1990 Fiat 126 BIS "Fernando" - New head, +Bonus 650cc 126

Cheers man! I did swap number 12 in the image and move it to the bottom. The trouble with the leaf design on these is because they form the "lower wishbone" of the front sus it destroys the geometry and handling. If I flipped it, it wouldn't locate on the body, number 10 in this image wouldnt be there essentially.

i103.photobucket.com/albums/m152/pedro126/Untitled1_edited-1.jpg

but if I flip some round, I'll be going against the springs tension, and I don't like the idea! I could remove some but then it wouldnt locate right in the mounts either. I might just swap a load over and see what happens, so as to move the eye's of the spring further up the sandwich. Once it was first off it was real easy to put back on again, so now everything's no longer rusty its should be pretty hassle free to take it off and experiment.

I'm happy to fab up a wishbone conversion, it'd be a cool challenge and give me a chance to calculate the geometry changes etc through the compression and rebound strokes, and try and minimise them. Just the coilovers. I'm planning on ringing AVO tomorrow just to get an idea of price.

Thanks for the tip off chap. Seems a lot better price than what ive seen so far. If that comes with the coilover struts THATS very good! Doesn't say though so I'll chase that up.

ooohh! didn't know Carl at Force Racing had done Fiat stuff, he's on here too btw.

Jelly where are you based? Its going ok thanks, nearly sliced off two of my fingers getting the other wing off, which still isn't completely removed. Doors are off and I've started welding up the chassis rust on the inside (jacking points and other bits. I'll start the bodywork when I can, hopefully this weekend.

I work retail at halfords so do random hours, but if you're free let me know. I'll update the thread with some pictures when I get back from work.

Power wise I'll leave it as is for now. I may tweak it a bit later on but nothing serious. Who knows? Once its on the road I may consider it.

A ha yeah it says below your profile pic! Doh. Fingers are ok now they've scabbed over ha ha. Was on the old metal panels I was cutting off. They were pretty deep. You say I'm getting on with it quick, but I've had it for going on 3 years now!

Managed to do a bit more work recently, made up a fog light using a rain light and a bracket out of sheet steel. Its not too tidy but its only a trial for now. Works well though.





Did a bit of welding on the jacking points (the only mid chassis sections needing it, surprisingly)




And I got the other wing off, this time with less blood shed. Its definitely been crash damaged though, so will need beating back of replacing . . .


Fanned out the inner wings to get more clearance for the wider wheels. I'll be running smaller lower profile tyres so clearance will increase even more. I'll weld them up once I've sorted the front suspension and put the smaller tyres on.


Also managed to get the rad out and thermostat off. Safe to say the stat is buggered, and the water pump propeller isnt looking great . . .


It still spins though, but its never coming off in one piece, thats for sure!

Managed to snap one of the spades on the back of the fan housing attached to the resistor pack. I assume its to control fan speed? The one to the top left looks like its been missing for a while.


I got the rear plate on with some light up mounting bolts I bought off ebay, as I'm running the car bumperless, so don't have anywhere to mount a number plate light. Also had to cut off some old jubilee clips so will be getting some t-bar clips to replace those.

What ever happened to this? Anyone know the fate of this car?

Afaik it's still lurking in jons garage. I'll give him a kick up the Yaris..

Up dates? What's going on mate I need some 126 eye candy lol

Blimey. Didn't think anyone still knew this existed! It seems it took me until 2017 to actually get something done! Me and a few friends spent today getting all the panels sorted for the front end. The progress is mainly thanks to James as he's persuaded me to drive it around Spain in May with the new wife! Gave me the kick up the needed.

So, managed to do the best we could with the cheap re-pro panels. It's not too bad, from a distance. Things need some fetling but that'll be for tomorrow.



You can see how much dust has fallen on the thing since . . .


But after today . . .


Happy days. A few things have been done in between too, I've re-built some calipers for the front brake conversion and got some flexi brake lines for the front and rear. I need to make up a short bit of hard line from the RH rear cylinder, but that should be it. New master cylinder is on too.



The wellers were junk in the end. Properly egged, and they didn't hold air. I found some wheels on ebay which turned out to be Dunlop D1 Style B. Put some tyres on and it's a nice wheel/tyre ratio. I'm surprised how high the front is though considering its a flattened spring and it has chopped down mounting blocks. I'm sure it'll settle so we shall see. Need to chop the rear springs to match too of course. The headlights are loosely in just for the pictures but once I've finished the welding I'll chuck everything on after a quick spray job. For now I just want to get it on the road and use it. I'll spray the wheels too, I'm thinking a gold colour, but that may change. Proper chuffed it has a front end again though. Awesome.

ACTUAL PROGRESS!!11!!1