Introduction
Hello!
I was thinking about creating this thread for a few months, but finally, I decided to create it.
First of all, I'm not a native English speaker, I learned English by myself, so if I make a mistake, please don't get upset, I’ll do my best to avoid any mistakes.
I got this beauty a few months ago, i.e. October 14th, 2019, but for the next few months I don't really do anything with it.
At the beginning I just wanted it to be a "spare" car, to go somewhere grab parts for other cars, etc. Typical workhorse.
On the other hand, I thought it's a nice car, made and mostly used in Italy, then It goes to Poland, sadly Polish "mechanics" have enough time to damage it a lot (but I don't know it back then) also Polish owner doesn't care at all for this car. So there are dents, missing body parts, missing emblems, cracked bumpers, destroyed lower radiator support, and many many more.
So the question is why I bought it?
As I mentioned first, I just wanted it to be my workhorse but what was the most important to me, there is almost no rust anywhere on the body, just small surface rust spots, but overall whole main body after 19 years of life is just perfect. Also, it really looks nice and I very like older cars.
This is why I decided that I just don't have the heart to let this car just die as a workhorse. So I parked it on the outdoor spot(roofed) and started slowly disassembling it and restoring reusable parts.
It took me a while, cause often it was too cold outside to work or I doesn't had a time (I had to work on other cars, etc.) but It moves forward.
I also have a few questions and I believe this is the only place where I can get the answers.
What else I can say about it?
I believe that this car has all genuine parts that were mounted on the day of the production and the previous owners just don't really care. When I was turning the steering wheel it takes more than 90 degrees to just start moving the wheels.
Inside the engine instead of oil, was just a sludge, so previous owner just forgot that you have to replace fluids, power steering fluid was just a black liquid. Gearbox oil wasn't there, I wanted to drain it when the engine was still inside the engine bay and all that drain out was just a little bit of oil. I believe that somebody drained it and forgot to pour enough of the new oil inside the gearbox.
The engine was also leaking oil, later I found out why. Oil was leaking between engine head and camshafts carrier body. So I removed the camshafts carrier just to find out that somebody did it before, and when mounting it back just fuc.... just stripped all the threads inside the head. Instead of repairing it properly somebody just used longer and thicker bolts, it wasn't tightened properly so it was leaking. Also, threads for these small aluminum caps that are on the camshafts carrier were damaged.
The funniest part is that this car just worked nicely. The engine sounded good, gearbox worked fine I really didn't expect so many damaged things.
My plans?:devil:
Disassemble it completely, repair all the rust spots properly, renew all protective layers under the car, repair all the body dents, repaint it.
Later, what comes later, I think it is more of a resto-mod then just a rebuild. I don't really care to keep it 100% genuine, I want it to be my, and reliable.
First I want to increase front suspension width, it's an understeering car, it just needs a little bit more of the width on the front to get that grip. I believe this is why Fiat decided to have wider swingarms in the HGT version, it's always nice to be able to turn when you're going faster.
The suspension is also weak, and it can't last long on the poor roads. So now I'm thinking about it, custom suspension sounds good but requires some tools that I don't currently have, maybe It's possible to refit a suspension from a different car. Alfa 156 suspension ain't that bad, but I'm not completely sure if it's possible, on the other hand, double wishbones sounds too good to just let these thoughts go away. Lancia Delta 2 has similar suspension to brava/bravo and people make wonders with it.
Forum is huge and it take some time to found different stuff, so If you know about any topic where somebody fitted different suspension into similar car or build a new one then just let me know.
But my current plan is to prepare the engine bay, so I'll stick to it.
I think it's enough for the first post. I'll post more later.
Photos later, since I can't post URLs now.
I was thinking about creating this thread for a few months, but finally, I decided to create it.
First of all, I'm not a native English speaker, I learned English by myself, so if I make a mistake, please don't get upset, I’ll do my best to avoid any mistakes.
I got this beauty a few months ago, i.e. October 14th, 2019, but for the next few months I don't really do anything with it.
At the beginning I just wanted it to be a "spare" car, to go somewhere grab parts for other cars, etc. Typical workhorse.
On the other hand, I thought it's a nice car, made and mostly used in Italy, then It goes to Poland, sadly Polish "mechanics" have enough time to damage it a lot (but I don't know it back then) also Polish owner doesn't care at all for this car. So there are dents, missing body parts, missing emblems, cracked bumpers, destroyed lower radiator support, and many many more.
So the question is why I bought it?
As I mentioned first, I just wanted it to be my workhorse but what was the most important to me, there is almost no rust anywhere on the body, just small surface rust spots, but overall whole main body after 19 years of life is just perfect. Also, it really looks nice and I very like older cars.
This is why I decided that I just don't have the heart to let this car just die as a workhorse. So I parked it on the outdoor spot(roofed) and started slowly disassembling it and restoring reusable parts.
It took me a while, cause often it was too cold outside to work or I doesn't had a time (I had to work on other cars, etc.) but It moves forward.
I also have a few questions and I believe this is the only place where I can get the answers.
What else I can say about it?
I believe that this car has all genuine parts that were mounted on the day of the production and the previous owners just don't really care. When I was turning the steering wheel it takes more than 90 degrees to just start moving the wheels.
Inside the engine instead of oil, was just a sludge, so previous owner just forgot that you have to replace fluids, power steering fluid was just a black liquid. Gearbox oil wasn't there, I wanted to drain it when the engine was still inside the engine bay and all that drain out was just a little bit of oil. I believe that somebody drained it and forgot to pour enough of the new oil inside the gearbox.
The engine was also leaking oil, later I found out why. Oil was leaking between engine head and camshafts carrier body. So I removed the camshafts carrier just to find out that somebody did it before, and when mounting it back just fuc.... just stripped all the threads inside the head. Instead of repairing it properly somebody just used longer and thicker bolts, it wasn't tightened properly so it was leaking. Also, threads for these small aluminum caps that are on the camshafts carrier were damaged.
The funniest part is that this car just worked nicely. The engine sounded good, gearbox worked fine I really didn't expect so many damaged things.
My plans?:devil:
Disassemble it completely, repair all the rust spots properly, renew all protective layers under the car, repair all the body dents, repaint it.
Later, what comes later, I think it is more of a resto-mod then just a rebuild. I don't really care to keep it 100% genuine, I want it to be my, and reliable.
First I want to increase front suspension width, it's an understeering car, it just needs a little bit more of the width on the front to get that grip. I believe this is why Fiat decided to have wider swingarms in the HGT version, it's always nice to be able to turn when you're going faster.
The suspension is also weak, and it can't last long on the poor roads. So now I'm thinking about it, custom suspension sounds good but requires some tools that I don't currently have, maybe It's possible to refit a suspension from a different car. Alfa 156 suspension ain't that bad, but I'm not completely sure if it's possible, on the other hand, double wishbones sounds too good to just let these thoughts go away. Lancia Delta 2 has similar suspension to brava/bravo and people make wonders with it.
Forum is huge and it take some time to found different stuff, so If you know about any topic where somebody fitted different suspension into similar car or build a new one then just let me know.
But my current plan is to prepare the engine bay, so I'll stick to it.
I think it's enough for the first post. I'll post more later.
Photos later, since I can't post URLs now.
(nightmare fuel) but overall "rust" condition is very nice, surface stuff only 
so I will engage my main plan, remove, etch with acid and protect and it will be fine, removing sills or making other holes will make unnecessary damage.
