General The "well travelled" Barchetta

[gar074]

Courage in the face of adversity! I have a guilty feeling every time I open the garage and see the seductive curves of my B, covered by a sheet. But as I've only been beyond the end of my drive twice since mid-March, I'm not sure I'm ready to emulate your example just yet!

 

[Barchetta Bloke 440]

This thread is done ,finished .......read on .

On Monday I took a peak under the car to see what the floor was like as last year the MOT tester may have been lenient and passed when he could have failed it .
I poked a screwdriver through the floor near the sill on the drivers side ,so I knew it was going to be a fail this time .
I took it in today ,way earlier to get the extra 4 weeks on an MOT and same tester managed to poke 6 holes ......3 on the drivers side , 1 on the passenger side and 1 each in the rear arches .
I rang and eventually spoke to a local company who did the last welding for the 2017 MOT and they seemed to be chaotic with work and also said their welder was broken ,sounded like a feeble excuse to me not to want my business.
I ended up taking the Ferrous Oxide FIAT to a mates and ex colleagues bodyshop and left it there for him to quote me .
Couple of hours later get a text with awful pics of holes WAY bigger than expected .
After removing the rear wheels and a piece of plastic liner ,he basically pulled lumps of metal off the car that the underseal was holding in place .
As many of you know ,an MOT tester is not allowed to remove any bodywork pieces to check behind them .
My mate threw out some figures at mates rates ,still way too much and frankly the underneath of the car will be plates welded to plates and not enough of it originated from Italy in 1997 .
I will put petrol into the Focus he let me use and return it tomorrow ,collect my car ,take it for it's final journey ,then SORN it all over again after 1 month's use ,the insurance is due on the 8th August ,won't be needing that either .

That's it ,the end of the best car I have owned .
I had plans for another Italy roadtrip in October ,assuming virus doesn't close it all down again .
I don't want to do roadtrips in any other car but this one ,not even another Barchetta .

A sad ending .

Anyone want to buy it ,stickers n all ?

 

[Noideadave]

Really sorry to hear that.
Another one bites the dust.

 

[StevePD]

Also sorry to hear, sad day. Thanks for all your posts, a good read.
SteveD

 

[Barchetta Bloke 440]

I had petrol in the tank ,about 1/4 , so a last drive was required.
Picked it up in Woking ,drove down to Goodwood , then was going to drive along A27 and back up the A3 , except for the appalling traffic.
Who'd have thought coast roads would be busy on the hottest day of the year ?
Decided to try and exceed 135000 on the clock but failed with about 30 short.
Could go out again for a cool drive after dark before the SORN starts at midnight.
Dunno.
Got a few more pics might as well post later.

 

[Barchetta Bloke 440]

Just read threw all of this , there are so many holes in the story of my journeys.
These are pics from Sweden , Finland and the Arctic circle 2015.

 

[Barchetta Bloke 440]

I will create an ad in the classifieds for this scrapper ,there's no point in keeping it for sentimental reasons .
At least it will be in my garage and won't sit sadly decaying in my garden like many old cars end up .

Good bits.......The engine is smooth as silk , despite it possibly having covered mostly gentle 150,000+ miles . I don't know the history of the any of the car prior to 80,000 miles when I got it .

I have 3 sets of wheels ,pics will follow .

The powder coated post office red Alfa Romeo wheels currently fitted to the car.
2 of the tyres are good at 2 years old and 16,000 miles on them ,used on the rear ,fronts featured on the MOT advisory so limited life left .

I have a set of 4 FIAT spoked alloy wheels ,not even sure what they were off ,possibly the 90s Brava / Bravo or Multipla .
Very average condition ,195/60 15 tyres fit only for the bin .

And lastly a set of 5 Barchetta steels .
4 were on the car when I bought it and had been refurbed by DTR in 2012.
The other rim was bought as a full size spare but actually spent all it's time on the car and is in poor cosmetic condition.
All tyres again are fit only for the bin ,got my money's worth out of the 2 I bought as they have very little tread left ,the other 3 are aged.

Car has the DTR 4 exit exhaust system ,makes a nice noise ,I never found that intrusive and the bumper needs cutting out for the 2 extra tailpipes or you could buy my scuffed silver bumper already modified .

I have a MPH speedo showing 134900 miles ,all functioning instruments although the fuel gauge sometimes sticks at zero but a thump to the dashtop wakes it up .

Everything is available ,even the whole car if you like welding and fabricating a whole new floor .

It actually still has 6 weeks MOT but there was no point continuing to drive it ,I took the opportunity to get 11 months tax back on the 31st and insurance was due on 8 August so seemed pointless continuing .

 

[Barchetta Bloke 440]

The previous post has little detail as I was on the crappy potato phone .

The top 2 pics are at the Arctic Circle ,obvs , north of Rovaniemi , Finland .
This is where "Father Christmas " apparently lives ,but it's basically a stop to buy tourist tat in a big shop and a petrol station on the other side of the road.

The other pics are a camping spot in a woody bit of a Swedish service area and a 131 Rally car on the Midnight Sun rally ,the best historic rally in Scandinavia .

 

[Barchetta Bloke 440]

Now the pics no one wants to see .

It's a sorry mess .

 

[Dave-M]

Sad to hear it's the end of the road for your Barchetta, always enjoyed reading of your travels. Hopefully your car will live on , in spares for other Barchetta's.
Thanks for your contribution to this forum, always a good read.

 

[s130]

Sad here too for you.

Despite the "B" having quite thick steel and the extra reinforcing to compensate for the lack of the Punto's "A" to "B" to "C" posts and roof linking, meaning it should fare better than Punto of the same era, the dreaded tin worm is just to too all consuming once it gets hold.

All/most of those pictures look like floor pan and inner sill corrosion and probably due to years of damp and water under that horrible one piece moulded floor covering/mat, coupled with the way water can so easily get in and under it and never be seen.

I've only ever had to strip out the rear section of our "B"s flooring but if I had to strip the whole lot out (eg for a heater matrix replacement) then I think might consider getting some other black carpet covering specially made. Something that was easy to diagnose dampness, easy to lift in sections, did not retain water like a sponge, etc.

Finally....thanks for all those great travel pictures. Just think what your "B" has achieved and the pleasure it has given.

Well done Barchetta Bloke!

 

[Barchetta Bloke 440]

Yep......the 26 Euro road trips will stay in my memories for a long time ,well most of them .

From day trips to Brussels and the Ring ,to a weekend to Modena and back ,the long trips to Scandinavia ,4945 miles in 15 days and the longest of all , 6 weeks in Italy and 5741 miles .

I remember on my last one ,a trip up into the Tuscan hills ,a kid ,probably less than 12 years old saw me driving along and said out loud to his friend....."Barchetta ".

I think he liked it , after all ,not an everyday sight out in the sticks ....

 

[Barchetta Bloke 440]

I still have 1M pics to share from Scandinavia and other places.

Power Big Meet 2015 was MASSIVE.

 

[Barchetta Bloke 440]

Midnightsun rally is the best Historic rally in Sweden .

Those mad Swedes.

 

[Barchetta Bloke 440]

The world RX was the final stop ,had to drive to far west of Sweden for this in Holjes ,near the Norwegian border .
Afterwards had a 1000+ miles drive back to Calais to complete in little over a day.

 

[Barchetta Bloke 440]

I even found a car museum that I didn't know about beforehand.

 

[Barchetta Bloke 440]

I've "replaced " the Barchetta with this .

It's not a keeper .

 

[gar074]

Mmmmmmmmmmmminty!!

If it rusts like your poor, qlate-lamented B, it could end up as "The mint with the hole."

(Unlike my old stamping ground, Llantrisant, which is known as the hole with the Mint. )

 

[Barchetta Bloke 440]

Mmmmmmmmmmmminty!!

If it rusts like your poor, qlate-lamented B, it could end up as "The mint with the hole."

(Unlike my old stamping ground, Llantrisant, which is known as the hole with the Mint. )

Have you seen me talking about Minty on PH ?.....cos that is the name the former owner gave it and I shall keep the silly name as well .

Official FIAT colour is Verde Arianna VR , found the sticker inside the tailgate .

I wonder how long it will take to see another Seicento ,especially in this colour ,almost as rare as the B's around here .

There's going to be stickers, not anything like I did with the last one .:slayer:

I haven't mentioned here or in the Seicento section ,it has 12 months MOT ,even though the tester used his white stick to check the underneath .

 

[gar074]

Have you seen me talking about Minty on PH ?.....cos that is the name the former owner gave it and I shall keep the silly name as well.

No, lol, I haven't seen it on PH !! But it names itself, really. I don't ever recall seeing a Seicento in that colour! Enjoy the minty freshness of it.