General Getting Nero back on the road.

[Bob Wobbaz]

Hi everyone, I've been lurking on the forum for some time, I have to say, it's been an invaluable source of information and has helped with a number of repairs I've carried out so far on my car.

Meet Nero, he's a 2001 Seicento Abarth. I was given him by my brother for my first car, my brother had plenty of fun with this car and I hope to too. I want to get Nero all hunky dory before I pass my test. At the moment, the car is SORN and has been off the road for around 18 months. Despite this, it's a cracking little car, starts first time every time and feels nice and responsive still. Had a head gasket change before being brought onto the drive.

Had a pretty nightmarish start with this restoration, over winter the seal for the ragtop was not quite good enough. After some heavy storms I opened my door to find that my car had a new feature! A nice au natural foot spa. Yep, the footwell on the drivers side had a nice well of water... also the seats were water stained, roof lining stained and the inside stunk of damp. Had to take EVERYTHING out and dry in the house, then do a full cleansing of the upholstery.

So, what's been done so far? Well;

Stained the roof lining black to match interior
Sprayed vents new colour
New seats and headrests (abarth spec obviously )
Alloy wheels, repaired all flat spots and sprayed gun metal grey
Electric sunroof motor and linkage fixed
Boot connector replaced, rear wiper, heated window now working again
New central brake lights fitted (LEDs burned out on the old one)
New brake callipers added
Wiper motor and linkage replaced (old one had completely seized over winter)
Minor dents pulled out

What's left to do.

New brake discs (bought some nice brembo ones, just need mounting)
New rear brake drums and shoes (again, bought just need mounting)
Oil filter and oil change (bought and bought)
New coolant tank (noticed it hissing and it looks pretty worn, have sourced a replacement)
New radiator (looks pretty knackered)
Possibly change the suspension struts, noticed the car is slightly leaning to the right. My guess is the gas struts are beginning to fail, they've never been replaced.
Full engine block clean and de-gunking

Right, I've been under my car and I've become a little concerned with some rust I've spotted. It's near the sills. I've taken the seats out, had the carpet up and see no rust coming through there so that's a relief. Drivers side, the paint has come away somewhat but there is no rust there.

Now for the underside

The rust goes back from the sill about 2-3 cm, a little flakey. What's the best course of action to remedy this? My brother has said to get at it with a wire brush or the scrub wheel attachment for my drill and sand it off, then get some underbody seal. Does it look THAT bad? I'm a bit concerned if I'm honest.

Other thing I wanted to ask, the drainage disc in the bottom of the boot, under the spare wheel, is that meant to be loose? Because mine is... It's like a mini paint tin lid rattling about and the fact that there's a hole under it to the floor that I could get my arm through also concerns me. I was considering fitting it back in place with milliputt.

Any suggestions or comments would be greatly appreciated!

 

[fingers99]

Poke about with a screwdriver, make sure that there are no actual holes. Then do as brother suggests, but I'd use a wire brush in an angle grinder (goggles at least, ideally full face visor, face mark, gloves, ear defenders) then treat and paint. Lots of good stuff on the FROST website: not cheap, but you only want to do it once.

I've never seen a loose boot bung (if you'll forgive the expression). Pic?

 

[Bob Wobbaz]

Yeah I've been under it this afternoon, give it a good jab with the screwdriver, doesn't seem too bad, i think it looks worse than it is. I'm new to all this so finding rust of any kind kinda freaks me out, though to be expected with a car this old. Yeah defo going to be using goggles and a dust mask, don't want my lungs filled with rust filings. Would it be worthwhile treating my boot likewise?

As for the boot bung, well, here's pics. You can see it's rusted through and rusted off

Loosey goosey.

 

[Pirus]

Car looks good, I like it
Dont see many MPI abarths, or sportings with full canvas roof (well i havent anyway).

The boot bung often rusts on these, as yours has fallen out it would probably be best to have a new piece welded in, just get a small piece of scrap and someone you know who has a welder to come and help. Or you could just bodge that piece back in with some strong sealer/epoxy.

The underseal is easy enough to do, I'd wait until its a bit warmer though.
As has already been said, wire brush and get yourself very mucky. Horrible job to do but at least taking off all that surface rust and protecting the good, the car will last for plenty of years to come
Personally id buy a cheapo set of wirebrushes that can be attached to a drill.
Wear plenty of protection, i still think I've got bits of wirebrush in my overalls and hoody from when i did my car over 3 years ago.

You can get some underbody sealer from halfords - http://bit.ly/1CVouQq
Or even cheaper from amazon - http://amzn.to/1AY9W1z
This stuff is pretty thick, so recommend putting the tin in a sink filled with hot water for 5 minutes before you use it.

Get under there wire brush off all the old crap, give it a wipe over with some car shampoo/degreaser (fairy liquid will even work here). This allows to clean off any crap that is left behind. Wait for it to dry and get a few coats of the sealer on.

Few pictures from the first and second time i did mine.

We're a friendly place and if you want a hand, just state where abouts in the UK you are and someone might even be able to come and help.

 

[Bob Wobbaz]

Thanks Pirus, I've been reading over your build threads, very informative and full of good advice. I think I have some wire brushes in my garage somewhere, tidied the place out at the weekend so I know I've seen them. I've got some hand held wire brushes too.

Yeah I've got a big tin of the Hammermite stuff, would be beneficial to do multiple coats, heard this newer stuff is thinner than old Hammermite which was like painting with marmite. It's probably going to be weekend now before I get time enough to do this. Not looking forward to it but nothing worth doing is easy

As for the boot bung, I may use milliputt epoxy putty on it. I'm a prop builder and have used it countless times making props, dries as hard as stone and is very durable. Can even be shaped to look like weld, have done that in the past with my builds.

Thanks for the warm welcome, I'm based in Oldham, Greater Manchester. I think I'm going to be good with most of the repairs, the one thing that is concerning me is replacing the suspension struts, suspension is a little creaky at the moment and with it sagging to the right, I get the feeling I'm going to need to replace it.

 

[The Black Box]

With the rear boot bung on mine I just cut an oversize (around 10-15mm bigger all round) disk out of thin ali and just pop riveted it in

 

[Bob Wobbaz]

Would that be acceptable for MOT Black Box?

 

[fingers99]

For the boot.bung should be OK. I'd be inclined to use a plastic plug of some description: with a canvass roof, you never know when you're going to get flooded!

Multiple coats won't do any harm. I prefer the stuff from Toolstation -- half the price! But for a keeper I'd use something better -- maybe Epoxy Mastic.