Just an idea, but how about a stainless exhaust system? Maybe one of the specialists/parts wanted could sort you out?

Perhaps, but then we're getting towards probably the £600 mark for an exhaust alone. I'd love to see where I could get the exhaust fixed for "£50" as someone claimed earlier.

The best I've managed so far is £290 through Motosave. There is a place near where I'm going to be working that makes up exhausts, I'll give them a try tomorrow.

Sedicivalvole has got a Viper Stainless Steel exhaust for sale in the Coupe Parts for Sale section and it's only £150.

£50 was a suggestion as I am sure CC would have a back box kicking about that would put you on. You can have a back box made for not much over £100. I had a 2.75' custom down pipe made for £200 and they are very intricate (took the guy a whole day).
There's a garage on canal road in Bradford (with a coupe on the drive) that make stainless bits up for not a lot too, I can't recall their name right now though....

Fair enough, BM.

I've also just chatted to JBT about the possibility of him fitting something, he wants me to ring again tomorrow.

The SS exhaust does sound rather spiffing at that price too. So hopefully this coop could be viable after all. Thanks for all your help, guys, it's much appreciated.

There's always a way. fingers crossed you can pick up a back box or cat back on the cheap.

I should really have mentioned the other items:

A number plate light isn't working apparently, I can't say I had noticed.

Wiper blades - hardly a big deal

"Offside front anti-roll bar has excessive play in a pin/bush" - not sure what part I need for this??

Apparently they didn't even attempt to test the emissions because they couldn't get an emissions probe in there. I'm always a bit nervous with the emissions, as the turbo oil seal does drip oil when it's been idling for a while. I really couldn't afford a new/recon turbo right now, so this is always a worry.

I don't think I have a real chance of getting it all done in time for a free retest but I hadn't intended to put it in for a test yesterday anyway. It was just that Turin were saying that for the labour costs of doing a pre-MOT check, I might as well have had a proper test done anyway.

That's OK mate, no harm done. I think the guy you're thinking of is CarlT.

To get a standard turbo re sealed is £200 + vat, that's from Midland turbos. You can get it off in less than 2 hours, and then you have 3 days to clean lots of rust off things and paint before you get the unit back. Nothing is as expensive as it first seems, especially if you ask on here first!

This might help you out Mutt.

http://www.fiatcoupeclub.org/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=1464539#Post1464539

It does look very nice. I think I may need a catback system though. I could try taking pictures of what's left of the exhaust tomorrow and posting them, so people can see for themselves what I'm talking about.

My worry is that if I buy a back box alone, I'm not sure if the rest of the pipe from the cat back is up to scratch.

Yes get a pic if you can.

Phil's is a cat back system so everything after the cat will need to be removed.

Yes I have the other part of the pipe. I will throw it in for and extra £10.00 if you want it posted with the back box I have or for 'free' if you are picking it all up.

Just to update on this, I bought a very nice stainless steel exhaust from Nigel and it's now fitted on the coop. I still have to get the brake parts, most of which I'll be getting from EuroCarParts at a remarkable price thanks to BM. The discount code "chill30" doesn't seem to be working any more though (it did last night).

I'd rather pick them up from the store than muck about with deliveries, partly because deliveries will be messed up until January and there won't be anyone to wait in for deliveries then anyway. The trouble is that their nearest stores aren't stocking the handbrake cable so I'll have to find one elsewhere or take the trek to Doncaster where they do have one.

There are two other items I need - wiper blades (which ECP stock but I'm not sure which to go for) and whatever part I need to rectify "offside front roll-bar has excessive play in a pin/bush". I'm told that just requires a new "drop link" but ECP don't seem to stock those. I think I know a motor factor where I can get one but I think they shut tomorrow.

ECP give me a choice of wipers between Vista Pro, Hella, Valeo and Bosch. Are the Bosch ones worth paying the extra for or will the cheap ones do?

Look on eBay for drop links, no more than a tenner

I get my wiper blades from gsf and they are very cheap, I went for Bosch ones

Just Google discount codes, there is always at least one flying about!
Glad you're sorting it mutt and you seem more upbeat!

I have the brake pads and discs, but not found anyone to fit them yet due to the holidays (which I've been working through anyway) plus I haven't yet been able to get hold of a rear right handbrake cable.

But having looked more closely at the rear discs, they don't seem in that bad shape at all (they were only fitted a year ago anyway, and the car has done less than 2,000 miles since then). The fail sheet only mentions the surface rust on them as an advisory in any case. It was Turin Motors that said it "needed new discs and pads", not the MOT examiner.

So I'm thinking that replacing the discs and pads may be a waste of money at this stage. The sheet does record "poor effort" on the rears, particularly the right rear, which I think could be down to a stretched cable on that side and a missing shield exposing that side to the elements, which may be causing the piston to stick.

I've had trouble with the rear brakes showing poor effort in the past few years - and this is even by coop standards. The guys I've had working on it before have been baffled. It's had two changes of calliper on that side, the compensator valve has been stripped and rebuilt etc. It was suggested that maybe the master cylinder might be at fault?

So maybe I need to take it to someone who really knows about the coop brake issues? Does anyone know such a person in the Leeds area?

I took the Coupe to forum member Richcoupe to get it straight for the MOT yesterday and it seems that the rust issue is much worse than anyone thought. It wasn't apparent just how extensive the rust actually was until Rich started investigating and it's going to involve very major work, involving either fabricating a new inner wing or welding in sections from another coop. I think Rich will be posting pics about it himself soon. So this could end up being a scrapper after all or I might have to look at finding a rust-free coop with knackered mechanicals and transferring the good bits across. It really depends on how viable the welding job is.

none of this is terminal.

if this were a classic mini, it would be part of the normal work needed to maintain it.

loads of donor cars for the section, if the rest of the car is sound why not just get it done?

There's a free shell on here at the moment!

Mate get rid!

Well I guess I should make an appearence to clarify... the issue here is that not only has the inner wing gone completely but all the support work for the strut has gone too. You can see through into the footwell and through the subframe mount too. My main concern is returning the strength to it considering the stresses it is under. I will now attempt to upload some photos...

To give some idea of what we're up against, here's a few pics:









As you can probably see, this isn't going to be fixed by a quick weld job with a bit of sheet metal, there is a very serious structural issue, particularly near the suspension strut.

Anyone got any ideas what it's going to cost to put this right?

In the meantime, I'm looking around for a cheap runabout while I work out what to do with the coop.

Find a good shell and move the mechanical bits across.Keep that one as a spares car.

Everything's repairable but if its that bad where you can see, whats it like elsewhere?

Re shelling a car isn't as easy as it sounds. If your having to pay someone to do it, its totally uneconomical.

And when you find a decent shell its impossible to just swap everything over without just doing this or just cleaning that up.
It turns into a full on restoration. Or as in my case once you get what you think is a good shell only to uncover some accident damage thats been well hidden with filler and paint.

Unless you can find something really good body wise and needing engine work so you can simply swap engines and be on your way again its just not worth the expense.
If you haven't got the means, work space, tools etc I would cut your losses with it and find a better one.

I've just had the same done on my car,I saved alot of money by stripping all the suspension and brake lines out myself and cutting all the rust out myself then had someone come to my house to do the welding it cost me 100 pound for both sides,although yours looks abit further gone,I was quoted around 400 pound at a garage!

ouch, that's worse than I thought.

Cut your losses imo, it will cost less to get a nice example than to strip fix and reassemble...

Break it the money you will get for the parts will buy you another coupe

The car has failed it's MOT in good fashion. There's now a two page thread about all the issues. Is it really worth much in parts?

Actually, the two pages have mostly been taken up by people giving their two cents worth. The only outstanding "issue" is the structural rust on the inner wing. The exhaust - fixed. Brakes - fixed.

Much of the thread was taken up by people saying "Oh, it's a bit of rust, it'll only cost £50 mate" etc. Now that the full extent of the problem is known (something that neither the MOT tester nor Turin Motors could give a definitive answer on at the time, as the only way of knowing for sure was to strip back to bare metal as Rich has now done), the 'consensus' view has gone full circle.

Lest we forget, I asked the forum for advice on whether it was worth salvaging the car or to break it up for spares. At the moment it's under cover in a workshop while I'm awaiting some expert opinions on what is salvageable.

As it happens, the engine is absolutely mint, has done a genuine 99,000 miles (which I know to be true as I'm only the third owner, I have owned it since 46,000 miles and I have every bit of paperwork from the previous owners too). So the engine is worth a few bob in itself. I dare say it's worth quite a few notes in parts, actually, but I thought breaking Coupés for spares was very much frowned on in this forum?

At the moment I've been using a hire car to look at some suitable runabouts to drive while the Coop is under cover. I don't have a budget to buy a car for anything above a few hundred quid (I've only recently restarted work and I absolutely refuse to take out any loans), and the ones I've seen so far at that kind of price have been shadier than a Tesco pie during the horsemeat scandal.

So if I could find somebody who could do the required welding for a comparable sum, I'd probably go for it. There's lots to be said for a 220hp car that only costs £225 a year to tax for one thing. Anything more modern costs £490 a year in tax because of the emission bands that were brought in. It also costs me less to insure than even something as bland as a bog standard Corsa because the fact I've owned the coop for seven years lowers the premium.