General Press Car - 1985 Uno Turbo - to restore?

[monster]

Hi all!

Having been into Uno Turbo's for ages I saw this site and thought I'd best join, looks to be a friendly and active forum!

I picked up my Uno Turbo (my 5th i think!) a while back, and its a bit rare: it's was apparently a Fiat press car and was registered before they were officially released in this country. I have magazines which feature Uno T's 1 digit either side of its reg plate (but none with mine in unfortunately). It's in not too bad condition but needs new bonnet, rear panel and outer and maybe inner sills, plus a respray and the engine has done 99k so could probably do with freshening up.

Thing is tho, its going to cost a small fortune to do it up properly and is it really worth it? After all it'll still be a 20 year old fiat uno...

Also, I wonder if this one could be the oldest in the country? Registered June '85!

 

[pinin__prestatyn]

Hiya, get some pics up in the members motors section! Oh and you should spend time and money on the Uno, yes it's 20 years old but it's an 80's icon!

 

[Chas Uno]

:woot:

Mk1 Turbo, and a real old one! I think AlexGS's friend has the oldest Uno around (non turbo, 1984), but I haven't seen a 1985 turbo for a long time.

Defiitely worth restoring if the shell isn't too badly rusted, otherwise you'd be better off reshelling it.

Pics would be great, and welcome to the Forum :wave:. We have a number of Uno turbo members on here, so any problems just ask and they'd be sure to offer some advice.

Gotta keep the Unos on the road

 

[PrT]

Put put up some pics of your uno turbo like said above. It is worth to restore of course: rare and good car for sure and when restored, it really is a beast compared to cars only a year or two old. As it is so fast and takes not much petrol it really is worth restoring, when it is restored it looks and drives as good as new, no matter it is 21 years old. My fiat uno turbo is from january 86' and i'm trying to keep my fast turbo friend alive as long as possible

 

[thepottleflump]

I guess it all depends if you can afford to restore and whether you are doing it for love. You certainly won't get your money back. I suspect a fully restored car will struggle to achieve much more than £2k but will probably cost twice that to get near to mint condition maybe more. I think they appeal to a certain type of person and may never achieve that in demand status of the Golf GTI or Pug 205 GTI.

Whatever you decide don't let the car near a scrapyard.

 

[Biz]

A 1985 Uno Turbo is like gold dust!

Id love to have one!

The oldskoolness of mid 80's hot-hatches just cant be matched!

Id say evaluate it and get some pics up mate

As pottleflump says!
If you dotn feel its worth it then re-shell it! Not a hard task and if its your 5th one then im pretty sure you know them very well now?

 

[(CZ)enda]

never achieve that in demand status of the Golf GTI or Pug 205 GTI.

Look at where Ritmo 130TC prices are today. 5 - 10 years ago, these cars were not worth the scrap price of the metal they were made from.

 

[Biz]

Look at where Ritmo 130TC prices are today. 5 - 10 years ago, these cars were not worth the scrap price of the metal they were made from.

True!

Pah to the GTI!

All based on old fiats!

Just have a good look under a MK1 Golf GTI..........SAME layout as a Uno!!

 

[monster]

Hey thanks for your comments all, it is doing it for love not money and you've encouraged me but then you are all biased!!! Not got many pics cause its sat in a garage for ages but here's a couple of attached pics

 

[thepottleflump]

That car looks mint very nice find. By the way where did you find it, looks to have been stored very well, not covered in rubbish and the like.

I don't think you should bother with a resto, put it up for sale on this site

 

[Biz]

You jammy........

Thats looks mint!!

Where did you find it?

I got the original FIAT launch "mag" thing
(and my MK2 under it cover)

 

[Chas Uno]

My God, from the pictures that looks like a Holy Grail find It looks so straight, and a 'B' plate too! You don't see ANY Unos earlier than about 'D' these days (I've only seen two in the past few years on a 'C' plate and one of them was mine!)

How good/ bad is the shell?

Whatever you do, don't let it be broken or fall into the hands of a Chav. That car will almost certainly go up in value in time

EDIT: Just had another look at the pics. Even the drivers door looks rust free And it has the original graphics down the side. I'm jealous!

 

[PrT]

wow this uno looks very tight. outlook seems to be very fine to me. of course I don't know whats happening under the hood and how are suspensions and things like these we cannot see. But this rare beuty should be restored I think. Iäm upgrading and keeping my uno alive just for love too, nice car this uno turbo

 

[monster]

looks like i'll be restoring it then!

I think it was advertised in a local free-ads paper, i rang up about it but didn't get any further, then a few months later i really wanted to buy another one and had kept his number and by some luck it was still available! Plus he'd had some lads ring up and tell him they wanted to buy it to break it so he didn't sell, and he knew i was an enthusiast so would hopefully give it a good home so he gave it to me for free!

the pics are flattering cause as said above it desperately needs a respray and a few panels, noting too major i don't think, all strut towers look good (haven't dug too deep yet tho..).

just can't stand that green colour, I want it red, white or grey so may have to lose some originality.

 

[Biz]

FREE!!!!

Red

 

[beau]

that looks mint cond deffo restore imo, dont mod it, just do standard, they will be worth more in the end remember

dont break it, you have a real piece of uno history there, dont ruin it!

 

[thepottleflump]

Make a copy of the original graphics down the side. Might be useful for peeps trying to do a resto if the plans are available to make copies.

 

[Chas Uno]

A FREE Uno turbo, and one as good and as old as that with history... I'm so jealous!

 

[Dunc Uno Turbo]

looks like i'll be restoring it then!

I think it was advertised in a local free-ads paper, i rang up about it but didn't get any further, then a few months later i really wanted to buy another one and had kept his number and by some luck it was still available! Plus he'd had some lads ring up and tell him they wanted to buy it to break it so he didn't sell, and he knew i was an enthusiast so would hopefully give it a good home so he gave it to me for free!

the pics are flattering cause as said above it desperately needs a respray and a few panels, noting too major i don't think, all strut towers look good (haven't dug too deep yet tho..).

just can't stand that green colour, I want it red, white or grey so may have to lose some originality.

a few points......

1. u better be restoring it! thats foooking mint!

2. it was free, jesus u lucky son of a bit......nice bloke

3. nooooo u cant change the colour! its part of history! u really need to keep it the OE colour!



Dunc

 

[alexGS]

monster,

FREE?!
And you're concerned about spending a small fortune on it? It's worth it, I tell ya!

I thought that the original Uno Turbo graphics were the type in the picture attached, but who knows - maybe the very early cars pre-dated these graphics? You'd have to look at road tests, reviews etc. to find out.

I agree with Dunc - I'm sorry, but I am completely against the idea of changing the colour. Originality is very important here, since it is a rare early car. That colour was part of the character! It's incongruous that a performance model would have had a mid-80s 'luxury' metallic green, especially so when there are red stripes (or the black-striped graphics it may have had). But that is indeed the choice of the original marketeers so I think you need to respect it!

Also, make sure you can visualise that colour with the paint really shiny and metallic - it makes a big difference when the paint dulls and oxidises with age... suddenly it looks more like the yucky 'Night Green' or whatever the base-model 45 came in (a sort of 'mould green', distinctly unattractive). Yes, I know what you mean when you say you want red, white, or grey (those colours are easier to like) but really, there are lots of those Unos about. The more obscure colours are what stand out as unusual.

If I owned this car, even the bumpers would be staying all-black - and that's saying something, because I dislike the 'cheap' appearance of the unpainted plastic

Where you will have free-reign is the interior, as I imagine it's fallen to pieces long ago and the trim will be unobtainable. So why not make your mark there?


Good luck with the stripping to a bare shell!

-Alex