Fiat 131 Racing/Sport, Mirafiori/Brava (ESC 169W), Rebuild/Restoration.
This car was extensively rebuilt (re-engineered!), in the early 1990's by a friend of mine. I bought it off of him in the early to mid 90's. this slideshow hardly scratches the surface of the rebuild, I have literally hundreds of photos of the rebuild, too many in fact to post. I wrote to Retro Cars Magazine, who published a letter asking where it is now. Sadly, after being sold locally and then going to the Glasgow area, it seems to have been sold down south where it appears to have been broken up.
As you can see from the photos, the restoration was extensive and I was surprised to learn from the Glasgow owner that the car required a lot more welding for its MOT. Note that all the inner sills and floor were rebuilt with 1mm galvanised steel, and the excessive amounts of Waxoyl. I guess there's no stopping the hungry tinworm!
Ever since I lost track of the car, I've often wondered if the shell is still intact and possibly awaiting a further rebuild, and will it ever be put back on the road again? Also, what ever happened to the engine? The 131 was more than capable of out accelerating Peugeot 309 GTI's, MR2's and such like (So I was told officer ;-)
A brief spec included....Twin 40 weber carbs with straight inlet manifold, cam driven distributor to allow the straight manifold, Holbay Tornado cams, high compression pistons, Alquati Exhaust and manifold (2.25 inch), verniers on the cams, fiat 124 sport alloy timing belt cover, Fiat 127 Sport (Abarth) steering wheel.
1967 Chrysler Newport First Start After Sitting For 20 Years
I went to check out this car because it was advertised as having a "valuable 440" which I wanted to rebuild and put in my 73 Challenger. When I got there I found out it was a 383 2 bbl car in incredible shape with 69990 original miles. It had belonged to his grandfather and was parked in 1990/1991 and never started since, nor was it ever registered in anyone else's name, so I am technically the second owner. It wasn't what I came for but I had to take it home.
This is a video diary of getting this great old girl running and will probably only be enjoyed by true car enthusiasts.
November 28, 2012 Update: I haven't been here in quite a while and at first I was a bit dismayed that there are so many lonely aholes in our world and how they tend to flock to the internet. I considered pulling the video but realized there are many people who enjoyed it and that is who I posted it for.
To all of those experts who know so much more than the rest of us please keep your negative comments to yourself.
To those of you who say I should have done more before trying to start, I did.
- The previous owner had pulled the car out of the field with a tractor and his buddy "may have" put the car in gear to slow it down. If the rings were rusted the engine could have been destroyed by that action alone, there was some resistance when I turned the crank pulley over by hand and I was surprised it turned over that easily, but with the engine sitting that long the rings would not be sealing to build up pressure in the cylinders. Therefore I concluded that there was no rusting/seizing so no risk of cylinder wall damage, or that the engine was possibly toast due to "transmission/engine braking"
- The oil was not milky, still "felt" oily and I only planned on running the engine 2-3 minutes to get it off the trailer and onto my hoist to do all the fluids, so I determined it had enough viscosity left to protect it for a short period of time.
- Even an old fuel filter will stop any major contaminants from reaching the carb. So why spend a bunch of money, with the steps I took the chance of me causing any damage at all was miniscule.
For those who were so concerned about our safety, come on. We grew up on a farm before the days of fuel injection and many farm vehicles do not get regularly started so this is a very common practice. The risk is MINIMAL and calculated, note that there is a fire extinguisher at 8:43 in the lower left corner on the trailer. The jerry can is very full by design, gas liquid does not ignite but the vapours do, note that when the gas starts to come out of the spigot that the top of the jerry can is full of gas, not fumes! I don't believe at any time was my brothers face over the carb, these big old girls are so big you pretty well have to stand in the engine compartment to do that. We did our best to slowly feed the engine as little gas as possible to avoid flooding the engine and possibly causing her to backfire.
Anyways, I guess I shouldn't feel like I need to defend myself against a bunch of morons who obviously have nothing better to do with their time than to creep youtube videos so they can leave moronic comments that allow them to feel all high and mighty ... but at least it might stop a few from wasting our time as we try to enjoy videos of common interest.
Thanks to all for the positive comments and feedback.
Fiat 127 Alaa Astros
Fiat 127 903 CC Alaa Hamdy (Astros) topspeed 180 0to100*11sec in Egypt
Audi A6 2.8 first start after engine rebuild
Audi A6 2.8 (1998) first start after engine rebuild
Had oil leak,decided to rebuild engine...rebuild all except engine block with pistons...
