(G) Biz no happy bunny

Going thru the spares in the turbo's boot and came across:

Ripples in the spare wheel well

Rear slam panel touching the spare wheel well in the centre

Front passenger engine mount back vertical wall section (has the battery return earth on it) is bent outwards in the middle towards the front of the car

The driver side frame rail is bent

Im in a fork...........do i continue with the project or start over??

Problems:

The car was given to me on the basis of making it what it has always been intended to be turned into............a fire spitting sub-12 1/4 miler!
So i dont want to seem ungreatful

But is it worth it getting it jigged and straighted and then seam-welded caged, etc ,etc.
when i could start with a mint mk2 shell to begin with?

If i used this car, id be looking at 3K - 5K for the shell alone!!
(Panel replacing, seam welded, welded-in rally roll cage, rust proffing, preping, painting, etc, etc, etc)

I dont mean to come across as a wimp or anything, its just that it could take me upto 2 years to do this car (i want a fun road car 1st! lol)

End question...............Do you think its worth it?
Plus i would like to say to people.........its an original turbo shell
And i did a photo-shop of the standard wheels in 15 inch! Damm they look good on it!

That is heavy Biz. Sounds to me like it probably isn't worth continuing with that particular shell. I don't think you'd seem ungreatful just sensible. Why continue with that car when a replacement shell, car intact, would cost in the region of £500? Yes I know it won't be an original shell but to be honest I think it's more important to have a solid shell than a few letters and numbers stamped in the engine bay.

Biz ditch the shell. I hate to say it but it sounds like it will never be perfectly true. This will mean handling thats not what it should be and maybe un even tyre wear plus the safety issue...

Tom

strip it, ditch the shell, and get a mk1 45s, refit, burn the road....

Lol, all very similer comments

Yeah i see what you mean thepottleflump about the chassiss numbers n that

The most annoying thing is suspension strut towers are sooooooo immaculate! (pic below)

Where theres rust:

Sills
Front panel (Head lights mount onto, rad mounts onto, etc, etc)
Passenger floor has a hole in it! (pic below)

the rest of the car is not know yet but i still cant get hold of my mate who has had it for the last 7 years

Damn Biz not having much luck with shells are ya mate, i gotta agree with the rest and say ditch that shell. These days its very hard to find an original UT in MINT condition and when you do find one its usually too good to be true in one way or another if you know what i mean. Your better off building a SOLID UT from scratch the way me and Dunc have done.
Good luck with the project mate.

:coo: F R O $ T Y

Oi, hands off my mk1 45S!

Biz, Uno's probably had ripples in the floor from new! Fiat build quality wasn't exactly up to 80's German standards

Totally agree with the others, and think you should go do what Dunc and Fro$ty did and find a clean 45/60 shell. There are still quite a few around, and for some reason the low end models don't rust as badly as the turbos. One theory is that the turbo stresses the shell so much more that the seams flex and crack, allowing water to get in and cause rust. Plus the turbos get driven much harder and faster as well so gravel damage and chipping is much more likely to occur.

Just see what Dunc has done with his total rebuild ( to you Dunc!) and also Fro$ty's mk2 Hormann. Both have immaculate shells built from a lowly 45!

But keep your hands off mine though

I can confirm how weak the Uno shell is, my rally car shell is knackered, even witha 6-point cage, and only 45bhp the passenger door won't shut flush, and the top mounts of both the front and rear turrets have flexed inwards (only saved by strut braces). Also had to weld-up the front sub-frame more times than i can remember !!!!

Also the floor pan is very dented (especially the navs side !), stripped most of the OEM stone chip stuff off on one event, had to paint it again (gloss spray paintworks very well here).

Plus have had to weld up both rear arches (usual place) and the OSF floor-pan to sill.

Also had to weld up cracked front top mounts and plate these with 6mm steel to stop the front struts pushing through !

This is why, i don't want to build another Uno rally car the shells just can't take the strain, plus i want more power and having seen the damage with 45bhp i would hate to see the damage with more power.

there are mint UT shells out there, mine is mint, no rust anywhere.

I think you should scrap it biz and start with a much better one

Check these out in the Auction watch, they might be the answer to your dilema:

Very clean mk1 turbo needing some engine work -

http://www.fiatforum.com/auction-wat...uno-turbo.html

And this looks like the ultimate shell for a turbo conversion. Has to be the cleanest and lowest mileage mk2 around

http://www.fiatforum.com/auction-wat...e-mk2-uno.html

Im a MK2 man mate

Nothing against the mk1 but my 1st turbo was a mk2 and would like to stick to one as a project car

I cant buy any more non-running cars as i dont have the space to keep them!

And i just cant afford it at the moment, the thing about my black mk2 UT is that i havent paid for it yet, £700 in december is what i have to pay but i still need to get hold of my mate (the previous owner) so we can dicuss its future

But i asked my lectures at my college that ive just finished at about a yellow XR2 Fietsa race car that was "Bullied" by two sierra cosworths at brands hatch last year, that car was a 1600 CVH bullet! lol

It had:
A bent drivers side frame rail
Gearbox separated from the block at the back (Long driveshaft transmitted all the initial force down to the gearbox)
Front and rear slam panels needed replacing
Aswell as the drivers side rear quater

The car was jigged and is straight now, it got me thinking because that car is a very fast and its must be under alot more stress than a road version of it right?

So wouldnt it show out on the track?
And less so on the road?

I just cant wait to the day im cruising about in my 2 BAR ROAD CAR with Aphex-twins n metallica blaring out with waste-gate chatter scaring the fine ladys on the streets.......

Ahem!

i've spent the last 6 months welding my uno turbo. cut rust out weld in new steel sort of thing. never be as be good as a rust free orginal shell but at least 80% will be original. im seam welding every seam i come across as well to make the shell more rigid. haven't come across any ripples as yet.

Can I ask, is your mate asking for £700 for this car? Was the car running, good engine?

biz, should worry too much mate. once mines done and resprayed u can just buy mine off me

finding a rust free uno shell, even the lower spec ones is getting hard. the shell ive got is the most rust free ive ever ever seen.

Dunc