Well it's just been over a year now since my wife and two son's bought me my project p reg ink black coupe, and after a year of swapping engines from ac to non ac,powder coating,ally polishing,new clutch,cam belt kit,aux belts,silicone hoses,stainless manifold,spark plugs,new fmic,oil's,modified top engine mount,sand blasting,hours of cleaning every nut and bolt for re plating or replacing.

The time had come to start her up,we turned her over with injectors disconnected to get the oil and water around, then with fingers crossed and injectors connected my son turned the the key while i had a watchful eye on the engine bay, it fired up straight away.

from this


To this


engine ready in garage


starting sand blasting engine bay


new drop legs needed


bought second hand drop legs from joe CountryCruising


drilled out the spot welds


replace new drop legs


engine bay all sand blasted and painted


coupe lifted up ready for engine



engine wheeled in to engine bay


coupe lowered over engine


modified top engine mount bar



cheers hope you like the pic's, jobuguk ( Johnny ) and son Leigh with the moon grey from 'Coupe de ville'

well done mate good progress looking very clean

looks great

I really enjoyed looking at those progress pics. Thanks for posting. It looks fantastic!

WOW,WOW,WOW !

Looks better than new, fantastic work!

Very nice work!

Amazing

Looks fantastic work there!

You look so proud, shame the dog was playing silly buggers and pulling a moony for the camera!

well done dad spent many hours in the garage and some hard graft has gone into it, and some argumentative moments lol nothing a quick fag sorts out though ay !

yeah, can't understand her she shows no interest in coupes whatsoever!!!!

well done for such a brilliant job!! looks great now, hope to see it at a few meets!

Thanks Leigh couldn't have done it without your help and your ingenious inventions!! More than a few fags though..... think i must have shares in 'Golden Virgina' by now!!LOL

Thanks for all your comments it really gives me a boost, won't be at any meets just yet got a long way to go.

Jobs to do on front
refurbish

Brakes front calipers,
suspension legs,
drive shats,
fit zender kit,
fit FMIC,

Then i've got to sort out the rear of the coup, then mot to find out if anythings wrong,got to do the garden,house maintenance,look after my other son's car and are daily car,and go bloody work as well which is a pain in the pants .

But i shall be at stanford hall on sunday to see some of you guys and my son leigh is coming as well in his moon grey

Nice work Johnny. You can be proud of that work pal.

Very impressive!

Oh no, you've just turned my front end de rust and recondition into a much larger job. After seeing these pics I'm afraid I'm going to do the same! Although my before pic won't be half as grubby!

Nice work

My god! That is a beautiful bay, take a step back and give. Yourself a pat on the back buddy,

A question

The before photo is a non aircon coupe?
You said you converted it to non aircon? Did you swap engines?

Top mount looks very nice, any more pics of it?

Good job boys

Excellent work! Well done

Yes i did swap engines, the before photo is the project non a/c car with a dead engine, the coupe that i bought with a smashed back end and a good engine was a/c, so i had to take both left hand engine mounts off so i could put the non a/c mount, alternator,and water rail onto the good a/c engine.

non a/c engine mount


a/c engine mount


top engine stb/bar and top mount

Well just a little update of what's been happing with the coupe since i put the engine in and got it started, found out the alternator was no good so put a new one on, and a couple of other niggling bits and bob's in the engine bay to sort but i'll do them at a later date.

At the moment i've been concentrating on cleaning,painting,refurbishing the front suspension,drive shafts,brakes and wheels (17in TSW black ice) but i think the way i'm going at the moment with the wheels is getting rid of the silver on them and doing the whole wheel satin black, can't make my mind up yet

here's a few pics

New alternator


Front suspension


Sprayed top mounts


Refurb Brembo's

That's lovely work and right up my street!

Respect!

Are you getting bolts replated as a matter of course or going to Fiat for new or sourcing elsewhere?

Fiat prices for fasteners are akin to daylight robbery!

That,s right Duffy it's just a mater of course, after cleaning nuts,bolts,washers on a wire wheel (bench grinder) to get rust and old muck out of the threads it will take the old plating off.

And yes i'm also sourcing elsewhere such as Socket Cap Screws Stainless Steel Pack of 50 from http://www.screwfix.com/c/screws-nails-fixings/a2-socket-screws/cat840546 screw fix

Here's some replated £20

Are you replating yourself using a kit or using a company?

No I'm using a company, is there a kit out there then?

Frost Auto Restoration

Been playing in the garage and with the coupe today,put the disc's,refurb brembo's and the TSW wheels on (not refurb'd yet) and took the coupe of the axle stands "been on them for months" to see how the car sat and looked.

Just got to get new braided brake lines and new or stainless/chrome bleed nipples so i can bleed the brembo's and the clutch.

photos of wheels
do paint the whole wheel satin black
or refurb them to how they where, ice black

Great work,
Looking forward to seeing this around the streets of Leicester soon.

Got my new braided brake lines this week, transparant red from HEL ( group buy) £70 very pleased with them.
Connected the front ones to the brembo calipers last night, going to bleed the front brakes and clutch this weekend and see if i can move the coupe with it's new clutch and hopefully stop!!!!!!


Done another little job this week cleaned and painted the rear brakes just to empty the can of red HVT,
ready for when i start on the rear of the coupe in a few months time.

Great thread, and pics. Was good meeting up with you guys at Stanford, full of enthusiasm.