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126 Well, it was inevitable! Here is my 126!

Introduction

Where do I start...
I've always thought there little things were cute, until I drove gadge 's 126 at Mitcar 2014 and LOVED IT! From that moment I knew it wouldn't be long until I had one myself!

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^^ Me in Gadge's 126.

So after scouring eBay for one to call my own, I found one, only thing was, I had to fetch it from Essex!!

So, Tuesday morning saw me up bright and early, borrowing mum's car, and a friend's trailer (huge thanks to Barbara!!!!), to make the mammoth 360 mile round trip:
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Few Pics loaded up and ready to set off home:
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Pic at South Mimms services, after realising the tail light fuse had blew on the car, and the trailer! we turned on the 126 lights and prayed the battery would light our rear as we took the 3 hour journey home! (It did. :D )
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Few pics as it sits in the garage waiting for me to check it over to drive soon (fingers crossed!)
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The Car's History
WOW! In a word.
The car was registered in 1988 at Woodleigh dealers in Chesterfield (Thankyou to the random 126 lover I met at South Mimms services for pointing that out!) and sold to a lady who kept the car until 2007, and wrote every penny she spent on the car in the service book, right down to "tail light bulb £0.45".
2007 her neighbor bought the car knowing how much the lady had cherished and cared for it, didn't use it much until:
July 2014 the car was bought by the person I bought the car from yesterday, who hadn't passed his test yet.
18/11/14 - I bought it. :D

Dom
I can't wait to see this finished. It is amazing you have taught yourself all this, even if you had a little help. I am nervous about just changing the battery on my Panda!
 
Wow... Nearly a year since updating this! :eek:

So last thing I posted about was engine removal...

So what happened next?

All the suspension and steering was removed, and as I haven't got a press to remove the old bushes, gadge kindly did them for me, and it, erm, took quite a bit of work!!
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I bought some AVO adjustable shocks for the front, quite cheaply and on gadge's recommendation :slayer:
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Everything else was removed from the shell and then it really became a 4x4!
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The underside as bought:
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So originally I thought I'd remove all the old underseal etc and start from scratch. I did the floorpans then realised I'd never finish it...
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So the day before by birthday I got some mates round to 'lend a hand', and this happened!
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And back in to the garage:
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Bought the underseal and cavity wax:
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Started by doing the cavitys until it was oozing out of every crevice :)
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So onto the underside, started with a nice coat of Kurust to kill of any rust
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Then got to work painting the underside with Zinc Primer:
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Only the best brushes for this Fiat ;)
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The car seems to be glued together with chewing gum!
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Then I found the dreaded tin worm.....
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So a repair panel was bought
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And that's about as far as it's come...

Jobs to do before March:
Finish painting underside with black epoxy and dynax UB
Weld up NSR arch
Buy and fit new bushes
Refurb leaf spring
Suspension shot blasted and powdercoated
Refit suspension & steering
 
So...

I've refurbished the leaf spring:
The one that came on the car has a leaf flipped so was a bit bouncy, and it was missing the plastic rubbing strips.

So I bought one from gadge that was original :)

So first we tried to remove the bushes, ahem, we failed!
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So we stripped it apart, and I took that part of the leaf and new bushes into my local friendly garage, and he changed them for me for free :D

So I cleaned the plastic strips up... Well, technically mum did that bit...
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Then putting it all back together smothering it all in water pump grease along the way
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Then wrapping it all up in Denso wrap, the final result looking like this:
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And tonight saw the bulk of the underside having its first coat of black epoxy:
The Mrs ( RosieG ) helped!!
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Jobs to do before March:
Finish painting underside with black epoxy and dynax UB
Fit new bushes
Suspension shot blasted and powdercoated
Refit suspension & steering
 
From the cramped garage that I can't work in...
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To the new garage... :D
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This will see some progress now. :eek:
Bodyshop is booked...
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