General mad rush......

[Jai]

so stanford is 7 days away, i'm off today, tomorrow and monday, working till friday, rolling road on saturday, teh mrs wants some going out "together time" this weekend and i have to get the tub ready......sheesh

mechanically it's all done, and the drive is tight and hard, like a fresh young hooker, just how a tub should be

however the bodywork is more bernard manning than julia roberts.... arches are off, now for the bumpers, all new black ones are ready to go on, but.....and like an elephants it's a big....no huge but, the paintwork needs to be cleaned, mopped and waxed before hand, some rubbing down or runs, a bit of spraywork on some exposed silver, try to stop the rot on a couple of holes coming through, then i can put the plastics back on

next issue, a minor one but needs to be done, get the passenger electric window working, and put on a handle, a stereo and aerial would be nice, remove back seats to can get the huge rubber liner out for a decent clean and vacuum out all the dirt in there, perhaps get the holes from the towbar sorted too

enough time.....no, will it be done....better be, or shed of the show at the concours is an easy win for me

 

[Jai]

fiat uno turbo superleggera.....

thats "super lightweight" in case you didn't know.....

anyway, i discovered today that the "quick white one" is one of this rare, among rare breeds..."how's that jai?" well gather round kids and i'll tell you.....

as you know the plastic on the car is poo, all crackly white tippex, so off came the arches to reveal 2 good ones, one with half decent filler, and one holier than the swissest of cheese, i didnt have time to remove the sill covers, till today, mainly because whenever i've done it on tub or 70sx, it's a right (and left) ballache of epic proportions

the drivers side came off no problem, looks ok underneath, but the passenger, as chas pointed out, looked odd....a kind of wavy ripple leading into the rear panel...def a touch of filler.....but why?

this one was tougher than a SAS trooper eating razor blades, took a good ten minutes of pulling and twisting (not fussed about keeping it as i have many spares)....whats this? glue......silicone sealant....hang on...that looks like plaster......and filler.....lots of filler......when the sill did finally come loose, it clunked dead weight to the ground....with about 5 kilos of filler attached that had ripped of the HUGE ****ING DENT UNDER THE DOOR SILL, the suspension sighed upwards, as the car lost it's lopsided look.......

"oh goody" i thought, less weight, is good, except now when i put the black sill on, theres a 4 inch gap back to the body.....cock it.....

i will post a pic tomorrow, when i have finally stopped swearing at the car....till then it's good to know that the power to weight ratio of the uno turbo, is improving at time goes by, as the metal rusts away, and the filler falls out, who knows by next year i could be taking on the might of an enzo, and kicking its nancy boy, flappy paddle elcetro-nanny balls up into its drivers throat

fiat uno turbo superleggera.....you know you have one....even if you don't want one....

 

[Chas Uno]

Re: fiat uno turbo superleggera.....

as you know the plastic on the car is poo, all crackly white tippex

That's it! Your tub is now christened "Tippex"!

I'll have to pop round sometime when I'm not studying and see the extent of this dent in the sill/ side. As long as nothing is twisted you'll probably get away with having it pulled out. Not a difficult job for a bodyshop with the right equipment. Don't slap filler/ goo/ Tippex p) back in whatever you do!

Also good luck with the mini makeover. Just get it running like a peach for Stanford and then worry about the rest later. I'm looking forward to June 5th when I finish my semester and can have time to get cracking on my Unos :slayer:

Anyway, good luck with the Uno Tippex SL

 

[Jai]

bumper badness.....

That's it! Your tub is now christened "Tippex"!

anyway....back to more annoying matters....decided to get the rear boot liner out, and give it a clean, was caked in mud, muck and god knows what:

5 mins with an industrial hoover, in the wheel well and under back seats pulled out a good kilo of crap too.

then it was time to take a deep breath and enter a world of horror, the bumpers. now for all you uno virgins, may i take a moment to explain something.....if there are 8 fixing points for the bumper, you can bet your soul at least 2 will be a bugger to get off, on a normal car....on an uno that may be six, and a turbo it's 7 or the full house. your normal workshop tools will be powerless in the face of rust so strong it could be used as tank armour. what's required is cunning, lateral use of assorted spanners, screwdrivers socket sets and liberal amounts of wd40.........and a hammer

the net result after several hours of swearing like gordon ramsey with tourettes, skinned knuckles, a pile of broken captive nuts you are left with :

as you can see the front ends not to bad, apart from the well known cack handed paint job, the rear would be fine too....except where it's been pushed in :

the wing fixing points are ok at the back, and most are ok up front,

except the one on the scabby nearside wing:

which doesn't exist!

so tomorrows plan? jet wash the crap out of the body, bit of primer and paint under those arches...get the plastic back on....resist urge to set fire to car....

 

[Chas Uno]

Looks like you're making some good progress there Jai. I'll inspect your handywork when I pop over tomorrow. Want me to bring some Tippex in case you need to touch any paint up?

:devil:

 

[alexGS]

Re: bumper badness.....

then it was time to take a deep breath and enter a world of horror, the bumpers. now for all you uno virgins, may i take a moment to explain something.....if there are 8 fixing points for the bumper, you can bet your soul at least 2 will be a bugger to get off, on a normal car....on an uno that may be six, and a turbo it's 7 or the full house. your normal workshop tools will be powerless in the face of rust so strong it could be used as tank armour. what's required is cunning, lateral use of assorted spanners, screwdrivers socket sets and liberal amounts of wd40.........and a hammer

You're really up against it - aren't you
I would say to forget about the electric window - no-one will notice if it doesn't go down, and ditto the stereo.

Your Uno Turbo is actually supposed to be silver, then You can't cheat! Mine's properly white!

Bumpers - here in NZ where we get rust in doors from rainwater but not generally under cars, we still have rust at the outer bumper fixings so I know exactly what you mean (I'm not a bumper virgin). Generally how it works is, spray of WD40/CRC, wire-brush of the threads, put on 10mm socket and quarter-inch ratchet handle, apply torque, and feel the release of tension - no it's tight - release of tension - no it's tight - and then realise that the square-headed bolt is now turning in the bumper, spreading and relaxing the tough polypropylene as it goes.

You can jam a screwdriver in the slot at the end of the bumper to try and prevent the square from turning. Then you discover the very same mechanical principle that operates the engine valves when the camshaft turns.

So, instead, jam a LARGE screwdriver in the slot and lever the bumper off the square-headed-bolt completely! That is quick and easy, you can then use Vise-Grips (sorry, Mole Grips) to hold the square and get it off, and it all goes back together afterwards (no real damage to the bumper from prying it off).

Anyway too late now but I wonder what your next big hold-up will be. For us, it's the discovery of a rust hole behind the towing-eye bracket!

I suppose you now need to work out some way to attach the bumper back to the 'crusty' wing. Actually I think you need a new wing, frankly. Maybe get Tippex-boy onto it, he might have a spare wing that he can paint for you - he should be pretty high after that, it's a lot of Tippex and make sure it's the solvent type for durability. The NZ name for Tippex is Twink (http://www.warehousestationery.co.n...zj&CatalogCategoryID=SnMKBTHBJ.0AAAEWXksE8PAS), but twink-boy means something else entirely.

Of course to get a wing off, you'll need a deep 10mm socket for the nut in the door pillar - always fun - you need to loosen the bonnet hinge and remove the front indicator (another nut there), and you'll need a sharp knife to cut the seam sealer as best you can. If it's already been off then that makes it easier.

-Alex

 

[Stu DemonD]

Re: bumper badness.....

How is the "NedShed" coming along?

 

[Jai]

chas came over last night to have a look at the progress, there was much muttering and shaking of head at progress and technique.....lets face it, i'm no expert, maximum points for effort, null points for results. still, the offside wings were prepped, sanded, primered and sprayed up, just waiting now to get the final coat of fiat white on, the bastard antenna has finally come out, with the help of a hacksaw (cheers chas) and i'm off in a bit to get a new one. the headlining had made a try to escape for the floor, so out that cam last night, and a can of spray fix put most if it back in place, it's not perfect, but i don't have access to an industrial sized hair dryer to stretch it out, nor a shaped press to hold it in place at all points......

very good news? the clock works finally!!!! the tape lead that runs up teh nearside a pillar had gotton kinked, torn and rusted under the headlining, 5 minutes with wirestrippers and electrical tape, plugged in, the map lamp don't work, but the clock did. i wonder.....pulled out the spares box, found the red led clock/stopwatch display, swapped it in, and hey presto!!!! i works a treat!!!! so it's all worth while.....kind of....maybe

 

[Jai]

time....never enough....and if you get a little you're battling fatigue from work too....today is a total bust out, i'm off in about an hour, and shattered from last night, tomorrow i'm off early not back till about 9pm....which leaves one day....it's going to be a long saturday......

jobs left to do:

put the headlining back in, re attach all roof fixings, including lamps and mirror
install stereo, and speakers
cannabilise door handle from red, put into white
clean up boot liner and put back in
wash down car, t-cut and wax
wash out engine bay
reinstall all external lights
put all the outer plastics back on...no easy task as that front wing still pretty mangled along arch
clean out interior

at this moment in time, i'm feeling something has to give, the bumpers and arches have to go on, as does the headlining...the rest are nice interior touches that take a lot of tome (esp when no wiring exists for the stereo)

maybe i'll borrow the panda for the day....

 

[Jai]

well after too much phaffing and fuffing at work, i finally got home about 4pm, straight into the lock up, got the door handle of red for the passenger door on white, at least it can be closed properly now.

the rain stopped finally, so i wheeled her out into the open to look at my cack handed attempt at spraying under the arch extensions....it can only be described as ****, still no silver bits, so out with the bucket, wash down, dryied, a little cutting compound, and then wax on wax off....now i know you can't polish a turd, but.....she does look a lot better than before...which isn't actually saying much......

new antenna went on, and the the dread began....bumpers, curiously though the front went on in about 10 minutes!! the rear though decided to be a bitch and took 45.......cock

and more anguish followed...the nearside foggy has decided it doesn't want to work, as has the rear number plate light (chas bring the multi meter to stanny!!!!!!!!)

anyway have a look in the poll section, see what grille should go on....

tomorrow, the plan.......

early wake up, go to mums get huge gaybo for stanny
tescos, get supplies
post office...tax disc for paj
the tub:
arch extensions need to be cleaned and prepped, then put on
ditto side skirts
boot liner back in
roof liner back in, with all bits, handles etc
stereo...need 10 cm speakers for rear......
clean all windows of overspray from original paint job

sleep.....this is not going to work

 

[Jai]

power, glory...crushing disappointment.......

well it's about 7pm, and i'm shattered...calling it a day.....too tired to think straight and carry on......

lets start with this morning, up and out early...got the, supplies for stanford and road tax for the paj.....so far so good

arch extensions cleaned and preped, offside front went on a treat...and then disaster...none on the others fit properly, the nearside front is close, the back way off, bugger, no time to panel beat, and i don't want to cut the plastic....arse

boot liners and roof went in ok, small victory.....

stereo....now this is where i spent gawd knows how long trying to unravel 20 years and 12 owners worth of bodge and balls....to no avail, no tunes....

still i wanted to clean out the engine bay, the degreaser can said warm up the engine...ok will go for a drive, pootled past pete at the rolling road day..."hey pete, any chance of chucking it on? see how bad it is", "for sure jai...you're next!"

cool, btw sorry to those who i queue jumped......

as they were strapping it down was joshing with them and damon..."please be at least 80hp......please"

engine on, and up she roared, redlined, and the geezer has got a huge grin on, giving it the thumbs up...... something wrong? he's having a giggle at the shed? me?

"she's almost spot on fuelling, boost is standard....look"........

talk about chuffed!!!! 137bhp!!!!!!!!!!

shhhhhhhh........

be vewy vewy quiet....i'm going hunting 100hps....and 500s:devil:

 

[Chas Uno]

Re: power, glory...crushing disappointment.......

talk about chuffed!!!! 137bhp!!!!!!!!!!

Who needs sounds when you've got 137bhp boosting away under your right foot

Bargain bucket UT + Rolling Road = :woot:

 

[alexGS]

Re: power, glory...crushing disappointment.......

That's not standard boost... that's nearly 1bar

That'll be why (standard is 0.6bar), but I'm always chairy about the calculation of at-the-engine horsepower - how do you/they know what losses there are? Perhaps the transmission is more efficient than you think.

But yeah, safe to say it's more than 80bhp

-Alex

 

[Gav F]

the ut looked alright at standford
i would love to be able to afford insurance on it