General Murphio's Meanderings

[fiat500]

Ooohhh guess what just came up on my Facebook page? A little film Brilliant.

I won’t spoil your thunder and post the link. I’ll let you do that.

Share the link....it's for sharing!

I think Louis and the boys did a great job on that....I wasn't expecting the potted history as well; so that's quite a memento for me. I was dreading them putting any of my voice or face into the production as they did a thorough interview to get the information; but fortunately for all I am successfully obscured.

They suggested that I drove slow and steady and I think they may even have slowed things down a bit in the edit....I would have preferred a bit of real Murf action but I guess that's not the image they were putting across...save that for the Ferraris. It's a pity some of the car's famous rust was in focus but what do you expect driving in weather like that?

I drove 80 miles just to get to that location and then the 80 back, but I will do it all again, and more, for work and pleasure a few times more this summer.

Get out there in the world in your Fiat 500s.

[ame]https://youtu.be/imy64XRfa7w[/ame]

PS. There's also a link from the page to a write-up about it all.

 

[Vitesse]

It did look like you were driving a bit slow compared to what I have witnessed before! Apart from when you were right up behind them going round the sharp bend.

All of it was great but the bit towards the end where you slowly disappear into the mist was my highlight. (I was going to put sunset but it didn’t seem appropriate).

Ehmmmm I didn’t want to mention the quarter light.

 

[BambinoClassic]

Really nice shots, brilliant

 

[Fayray]

must've been a bit of dust caught in my eye there for a moment...

 

[lazylobster]

Loved it!

Murph is a star ! :slayer:

 

[fiat500]

So we made it to Peschici in Italy but it's really taken it out of Murf. .....he's looking a bit worse for wear.[emoji848]
In reality, it's more unbelievable; as we approached the entrance to this old town I said to Sheila, "I would love to photograph my car just here. One millisecond later we rounded the corner and Shazam! his poor neglected cousin is what we found. In three days in Italy I've still only seen one other 500.

 

[lazylobster]

Sounds like an epic road trip :slayer:

Lots of piccies please!

 

[fiat500]

Sounds like an epic road trip :slayer:

Lots of piccies please!

I think that I might have unintentionally deceived you Rob; it is a road trip but only from Naples airport and in.a Kia hire car. That's not to say that it isn't s recce for future travels in Murf. Tomorrow we're heading for the Amalfi coast and will get to see Positano, which is named after the best colour that you can paint a Fiat 500[emoji57] (don't tell Murf). What I've learned about Italy is that I won't be bringing him in May...the weather is significantly more Italian back home this week than it is down here!

 

[Bleeding Knuckles]

I think that I might have unintentionally deceived you Rob; it is a road trip but only from Naples airport and in.a Kia hire car. That's not to say that it isn't s recce for future travels in Murf. Tomorrow we're heading for the Amalfi coast and will get to see Positano, which is named after the best colour that you can paint a Fiat 500[emoji57] (don't tell Murf). What I've learned about Italy is that I won't be bringing him in May...the weather is significantly more Italian back home this week than it is down here!

Hi Peter, Been there, done that - it's a great area. Dump the car and take the bus - it's a good service, save yourself the heartache. The centre of Sorrento is fab (provided there is no cruise liner in port!!!) Enjoy!!!
Ian.

 

[fiat500]

Hi Peter, Been there, done that - it's a great area. Dump the car and take the bus - it's a good service, save yourself the heartache. The centre of Sorrento is fab (provided there is no cruise liner in port!!!) Enjoy!!!
Ian.

Sounds like good advice but I think we'll need to stay in the car because of the bad weather here[emoji23]. I wasn't impressed with Italy the last time I was here and some of my experiences this time are hardening my attitude further.......saw two more 500s and a 126 today though....made my day.[emoji16]

 

[the hobbler]

I have a good friend who lives just outside Senigalia, in the Marche region on the Adriatic coast. Every time I visit him I am surprised how many 500s I see being driven around, by people of all ages. Their 'Radunos' regularly pull in 100+ Cinquecentos! (but the restaurant meal at the end of the day may have something to do with it!---no tucker-vans). I have been asked to try and get my car down to them so that it can attend a Raduno---any body able to recommend a reliable transport company?--getting too old to drive 2,300km each way (Ann doesn't drive).

 

[lazylobster]

I think that I might have unintentionally deceived you Rob; it is a road trip but only from Naples airport and in.a Kia hire car. That's not to say that it isn't s recce for future travels in Murf. Tomorrow we're heading for the Amalfi coast and will get to see Positano, which is named after the best colour that you can paint a Fiat 500[emoji57] (don't tell Murf). What I've learned about Italy is that I won't be bringing him in May...the weather is significantly more Italian back home this week than it is down here!

I've been sucker punched Ha, OK Peter, I misread that one.Its a long way to go. As you may remember my car was restored in Italy. I did consider driving it back but in the end, opted for transportation. As could not take the time. Would have taken a few days to say the least.

Enjoy the trip. I'm out to Amalfi and the island of Ischia in June. Love it there.

R

 

[lazylobster]

I have a good friend who lives just outside Senigalia, in the Marche region on the Adriatic coast. Every time I visit him I am surprised how many 500s I see being driven around, by people of all ages. Their 'Radunos' regularly pull in 100+ Cinquecentos! (but the restaurant meal at the end of the day may have something to do with it!---no tucker-vans). I have been asked to try and get my car down to them so that it can attend a Raduno---any body able to recommend a reliable transport company?--getting too old to drive 2,300km each way (Ann doesn't drive).

Tom, I've used the "shipley" website for transportation quotes. They have reviews of the vendors and you get multiple quotes too.

R

 

[fiat500]

Murf's been grounded for a few days; more accurately, he's been raised in the air (on axle-stands). After the corrosion I recently found and dealt with on the driver's side I'd had been hoping that the passenger side would give me fewer problems as I carried on with a bit of "summer?" tidying. But it has given me the same amount of work despite not all of the corrosion being in exactly the same places.
I've had to make new and weld-in most of the longitudinal, top-hat section support-rails, a couple of the ends of the under-seat rails, the splash-zone at the back-edge of the front wheel-arch, the lower-back edge of the front outer-wing, the leading edge of the outer-sill and various other bits and pieces. :bang:
It's all in the traditional rot-zones as evidenced by the fact that there is even an off-the-shelf repair-panel which I could have bought which covers the wing and sill rot!
I think this is going to be an ongoing job as I will not be desisting from hammering Murf in all weathers and I'm sure some people will think it's proof that I'm stupid to try to use him as a car rather than the weekend toy that he should be.:chin:
The positive thing is that the corrosion has only eaten into a bit of my previous repairs and has not spread to the good parts of the original panelwork. Even so, at five years and 30,000 miles it's a bit of an awakening as to the level of maintenance needed if you want to use one of these cars properly. I'm pretty sure it would have been scrapped had it got this bad back in the '70s because so far that's three days' work and it still needs the welds tidying and everything priming and putting back to rights.
In the photos you can see that I've put in some captive-nuts in preparation for my next modification, which I hope will help to reduce the effects of the water and dirt from the road.

 

[Vitesse]

I think it’s proof that little cars weren’t expected to have a very long life. I would imagine that some of your repairs 5 years ago probably ended up with better rust protection than it left the factory with?

Murph only had pretty low mileage on him 5 years ago didn’t he? I wouldn’t have expected most UK based 500’s didn’t last much more than 7 or 8 years back in the day, maybe less? They would have just disappeared into a pile of rust.

 

[fiat500]

I would imagine that some of your repairs 5 years ago probably ended up with better rust protection than it left the factory with?
(

The bulk of the repairs were done ten years ago!! There was a house restoration in the middle of the job. I can clearly remember the hot and sunny summer (those were the days) when I did it. You're right...I did take pains to paint-protect and then Waxoyl everything. But there's mainly no trace of this or it's still there but hanging in layers and detached from the "metal".

All of the Fiats I had dealings with in the 80's were about ten years old, had between 30 and 40,000 miles on the clock and needed new sills and floors.....hence they were at the auctions reaching £50 to £100 a time.

For some people this would be the end of their use of the car as the professional repairs would be too expensive and with current attitudes to "classic" cars you'd be recommended to fit entire sills and floor panels etc.
But for Murf it's just a little hiatus as I could never bear him having another big-time resto unless there was another Fiat 500 who could be a temporary stand-in....Sheila's still asking for one of her own.

As an aside, which may be relevant to someone, after sitting for a few days I usually need a few pulls of the starter to pump through fresh petrol. With Murf having been tilted backwards on the stands all day, first pull and he was away...... must have helps the fuel to siphon down to the pump.

 

[fiat500]

Over the last month, in between showers of rain and harsh winds, I have been drawn into an unplanned series of repairs to Murf which have been more stringent and thorough than I think any MOT inspection has ever thrown at me.

The floor and sills have had a lot of careful reconstruction and I suspect there is a little bit more to do around one of the rear jacking-points. I've fitted a new horn, completely replenished the brake-fluid and I have four new tyres awaiting fitment. Now, having already noted that the toe-in had become upset, I have fitted a complete new set of steering balljoints and rods.

The ones fitted are the originals and when I restored the car I was able to re-use them, fitting new dust-covers after regreasing the balls. But as soon as I tried to adjust the rods I could see that they were badly seized and weakened through corrosion; one of them started to twist! and this is probably what put the toe-in out in the first place. The balljoints themselves appeared to be unworn but they're being thrown away in any case. So, after 50 years, I decided that I'd had my moneysworth and stumped up for new ones from the fantastic "Auto-Bella" via eBay....fast delivery and very competitive pricing. Incidentally, I noticed that I have acquire three balljoint removal options over the years; the one in the centre of the image is by far the best.

In order to get things as accurate as possible I loaded the car with approximately 110 Kg of blocks to simulate the actual weight when driving; that's a good 30% more than I weigh and flattened the front spring, which I assume is the intention in the instructions that toe-in should be checked with the car loaded. By good fortune (or maybe by being very methodical) the steering wheel has stayed nicely central and the car certainly drives well.

The key thing is that I have avoided the temptation to go further than necessary and kept the car within a day's work of becoming mobile again at all times; thus avoiding the "trap" into which I think that many classic-car owners fall and which often leads to the cars being unroadworthy for many years.

So for all of those people who in the past have implied that the MOT exemption might lead to cars becoming neglected and unsafe, here's one vehicle that definitely breaks that hypothetical pattern. Those track-rods and the rotten floor were passed as OK by the professionals a bit more than a year ago.

 

[Vitesse]

EFA “In order to get things as accurate as possible I loaded the car with approximately 110 Kg of blocks to simulate the actual weight when driving; that's a good 30% less than I weigh”.

Crikey what have you been doing to that poor car? I don’t think I have seen track rods that badly corroded before. I’m surprised the MoT tester didn’t pick up on them. In fairness he probably didn’t know why they were .

I’ve used Autobella before they are very competitive and swift delivery.

 

[fiat500]

that's a good 30% less than I weigh”.

.....37.5% MORE than my weight (of course)....

 

[Bubins]

fiat500 Are you a mechanic by trade or is this is all self taught knowledge and skills from years owning Murphio (and others?)