General start of the abarth rebuild/1.4 16v conversion

[fingers99]

No--someone else was on about them in your thread (and the Abarth bit).

A fair few of us ran 195/45/14 Uniroyal Rainsports on Cinqs -- they're actually a Conti subsidiary, but much cheaper than Contis -- with good results. Be interesting to see how the 40s work out.

If you can get them, you might try the Sei Spax adjustable rears on the Cinq -- IMHO the Cinq set up was only really suitable for the racetrack --- Blue 2 might have been the taughtest Cinq in captivity on a smooth road -- it excelled on stuff like the A1M -- but could be painful on lesser tarmac on the Cinq Spax's. Jason has them now on his tub of not many miles..................

 

[andys cinq]

well over the last couple of days i have had a couple of cold evenings work.not alot has been done thats visible but i now have a set of fully working brakes and all the handbrake adjusted up,that was last night and tonight i ended up taking the side skirts off and both wings and bonnet so i can get started on cutting the front panel off on wednesday.
i have also taken both front hubs off ready to take into work tomorrow and press the new bearings in,only the n/s is dead but if one goes the other probably isnt far behind so may as well just do both now save ripping one side down at a later date
the hubs will be going back on tomorrow evening after i get out of work:slayer:

 

[blu73]

you know a man is serious when panels start coming off lol.

 

[andys cinq]

just finished doing both front wheel bearings so they will be back on the car later on once im home.
cutting of the front panels start tomorrow and the mrs nearly had a heart attack last night when she saw what state its in now lmfao....

 

[andys cinq]

Finally the front suspension etc is all done and finished and no more messing about with that till full geometry set up
couldnt resist starting to seperate the front panels so i cleaned all the silicone and seam sealer off and all the drivers corner is held together with was 4 bird **** spot welds that i broke away with a pry bar not a big one only an 8" bar and now the whole corner flopped away from the rest of the car
never have i seen such a cowboy repair pics will follow tomorrow when i have some daylight and i hope the weather forecast is wrong:worship:

 

[andys cinq]

Well the forecast was wrong and i have sunshine not rain been out this morning and the front panels came off in 30 mins and the drivers side has defo been in an accident before and had a total cowboy repair job done
im now glad i had my doubts about the front and replacing it as its defo a good idea as to me it was not safe
the first picture is how i got the front panel to last night just using a small pry bar and my bare hands.
anyway tomorrow evening im going to bring the works welder home in the van and get it all stitched into place as i havent got my own mig wire and gas bottle yet and its cheaper to use the works one

 

[fingers99]

Great stuff. How are the horns?

 

[andys cinq]

Great stuff. How are the horns?

the horns were slightly bent downwards just a little tug on them and they have both lined up nicely with the new panels
cant wait to get it finished and back on the road....im hoping to have the engine and box bought and in by the end of next month...weather permitting and obviously not having too much private work to do in the evenings

 

[whitz]

id still say oem welds

also i do find it amusing that you think it was un-safe, a cinq is unsafe end of lol

Ash

 

[andys cinq]

id still say oem welds

also i do find it amusing that you think it was un-safe, a cinq is unsafe end of lol

Ash

no car should be able to lose its panels to a small pry bar and bare hands and i think a cinq is far safer than a smart car or a gee whizz would rather have a crash in a cinq than either of them...seen what happens to a smart car in an accident yesterday outside work

 

[whitz]

no car should be able to lose its panels to a small pry bar and bare hands and i think a cinq is far safer than a smart car or a gee whizz would rather have a crash in a cinq than either of them...seen what happens to a smart car in an accident yesterday outside work

true about the panels but i reacon i could pull the front slam panel off mine with enough force

id rather be in a smart car as they are much safer then a cento, have a look at a seicento crash test and you will see, the geewis is a completely different ball game as iirc its classified as a quad-racycle so it bypasses all required crash test safety laws

Ash

 

[blu73]

YAY, i've had them panels for years, never thought they'd get used. Don't think they are galvanised under the black so get them properly painted up not doubting you would anyway tbh..

edit: The slam panel that was gonna be replaced with them panels did not come off easy at all!! you defo wouldn't have got them off quickly or easily with a bar i can tell you. But totally agree they are well flimsy - so much so that i would want the front attached on properly! Lets not forget Liam (remember him!?!?) had a huge head on crash in his cinq and survived (just), they just never gonna do well against a modern car built to much tighter rules than when a cinq was designed. I have always wanted to cage my cento's but not got round to that one.

 

[andys cinq]

Whitz if u had seen this smart car after the crash and the driver had to be air lifted i think u would change ur mind!!!! and i totally agree u could rip it off with alot of force but this didnt take much force.here are some pics of the state of the old panels,u can clearly see where holes have been drilled but not welded up and also the state of the welding(one of the pics has lots of spot welds but they had no penetration to the panel underneath) cant be fiats doing surely same goes for the seam sealer that cant be original!!!! TBH u had to be here to see how easy it was to pull off and how bad it really was.
i have bought some rotten cars to break up but ive never had one this easy to remove any panels from....makes u wonder about the state of some cars on the road

 

[fingers99]

All safety stuff aside, that one has been very badly repaired. The one I scrapped to get the panels off for Blue 2 was original and had 60+ very good spot welds holding the slam panels together and to the rest of the chassis. Now, they'd not do alot in a frontal impact (the impact is supposed to be absorbed by the rails up to the point that the block and gearbox are contacted), but enough to transfer some of the impact from one side to the other and assist the crumple.

 

[andys cinq]

All safety stuff aside, that one has been very badly repaired. The one I scrapped to get the panels off for Blue 2 was original and had 60+ very good spot welds holding the slam panels together and to the rest of the chassis. Now, they'd not do alot in a frontal impact (the impact is supposed to be absorbed by the rails up to the point that the block and gearbox are contacted), but enough to transfer some of the impact from one side to the other and assist the crumple.

forgot to put that neither chassis rail was attached in any way shape or form to the front panel.....not being attached is also going to affect the rigidity of the front chassis rails keeping everything in line when stuffing it thru corners... and thats the same with any structural weakness on any car,they are to be welded for a reason

 

[andys cinq]

The front panels are now welded on and 10 times stronger than it was before and ive only used spot welds in the strategic places and there is no flex like there was before,even managed to get the wings and bonnet loosely bolted in place and everything lines up perfectly now just got to get a lick of paint on just to protect it till it has full respray:devil:
next job tomorrow evening is get all the front bolted back up properly and start getting other silly bits done out the way
sorry pics aint that good but all i could get using a lead light lol....

 

[andys cinq]

I have found a chap who restores cars from 1905-1980 and he is only half hour from me and he makes all his own exhaust manifolds and systems in stainless or mild and he reckons it will be easy to replicate the supersprint manifold for the 16v conversions and it wont cost anywhere near as much as the ss manifold......now the problem he needs a manifold to get the dimensions and bend angles off does anyone have one that they are not using at the moment and i could borrow to take to him and then return it

 

[blu73]

If i had one i would, good luck!! Do you think he would do a group discount? I'm not interested myself but i'm sure there's enough people on the forum that would be interested...

 

[andys cinq]

If i had one i would, good luck!! Do you think he would do a group discount? I'm not interested myself but i'm sure there's enough people on the forum that would be interested...

im sure he would if there was enough interest but i want to see how good his work is.
this is the link to his web page
http://www.collectorscarparts-heathrow.co.uk/
when he was here the other night and we were talking his knowledge is incredible...he reckons he can copy anything
maybe i should start another thread for this see how much interest there is

 

[whitz]

im sure he would if there was enough interest but i want to see how good his work is.
this is the link to his web page
http://www.collectorscarparts-heathrow.co.uk/
when he was here the other night and we were talking his knowledge is incredible...he reckons he can copy anything
maybe i should start another thread for this see how much interest there is

well there was another thread like this from JA exhausts a person who specialises in exhausts couldn't even get it close to fit in the cento bay

Ash