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Cinquecento Our Cinq

Introduction

Finally, after nearly 3 years off the road, this little Sporting is now roadworthy!

Work included...

  • The rear beam and springs have been refurbished
  • New shocks all round
  • Powerflex bushes
  • New fuel tank
  • New brakes all round
  • New exhaust
  • New wishbones
  • Welding in various places - especially the offside rear wheel arch
  • Painted front and rear bumpers - colour matching took some time as the car had faded
  • Rocker cover gasket, sensors and general service items
  • Wheels refurbished and powder coated
  • Steering wheel refurbished
  • New radiator and cooling system pipes
  • Period radio - complete with cassette player :slayer:
There are still areas left to do, but it's now usable (and legal).

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Now for our next project...

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Thanks,

Jason & Shaun (Dave Saint)
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how exciting- well done

very inspiring

I've got one of your-next-project already, but I'm not sure you'll find it as rewarding a resto!

Broom yellow is the Coupe-colour; which seems a different shade to the 'Cento giallo, doesn't it...?

what's the mileage on both cars, Dave..?
 
Thanks Dante!

We're thinking that the Coupe will be more of a challenge - one reason being a reduced availability of some spare parts.

Our Broom Coupe is definitely a different colour to the Cinq, as the Coupe has had a poor paint job in the past which we hope to rectify.

Mileage on Cinq is 57k, and Coupe is 139k.

How do you find your Coupe? We're just starting out with this, so any tips would be gratefully received!

Thanks,
Dave.
 
Thanks lukmek and purf. We certainly had fun repairing the Cinq and getting it back on the road. They seem to be getting very rare now - we were quite lucky that we found one in fairly okay condition, and not too far from home either.


The Coupe is a 20V Turbo, and is now in the garage while we make a list of what needs fixing.
 
Hey Dave,

sorry for the delay in replying there.

In a kind of inverse-parallel to your own ownership-path; I may well be forsaking my own Coupe shortly for a Cinquecento.

The Coupes are terrific cars to own, and make the most of their front wheel drive format. The design remains fresh and the ergonomics usable and more practical in the back & boot, than their floorpan-brother the GTV (916).

People say parts are a problem, but the abundance of commonality with the FIAT Tipo, Lancia Dedra, Alfa 155, 145, 146 have never made it a problem for me.
Having owned both the N/A and the 20VT back in the day (20 years ago) this time round I opted for the 5-cylinder non turbo 'VIS' variant, which employs purportedly the 'most modern' engine management system offered on a Coupe; in the form of the Hitachi-ECU based Weber-Marelli drive-by-wire system.

I owned both the Marea 20v and Coupe 20VT at the same time back in the day, and always preferred the Marea.
It's more rewarding (to my driving sensibilities) to be able to use 80% of a car's ability (in the 20V) than 30% (in the 20VT).

the fccuk-forum is a tremendous resource, and some of the core-guys did a book which is still available, on the car.

Good luck, and let me know if I can help specifically...
 
Good work on the cinq! and good luck with the coupe...

Just FYI, there is many variants for broom yellow but only one paint code.
i.e. there is only one broom yellow, but even 2 cinqs that are broom yellow could've been a different shade to another even when new, and thats before you take into account different cars will have faded at different rates and then even panels on a single car will fade differently too.
Its basically impossible to get a 100% match on broom yellow unless you take a bit of the car to be colour matched or paint the whole thing with fresh new paint.
 
Hi all,

Many thanks for the replies. Much appreciated.

Apologies for the delay; restoration takes all the spare time away!

We do find parts for the Coupe appear to be difficult to find, but then all of a sudden new ones seem to appear out of nowhere. It seems to just be a case of not giving up on finding something.


We're struggling to find a new radiator for the Coupe at the moment. Ideally Valeo, but failing that, another good quality manufacturer.
Any recommendations, or manufacturers' to avoid?!


I fully agree with your comment regarding the power, Dante. That's one of the great things with the Cinq; you can have lots of fun and use a good portion of the available power...and still keep up with modern traffic. (Although sometimes that's due to people not wanting to drive their large modern vehicles properly(!))

In an odd and perverse way, I do have a niggling worry that the Coupe won't be as fun to drive as the Cinq, because of the excess power.


We're on the fccuk forum, and got the book. Recommended btw, especially when used in conjunction with both forums.

Blu73, we did indeed find that Broom Yellow seems to have a significant tolerance!
Fiat Broom (258/A) was too dark for the Cinq, probably due to fading. We colour-matched the Cinq using a coupe of parts in the same area as where we need to paint.
The result was creating colour cards with various combinations of Mitsubishi and Ferrari yellow. Ended up being perfect!

The Halfords Broom Yellow was too dark for the Cinq, with Hycote being used for the internal bits However it was reversed for the Coop, with the Halfords Broom Yellow being almost a perfect match for the internals of the Coop!

Thanks again!
 
In an odd and perverse way, I do have a niggling worry that the Coupe won't be as fun to drive as the Cinq, because of the excess power.

I had a Saab 9000 a few years ago with 240hp on tap and most of the time it wasn't as fun to drive as the mk1 Punto with 90hp I had before it. I could use the Puntos power all the time whereas you could only hammer the Saab on quiet A-roads or motorways. It was nice being able to surprise annoying people in SUVs tailgating though.
 
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