Decided to clean the interior for the first time since purchase. On lifting the passenger side floor mat I found a pool of green 'radiator water' which appears to be coming from the heater core. After some testing I discovered that if I leave the A/C in COLD position it doesn't leak, living in sunny Spain this is not too much of a hardship so I am not going to attempt to fix it for now. The temp gauge is always just below normal so it must be a small leak. Is this a common fault on early models equipped with aircon?
Its all a little bit out of order here, but here is the video to go with all the bits on the intake side that I had to fix
Its been a while since an update over here, updates have been very frequent on the Fiat Coupe Forum, I've been working on the car a decent amount, currently tackling any rust on the floor pan, plan is to strip all the sound deadening and wire brush the entire floor and re-paint once all rust is there is any has been dealt with, the rear passenger quarter panel is completely rusted through on the inside and everything behind it has gone too, not to worry, we cut up the 20v donor which was in good condition in these areas and will be welded in once the weather is nice. Engine will be serviced and a good inspection before running sometime this spring, had a good look around the car and everywhere is all solid no rust except for behind the rear quarter panel, my uncle thinks it has spent most of its life in a garage prior to him owning her and already had rust repairs, hence the lack of rust in other areas
Started lapping the valves last night, only got one cylinder done but was getting a pretty good seal, put some water in the head and left over night, this
Morning a lot of the water was still there.
Was having problems with the stick not sticking to the valves, basically the valves are just too small so I’ve ordered something better which should arrive same day
Cylinder head stripped down cleaned, combustion chambers given a light polish and the ports all given a going over to remove burrs moulding marks and anything else that will disrupt airflow.
The valves are all now clean and have been kept with all their own original parts, this engine has double valve springs which is impressive the collets have all been cleaned.
One of the discoveries is that the exhaust valves were so dirty and coked up even when fully open they would have had a considerable restriction in air flow.
They also had a about a mm of cack as were the intake valves the amount of carbon in the engine both in the combustion chamber and on top of the pistons would have massively decreased the displacement, airflow and increased the compression ratio this is probably why I was getting such high figures on the compression test
The air intake pipe work has also been cleaned up and will need a wash in the industrial parts washer (dishwasher) to get all the grit and grim out of the inside.
Finally got the head off the engine tonight, fairly straight forward and no blood was spilled, the head bolts turned into a two man job as someone had put the head bolts in with thread lock once the thread lock was broken they came out very easily, if I had to guess I would say it’s had a head gasket before.
I also found a leak between one of the water channels and the oil channel via the head gasket, it was only tiny but it’s reason enough to take the head off.
The one thing that had me worried is everything on the intake side was covered in a fine layer of grit, all on the inside of the inlet manifold and it turns out a lot of the dirt on top of the pistons was this mixture of oily grit,
That being said the sides of the bores are perfect and show virtually no signs of wear.
The water pump was grim and had kinda rust all over it, the coolant was murky brown, the oil was really dirty worse than what I drained out of the diesel Punto Evo with 176k on the clock. So I think it’s had a serious lack of servicing in recent years.
I am hoping that once back together this is going to be a good little engine, aside from needing a damn good clean everything moves smoothly and freely, the pistons are actually in good shape if you clean the crap off, so the next stage involves a lot of cleaning and a nylon brush
This last week I decided a nice quick job would be to sort out the very slow/week electric windows before the motors burn out. The car has one touch up and down but you have to keep pressing it as the motor frequently thinks the window has closed due to increased resistance.
So to get the window motor out you have to remove the door card and all the trims from inside, then you have to remove the weather seals from the top of the door which are clearly the original version that someone at Bertone has taken a Stanley knife to. The little front quarter lite glass it turns out holds the wing mirror on the car along with some others bits, there is a window runner that goes to the bottom of the door and it all has to come out to take the window motor out. I thought it would be wise to repaint the metal work of this piece while off the car, give it a coat of satin black but it turned out the can of black I had on the shelf and was maybe 15 years old, had gone bad and so I needed to wait for that to dry, sand it off and repaint it again, when putting it all back together one of the bolts sheered off, which I then had to drill out and retap.
Finally reassembling it all, and it seems a lot of bloody work for very little accomplished.
The frames/runners that support the glass all have adjustment screws to dial in the angle of the window to make sure it seals against the roof and door frame. So another couple of hours spent getting it all set up correctly.
Whoever designed this needs to be shot
So with the car seeming down on power, I opted to start with the spark plugs, aside from being rather old and rusty, one of them was also broken which can’t help.
I’m begining to think there is not one specific reason for the low power and it’s likely to be a culmination of issues.
Weirdly I have wanted a Punto Cabriolet since about 2010, I remember seeing them selling very cheaply at the time on Gumtree and thinking it would be cool to have one.
If you've not noticed I have a bit of a thing for Convertible/cabrio cars, I don't know why I just love driving with the roof down in the summer and I love the complexity of a roof that disappears into the back. For me it always has to be a fabric roof with no roll over bar, and the Mk1 Punto was one of very few cars in the 90s when I was growing up that didn't have a hideous roll over hoop, such as the likes of the Escort or the Golf mk1 and mk3/3.5 cabrios.
Here is the story of how I came to get the car, many of you know I run my own youtube channel with quite a few subscribers now so this was not just a chance to relaunch/revamp the channel as it has sat unloved for about 2 - 3 years, but also a chance for me to get a car I had wanted for a long time.
I am also linking my new videos back to this thread on the forum so people can follow things and chip in with ideas and advice if they want.
So just to keep this as a history of the restoration process I need to add some updates here, so while I am delving back a bit in time this will just give me scope to look back and to make it easier for people to follow the updates without having to read through all the discussion.
I picked the car up from Stockport, drove it 240 miles home without incident. I had to stop and get wiper fluid, the car was seemingly lacking in power the whole journey initally struggling to get above 60mph but after about half an hour of driving it seemed to free up and could get up to motorway speeds. The top speed on the car should be a touch over 100mph so something isn't quite right. More investigation needed.
The general condition of the car is pretty poor. That said what attracted me to this car is the lack of rust. Or that is to say very little obvious rust for a mk1 punto. Some of them are swiss cheese these days after 25 years on the road despite the older puntos having pretty good rust protection.
The body work is free from any major dents, but the paint is terrible. The car will need repainting.
The wheels are wrong. Currently fitted to the car are some late model Punto wheels from around 2015/16, these are 4x100 fitment and the car does not have wobble bolts so they have to go. Fortunately I have already procured some original Punto GT wheels which came in a horrible black/grey colour so they need to be restored and painted silver to match the OEM wheels this car would have had as an option from new.
The tires on these wheels are date stamped 2008 so they have not been on the road for quite some time, the tires will be taken off to help make refurbishment easier.
This is the 1.2 85hp 16 valve engine. It is the ELX model with all round electric windows and electric roof. it has a typically 90s/early 2000s stereo and the interior is pretty grotty. I have a plan to completely refurbish the interior including the carpet which appears to have been damaged behind the drivers seat in some sort of minor fire at some point. Which has also damaged the door card. No damage to the seat so these were either not in the car or have been replaced.
The Roof while not the original is still mainly waterproof but is in poor condition. Once all other work is done I think I will look at changing the roof.
So Engine, Body work, interior and roof, there isn't much of this car that doesn't need attention but so far at least the tin worm seems to have been resisted making it a good candidate for restoration.
Here is a little snap shot I found online for what I am aiming for.
Just got this home and am ready to get started on refurb.
It's been a while since the last update of how the bodywork is progressing, but I've managed to get quite a lot done....
The LHS of the car is now back together from the a-post rearwards. I had to do a repair to the end of the gutter as the new rear quarter panel didn't align properly with the end of the existing gutter. I've used some M5 rivnuts for the fixings of the grille above the engine lid rather than using self-tappers as I've never liked using screws for that sort of thing.
Some detail of the repair to the lower corner of the rear window aperture. This had been poorly repaired in the past so i cut that repair out and made a better job. It'll need a bit of filler to get the shape right.
I drew up some press tools in CAD and 3D printed them to make the inner surround part. I was happy that the tool worked and then welded the part in place. Again, a little bit of filler required to get it just right.
Next onto the rear right hand corner of the engine bay. The corner fillet panel had been used as a jacking point at some time and been crushed, then become rusty, so I cut it out before the shell was blasted. I made a panel and then installed it
Then onto the most expensive panel of the reconstruction - the dash. To cut the old one out and fit the new one only took a couple of hours....the new panel was a very good fit.
Now it's time to move to the front of the car. Scuttle next, then the wings/front panel/inner front panel.
Before I submit to a service at the dealer (for that ten year warranty thing while I can) I thought I'd take the opportunity to service this covering every single service item upfront so that going forward, it's just oil changes and the seldom changed other item as per the schedule. First 3 years - Lexus serviced on the record. Last 3... by a Toyota dealer which according to Lexus doesn't count as a dealer service for the car. It's unclear what they actually did versus what they managed to log on the system, and as they'd lied to my over the Avensis brake fluid change why take the risk?
Everything changed: oil, filter, spark plugs, coolant (for engine and inverter), transmission fluid, wipers, fuel system cleaner added to a full tank of petrol, stone chip repair kit, brake fluid change and engine air filter / cabin filter.
Not without difficulty: the oil filter has a special tool required, took about 45 minutes trying to get that off without the tool (ordered one since). Spark plugs down a very long channel and took a while to carefully get out and in. Liquid pump for the transmission fluid, very difficult due to cheap little pump with a bend in the tube on both ends, sucking air half the time... then the drain plug gushed out with pressure, directly into a bar... which spread the flow wide all over the tools and garage floor, managing to completely miss the pan.. Other than that things went smoothly. Got there in the end.
All genuine parts / fluids as well (well, as you can see, largely Toyota branded but that's how they come).
Booked in for a 'hybrid battery health check' at Lexus next week too... to be safe. That's about the only thing I can't do myself.
Now it's just oil and filter changes which I plan to do every 5,000 using the Toyota/Lexus oil.
I think this was wise to do upfront versus splitting it into a bunch of jobs across the year. The parts are surprisingly all very reasonably priced, easy to find and mostly standard procedure to fit. These things can allegedly do 300,000 miles plus if looked after - imagine that.
Sadly it looks like she will need to be rehomed. Apparently 6 miles twice a day for the school run is not doing her constitution any good.
My traitor worse-half has given me Peggy-Peugeot (a 207) to use use for the school run while he gets Betsie into peak shape for rehoming. He says a diesel motor needs the freedom of the open roads to survive and that keeping Betsie as a school runner is cruel.
I have seen people do micro camper conversions of the Qubo. So I thought I would create one as well. It’s just for one being such a small vehicle.
Had for over a year now. Located a set of Mk1 Sporting alloys which set it off nicely. Went through its MoT at the end of October needing some brake pipes and that was about it.
Had new rear shoes and cylinders before Christmas, new brake discs and pads earlier in the year, plus a thorough service (including a sump - well, it's basically a service item) in the summer. Needs a new exhaust flexi, but is used and abused on a daily basis.
Took it to the Festival of the Unexceptional last year, planning on doing the same this year.
Absolutely love this little car, getting it reminded how bloody good Fiat were at this small car game.
Bianco has now got a fresh set of suspension all round!
Once again I took him to Fettle and Finesse in Leicestershire. Laurence cares so much about these little Panda's and it shows not only in his work, but also his work ethic!
Bianco had a full set of Bilstein B4 shocks fitted, along with new top mounts and droplinks. Also new bump stops on the rear.
The poor old Koni's he was previously on had definitely seen better days! See the photo of the damaged one below...
After an alignment and a couple of new tyres to get a matching set, he now drives spot on, how a 100HP should drive!
Nothing to report.
Although I had to push the car around inside the garage to put Christmas decorations away.
My garage is part of the house (new build), with the boiler in it, so it’s warm all of the time in there.
Even still, when I store the car over the winter, I always put 2 of the little plastic crystal dehumidifier things in it, and leave the windows down slightly.
I was surprised to find they were both completely full of water, although luckily, no mould in the car and it smells like it usually does.
It was nice to be inside it again though, roll on summer.