General New owner of 1987 Uno Formula

[Alan Gold]

Hi, I have just purchased this incredibly original and well-preserved Formula. I am the 3rd owner, the first one having owned the car for an amazing 23 years. The car has covered a documented 26,500 miles and although it requires attention in some areas, it is extremely sound for it's age. I plan to keep it garaged and only use it in dry weather on an infrequent basis.

I have never owned or driven an Uno before, although I drove a Mk1 Punto 75SX for 10 years, which was a great car and extremely reliable. My everyday transport is a 2008 Vauxhall Corsa 1.3 Diesel. The Uno does seem extremely basic and is incredibly noisy, it's gearchange is terrible and it's steering is heavy, but I have already grown fond of the car and I'm looking forward to having it looking it's best for classic show season this summer.

I look forward to exchanging views and learning more about these cars on this forum.

Alan

 

[onemanmade]

Is this the one from the Edinburgh area? Good buy!

 

[Alan Gold]

It is indeed! It was bought new from Croall & Croall in Glenogle Road and I think it has basically hardly been out of the city all it's life. The first owner was elderly and only used it for local trips, and it was kept in a garage which explains it's condition. Sadly the second owner had it parked out in the Leith area for 3 years, and there it has picked up lots of scuffs and scrapes, and the door was damaged by someone trying to force it open. When it came up for sale I just had to save it from further deterioration, even though I can't afford to spend much money on the car.

 

[onemanmade]

Its a lovely looking car mate, give it the looking after it deserves! Well done

 

[Louie Bee]

I Like it

maybe because I passed my driving test in a D reg beige 45 forumla back in 96 my first car.

get some engine bay pics up - show people what points and a condensor are

 

[Louie Bee]

whers the hub caps BTW?

 

[Alan Gold]

If you mean the gruesome wheel trims that the last owner had on it, they're in the bin! It has it's small black centre caps intact on 3 wheels, but I need to find one for the n/s/r wheel - which may not be easy.

As for engine bay pics, I took this one on Tuesday, but obviously you don't see much of the engine. The engine has an oil leak at the rocker cover gasket, so it will be going into the garage for attention soon. It also "pinks" rather badly, another reason to get the garage that has previously maintained the car, to take a look at it.

 

[Louie Bee]

here we go

these are the original trims for the 45 formula as this was my gran's car from new

 

[Louie Bee]

if it pinks badly that's a good reason not to take it back to the people who have been looking after it.

this is about as basic as it gets which means it's the best place to start fixing your self no ECM to brake, no sensors to give headaches, just a mechanical ignition, so it's just feeler gage (for points cap and plug gap) timing gun (to set timing by twisting distributor angel) or better still just do it by ear and feel

whats the worst that can happen... well if your adjusting the points gap the base plate that the screw fixes into can loose it's thread, so the points gap slips all the time. I had a bolt spot welded in mine so the points were held in place by a nut.

car jumps like mad when warm - replace the condensor

 

[Alan Gold]

Thanks for the advice Louie. Unfortunately I am not handy with a spanner in the slightest - I remember this nonsense with feeler gauges back in the 80s when my dad had his Mk1 Fiesta. Although I love cars, my enthusiasm extends to looking at them, driving them, cleaning them and photographing them. My maintenance abilities are basically checking the oil and tyre pressures, and that's about it. I believe the garage the last owner used is an old-school outfit that deals in classics, and I'm inclined to take the car there at least initially, and chat with the guy to get an idea of what I should be getting done on the car. I know that the last service was done in September 2011, and the car has been used pretty much exclusively for short city journeys, so I'm not surprised that the engine is out of tune a little.

Regarding the wheeltrims, I've seen pictures of Formula models with the full covers, but the brochure showed the car with the small black centre caps that are on mine - see link to brochure scan on Flickr, where I am "GoldScotland71". Perhaps some dealers fitted the wheel covers to make these very basic models seem more attractive to buyers?

Oops, I can't post URLs until I have 5 posts, I've just been informed. If you search Flickr for Uno Formula, you should see the scan.

 

[rawill]

here we go

these are the original trims for the 45 formula as this was my gran's car from new

And they might be ugly but they are original.
But I like them, hunted for ages to get them for the one I am selling!

 

[Most Easterly Pandas]

Nice tidy example

 

[a73uk]

Welcome Alan! (Its Paolo here )

 

[Alan Gold]

Hi Paolo, I might have guessed you'd be on here! I intend to ask you some questions before I take the car to the garage. So much for getting it all T-Cut and polished today - winter has come back with a vengeance. At least the Uno is now in my garage and not sitting out in all weathers like it was with the previous owner.

 

[a73uk]

No problems mate, ask away!

Great news that is now nice & snug in a garage, it`ll help things considerably

 

[a73uk]

Oh, & I think the hub cap part number is 4432333 theres some in Italy for £9 a pair (it`d probably be double that for postage though):

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CALOTTINO-CERCHIO-RUOTA-FIAT-ORIGINALE-4432333-/290871736194

There is also 51733117 on the later Uno & another, 7660841 on the Panda all of them look almost identical on the diagrams, but I`m fairly certain yours is the 4432333...

It might be worth getting hold of some later full width Uno/Panda covers as they will look original enough & have a slight aerodynamic advantage.

 

[UnoFan87]

Welcome to the forums mate and nice car.

I'm on flickr too you probably know me.

 

[onemanmade]

So any update on this?

 

[Alan Gold]

Many thanks for that eBay link Paolo - well found! I think I'll go for them, as I want to keep the wheels as they are.

Regarding updates, nothing really doing, as I don't want to drive the car until this bad weather is over. I plan to get it booked into the garage in a couple of weeks when I'm off work. I'm a bit concerned about the oil cap sludge I discovered today - hope it is just a result of the short journey use the car has always had, and not head gasket problems as a few people have suggested.

[ame="http://www.flickr.com/photos/47381765@N04/8565545637/in/photostream/"]Not what I wanted to see | Flickr - Photo Sharing![/ame]