I borrowed a Karcher wet vac and as the weather was so nice on Saturday it was time to clean the seats, and anything else covered in cloth once I got going 🙂 As soon as I have the interior all fitted back in I will take some pics.
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Now i have everything back from the powder coaters its time to get those parts and all the nice shiny new parts fitted back on the car and get the little yellow box back down on its wheels!!
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All the parts have now been collected from the powder coaters and WOW what an amazing job APR Powder Coating have done! These look so good and have an original factory finish to them, but a 100 times better than the old Italian’s did originally. Time to get them fitted back on.
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All the main parts that needed powder coating have been packed up and sent off to APR powder coating in Waterlouville. I will post some pics when they all come back nice and shiny!
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Today i finally managed to get the rear bumper off! What a job it was. The bots holding the bumper to the brackets were so corroded and hard to get to that I had to cut them off with the grinder! I did think that I would just buy some new bumper brackets but man is it hard to find Fiat parts!! Lots of searching and no luck! I think I will see if the Fiat dealer can give me the part number and if they were used on other models also, as searching just for the Cinq seems like…
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As the weather was nice and mild and sunny today I thought I should get to work on removing the rear suspension ready for stripping as then I can get it off to be blasted and powder coated. Luckily after a soak with some WD40 all the bolts came out nice and easy apart from one that holds the petrol tank in. I will have to get the car up a bit higher to get this one out but I now have all the suspension off and ready to pull apart on the next sunny day 🙂
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When i originally bought the Chinq and had the Abarth kit fitted I wanted it to be exactly like Fiat had intended it so I purchased the Stil Auto Starlet wheels that Fiat used if you had bought it as supplied by them. Luckily the wheels were in pretty good condition but as I’m refurbing the car back to original like when it was new I had the wheels refurbished and the closest tyres I could get to the original ones fitted. Rotalla 165/55R13 ROTALLA RH02 70H and some nice Abarth centre caps like the original ones!
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Since getting the Chinq back home it seems to have constantly rained, and then got freezing cold! But today it was nice enough to get out and get started stripping the car down. Its now sat on axel stands at the back so I can start stripping the back end. The plan is to remove anything metal from the suspension and bumper and get it blasted and powder coated as the old Italians didn’t paint them very well so all the paint is flaking and there is lots of surface rust. I will need a fair bit of WD40 to…
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I finally managed to bring the Chinq back home. After a quick clean, its parked up in the drive ready to start getting it back to road-worthy condition and start driving it again!
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This is a little blog to record the restoration of my Fiat Cinquecento Sporting Abarth in broom yellow. Standard Fiat Cinq, with full Abarth body kit, full Polly bushed suspension and Koni adjustable shocks and lowering springs. Owned from new the car has been dry-stored for over 10+ years and its now time to get it back on the road!
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