Fiat 127 car restoration (my former car)

[mm_arg]

I got this car from my father like I don't know... 12 or 14 years ago, and since I was "young and wild and free" i made a lot of mods to it on the engine and gearbox, suspension, brakes, wheels, lights, audio, etc... and the car was looking like this:


On the outside...
(Tinted windows, Fiat Uno Suite (br/Arg) alloys, clear turnlights, Fiat Uno turbo OEM foglights, hood air intake, etc.)





Engine and brakes...
Displacement grown from 1.391cc to (a little bit over) 1.500cc , race spec camshaft, forged pistons, worked head ducts, 10,5:1 compression (originally 8:1), 4-1 long exhaust manifold, fiat uno's electronic distributor, with a 40.000volt ignition coil, fiat uno's 32/34 weber carb worked up all around (I guess somewhere near 36/36mm), long pipes intake manifold, Lightened flywheel. Mechanic autolock differential, close ratio relations and custom made stronger clutch. Fiat uno brakes all arround with larger servo and cross-drilled brake disks in front.




On the inside...
Nothing really shocking, tachometer (generic brand), kenwood stereo, 2 way eclipse's on front door and 2 way 6x9 eclipses rear, with a pioneer 10" dual coil sub on custom enclosure. I had 3 dials for Water temp, oil pressure and volt on the left pilar but they where really blocking my view so I took them out.



But then I came to the crazy idea of restoring it to how it was when it came out of the agency, and for that I asked for the help of my Dad... (One of the best things in life is to have a project in common with your family )

And so I started to research old pics, magazines, etc...
I bought the original manual and warranty books and the maintenance book!





On the next posts I'll show you step by step what was done to the car and how it ended up...
best regards!

[mm_arg]

So, I had the car, I had the books, and I had this old brochure from the early 90's to guide me on how the car had to look like:




*You may or may not understand why I did this, and you may even think "why on such a cheap car"... I lived a lot of histories on it, I made like a 100.000 miles on it, and I had it since 1997 by myself and was with the family since 1992 or so, and besides I had a lot of reasons to do it

*Also, you'll see that the car looks really dirty but wait till the end of the project

So here we go... step I: going back to a normal, civilized and polite engine and tranny.

Engine was back to it's standard specs, so was the tranny, with 8:1 compression, OEM 32mm single barrel carb, OEM distribution, fuel pump, exhaust, etc.





This is the donnor of the stock parts, and also who received the "heart" of my car





By that time, I had the windows tint removed, so the interior parts, and had the oem turnlights, but there was a lot of work to do yet.




Step Nº 2: Interiors had to look good again and not ricey as they used to :P


So good bye tach and gauges, good bye strange seats and shifter, and hello cleaned, fixed and new dashboard.




And Hello OEM Stereo system! I was more than happy when a friend told me that he found on "mercadolibre" (ebay style web for Spanish-speaking market) the same model that these cars brought back then... I can't tell you how happy I was to find out that it wasn't only "the same model" but it was in fact, a factory OEM stereo from FIAT, and it was working perfectly!!!.






It was time to say goodbye to the rest of the audio System, I had the OEM door speakers from a good friend, so I took out the eclipse's, the wiring and the box with the amp and the woofer...








As a minor detail I found the pedal pads on a small carpart warehouse...

[mm_arg]

Now, everything seemed to go well... I had my engine and tranny ok, interior was going back to a good shape, and so I started towork on the suspension, brakes, and wheels...


This is how the car was looking...



First, I got to put the OEM brakes and wheel/tire size (Wich are ridiculously small ... 145/80 13 on 4,5" x 13" steelies) But by that time i didn't found the original wheels so I had to put some fiat vivace (a newer version of the 127) on...




And then, I found the OEM steelies and wheelcaps, once again happy to find OEM parts.... Even thou this is/was a very popular car down here in Argentina, some pieces are really hard to find.. (I don't get why)







I was on the track to have the car on record time but then... kaboom







That was depressing, after investing so much time, and enjoying that time working with my dad on many things... But hey, lets look at the bright side...
I went to the paintshop and got it fixed, togheter with some other marks on the painting... the car was finaly starting to look good.... And also I took the chance to have it polished and to install the Factory spec suspension...






.

[mm_arg]

Ok... so we keep going on this... I was driving with my car through the city when a delivery truck without any further indication changes lanes and slams the brakes... It was rainy and I managed stop the car...



But not enough... And since I was braking and so was the truck, it's butt was up and my car's nose was down and got really damaged.
As you'll see on the following pitures, I got damage on the hood, fender, bumper, front panel, control arms, sway-bar supports, chasis, lights, as well as other minor stuff....










At that time I had some problems that kept me away from the car so I parked it for a few months... I think you can tell that by seing these pics

[mm_arg]

That was on March or April I think, by November my life was going back to normal so I took the car to the paintshop (again) Where they did a wonderfull job as usual...




As soon as I got it back, it was time to give it a good wash hehe...




After I finished washing it, I realized that after 17 years or so, the paint of the car wasn't shining that much, so (again) I polished the car, wich after that I did like once every 2 or 3 months...






Then, this year I got the oportunity to change it , and I found the Daewoo Espero that I posted before, and so I took my beloved car for one final ride and photoshoot... (full album is here http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=7 ... de0433fefe )









And that's the story of my first car, and the car that had been with me since high school, and also a car that I shared with my Dad for years...

It is now gone, but hey, My Father and I now have a new project, witch is to make my Espero one of the best of the world hehe...

Best regards to everyone!

[Trey05Woo]

Ill tell you what that Fiat will probably be around longer than you lol. Them things just keep running and running.