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Cinquecento GhostWKD's Turbo Cinq 56k warning

Introduction

July 2005 – The beginning

The date was the 19th July 2005, I’d had a argument with parents about engine swap in my Seicento which my step-Nan had funded, so decided I wasn’t going to let anything get in my way when I found a turbo cinq for sale on auto trader, so at a monumentous cost of £1,700 I owned a shed of a turbo cinq… (spot the seicento in drag strip mode lol borrowed tyres and std rims Lol)

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Decided the wheels just didn’t suit the thing and fitted my Compomotive ml’s I had already and I also repaired the rear engine mount and fitted magnecors… all within the first month lol

August 2005 – The service/oil…stuff…

Bought a low temp fan switch, oil filter & oil, and oil cooler setup from think automotive (mocal) none of it fitted until september, except the rear engine mount bought in july… as it kind of fell apart driving around near a friends house… that’d be my first breakdown in it then technically?

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September 2005 - Fuel filter, rocker cover gasket and first show!

Well started the month giving her the service she wanted, and sprayed a few goodies in the engine bay silver :D

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All bling ready for first show, get there and have work on my hands before I’ve even parked up, oil all down the front bumper and all over the engine bay and dripping out of the bottom, oh no! :(

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But luckily all was not lost, as I was at a fiat event! Sorted the problem as a not properly sealing rocker cover gasket, had instant gasket with me, along with a fresh gasket kicking about, so after a long time looking for the problem I set about fixing it… lots of interest yay, and also lots of criticism (easy to criticise :) plus give me a chance i've only had it a month!)

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So all fixed, and it actually got voted the car peeps would most like to take home, ok so it was mostly my friends voting but heck a turbo cinq gets a lot of attention ;)

Later that month….

Fiatforum weekender yay! Not much work done on car, 14’s went back on due to dodgy tread on the 13’s iirc, no actually was as winter wheels lol :D but well at the fiatforum weekender my car was vandalised and sunroof smashed :( so had a ducktape sunroof for a while lol

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October 2005

Random interior pics showing off rear/steeringwheel/hormann pedals :D

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started treating to the cinq of a solid days valeting… but I think the results really do speak for themselves

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That pic really doesn’t do it justice, was immaculate! Although I found a problem with her suspension doh!... so on went the apex shocks and spax 60mm springs I had kicking about (well I think I left the rear a while though) only have a pic of the old shock… bit dead lol, this also meant the end of my winter wheels unfortunately, as it kind of sat well *on* the tyre…

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Then took her down pod and she did a 16.8 down the strip :)

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also decided to tint the rear lights…

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Also replaced this month: Handbrake cable, rocker cover gasket, rear wiper blade, replaced sunroof which got smashed last month, oh and window seal which was torn

November 2005 – Fun, Games and manifolds!

German ebay brought me some gorgeous smoor’s :D 7x13 front and 8x13 back, also got 195/45/13 dunlop rubber fitted to them, so sexual! Trial fit (pre tyre) looked a bit daunting though… but I was sooo excited lol

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Then disaster struck, as I was going to work, spotted temp at 110… steam pouring out of bonnet, so rushed to work (100 yards away) and rushed to park, in my haste stalled car into kerb (which with car being now -60mm was a lot higher than my bumper… and the manifold took the impact!!!!) so spent a lot of time (and calling in a lot of favours from my best mate who was running manifolds to/from van aaken, cheers alex!!! :D) sorting it all out

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Got my new shiney manifold yay

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Cinq looking sad and manifold/turbo-less :(

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Oh what the fudge…. This isn’t right… oh sugar, studs are wrong!!!!!! (plus wasn’t happy as it still had the original divider in there… so mentioned that when sent it back)

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while they were sorting that I set about finishing the new bumper I had lined up

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But before I knew it my best mate and van aaken had a new shiney manifold ready to go on, and go on it did :D (he also left his mark.. cheers alex… or was it me… no pretty sure it was you lol)

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and with that she ran once more yay! Oh and while this was all going on I fitted a 40mm Throttle body also :D (for those who don’t know cinqs, as opposed to a 30mm!)

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also at the end of the month she snapped a coolant pipe bracket which holds the pipe into/onto the water pump fixing, so had that welded up (have pics of course but too many is a bad thing I guess lol) Full service whilst off the road too! :)

December 2005 – Merry Christmas!

Proper trial fit of the smoors, they looked so sexy, but stuck out so much I didn’t even bother moving it too much after lowering it onto wheels (hence rear being high) as I knew it was a lost cause :( but they did look good…

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and on the 10th day of xmas my cinqy brought to meee… a friend clutch in a cinqeeeee :( missed a gear on a gearchange, then when went into gear, nothing, revved as if it was in neutral :( gutted…. So another ride on the breakdown truck… and what was waiting when I peeked into the inspection panel thingy on the gearbox… nice stuff falling out, friction material off my clutch :(

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but 2 days later I was well on the case and had a EBC Fast road item in my possession… now I cheated with this because it was cold and I’ve done a clutch before, not silly enough to do it again in dead of winter lol

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And she was back again, though shortly after someone did throw a trolley into her or something at tesco’s :( and cracked the filler out of the rear bumper… while she was getting clutch done I also got another yellow bonnet without the Scooby vent (thanks again to alex) it does have a ripple in it and a few dents but it looks 100x better imo :)

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Also Christmas day came, and friend of mine (chris/bushboy) delivered smooth doors for me which I got off someone who was selling up :D

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January 2006 – Happy new year!

Ran most of January with no probs, helping other members (arc!) with their cinqs when going to MK meet and things like that :) did however snap a front spring, so on went the koni’s with the dodgy shock temporarily, also don’d some standard cinq wheels in a stealth look while I decided to get my comomotives refurbished

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Oh and also sold the smoors *sniffle* kept the tyres to go on refurb’d comomotives though :D

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February 2006 – Hmm getting warmer… yay!

Black top part of dash now on instead of the white… what was he thinking!!! Lol also picked up uno turbo brake setup off a friend of mine, and new 60mm springs… fitted springs and top dash section :) oooh and yellow rear lights imported from germany! Cinq also got a service this month…

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March 2006 – Yay getting even warmer lol!

Started the month painting the UT callipers yellow, and playing with a over charging alternator, so swapped that for another

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little did I know my rear bushes job would be so eventful this month… snapped springs, snapped brake lines, also learnt how much of a damn pig those rear bushes are!!! Ended up doing a full rear arm rebuild both sides… but was worth it for the working handbrake lol

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This job actually went through middle of march through to the start of april

April 2006 – Its my birthday this month woo

Carried on with job in hand, got the rear rebuild done, new everything, even back plates! Fitted with my 60mm rear springs also!

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Then the pics once it was back on its wheels :D
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Was really pleased with that! :D over the moon infact :D and my yellow samco’s had turned up too and were slowly getting fitted through april :)

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Also had donny south that month but not happy with any pics from there lol so not posting them :D did get tints done there though! And well was happy with some pics from Brooklands Italian car day so have added this one :D shows how much she’s changed at the back anyway

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May 2006 - Nothing… yes nothing…

Ok I don’t believe this, I didn’t do a thing in may, think I may have fitted 1 samco which wasn’t there before but not 100% only have pics of car itself not jobs being done… wow!

June 2006 – Gets interesting :(

Sprayed a load of my boost pipes etc black to contrast against the yellow samco’s

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Also tried to fit my UT kit but that didn’t work :( need 6mm spacer inside the disc not 3mm spacer :( had my 3mm spacers done for this too, oh well, had problems fitting standard kit back on, also burst a braided hose when bleeding standard kit back on… so got a flexi for time being and had a new braided one made up in no time :) Oh and uno turbo single wiper conversion went on also :D

Oh and we also had Stanford hall Italian car day this month, will include my fav pic of the day of my cinqi just for good measure! :D

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July 2006 – Decat time baby!

Ok absolutely nothing went wrong in july, but I did get the cinq its decat with swappable cat section :D just look how neat those welds are! and the noise… just has to be heard to be appreciated! Oh and I had a bit of a issue when up north when stopped off to see mog had a leaky fuel line which had been cut into by the hose clip :( easily replaced though :D

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Ohhh and almost forgot also, she was showing at max power too in july :D ;) with Fiatforum naturally lol :D

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August 2006 – Holiday Time woo!

All I did on the cinq this month was drive it, had a mystery oil leak which turned out to be the oil filter hadn’t been fitted tight enough when I serviced it :) also showed the cinq at donny north! And took her on the sprint strip, good fun!

September 2006 – Nothing again

All I did on the cinq in September was buy a rocker cover gasket in preparation for my chrome/polished rocker cover! Went to the FF skeggy do with her again and no problems this time :) all sorted

October 2006 – Ooooh shiney

With help from mate (Si-Punto) got a snapped cam cover bolt out and fitted my polished/chrome rocker cover :D also had a issue the first weekend into oct with a snapped water pipe bracket and got this welded @ kwik-fit :)

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November 2006 – Pod Pod Pod :D

Went down pod with the cinqi, got her new front and rear bumpers fitted, and well brings us up until today! :)

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Today (22nd Nov) – Clean

And today she got a clean in the dark… but looks so shiney! And not even had a polish in a while so she’ll get one of those very soon lol :D

Turbo timer, smooth doors, uno turbo brake setup, door poppers and countless other bits all waiting to be fitted… and I will be getting them done all very shortly, ditto the oil cooler and setting up, but overall the future’s bright, the future’s a yellow turbo cinq :D

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P.s. this isn’t a comprehensive list, its more of a photo diary so more work has been completed than given here, mainly small things I wouldn’t go taking pics of etc :) but will include everything like this in the future, as I’ll be keeping this thread updated much like duncs progress thread :D
dont think it looks right with the larger opening :eek: prefer it with the depth etc as fiat made them :eek:

Was going to smooth it but with how low my car is i decided against :) as it was either smooth and raise car, or non smooth, as smooth with how low my car is it just needs to tap the floor and it'll crack, and cracked filler work looks well crap :p and too busy moving out etc atm :eek:


Nice bit of work glad you like it.

I am a bit with Aaron on this with the yellow number plate as well it looks a bit slabby.

You can't really see the exhaust tip and with the smooth boot and no ground clearance there is nothing to break it up the colour

But nice bit of work anyway although if I'm really honest it is only your engine and running gear that interests me(y)
 
Never been one for small cars, But I can't help but checking back on this thread everytime it's posted on and thinking, Thats F**king minted! (y)

you have the tinted rear lights! you b*****d! how did you manage that? i've been looking for them for ages.

I think that makes it look alot better.. i'd love to have a go at modifying the rear but i don't want to fcuk my one up and then not have another one just incase!

No dig at you aaron but if i was going to any bother i would have to smooth it in so there was not show of a join, so completely smoothed..
like so..
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think that looks almost perfect rear!
 
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you have the tinted rear lights! you b*****d! how did you manage that? i've been looking for them for ages.

I think that makes it look alot better.. i'd love to have a go at modifying the rear but i don't want to fcuk my one up and then not have another one just incase!

No dig at you aaron but if i was going to any bother i would have to smooth it in so there was not show of a join, so completely smoothed..
like so..!

None taken, I don't like the Abarth bumper standard, its not as cohesive as the front bumper, it really does look like an after thought, and the opening was meant to be the full size, not angled down other wise the actual opening would have been smaller, it was therefore a compromise.

You do realise you can't just smooth it in as the Abarth is stuck on top, it would require either the standard bumper to be built up to meet it, or the Abarth cut and blended, because the first case would mean the bumper would either no longer be flat to look at from side, but angled away from the car, could from a design point of view look clumsy, or take a massive amount of fiber glass/filler to build up the whole lot to keep original profile. Mine was smoothed in and even that took I think 8hours of work at body shop, he didn't charge me full amount as he stuck faithful to his original quote. Plus if you follow the swage line around the car its just right with it.

As always its only an opinion, as I do not like cars smoothed or badgeless, just makes me think of poverty spec BMW's where folk who buy a 318 tick the no badge option in the hope people think its a better model, cos you can bet your bottom dollar no M3 owner will tick that option :D
 
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as i said, the only reason i didnt smooth it in was because of how low it is, and i dont like the cracked filler look that you see far too often :p

Dont know about the compromise (though we never will really) as why bother making depth to it if they could have just cut it... dont think it looks right without the depth, though i guess its a case of the old each to their own :)

as said lights were from classifieds :D :p love my new job :eek: :p

And yes skinz you have dibs on the smooth rear :p
 
as i said, the only reason i didnt smooth it in was because of how low it is, and i dont like the cracked filler look that you see far too often :p

Dont know about the compromise (though we never will really) as why bother making depth to it if they could have just cut it... dont think it looks right without the depth, though i guess its a case of the old each to their own :)

as said lights were from classifieds :D :p love my new job :eek: :p

And yes skinz you have dibs on the smooth rear :p

Get something done right, it does not crack.

And of course it was a compromise, it was made to be cheap and easy to fit, hence why it sticks on top of old bumper, so it can be retro fitted by dealers with out having to be fitted at factory, customer goes and see cars in showroom, specs bumper it's added to car they see before collection, otherwise it would have been like other cars and been a complete new bumper. Got to remember Cinqs were cheap as chips new, cheaper even than the average options list added to MINI's, no one was going to pay good money for a kit, so its a budget kit which utilises the standard bumper hence the need to have the hole pointing down to pass over the old bumper. From a product design point of view I can see this as its a clever solution minimising production and essentially customer costs, just not homogeneous in conception or the detail. :)

But each to there own as I liked the car as it was before with the smooth bumper, thought it really worked on your car. :D
 
Nah my point re the cracking, is that no matter how perfect the filler/fiberglass job is, when you tap the floor with the bumper, its going to crack... would've been just as easy for them to lop away the standard rear bumper anyway... but then its down to individual choice and i prefer as is :) yes i agree smoothed in would look better, but it wouldnt look as good once it taps the floor and the smoothing cracks like you see far too often on saxo's and corsa's etc on ebay, tried to find a pic to show what i mean but im sure you know what i mean :)

Only reason smooth bumper went was because well i always looked back at my 2nd abarth cinq and missed the bumpers, esp the rear :eek: :)
 
Still love it alex, but agree with Aaron, If i had one, id have to completely smooth like shown in that photoshop, alot of work, but looks minted IMO, his suited the blended but bold look (smoothed together with the dominant edge left on show) and like said, if done right, tapping the bottom wouldnt affect it.

TBH, there isnt many people that know how to fibreglass correctly, and how important the mixture is, ive seen people just guess and reckon that coz it sticks n feels pretty strong, that it is, when it isnt! The main reason for cracks is usually kitted cars, stiff suspension, wobble ont he bumpers, distorts the filler and cracks, another being too many foreign materials involved, like a bonding agent, screws/rivets, fibreglass and filler which also aid in the process, as all have differnt temperatures of expansion, filler will gain heat before aluminuim rivets , then creating sinkages above them in teh filler.

Anyway

Still very nice (y) :eek:

Jordan
 
I'm all up with keeping it how abarth stylists intended. You see to much flaky fibreglass and cracked filler nowadays. Don't go the way of the Punto boys Al and just focus on maybe a little more reliable performance :D . Maybe some more gauges like oil pressure, fuel-ratio for that peace of mind? Flock the dashboard perhaps or carbon fibre panels. I would deffo change that dash back to stock colour :yuck: . Sides that it's a brill car mate and the envy of all sane people just don't get on the modders styling slippery slope (y) .
 
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