Well I thought I'd share my story of how I became a coupe owner approx 4 years ago, and the ups and downs since owning it.

My partner was walking to my sons school to drop off one of those shoe box parcels that the school does near xmas every year for the kids in africa. On the way she had to walk past a garage with cars in the showroom, not unusual as she had done this many times, but, on this occasion, something caught her eye. A broom yellow 20vt.

She called me at work to tell me she had seen this lovely car for sale in the garage and I would probably like it. "What kind is it?" I asked, "I don't know but it's yellow and looks sporty" "OK I'll go for a look when I get in" I said.

At the time I wasn't looking for a car as such but thought I'd go for look anyway, just out of curiosity, to see what this yellow sporty thing was. When I arrived at the garage it stood out amongst all the others and could see how it caught her eye. "Its a Fiat coupe" I said. "That's a Fiat?" she said.

I started to walk into the garage for a better look and she asked "Where you going?" "For a better look". I took a look around the car and was approached by a salesman and before he could even start his sales pitch I asked to book a test drive as it was closing. "What you playing at?" asked the missus, "If it drives ok I'm having it".

So, the next night after work I went around to the garage for my test drive. When the salesman handed me the keys he said "Take your time mind its pretty quick if you're not used to fast cars" looking at my 1.2 clio outside as if I'd never driven any other car before

So I gently pulled away from the garage and drove up the road to a junction with a main road, looked at the missus and said "Let's give it some beans" floored it and turned to the missus all excited and said "F*** me I'm having this", turned the car around and handed the keys over over and told him "I'll have it" and then had the longest week of waiting to go and pick it up, handed the £4.5k over and couldn't stop smiling all day, week, month.

So during the first 6 months I developed a slight problem. When coming on boost the car would splutter and the injection light would come on and the car lost all power. A quick google and I was pointed to Fccuk. A godsend. I narrowed the problem down to split rubbers on the coil packs where they attach to the the spark plug.

Then disaster.

As i was changing the coil packs my father decided to visit, and he is obsessive with checking oil and water (it's all he knows what to do) he asked if I had checked the water. aye dad, are you sure? yes!! Now my mind was on the coil packs but just to satisfy his obsession I removed the coolant cap and said see its fine, then continued with the coil packs.

Can anyone guess what happened?

Took the car for a run, about 15 mile out then back and got stuck in traffic. Suddenly a white cloud of steam bellowed out from under the bonnet right in front of me as I pulled onto a roundabout then the steam stopped. I know what I should of done but I was on a roundabout coming onto a duel carriage way without anywhere to stop. I wasn't far from home so thought I'll just drive slow and it'll be fine I know.

Got the car home, lifted the bonnet, and there on the top of the suspension mount, MY COOLANT CAP!!! All because of my dads obsessive fluid checking. At least that's what/who I'm blaming.

So filled it up with water bled the system at it all seemed fine, until I'd drove about a mile then a loud swishing, gurgling noise behind the dash. Bled the system again but still got the same noise every time. By this time I was starting to think head gasket but didn't want to have it confirmed as I was given a quote to do it at over £1100.

I bit the bullet and done some searching on the forums and tackled the job myself, got the head skimmed, new gasket, and reassembled it with a lot of help setting the timing from some guys on here

All this took me over a year as I had lost my job, so after all that time I couldn't wait to get back on the road. Took it for an MOT and it failed TRE, wishbone bush, brake hose and a number plate light. Seeing the look of pure disappointment on my face, my uncle told the garage to fix it and he would pay. Sorted. For 3 month.

Then......BANG!!

No oil pressure and the engine banging like black sabbath's drummer.

So the car was parked up again for months while I saved for a new engine (not easy being unemployed). Then as luck would have it a job came along and the first thing I did was buy a replacement engine and started to strip the engine down, to make it lighter to get out as I would be doing it on my own without a hoist!








Then I decided to clean the parts while they were off just to make the engine area look a little cleaner, but then decided to paint the parts. So I made a little spray booth in my kitchen good job I was single by now

Then I decided to paint the plenum to match and the fuel rail in red, as I wanted to get hoses to match the fuel rail, or at least the hoses are on my wish list for the future.

Time to update as i've not had much time lately as i've finally got a job I can start buying things for the coop fingers crossed if the job lasts.

Decided to remove the bumper



Then looked at the condition of the bumper carriers and outriggers (if that's the right name)



Stripped as much as I could off the engine to make it "lighter" to help with getting it out.



As you can see in the pic I had decided against removing the subframe thinking I could just pull the engine forward to get it past... but still managed it after about an hour jiggling it about, and i'd like to add ..these engines are bloody heavy on your own!

Then after all that......decided to take the subframe off to give it a paint



Then thought while i'm going to paint the subframe may as well go the whole hog and do everything, so stripped the whole front end off.





So all those parts ended up......



In my sitting room
Can't understand why i'm still single

Quick update.

Painted a few more bits and bobs








While trying to remove the pulley from the engine mounting thingamy bob while it was still attached to the engine, the allen key snapped and my fingers got acquainted with the cam pulleys, resulting in.....





So I need a new allen key, think i'll get those socket type ones as they will be stronger hopefully and I can get a ratchet on.

Also as you can see, the engine mount is kaput but can I hell get the damn thing off

Update.

Well things have slowed down lately due to work and coming home in the dark and not being able to see much, and the weather hasn't been to kind either, so just been doing small bits that I can do in the warmth of my sitting room

Small update.

Not much happening at the moment but I've started to polish the rocker cover.





And how it looked before I started

Another update.

Started to put things back together on the engine and it's getting closer to being fitted back in




The hardest part is finding the right bolts. I wish I had bagged and labelled them, then the tray with them all in wouldn't of been kicked over and sent flying down the drive

Bit more head polishing.....



It's still not finished and to be honest wish i'd just painted it with the amount of work involved.

I have another head that I was going to polish but after this NEVER AGAIN!!

Removed the harness to fit to the engine before going back in, to make connecting it all up easier, as I can guess it will be a tad tricky once in, and finished it off with some red conduit and replaced the old cloth type wrap, as it had dried up and was very brittle.

Just a little bit more to finish off on it then I'm fitting it to the engine.

O.K. so now I've fitted the rocker cover and the harness, not looking to bad me thinks




When connecting the harness I was left with this connector, can't find where the damn thing goes

Well it's finally in....




Just the pipe work, subframe, driveshafts to go

This is how much room I had to work in on the passenger side


It's a bit grubby


After a quick wash.


Just some new brake pads, exhaust, windscreen and radiator to go I think, well, I hope

New exhaust came today

Well, not much been happening with the coop over the winter, what with having little to no work, xmas time and living expenses. But I've now took a job, which isn't my usual line of work but it's bringing money in, but for how long, I don't know. So hopefully within the next month or two, I'm hoping it will be ready for an mot, fingers crossed.

This is how she stands so far, just a windscreen and the brakes bled to go.






Just noticed, I also need a horn bracket, forgot about those

Well, as some of you may know, my car failed it's mot on the brakes and the abs light. I got it booked in for a retest after fitting replacement calipers but on the day of the retest, the abs light came back on. After doing some searches on here, I traced it down to the wiring from the abs pump to the battery terminal was slightly corroded, so a quick clean and the light went out, good news, or so I thought.

On the way to the mot station the car lost all oil pressure and started banging like crazy, just like my last engine.

So currently a deal is being done on a replacement engine so hopefully in the next few weeks, weather permitting, the replacement engine will be fitted and I'm considering doing a how to guide, I have limited equipment, so I won't be using a hoist this time around either, just a trolley and bottle jack and brute strength

Well, the replacement engine came and I set to work getting it fitted straight away as it was on the footpath outside my house, because the coupe was at the very front of the drive due to another car being put behind it

Lots of jiggling and strategic placement of jacks, it was finally in place



Then got all the rest of the bits and bobs fitted, including a new(ish) rad, but couldn't fire it up as I had no oil to fill up with, which was a bit of a bummer as I was so eager to hear it crack into life



A quick trip to the next day to get some oil, topped it up with water and bled the system, it was finally time to turn the key

I removed the connections for the injectors and coils, and cranked it over to get the oil pressure up, connected them all back up, took a deep breath and turned the key.....



Looks good so far


An hour and a bit later



Still looking good

I have now started to get the leather interior I bought sorted.

This is what came in the colourant kit



The rear backrest before



Don't know how to get rid of the indentation

You have to use the leather prep with a scotchbrite type pad, wrapped around cotton wool balls soaked in the prep and rub over the whole surface of the leather to remove the top coating of sealant that seals in the colour, then clean it all off with the alcohol solvent before sponging on the first coat to get a base layer of colour down.

The first sponge coat



I did this three times, then used the airbrush to spray on two coats of colour, but still needs another as its not quite finished