversion and other performance upgrades.
Just looking at cooling solutions if I decide to go for a turbo.
Had a look at these guys website.
http://www.torqueitalia.com/index.asp
I like the idea of the 2.5 conversion for the Coupe 20VT and the quarter mile times posted are very impressive. I'd be after free power now. The biggest problem with the Fiat Coupe is the weight. When I had my Coupe I wanted to take the bonnet, wings, bootlid and doors off so I could make GRP molds and put the dead cow bum holders on eBay. Sadly I was made redundant and had to sell the car before I could do much more than basic tuning. I estimated that I could get about 20-25% of the cars weight reduced giving better bhp/Ton.
"Give a car more power and it will be quicker in a straight line. Make a car lighter and it will be quicker everywhere" Colin Chapman.
http://www.torqueitalia.com/index.asp
I like the idea of the 2.5 conversion for the Coupe 20VT and the quarter mile times posted are very impressive. I'd be after free power now. The biggest problem with the Fiat Coupe is the weight. When I had my Coupe I wanted to take the bonnet, wings, bootlid and doors off so I could make GRP molds and put the dead cow bum holders on eBay. Sadly I was made redundant and had to sell the car before I could do much more than basic tuning. I estimated that I could get about 20-25% of the cars weight reduced giving better bhp/Ton.
"Give a car more power and it will be quicker in a straight line. Make a car lighter and it will be quicker everywhere" Colin Chapman.
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