Hi there, so after posting a couple of random questions and reading this forum for some time I thought I would introduce myself as I find other people's stories interesting.....
I am no car expert and being an office worker I am not used to dirty hands, but originally I was an aircraft engineer and have worked on a few Porsches. I thought it would be an idea to rebuild a car with my son, the next generation is an instant gratification technology obsessed bunch so I thought some proper frustrating long hours sorting out an old beast would be a good idea.
So after a little search we came accross an eBay listing for a 500 that had been bought from Italy for £9,000 as a perfectly restored car by a very nice lady. On getting it back she discovered in true Italian style that everything you could not see was an absolute mess. Holes in floor, brake pipes split, engine and gearbox dropping oil everywhere and so on, so after trying to get her money back she put it on eBay with an engineers report saying all that was wrong with it ........ so for 2k we got a good looking 500 that was hiding all its faults pretty badly.
Over the last six months we have stripped the whole car down, welded complete new floors in, taken engine and gearbox out, we didn't open the engine bar value clearance but did everything else ando stripped all ancillaries.
I am amazed at how well engineered and cleverly simple the design of everything is, they are really enjoyable beasts to work on, I have always stuck to air cooled Porsches thinking everything else was a bit poorly engineered but the 500 is really great to work on.
We have bought a few abarth upgrades, and found a very nice UK supplier on eBay (autobella) Abarth suspension, nice alloy wheels, seat belts and so on .... now the car is looking very nice (I will stick some pictures up when I am back in the UK in a weeks time) we just have some minor issues to sort out before the MOT. Lights (left hand so presumably we need to change), horn (only works if you short the negative to earth not from the steering wheel?), and a carb issue with the 28imb we have fitted. The car has a 650 126 engine and gearbox so should go well and the engine runs nicely on the old 24 carb.
So the plan is MOT, drive for a while and then taken the engine out for something like an abarth spec change over the winter.
I have to say a big thank you to all the people that post various stuff on here, I have found reading all the various treads very very useful. Pictures to follow.....
I am no car expert and being an office worker I am not used to dirty hands, but originally I was an aircraft engineer and have worked on a few Porsches. I thought it would be an idea to rebuild a car with my son, the next generation is an instant gratification technology obsessed bunch so I thought some proper frustrating long hours sorting out an old beast would be a good idea.
So after a little search we came accross an eBay listing for a 500 that had been bought from Italy for £9,000 as a perfectly restored car by a very nice lady. On getting it back she discovered in true Italian style that everything you could not see was an absolute mess. Holes in floor, brake pipes split, engine and gearbox dropping oil everywhere and so on, so after trying to get her money back she put it on eBay with an engineers report saying all that was wrong with it ........ so for 2k we got a good looking 500 that was hiding all its faults pretty badly.
Over the last six months we have stripped the whole car down, welded complete new floors in, taken engine and gearbox out, we didn't open the engine bar value clearance but did everything else ando stripped all ancillaries.
I am amazed at how well engineered and cleverly simple the design of everything is, they are really enjoyable beasts to work on, I have always stuck to air cooled Porsches thinking everything else was a bit poorly engineered but the 500 is really great to work on.
We have bought a few abarth upgrades, and found a very nice UK supplier on eBay (autobella) Abarth suspension, nice alloy wheels, seat belts and so on .... now the car is looking very nice (I will stick some pictures up when I am back in the UK in a weeks time) we just have some minor issues to sort out before the MOT. Lights (left hand so presumably we need to change), horn (only works if you short the negative to earth not from the steering wheel?), and a carb issue with the 28imb we have fitted. The car has a 650 126 engine and gearbox so should go well and the engine runs nicely on the old 24 carb.
So the plan is MOT, drive for a while and then taken the engine out for something like an abarth spec change over the winter.
I have to say a big thank you to all the people that post various stuff on here, I have found reading all the various treads very very useful. Pictures to follow.....
