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Punto (Mk1) 1994 Punto Cabriolet ELX 90

Introduction

This is my recently acquired '94 Cabrio ELX, I bought it very cheap as a project to do up hopefully for the summer.

Initial Thoughts
When I went to look at the car the first time it was obvious its quite tatty. it has dents everywhere, scratches, moss growing in places etc. I took a test drive (fortunately it wasn't raining so put the top down) it is a pleasant drive, rides quite well but my main concentration was on the engine, the 1.6 is not fast... It's not slow either but its very mediocre... Secondly it has VERY short gears which I don't understand since surely the 1.6 would have longer gears than the other models yet it doesn't, in fact all the Cabrio's have shorter gears than their hardtop equivalents, presumably due to the extra weight. At 70mph in 5th the engine is spinning at just over 4000rpm :eek:

Background
The car came with the original manual which I assume is probably a rarity as many of them will have been lost/not passed on between sales. The car includes the original sales receipt from 1994 and some service history for the first 5 years of its life where it only covered about 1500 miles a year which probably meant it was a summer only car. Then there is a 9 year gap between 1999 and 2008 where I have 0 history for the car. From 2008 to 2016 I have MOT's and the odd service receipt, in those years its only averaged about 1000 miles a year too, with it passing every MOT after general serviceable items were replaced such as bulbs, worn brakes/tyres, wiper blades etc.

So here is the car as it stands now after a very quick wash,









A few months later and half a polish

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Weather has been cold so not much happened recently, I'd rather leave oily bits until its a bit warmer because... I can.

Did some interior stuff instead, generally just cleaned it all up, whilst doing so I was listening to the cars stereo and was appalled by the dog excrement sounding speakers, even at low volumes. So I investigated.

The diaphragm suspension has completely rotted away on the front woofers.



The rear speakers are much the same, I expect this is all just from age.



Dash tweeters look ok though so will leave them be, the rest of the system I will have to replace when the car gets back on the road.



Random question, should my injector/EML go out when the ignition is on? Mine doesn't go out until the engine has started, is this normal bearing in mind that its a pre CODE system car.
 
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Yeah it's normal since fuel pump is won't prime before starting the engine unlike the FIRE models.
 
Your rear speakers look like 6" x 4" ... check out my nice Italian Fenners in the Classifieds !!! (y)

If the fronts are 6.5" you could consider these too...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2-x-100W-...153419?hash=item4d2724038b:g:IBwAAOSwyTZUW07h

Keep it Italiano!
You are correct the rears are 6 x 4, fronts are 6.5" however speakers are very very low down on my to-do list and not something I'm worried about right now, when it comes to replacing them I have hundreds of speakers laying around from over the years, however I do plan on keeping the original HU because it suits the car (y)

Also... these are the Mk1 Sporting alloy wheels I was on about... really suit the Cabrios too.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Fiat-Punt...259901?hash=item35fcc86bbd:g:0sQAAOSwxp9W4t2J
Alloys are a very personal preference kind of thing, honestly I prefer the alloys I have on the car to those! :yuck:

I'd like some Fiat Coupe alloys (I think... :idea:) but not sure if they'd be too big but again this is another thing that's a long way down the to-do list.
 
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coup 20vt wheels were always pretty common choice for GT Owners, I really like them...
They do look really big in some pics but with the right tyre they look decent (all opinion obviously).

I do think 15s are a better size in general and the other coupe wheels i think look way better on a punto, much much harder to find though. I think they are from the early 16v coups, and they do come in both 16 and 15 just to make it harder to find a set lol.. But the slab sided-ness of them suits the punto really well imo.
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I also think mk2 abarth option alloys would look epic on a mk1 but as of yet not seen it, sure someone somewhere will have done it though. Simon who owned my old GT bought a set but never fitted them and now has sold the car, I guess he must still have the wheels
these ones
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I do think 15s are a better size in general and the other coupe wheels i think look way better on a punto, much much harder to find though. I think they are from the early 16v coups, and they do come in both 16 and 15 just to make it harder to find a set lol.. But the slab sided-ness of them suits the punto really well imo.
I agree with you, I think 15's would suit the Punto waaay better and I had looked at the Coupe 15" alloys and instantly liked them, however as you say finding them.... not so easy. I can barely find any pictures of them!


Moving on, roof is semi repaired... it leaks significantly less but after the torrential rain we've had the past few days I still got some seepage, I've been using Stormsure Adhesive, it works very well and I've basically coated much of the rear window sticthing in it, it doesn't look pretty but it seems to work :eek:
Ultimately, if I can gather the funds and the car doesn't go catastrophically wrong in the mean time I'll replace the hood as its stained and generally past its best.

Speaking of seepage, my engine leaks oil from somewhere, whether it be the cam cover gasket, or the camshaft oil seal etc.... But I had my head under the car the other day and noticed a sizable drop of oil hanging off the end of my sump plug... Now this may sound stupid as I've never payed that much attention when changing oil before but should my sump plug be hanging out this far or should it be flush?

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The sun is out, its warm (well relatively...) out to the car I go! Jump in, turn key, click click click. Battery pretty much dead :bang:
Seems my solar maintainer hasn't got enough sunlight to keep the battery topped up enough considering every time I do anything to the car I pull it out of the garage (let it warm up a bit) and switch the engine off, oops.
Scared to take the battery off and charge it because the car has an aftermarket immobilizer (which is probably rubbish but it works) and it might have a wee if I completely disconnect the power, also the radio will want it's code which I don't have :cry:

So I've rolled it out into the sun and hopefully the solar charger thing will give it just enough so the battery doesn't go completely flat on me. I'll give it a jump when I get my leads back.

Is it safe to push the roof back by hand considering I have no power to operate it normally? Or should this be avoided, I was planning to smear some silicon on the roof seals today
 
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