i promised the previous owner Glenn when i bought the tipo id post and update thread as i went along so this is long overdue!, this is still an on going project as ive got a few more bits to do but its getting there! theres been a lot of work done over the past year so this is going to be a long one... sorry lol ive also added pics so hopefully they will work! if not ill add the link to my photobucket album.

so the before pic
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first job on the list was to get it in for a cambelt and glad i did as the balancer shaft belt had completely snapped, so i had that the cambelt all tensioners and waterpump replaced at the same time i had all 4 shocks and springs replaced with new standard ones as the lowered suspension was causing issues a new traling arm kit, magnecore leads new plugs and a full service later and it was off for an mot only 2 small patches of welding needed then we were legal and ready to go

ive replaced the 17" aftermarket alloys with some 16" black stilo alloys and 4 new yokahoma drive s tyres it sticks to the road like a barnacle! the ride is a lot smoother now and the wheels suit a lot better i think.

and after pics..






next task was the interior the blue bucket seats,blue steering wheel,blue pedals and blue gear/handbrake gators were just a little err...tooo much,






i knew there was no chance of finding standard interior so decided to fit a full momo leather one from an alfa romeo 145 cloverleaf i replaced the steering wheel with a momo millennium one and matching momo pedals i also replaced the standard tipo handbrake leaver with the chrome button one from an alfa 145 then fitted the momo pitstop handle to match the steering wheel and pedals.













part of the dash around the clocks was badly marked and worn so i replaced that with a spare i had and at the same time decided to upgrade the dash speakers to some JBL GTO i had spare and fitted an alpine headunit as my brother had decided to nick the sony one for his car while i wasn't looking :/

next job was the locks, the passenger side barrel was damaged in an attempted break in at some point and the drivers side central locking mech had ceased up so i stripped the lock mech sorted that then replaced all the lock barrels with a brand new set i managed to find on ebay! i also removed the large aftermarket air filter as it was pretty tired and replaced it with a piper-cross viper carbon fibre kit i also replaced the lambda sensor at the same time.
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its not all been straight forward had a few major headaches! the worst was when the clutch failed i took it to get a new one fitted only to find out that the flywheel had been changed at some point for a larger 230mm one possibly from a lancia delta or alfa 145?, so the new kit was no good and even worse the garage couldn't find anything to fit! so after a bit of quick thinking they managed to use the thrust bearing from the new kit and some parts from the old clutch just to get me back on the road. luckily I've since managed to find an original tipo 16v flywheel so il get that changed later and the rest of the new clutch kit fitted.

next jobs to do are the anti-roll bar drop links,sump gasket, brake pads all round, idle control valve and drive shafts as the ones fitted don't have the ABS sensors in them so the abs light is on all the time which will cause issues for the next mot.

after that its all body work ive removed the cheap plastic after market skirt kit and ive got some alfa 145 cloverleaf ones to replace them with, ive started undersealing and rust proofing the sil's and floor plan to and have a bit to do in the engine bay then its off to the body shop to get the delta kit sorted and spray work!

Great update on your progress, you seem to be doing everything properly and tastefully! Just needs the strut brace painting in french blue to finish off the engine bay!

Replacement speakers make a huge difference to the sound quality...

I must post something about my humble old 1.4 some day.

Thanks! its getting there slowly ive still got the engine bay to tackle and tidy up ive been trying to decide what to do with the strut brace i was just going to paint it black but i like the french blue idea! so ill look into that, im also planning to re-spray the slam panel,sort out the rest of the wiring and replace the hoses for more original looking black ones im hoping to have it nearly finished this year as i want to start working on my other tipo next year.

the first tipo i ever had was a metallic green F reg 1.4 that my parents gave me when i was 17 the rear door lock mech kept breaking all the time but i absolutely loved it! lol it was a great car and nippy to its good to see some still alive you should definitely post up your 1.4 it would be great to see some more tipo's on here

Tipojay said:

the first tipo i ever had was a metallic green F reg 1.4 that my parents gave me when i was 17 the rear door lock mech kept breaking all the time but i absolutely loved it! lol it was a great car and nippy to its good to see some still alive you should definitely post up your 1.4 it would be great to see some more tipo's on here

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Hi , I had 1 x red 1.4 carb , and 3 x TD's = total contrast..!!,
I'm not a fan of leather..BUT that looks really nice compared to the
"just-too-retro" standard cloth seats,

preferred my Tempra 2.0 ie SX for driver comfort though..only car with climate...AND a FIAT twin-cam..,

Charlie

Charlie

i do like the tempra and you don't see many about at all now and if i remember correctly they did a 2.0ie turbo version to, but i have to say my absolute favourite out of all the bigger fiats of the time was the croma v6 it looked great and the alfa v6 engine sounded the business! one came up on ebay a few years back and i nearly went for it wish i had now as its the last one ive seen!

Great to see some love going the way of the 'Tipograle'

The leather and wheels are looking good on her.

technically i think she's now a "Tipograle-QV" with all the alfa cloverleaf additions lol
will look a lot better once the side skirts are fitted just need to get the time and weather to get finished just to dam cold to be out rolling around on the drive at the moment

Surely the 'Tipograleleaf'?

Lol I like it "Tipograleaf" it is!

Good work, interior is much better. I remember speaking to the original owner in Luton or at least the owner in 2003. Glad its still on the road. You dont need driveshafts for the ABS just the CV joints get them from Fiat (Desira Diss) and the'll do partial refund for the old ones.

rich

Thanks Rich that's very handy to know! i was told the sensors were on the drive shafts so i bough some good second hand ones already but ill pick up some cv joints as suggested and they can get done when the drop links are changed though i think rather than trade the cv joints in though ill keep them for my other tipo as that's the non abs model and you can never have enough spares lol

I totally missed that this is an ABS model. Fairly rare version then?

yeh abs and an airbag to!.... well at leas it did at some point according to the sticker under the dash the airbag its self is long gone lol,

i see you now have a alfa 147 to! how are you liking it so far? i have the lusso jtdm 150 absolutely love it didn't know diesels could be so fun lol its off to have the q2 diff and Ducati corse clutch upgrade soon as the original is slipping like mad but its covered just over 98k so its done well

Wow... Airbag!

Yeah we finally have an Alfa. It's a cheap one but even then I'm impressed with how it drives. When you have been wallowing around in big diesel estates it surprises you when you drive a much lighter front-ended hatchback. Nearly put it into a ditch when I drove it the first time. Got to a corner and turned where I would to swing the Marea in.... turned far too early! Equipment wise, we've not lost anything over the Croma - in fact we've now got a CD multichanger!

I avoided the multijet because of some worry about it possibly having the same M32 gearbox as our Croma had. GM crap! Turns out it might be a different box. It's also only the 8v but still has that Alfa/Fiat get up and go. The engine is just always willing. The Volvo by contrast just rolls along like a Southern Texas drawl... thus the ZzZzZ

Firstly great work ..she/he looks great .. the leather seats from the alfa ..are they a straight swap ..and what did you pay for them ... cheers ..!!

i looked at the 8v to start with as there 120bhp standard and re-map to 150 very nicely! but i was lucky enough to find a facelift 150 lusso just within my budget so went for that and very pleased i did its a great car all alfa no gm crap unlike the 159 and brera-astra lol only a few very small minor common issues like upper and lower wish bones prone to fail, wiper linkage is very fragile, turbo hoses rub and split and the bonnet locks have a habit of gunking up and not locking properly... but thats it nothing major at all

Crisps said:

Firstly great work ..she/he looks great .. the leather seats from the alfa ..are they a straight swap ..and what did you pay for them ... cheers ..!!

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Thanks! they are a straight swap all i had to do was adjust the locking mech for the rear seat but that's all everything else bolted straight in using all the original alfa fittings, i paid about £190 for mine including postage so not to bad really if you have a 5 door tipo you will probably want the 146 interior as its the 5 door version of the 145 and again should all bolt straight in as its the same car just with a boot

its nice to see someone is finally doing something with that car instead of just talking about it
if i ever see glen again ill let him know that your doing a good job with her. he move to turkey just over a year ago and not heard from him since.
missing mine nowhope new owner is looking after her

Well it's been a long time since I updated this thread as the Work took a back seat for a while and the old girl was stored for a good few years first due to issues finding a few parts (abs sensors) then due to lack of time to continue myself untill finally in around November time I decided the only way anything was going to happen was to get someone to do the work for me! So thanks to Luke at Italicar in norwich we are back and road leagal after about 4 years of storage.

So with the new abs sensors found and fitted, new pads and disks all round, anti roll bar drop links, cambelt, balance shaft belt etc and some recommissioning we had an MOT And a very happy Jay! ? since then I've also had to fit a new battery, coil pack, dizzy cap and rotor, and clean the power connector to the fuel pump as we had a few tipo tantrums that resulted in me being towed home ? but now she's running like a new car!

She's also looking very different now the body kit has been completely removed as it was a pain in the backside it was poorly fitted and causing all sorts issues so it's gone for good! There are a few other changes that are bing made but Unfortunately the front subframe has now died so everything else has been put on hold while this gets sorted but once it's done the work will resume so I'll update the thread again and add some new pics later on when I get the chance so watch this space! ?

one of the biggest re occurring problems with the tipo was the body kit it had been repaired a few times but always ended up cracking again so after a couple of beers at xmas i decided the best corse of action was to permanently and completely remove it, after years of rain etc leaking through the cracks i was a little worried what would be underneath but i was lucky its all solid and in pretty good shape!




all that was holding the kit on was a one screw in the middle and a couple of rivets the rest was fixed in place with a bucket load of filler!




with the kit and all the filler removed i gave it a quick coat of hamerite just to protect the bare metal then vinyl wrapped over it as a temporary cover until I'm ready to have the car re-sprayed





next step is to sort a little rust on the bottom of the doors then I'm going to wrap those to and finally i need to replace the front drivers wing as its been replaced with a non original wing at some point before the delta kit was fitted unfortunately it was never sprayed or sealed with anything and just left bare with the black primer coating they ship with so after years of exposure to the elements it was rusty as hell luckily i have a pair of original wings in the loft so ill wrap one and fit it when the weather is a little warmer but until then I've just coated it in hamerite to tidy it up



now onto the next job the subframe