General My 1242 8v Imola Blue Sporting

[chimpycento]

Alright guys and girls...

I was nagged on facebook to join up and start a build thread

You may know me on other forums as 'micrat' but it turns out I registered on here under this name back in 2003 when I had my other cinq!



Anyway since then I have had a good 20 further cars, everything from a jacked up Daihatsu Fourtrak, to a drag racing Jaguar XJ6, to a track spec civic!

Recently tho my car was written off and with a small budget and not much enthusiasm I went car shopping, just looking at fiestas and corsas and runarounds, when I came across an advert for a slightly sorry looking 1242 cinq...all monster claws and stick on tat...anyway I went to have a peek (advert pics)



Needless to say, I wanted it!

Spec as purchased:

1242 punto 60 engine
Decent but unknown brand lowering springs
Brava/Bravo front brakes
Brava/Bravo/god awful mega offset alloys with stud and nut conversion and all of the spacers ever made

Other than that - boggo.

So I got it home, washed it, stripped the rear, fitted a backbox, ripped it apart and flapwheeled any obvious rust, and sat back and admired it for a bit...







^^ strut brace

Oh yeah and it had 1 silver and 1 black headlamp which wound me up haha.

So...that was the end of day 1...

 

[chimpycento]

Then I decided I wanted all the trims orange, as they should be, so we made it so...

And did more stripping and cleaning...








Fitted steering wheel and bumbag 'glovebox' - orange griptape on throttle pedal...



And that was pretty much day 2, I had barely driven it at this point!

 

[chimpycento]

Ok - so it came to its first real drive, instant problems...

#1 - fuel fell out of everything

Filler neck
Throttle body
Tank

Not good!

I ordered and fitted a neck repair kit from unto.pl - brilliant bit of kit
The throttle body just had a huge jubilee clip on a fuel hose that wasn't sealing properly so replaced that
The tank had a leaky gasket so cut and replaced that!

#2 - misfire

Really bad misfire around 2-3k rpm.

New leads and plugs sorted it, I did a bit of research and went for magnecores and NGK's...



#3 - not really a problem but total gash, old cone air filter on the end of a floppy pipe and in the hottest part of the bay, I got and fitted a CDA airbox (well...a non branded one)



#4 - headlamp fell out - doh.

New clips, and new lamps...both black!




Starting to get there now

 

[chimpycento]

Next jobs -

Replaced all 4 shocks with FK shorties and adapted a golf mk2 splitter to my bumper...








And doge happened...



The orange paint had faded soooo badly in like 3 weeks so it all went black again lol.

 

[chimpycento]

Trim went black, fitted some spotlights, wheels went black...this was all in prep for the retro Rides gathering where amazingly the organiser saw my car and said he would like to see a Cinq go up the hillclimb, so obviously I was flattered and agreed, I shared the first track session with a bennetton F1 car, a mad RX7, several race cars and a hearse!

 

[chimpycento]

Since that in August she has just been my daily driver and served me well apart from needing an alternator.

I have been stockpiling parts and a hell of a lot should change soon...

I picked up an (currently) awful bumper but I have plans for it, a set of low offset 6.5 inch wide maserati wheels, a hydro handbrake, a new exhaust mani is on the way, as is a 40mm TB, bucket seats, and a lot more small bits and bobs...

There will also be paintwork and bodywork, am going for somewhere between Berg Cup Hillclimb and Civic Kanjo racer..see inspiration towards bottom of page...

Thats you lot up to date! Stay tuned

 

[blu73]

welcome mate, i saw you go up the Shelsley Walsh Hill Climb at Retro-Rides Gathering earlier in the year, car looks well

 

[chimpycento]

Cheers!

Have got cracking...

Split my spare TB down and sent it off to sparky5 for a 40mm rebore...



Dragged my maserati rims out of storage and tried one on...love the fitment...



And my seat arrived - light as a feather but not a squeak of cushioning / fabric anywhere lol...

 

[chimpycento]

OK - I keep buying more things and not fitting them lol...

I did do the radiator and thermostat...

I have now procured a nice punto 75 camshaft, a stainless 4-2-1 manifold, a voltmeter, nice new harness and pads and a few other bits...

My custom throttle body turned up and is a thing of beauty, forgot to get pics tho...

The wheels are ready for tyres too (195/45/14 Uniroyal Rainsport 2's), should do that today, I'm sure I will get all of the hate for painting such rare wheels, but I want black ones! sorry, mr Maserati...

Wheels and seat / harness should be on / in by next week

 

[blu73]

you should get a palio bob to take full effect of the TB... the 899 bob has a smaller inlet hole than 40mm..

fiat part no. 46467404

 

[Eklipze3k]

Ah I saw you post about them wheels on facebook, I was one of the Likers, though burned you for saying stance

Car looks great though, I was also at RR last year so would've seen it go up the hill.

 

[chimpycento]

Ah I saw you post about them wheels on facebook, I was one of the Likers, though burned you for saying stance

Car looks great though, I was also at RR last year so would've seen it go up the hill.

Ahahah bloody stance, its the right word but has been used wrongly by too many people...you know what I mean, wider, meatier, less sidewall...grrrr lol.

Blu cheers I'll look into that bob, only 2 seconds to swap over and would be a lot better. I do have a spare 899 bob and work in the hot tub industry so could probably just make one with a bigger mouth, it hadn't crossed my mind, I have all of the pipe work here lol. *edit - just seen it - nope lol*

 

[blu73]

rallycinq made a homebrew one from 2 of the 899bobs, think it was many years ago now but will be somewhere in the cars thread, search should find.

 

[Eklipze3k]

https://www.fiatforum.com/cinquecento-seicento/86618-big-bob.html

 

[Duncan]

Get them wheels fitted, I wanna see them on the car!!! NOW!

 

[chimpycento]

Awful pics, and i could have made it look a lot prettier, but its functional, so whilst I find a larger palio bob to pop on top my throttle body (and because i had my Dremel handy) I made a 50mm (from 38ish) inlet 899 bob complete with power bulge lol

I am sure the overall volume of the bob could do with being increased but this has at least removed the obvious size restriction of an intake hole smaller than the throttle butterfly...









also...pick them up later

 

[Eklipze3k]

Like the bob

 

[Ouby]

Like the tyres.
Rainsport 2 aren't cheap -but they're damn good esp in the wet.
Surprised you didn't get Rainsport 3 i think they're available in that size & addressed all the minor issues people had with the Rainsport 2.

 

[blu73]

its very heath robinson lol.. but just needs some extra height to it really, that should make it flow much better so if you can just extend it a bit you are onto a winner - it ain't gotta be pretty if it works imo form follows function

 

[chimpycento]

Heath Robinson is the way foward as long as its got no holes...job done

It's just a testbed anyway, I will try normal, then that, if I notice any difference I'll make a slightly less ghetto one.

Wheels are on, pics soon, car needs a wash...they have poke, quite a bit, but car literally looks like one of those 'down and out' stickers you see on the back of cars lol...love it.

Need to lose at least the drivers arch liner tho...it rubs those fins...

And Ouby the tyres a long story, blackcircles put them up mega cheap and quite a few of us bought, they then rang us all to say they didnt have them.

Same happened again and this time I just waited and nagged, and nagged...turns out it was all because they had made a pricing mistake but i got them...

Win.