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Cinquecento "Debbie" The Grey Seicento

Introduction

I'd been looking for a tidy, standard, grey seicento for quite some time when this one came up. Finding one that's unmodified and looked after is a big challenge nowadays and i'm very lucky that I came across this one! A late year, the best colour, and in good condition left me wondering what could be the catch? Theres always a catch.....

Well I live in Nottinghamshire, and she was in Dorset. Nevertheless with a 450 mile round trip ahead of me I went to pick up my first seicento, my 4th "cento", and the tidiest one i'd ever bought. Apart from a couple of things it is perfect, having had a new fuel tank and exhaust before I bought it. The only modification being the fitting of a set of red seat belts from a cinq (which I rather like!).

It did the entire 4 hour trip faultlessly, and it was a joy to drive, really reminding me of why I love these little cars so much.

The idea of this car will basically be to restore and improve, no major modifications, just a nice, clean build with a few choice mods here and there.

Anyway, pictures:

Here she is when I first washed her and got her into the workshop:



She's definitely in good company ;)



Parked in her own bay, note the badge is removed as I replaced it for a new one as the old one was faded.



I spent the next few days detailing her.



I also fitted it with new indicator units and front fog lights as they were both rather mucky and the fog lights were corroded and didn't work.



The rear seats were mint the fronts were quite dirty so I set about removing them and giving them a good clean, I also cleaned the interior and fitted a set of new mats.

Before:



After:







I also fitted a nice little chrome tip to tidy up the rear end.



I then set about upgrading all the speakers, seeing OEM parcel shelf speakers was a shock to me as I have only ever owned cinqs! I changed all of them for equivalent size FLI units, it sounds excellent now.



The rear wheels are in perfect condition but the fronts had some kerbing damage and the tyres needed replacing, so the wheels were refurbished.



Ive also fitted a new expansion tank, changed all the fluids, new discs and pads, an air filter, and a few other bits. I'm really happy with how it's coming along. The next step will be a new head unit to make the most of those speakers, and a new rear engine mount as it's quite wobbly.

That's it for now!
It is indeed lotii, the bastard things always come in their many ? There's also a couple of ginettas, a couple of mx5's and a v6 exige.

I'm liking keeping it standard ish and just making it nice, I'm a big fan of the "OEM+" way of modifying, just modifying a car as though that's how it should have been improved from the factory. It's how I do most of the cars I own. Although, I do still love a crazy build! ?
 
Fitted the replacement head unit the other day, it's a Pioneer DEH4500BT, a brilliant little unit which incidentally has been fitted to all of my centos to date!



Next job is to get two new tyres and fit them, after that i'm not really sure as it's had more than enough work done to it.

I also filled the rear engine mount with tigerseal, when done well it looks nothing but standard and is alot cheaper than buying a new one (y)
 
Well it's all about finished now, i've got the new tyres fitted to the refurbished wheels and it now sits back on all fours.



I'm at a bit of a loss as to what to do next now to be honest! It's as tidy as they come and so, not for lack of wanting, i've pretty much ran out of ideas that run within my brief!

Maybe a 1242, I don't know if I can help myself.....
 
As with any project, I've figured out what I want to do next.

A set of new wheel bolts and valve caps have nicely freshened up the newly refurbished wheels, and i've added a set of 5mm spacers all around so it sits a bit stouter.

My next job is fitting a remote central locking kit to the car, It's the cheap universal one that generally everyone uses and at £8.99 is too much of a bargain to be sniffed at. I'll add some pics and describe how I did it after, as it's quite a nice little upgrade for any cinq/sei being that the solenoids are already in place and all that is required is the little controller and a bit of wiring! :)
 
I fitted the remote central locking system to the seicento, and it works beautifully. I can't 100% remember how I did everything as it was a couple of weeks ago but ill try my best to explain, it really isn't to complicated.

Here is a link to the kit I bought, very popular and incredibly cheap:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Car-2-Central-Remote-Keyless-Entry-Door-Locking-Vehicle-System-DT-Kit-Universal-/141876220305?hash=item21087b5191:g:b58AAOSwzgBY1L2Q

Included in the description is a wiring diagram, once the kit is bought it comes with a little pamphlet which roughly tailors each wiring diagram to your vehicles system, which in this case is electric, with a negative trigger.



I peeled to carpet back on the passenger side of the car, and fitted the box itself to the little BCU already there with some double sided tape for a nice finish.

Also to note is that I didn't bother using the window rising output, horn or boot release functions more than anything to keep it simple and the wiring neat, I only used the lock/unlock function and the indicator outputs.

The Kit itself is excellent value for money, comes with two fobs and has brilliant range and consistency.

Basically, this is how I wired it up.

Control Box --> Car Loom

Orange - Not used, cut and insulate.
White - Lock/Unlock signal
Yellow - Earth to body.
Orange/Black - Not used, cut and insulate.
White/Black - Lock/Unlock signal
Yellow/Black - Earth to body.
Red - Permanent live
Black - Earth to body.
Brown - LH or RH indicators
Brown - LH or RH indicators
Green - Optional.
Blue - Optional.
Pink - Optional.

First things, earths. Put the two yellow wires and the black wire on one ring terminal and bolt it to the body, ensure there is good continuity on the earth, then bolt on and forget.

The signal wires go to two of the wires entering the passenger door. Off the top of my head it's Yellow/White and Blue/Red but don't quote me on that, best to consult the Haynes manual or the wiring diagrams here on the forum.

The red wire needs to go to a permanent live for obvious reasons, I used a Red/Green going along the bulk of loom going to the rear of the car, found by simply using a multimeter. This wire is already fused itself, but I left the inline fuse in for extra protection for the box itself.

The two browns need to be kept separate so to ensure either side of the indicators flash separately when they're supposed to. These wires are coloured light blue on the car loom, with 2 to the front and 2 to the rear, I can't remember sides, but make sure you keep each side on a separate circuit. I made a little bridge wire between each side (between front and rear) and joined the browns to each.

And that's it! Make sure all joints are properly insulated and away you go. Be careful not to short out the permanent live when making that connection, otherwise it'll blow the fuse.

All my joints were soldered, which is by far and away the best and most reliable way of making a connection. The remotes should work straight away after this. I hope this is at least a bit of a help, any questions I'm more than happy to answer. (y)
 
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Not long now until the cars going to be used, so I got it out of storage. Poor thing hasn't seen a road since December, but at least it's been in the dry. Decided to change the exhaust front section as it had a blow from the flexi, and thought it'd match the new centre section and backbox the car came to me with. Also changed the cam belt and tensioner, along with the alternator belt. Only to learn it was a tooth out on the cam!

That'll be what the engine light kept flashing sporadically on full throttle for then....

"Coming back" to work on these cars is a strange experience, having had 2 cinqs in the past and them being the first cars of my own that I ever worked on, I completely forgot how much of a joy they are to work on! Beautifully simple, and the parts are so so cheap :D Simpler than anything else in this workshop for sure...

Forgive the lack of interesting cars about, we're all packed ready to go racing!







Also, If a mod would be able to change the title of this thread from "cinquecento" to "seicento" it'd be appreciated, i've only just noticed my mistake.

The car will be getting it's final re-clean on Sunday, before it finally get's some proper use :)
 
Well here she is! So happy it can finally see some daylight. It's no good a car being sat and i've been dying to have a go in it and for my girlfriend to have it.

I'm more than happy with how it has turned out, it's incredibly tidy and i'm sure she'll take very good care of it. She's absolutely in love with it which is so nice to see, and it reminds me of when I had my first car (a cinq) and I looked at it in the same way.



She's done around a week of driving in it now and she's coming on really well. No issues bar a weird bunny hopping when changing into second which coincides with an EML, which then clears and it drives fine. I'm gonna try a phonic wheel relearn and go from there.



Hope you enjoy it Emma ;)

 
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