Polski Fiat Thread

[Mateusz]

I would like to start a decent thread about Polish Fiats (later on FSO 1500 since 1980s)

A bit of the history

Polski Fiat 125 article on Wikipedia

What is your expirience with them ?

My dad had one between 1990 and 1996. It was a qood car to some extent but rust started literally to eat this car... even there was a hole in floor at passenger's site

 

[toeknee1]

when i left school in 1978 i worked for swale motors body shop and we used to do the bodywork repairs for the polskis that were damaged when they arrived at the docks in sheerness, i remember they were a pain to strip down for respraying, the bumpers weighed a ton it took 2 people to take em off and put them back with plenty of grazed knuckles, i could never get the side rubbing strips to go back on properly because the clips used to break and there was never any spares in the stores! we used to put a lot of vinyl roofs on to cover dents ect,i never did know what all the flashing coloured lights on the dash stood for i think the red one was the handbrake and you needed arms like popeye to steer em! they seemed to have seats like armchairs but that might have been cos i was small back then lol ,the pick ups were cool though . After that they had the polonez that was posh by comparison

 

[PNL]

I owned two of them with the Lada badge on ..one estate and one saloon car ..used them as fishing vehicles cos her in doors said I stank out the main car with the smell of fish..:yuck: both were as tough as nails and like you said you needed muscles like Garth to steer them..sold them both for more than I payed for them as well when they started to be bought up to sent back to Russia for spare parts ..Lada is bankrupt now I think and its rare to see one on the road these days..

 

[Mateusz]

Yeah, they were a bit... ermm massive and built to last sort of thing

But when they came out in 1968... it was like a dream car But these day Fiat 125p is kinda collector's cars. Especially well maintained old models.

Polonez, it's a separate story. A modern design car... however with many technical solutions from Fiat 125p, Basic engine was from 125p but bit modified and 5 gears box. However, FSO bought a licence from Fiat for 1800 and 2000 engines. But Martial Law and economic crisis killed this...
Seen Clarkson's slagging off a Polonez ? Well I don't think he really understands the reality of those times... For him it was probably a piece of crap from some far far Poland. But for Polish it was dream car of those times and expensive too. And a little bonus, a Coupe version, only like 50 was produced and they were destinated for some high party officials or directors... Shame they didnt produced more of them

 

[Bonobo]

I think I've find my new waste of time...

I moved to Bulgaria with my girlfriend about a year ago and we decided to buy a car, there's a million Lada's on the road here, but I quite fancied an old Fiat, so £260 later I am the proud owner of a 1982 Polski Fiat 125p in 'Golden Brown'.

It's not in bad nick (Photos to follow maybe), but I quite fancy doing a bit of tinkering...

First on the list is a new set of spark plugs.

So my first question is, what should the gap on the spark plug be set to?

I have a manual, but it's all in Bulgarian and I can't yet understand a word of it. I also thought about just measuring the gaps on the old plugs, but they all seem a little different!

Second question, a bit vague this one... but when driving the car there is a rumbling/grinding noise from the back end, it sounds a little like a train is following us? any ideas?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks.