I've been a member of the RR forums for a few years now and my input has been minimal.
This is about to change.
I'm Michał and I live in beautiful country of Poland.
My car life started in 2008 when I acquired 1994 Fiat Punto MK1 55 S from my uncle. The car was originally from Germany. The simplicity of the car was great and the power of the 1.1 8V engine was sufficient for me. As you may know the "S" in the model name indicates the lowest tier of equipment. The only piece that was above base level was the drivers airbag, Blaupunkt cassette radio and Webasto hand-cranked sunroof. So, faded red paint, black bumpers, cloth interior and 54 hp of pure raging horsepower.
I loved the car but my budget was extremely limited so despite having grand plans for upgrades, after few years I've added foglights, better interior light, rear hatch was painted once and rusted again so I bought a second piece in black and I never went any further with that. Rust started appearing on the floor but I couldn't force myself to get it fixed.
I enjoyed driving this piece of Italian magic, it was long distance traveller or family hauler, my then-girlfriend-now-wife started to learn driving in it, life was good.
Disaster struck when after a few days of weird noises my clutch failed due to throwout bearing damage.
I drove the car without clutch to mechanic who was my cousins brother-in-law. Being a young imbecile, instead of changing clutch like a sane person would do, I decided to buy another Italian beast as an engine donor.
It was 2012 and I bought a Fiat Siena 1.6 16V '98 (Polish). It was a first car I really bought and I paid 2600 zł (~600 €). The engine was strong, it had alloy wheels and I thought that some rust on the floor is no big deal - even if I don't use it in Punto it will be an easy fix for my mechanic. Mistakes were made.
The car was really fun to drive and the power was amazing (106 hp compared to 54 hp in Punto). The interior was a real mess - previously the car belonged to junkyard employee and most of the interior bits were broken and many pieces held together with copper wire.
Siena took me and my girlfriend to Slovakian mountains and back, even reached over 190 km/h at some point. After we came back I took a good look at the car and decided that it was just a piece of junk. There were only 2 good bits on the car - engine and gearbox. I started to disassemble bodywork to rescue the good stuff from the engine bay. More and more rust was evident and when I saw that most of the structural elements were significantly compromised I knew it was a good decision to scrap it.
Somewhere along the process, I bought another Punto - 1995 MK1 75 HSD, imported a few years prior from Germany. The car was named Jagoda (blueberry in Polish). Yet again I bought a piece of junk so that if my 1.6 16V swap plans fall through I would always have a backup. There was rust, there were leaks, the interior was stinking and full of dog hair, but I paid 1500 zł (350 €) and I thought that I had a good base for something. Since it was HSD (High Safety Drive or something along these lines) it had 2 airbags, ABS, different center tunnel and one or two other "high level" bits. I was happy with the purchase for a moment. I took it to my mechanic and after a really long time due to his drinking problems, also after I stepped in to help him, he managed to fix the rusty floor and I took the car home.
After a few months of waiting at my mechanic for his spare time to show up, the other Punto returned to my home on the flatbed without clutch and worse for wear due to standing outside for so long.
Siena was mostly parted out and I finally started to force the 1.6 16V into the Punto shell. Despite similarities between 1.6 16V and 1.6 8V which was available in Punto MK1 I had problems with fitment. I couldn't get engine and gearbox mounts to line up. After weeks of gathering 1.6 8V bits to make it happen, and the bits never fitting properly I finally admitted defeat. I was devastated with the lost time and money.
I decided to sell the remaining Siena bits - the engine and transmission. The buyer turned out to be looking for an engine for... his Punto project. He had his experience with 1.6 16V in Punto MK1 shell and told me the only bit I needed was a different gearbox cover and it would go in without much hassle... Rich with the knowledge I was even more depressed. That was a full failure - I was so close and yet I sold the only good bit I had. I decided I was done with the Punto and even though it required only putting the 1.1 back in, new clutch and floor repair I called one of the companies that collect and scrap cars. I got rid of the best vehicle I had so far.
When I saw the car on the flatbed for only the second time in my life, leaving my yard I was crying inside. I felt like I betrayed my friend.
I turned my attention to the other Punto.
The 1.2 engine was supposed to have 75 hp but it was slower than the 54 hp one. It was leaking oil like there was no tomorrow. The bodywork was mostly there but there was damage to the bonnet and a lot of rust of the rear hatch so I took the bits from the red Punto before it left. It received Siena non-factory alloys.
Rear suspension needed full overhaul and it received Palio Weekend springs - they are stiffer but you are supposed to cut them to length - I did not do that and there was so much rake that colleague of my father asked me if it was some special 4x4 version. The car received some attention and after some repairs it even became a bit quicker. At some point I had to change the gearbox due to unbearable whine. It was now the only daily in our household and it served us well. I performed some rust repairs on my own and it was holding together. It damaged it's cambelt twice (once due to loose bolt, second time due to wrong pulley on the water pump), alternator failed, battery was curse word... Still, it managed to drive most of the time.
In 2013 I passed a test for motorcycle driving license. I bought a Canadian import Kawasaki EX500. My parents hated it at first but they got over it. There isn't much to say about this one since it is the most reliable and low-maintenance vehicles I ever owned. I bought it with full set of Givi cases, speedo in MPH, some scratches and bruises. Apart from oil changes I equipped it with LED bulbs and light switch from ZX6R. That's it. I don't put many miles on it but it serves me well. 60 hp means it's not a rocket but I don't' do stunts or insane speeds.
Moving on.
In 2014 the star of the show appeared. A friend of mine who I knew from my days at mangacars forums was selling his Punto MK2 2000 ELX 1.9 JTD, due to family reasons - baby was on the way. I knew the guy so I decided that taking the bus and train for ~9-10 hours and going from the middle of Poland to the border (from Łódź to Przemyśl) was a great idea. I was excited since the car looked so cool. The car was a private import from Italy but took a beating of few Polish, salty winters. Engine was swapped for lower mileage Alfa Romeo 147 unit, similarly gearbox was sourced from Lancia Lybra. All in the family. Stock ecu meant it's not any faster than any regular Punto 1.9.
These are some of the pictures from the cars previous life:
That's the previous owner, me and the car as I was preparing to go home with my new purchase.
I bought the car with the bra, roof rack with spoiler, coilovers, these fancy wheels (Schmidt?), CB radio and some other bits and bobs for ~7000 zł (1600 €). The car had velour seats, working aircon, ABS, factory cassette radio with CD changer in the boot and it was great. It was only 80 hp but compared to every car in my past it pulled sooooo hard! It had some problems with clutch engagement when engine was up to temperature and the suspension was way too low for me, but I took it back to Łódź happy as a happy person can be. I named the car Sharon - it's grey which translates to szary in Polish, which sounds similar.
Soon after purchase I sold the wheels since they were rubbing and on poor quality roads they were terrible. After a few hundred kilometers I decided to ditch the coilovers since my engine guard was scraping all over my hometown, so new parts went in to bring it back to stock height. After that most of the stickers were removed. Car was looking more and more like it came from factory, apart from the cream colored roof. I bought Multipla alloys which fit the car nicely IMO. The problem with clutch engagement was solved with a new clutch slave.
When buying the car, my friend warned me that sills required attention, but it took me a year before I forced myself to fix it a bit. I took it to bodyshop and the guy cut the visible bits of rot on the sill and in the rear wheel well and put some patches in.
At some point the driveshaft bolts sheared and I was stranded on the highway. That was the only time the car travelled on the flatbed. Apart from that the only time the car failed to start was when crank sensor gave up the ghost... or when battery went flat (that was well expected with it being 8-9 years old). At one point the engine started to shake so I changed engine mounts. It didn't help much and at one technical inspection my inspector failed it for smoking like a train and suggested that injectors are on their way out. He was right and after 80 zł (~18 €) expense for a used unit the car returned to normal operation.
The car was a support vehicle at my wedding and it even features nicely in wedding album. It most certainly is the vehicle of choice for my wife. In late 2016 my daughter was born and this was the first car she sat in.
In 2017 I bought another Italian - Palio Weekend 2002 1.6 16V with LPG. It was purchased for my father but I tend to use it regularly. The idea was that it would serve as a substitute for Punto 1.2 which was starting to express it's reluctance to pass technical inspections. Palio has ABS, aircon (leaking), factory cassette radio, huge luggage space and tiny cabin. When I bought it the LPG installation was a mess - it only worked when ECU plug was pushed so I used a roll of tape to fix that. At one point I decided to change LPG filters and after putting it back together it leaked like crazy. The decision was made that I will fix the installation myself. I bought new ECU, injectors, tubing etc. and made it work. The car is annoying and has some electrical gremlins, but most of the time it works. I even equipped it with LED headlight bulbs since they wouldn't fit inside tiny Punto MK2 headlight housings. I think this car is a money pit but apart from the peeling clearcoat it looks presentable with the alloys inherited from Punto 1.2 which had them from Siena.
The same year Punto 1.2 was scrapped. It was too far gone with leaking shocks, rust everywhere, leaking engine and misbehaving ECU. It drove on the ramp of the flatbed on it's own steam and that was the end of it's not really glamorous story. I was sad to farewell yet another vehicle from my stable, but relieved that I wouldn't have to haul it with Sharon time after time when something fails again.
This year I decided to buy something new. I needed something bigger since my wife is pregnant and Punto will not be a viable option for 2+2 with child seats (I am 185 cm tall and there isn't much room behind me).
I wanted to buy Fiat Multipla to scratch the Italian itch yet again, but with no support from my family it was not an option. For some reason, despite the amazing 3+3 seating, amazing space inside and funky design people hate the looks.
I ended up with 2002 Renault Laguna Grandtour 1.8 16V. I bought it knowing that there is stuff to do to make it work well. Seller told me that aircon is not working, inspection indicated that brakes are seized, intake had leaks and right tie rod is damaged. Body is a bit tired with dings and scratches but it is pretty much rust-free. Little by little I started fixing it and now it drives nicely. It turned out that aircon works after all which was a really cool surprise.
The main reason for buying the Laguna was to have a family-friendly car - buy it cheap (paid 3700 zł ~860 € for it), fix all the necessary bits and be prepared for the newborn in late 2019.
The second reason was that Sharon started showing significant rot.
Yeah, Sharon is relly rotten. Before winter holes appeared in the sills. Last year I bought MIG welder for the sole purpose of fixing my own car in my own garage.
Last weekend I washed the car for the first time since autumn.
This week I started to disassemble interior to reveal how much is gone and how much can be saved.
Uncovering the floor and inner sills showed much worse state than I anticipated. It's a good thing that I didn't have any accident in this car since driver seatbelt mount near the floor is nearly hovering, passenger side is not that much better.
Yesterday night I cut the sills off to inspect the insides... I am devastated with the lack of structure - no wonder that the plastics were creaking like old furniture. I stopped after cutting the left side open.
Today I post here to ask for your support. I want to bring it to its former glory, yet once I looked into the abyss of what once was a sill inner structure I turned to despair and my optimism left me. I am not experienced in bodywork and my MIG skills are not developed (hopefully I can add "yet"). Any suggestions on how to recreate the missing stuff? Especially in the back there isn't much of anything that I can attach new metal to. Do you guys have any reference materials of the layout of the rotten innards?
I post here for motivation, which will be most certainly be needed.
That's a long story, right? I will add relevant pictures for my old cars and I will try to keep you updated on what is going on with my project.
I hope that my English is good enough for you to understand.
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09.04.2019 UPDATE
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I've been working on Sharon in any spare time I had.
Slowly but surely I'm removing some of that fancy Italian Iron Oxide. It's terrifying when you remove structural pieces of the car and can't replace them simply because, from what my Welding Fairy told me, you are not supposed to weld new metal to rust. So more and more of the car is being removed.
My daughter was slightly confused seeing Punto in this state.
The structure on the left in the picture below is the main transverse structure, which has front mounting points of the seat. Under that shell, front and rear floor sections overlap. That makes it really tricky for me to repair. I don't want to remove too much at one time simply because I'm afraid that without that support whole body of the car might flex out of shape.
Here you can see the source material for repairs - as I mentioned in the original post I had Siena which I parted out and got rid of most of it. Being an amazing visionary and also amazed that despite rust on the whole car but not on the doors I decided to cut the door skins off and save them "for later". Took me a few years (6?) but finally they are useful now. The metal is 1,5 mm so it's fit for purpose.
For christmas I asked Santa for a set of bodywork hammers and dollies. I'm trying to put them to good use.
I'm leaving a lot of spare metal hanging which is useful for ground clamp.
I kind of like that look, but my wife is not amused by the thought of driving without doors.
At some point I went far enough that I was able to tack the seat bracket back where it belongs (at least I hope it's positioned correctly).
Here you can see the seat bracket or whatever you'd call it. It's not fully welded since I'm unsure if it's properly aligned, but it's sturdy enough for me to work around it.
The piece under the B-pillar will surely be so much fun to reconstruct.
Last night work - moving back, above the jacking point. A lot of work, little progress.
The dark bits are places where small holes remained after prior welding and I had to add some more metal.
I must buy a joddler because I am burning holes where I'm trying to butt join. With some overlap I should have some more success.
And here is Laguna in all its glory.
Yesterday I finally received the new-to-me but fantastic looking gear knob. Those who are familiar with Laguna MK2 know how many cars have the "amber knob" - the leather wears off leaving the inner plastic exposed. If you leave it too long it starts to crack -I guess that the plastic is not UV resistant. Finding a good used leather gear knob is a nightmare so many Laguna owners try using Dacia\Renault fully plastic knobs.
And here is Palio on it's beautiful rusty steel wheels with winter tires.
The passenger door handle deserves a mention - it's blue and it's not Palio but Siena item. The story behind it - during winter the door lock kept freezing and made it impossible to shut the door until the car warmed up (passenger had to hold the door all the time while driving). I was taking my sister home and she was looking from the inside and tried to convince me that the door was lowered on the hinge, despite me seeing it from the outside and all the lines were fine. Once we arrived at her place she decided to look at the problem from the outside and it was obviously not aligning. So my sister, in her infinite wisdom and grace, grabbed the door handle and tried to lift the whole door to try and align everything (for... reasons?) and managed to break the original, green handle off. As it turned out, the misalignment she saw when she tried to shut the door was from the seatbelt buckle being stuck beetween the door and the frame.
I paid 18 PLN (4 €) including shipping for the used Siena part since the used Palio II ones are quite rare and much more expensive. And it's a tradition for my vehicles to be multicolored.
I will try to return soon with more progress.