19/01/2010

Finally picked up my new ink black 'Plus' model this evening. Got her home and I'm chuffed, wife sat in the seats and she's chuffed too!

Mileage 124,065 and she runs like a dream.

Joe gave her a full service for me before I picked her up, so, so far she has had.....

- Cambelt was changed last year
- New coolant bottle (Cleaned & supplied by me)
- New coolant
- New engine oil 10W/40
- New gearbox oil
- New spark plugs
- Put un-cracked red rocker cover on
- Greased up
- Joe also put on an atmospheric DV for me - Did have standard
- Excellent condition plus alloys and tyres replaced old Plus wheels on front - Joe has loads of Plus aloys so he gave me a mint pair to replace the worst (the front two)

I might add that this was all included in the sale price of the car. It'sdefinitely worth buying a car off a specialist

Basic summary at the moment

Standard ink black with standard body kit
Black Plus seats
All original clocks - no boost or other gauges
Standard airbox
Basically, it's as it was out of the factory.

What I plan to do over an extended period of time
(a) Forge the engine
(b) FIMC
(c) New clutch
(d) Uprate the turbo (as yet unknown what to?)
(e) Flea Map
(f) LED bulbs for all the lights
(h) HID's (Philips 6000 or 8000K)
(i) Install Clarion Stereo
(j) Do some minor spray work
(k) Refurb all wheels
(l) Clean engine bay
(m) Will try and do nut and bolt restoration
(p) Underseal

Let's see how we go with this one. She's been home 2 hours and I've already sprayed the Coil Pack cover red - was silver

Problems so far (well it's a coupe!)

Started her up tonight to move her into the garage and the fan came on - THERMOSTAT! Was fine running back from Joe's!

Anyway - I'll get her booked in and get this replaced - I do not expect Joe to do this for free - She's mine now, I bought her warts and all!

I'll post pics are the first clean up

Now clean!

20/01/2010 - Apologies for the quality of the pics, low light and phone camera!

Started work on her tonight. Decided to do a bit of painting under the bonnet.

Last night I sprayed the coil pack cover red so tonight it was the turn of the rocker cover itself and the strut brace.

As things were - with newly sprayed coil pack cover in place. You will notice the difference in colour between this and the rocker cover


Firstly I took out the strut brace, cleaned it with meth/spirits, sanded down with 800 wet/dry, cleaned with pre-paint then sprayed with High Temp Red Paint (same as coil pack cover) then lacquered it.

Before painting


After painting and lacquer


While this was drying (very cold in the garage) I moved onto the rocker cover.

Quick clean up and sand down then a clean again...

This was already coloured red, a darker shade, and as it had just been put on with new gasket, I decided to spray it in situ.

It was simple to mask off and cover around the area with large cloths and towels.

I also sprayed over the polished lettering, after spraying I used a cloth soaked in Meth/spirits, wrapped it around a finger and wiped off the wet paint to reveal the alloy underneath. Easy!


Run the engine to aid drying and eventually took the strut brace in doors to dry off

Fitted the brace and job done

21/01/09

Car went up to FCSS, while there...

Thermostat replaced (OE)
Powerflow exhaust removed and Longlife cat back exhaust fitted (from Steely)
HID's fitted (from Steely)
New washer bottle pump fitted
New coolant (again)
Tower LED side lights installed
Chrome effect indicators installed (front)
New horns installed

This evening I went over the engine bay (de-grease) in the garage. Could have done without this tonight to be honest ... but ...

I'm off to the Autocar Magazine shoot tomorrow and having only just got the car has meant that I cannot polish and wax it ready! Well, the dark nights and weather prevented this ... Whoops!

On the plus side, the Plus is totally standard bar the cat-back and Atmos DV.

Will post some pics of the day in a separate thread tomorrow...

23/01/2010

Fixed a few things on her today.

Put in some new 286 bulbs into the dash and clock. One had gone, but whilst off I thought i'd do the others.

Re-furbed the petrol cap


Cleaned her up, clay bared, polished and waxed.

Decided to stealth up the black beast today. No matter how many times I look at the Plus style alloys I just don't like the look of them?!? For me, they don't say Fiat Coupe....

Having some recently refurbed, in LE grey, some 20VT wheels with brand new tyres just sitting on my Steely, I just could not stand the thought of selling it with them on - So, off they came, we had a little wheel transplant....

Here's the end results



and the Steely - A bargain for someone this car - STILL FOR SALE


Also installed some dash and speedo rings, and fitted a new atmos DV.

Car to get a new gearbox oil seal fitted on Saturday 30th Jan as gearbox oil is leaking all over the place

31/01/2010

Gear box Oil Seal turned out to be an 'O' ring on the driveshaft that had failed, hence the leaking oil on my driveway. FCSS fixed this for me.

Forgot to mention that she had two new handbrake cables fitted last week as they were looking sorry for themselves. At least I can handbrake it without worrying about the freezing nights

So today I thought I'd do something with the front grill, and do another few bits and bobs.

I bought some decent alloys from Joe yesterday, as I intend to get these powder coated this week at some point - Obviously, the alloys I got were not mint - no need to be, but they were free from dints and rim scrapes.

The set I have on the Plus at the moment are going back onto the Steely, as the purchaser would like them on it.

I am thinking that I may, possibly, get them coated in either, titanium or maybe a really sparkly silver, either way, I will get them to a highly polished condition afterward. I am still thinking about which to go for.

So, I sprayed the grill in Fiat Silver


and attached it to see how it looks


I do quite like the look of it


I'm beginning to think that maybe some really sparkling silver or titanium (standard) 20VT wheels and colour coded silver wing mirrors, might be nice, I might be onto a style that I like?

While the paint for the grill was drying, I painted the AIr Con pipes and put on a powder coated black coil pack cover (was previously red).


SO, PRETTY SOON - I will have some rather nice Plus alloys with excellent tyres all around for sale - get your offers in chaps

5/02/2010

Picked up my newly powder coated 20VT alloys today. Fitted some 205/50/16 tyres (new) and then fitted them to the car.

The colour I went for was a base of black with silver speckles. The speckles applied after the base of course.

There are a few finger marks on this one


I think they suit the ink black colour of the car and look very stealthy.







Next on the list is to spray the grill (again) and the wing mirrors 'titanium' I will also spray a spare dash I have in the same colour.

And if anyone is wondering ... yes I do have an upstairs

9/02/2010

Not much going on with the Plus lately apart from *guess what*

Have had a change of heart regarding the grill, after speaking to a few of the 'wiser' guy's at the Cosford meet I changed the grill back to black (Fiat Metallic Black) tonight.

Easy job to do really

Grill off
Clean with meths
Sand down
Clean with meths
Spray
Sand (1500)
Lacquer

Finished result here ...


Today I also bought some Rust eater and black hammerite. I will get her up on the ramps and begin to get the rust thats starting to appear underneath. Spruce it all up, so to speak.

The bar that the rad sits on (whatever it's called) will be the starting point, who knows where we will end up!

13/2/2010

Been working on the paintwork recently. The car has covered 123,000 miles and by the looks of the paintwork, it has never been mopped and always washed with a sponge. It is covered with swirl marks (shine a torch onto your paint, look closely, you will see micro swirls in the clear coat) they are so bad that you can easily see them in daylight.

Today I took a buffer to the body (a dual action, 6 speed). I used a sonus sx2 pad and some menzerna professional polish to try and remove some of these swirls marks and scratches.

After a good 4 hours the paintwork was looking better, though not perfect and as time was running out, I decided to apply a wax, to protect the paintwork after the polish.

Next week I will attack it again with a coarser/stiffer pad and coarser polish (Menzerna Final Gloss) to remove the marks that still remain.

The paintwork has been improved ten-fold from what it was, but I am looking to get it as perfect as possible (stone chips excused). So will try the new pad/polish combination on a panel and see the results. It is likely that after the coarser pad, I will need to go over it again with a finer pad and finer finishing polish, before waxing it again.

Here's how she's looking as of today..

14/02/2010

Video link at bottom of thread - This morning I continued with the mopping using a stiffer mop head, but the same menzerna polish. Results this time were even more pleasing. Pictures not too good as taken with camera phone.


So this morning, the procedure was, mop, apply a high quality sealant and then wax.

For those of you reading this thread, some of you may well be thinking, why bother?

Well, whenever I clean the car from this point forward, the dirt will fall off easily and when giving her a quick wash at the weekends, the final results will look fantastic with minimal effort put in (a case of hard graft for a day, then an easy life thereafter). Will not touch here now for a good 6 months and I can concentrate on the engine and engine bay. Well, not strictly true as will be purchasing some dodo juice supernatural soon to apply.

This video shows the effect all this has on water hitting the paintwork.

VIDEO LINK - CLICK ME

PS - My wife almost certainly now thinks I am nuts, I am also wondering about my sanity too!

16/2/2010

Car mapped by Flea, no rolling road carried out but I am informed by the master that she should be putting out 250-260bhp. Drive back was very enjoyable and better fuel economy was noted.

Clutch now slipping, very noticeable on boost, new one needed. Currently driving around within the speed limits as one should.

18/02/2010

Decided to begin the nut and bolt (well ... it will 'nearly' be one of these ... eventually!) restoration with the fuel cap.

Nothing wrong with the one I had bar a few marks, but I wanted to clean it up completely - meaning take it apart (lock and barrel) and clean up.

Did this tonight, took about an hour all in.

Finished results look like this...


Nice

How to guide here > CLICK

28/02/2010

I have decided to make my car a bit of a chameleon. Tomorrow I will be taking off the wheels from this...


Replacing them with these...(Obviously putting some rubber on)


And then using the Turbo style for my Plus (they are in great nick), So the idea is, that I can then change the wheels (from black/silver to silver and vice-versa) on the car to suit my whimsical and quite simple mind.

I will also be sourcing a set of silver wing mirrors from FCSS and there we have it...

A chameleon Plus!

I'll post some picks up when done!

5/3/2010

New wheels fitted. I took a set of Turbo wheels off the 16V recently purchased and replaced them with newly powder coated originals. Having given the ones that come off the full Patch treatment (de-greased, tar removed, polished, sealed and waxed) I have now put them on my Plus.

The idea is to now fit some silver wing mirrors (sourced, but need re-spraying and lacquering and then source another grill and paint this silver too.

Here are some pics of the new wheels fitted, may get the wing mirrors done this weekend...

Before


After


Old wheels (now in storage) - Powder coated black with silver flakes


I actually really like both the looks so far, I hope this will be a great way to change the look of the car when I'm bored

Last night I changed the washer bottle. Turned out that the rubber grommet (that the pump goes into) was leaking. Broke a pump in the process!! Now fixed

6/3/2010

Moving forward with the chameleon Plus experiment, I now have two sets of, wheels, grills (need to purchase second yet) and wing mirrors.

Stealth look = Dark metallic back wheels, inky mirrors, black grill
Terminator look = Platinum silver wheels, silver mirrors, silver grill

I had some new matching rubber put on the rear alloys and sprayed a second set of wing mirrors silver..

Rubbed down
Masked - Hard black plastic sprayed with Plastic paint
Masked again - shells of mirrors sprayed with Fiat Metallic Silver
Lacquered

Finished result, to be fitted tomorrow..

14/03/10

Couple of thing done to the coop today..

Took off the horns, rust treated and painted the horn holding bars. Rust treated a few other bits while there.



Cleaned up and painted a spare plenum chamber that I have, to be fitted on Friday





I also polished up ( a bit more ) a spare water rail.

These are all to be fitted on Friday along with an oil change, a new manifold and a new manifold heat shield

20/03/2010

The car has been to Joe at FCSS. The following work was carried out.

- New welded and painted manifold fitted
- New manifold heat shield fitted
- Various clips replaced
- New oil and filter
- New fuel filter
- Various new turbo pipes
- New manifold gasket
- New airbox - ruined the other other one trying to drill it!
- New 'shiny shiny' water rail

Nice!

21/03/2010

Brand new plan hatched today 'only a few special people know what it is' (and they're sworn to secrecy) to make my Plus more of a Patch Plus.

Something really different is planned in to be done over the next few weeks or so. More to come soon, now this will be special!

Good times ahead - New clutch booked in to be fitted for the 7th April and at the same time, something a bit special also planned (separate to that above).......

A lovely new stiffened front sub-frame. This is one of a number of stiffened frames that Joe at FCSS has designed and welded. Looking forward to good power output and a more enjoyable ride. Roll on the 7th!

Warning! - This post is going to be long and picture heavy...

I am using my coupe as my everyday car, this means a lot of in's and out's. My beautiful leather plus interior is suffering on the drivers bolster. I decided to remove it and store to keep it in the best condition possible.

So...here we go,

Firstly I was a very lucky boy to source from FCSS (you want it, he's got it) a rather 'rare' 6-Speed turbo interior. Due to the car it came from having some water ingress problems, it came to me looking like this


So, we need to get this little lot back into shape! Firstly, we need some tools and potions


Then the process basically was...

1. Apply upholstery cleaner (be generous)
2. Agitate this with brush


3. Fire the jet wash at it all, work from top to bottom, working the filth downward - you can see the brown water coming out


4. Move into sunlight - luckily today was one of the warmest day's we've had for a while


NOTE - You can dry things easily with heat. Why? The heat (in this case solar radiation and a hair dryer) excites the water molecule, it will then separate into water vapor. The heat breaks the cohesion properties of the water molecules binding themselves together. Add a breeze, and the process quickens - ah! Learned sumfink there ain't we

5. Rub the whole lot down with a chamois leather, continually rinsing this as you go. You'd be suprised what filth this can draw away from the cloth.

6. Re-apply upholstery cleaner and scrub to any smaller areas still stained.

7. Leave in the sun to dry, turn every hour. These were dry in 5 hours. Final drying should be completed with a powerful hair-dryer.

8. Use the hair dryer to quicken the process



Right then, we now needed to sort out the old interior and put this safely into storage.

I applied leather cleaner then a leather balm (thickly). Once soaked in and buffed, I wrapped the seats up ready for storage and 'Special' show days.


Now, what I did notice upon removing the rears, was that there was some serious drying out along the top edge of the seats. Due to the prolonged exposure to sun.

NOTE - it may be an idea to treat yours (if you have leather) generously with balm to prevent cracking.

Here is what I found, and I have never noticed it previously
(Pictures with liberal dosages of balm on, and allowed to soak)


Back to the new interior then...

This was installed one dry enough, but before it was the carpet and roof were cleaned thoroughly, the roof lining was pretty minging.


Here are some fitted shots..

Rears


Fronts


Last shot is a sneaky one of my baby...

I have been having trouble knocking my doors on walls (when getting in and out) upon driving the car up the driveway and parking by the garage. I like to park it here as it's away from prying eye's. I think I have found a solution!

I found these little puppies (Rip Speed) in Halfords



I bought black, but they have clear also

Spare hour today, so I fitted the zinc plated wheel nuts I bought from a member. Removed the locking wheel nuts and simply replaced with normal.

This evenings little job was to clean and treat the Plus seats before putting them into storage.

The rears were done a week or so ago. So here we go a quick post on how to treat your leather.

Products used.
Gliptone GT12 Concentrated/Intensive Cleaner
Gliptone GT11 Conditioner


Process
(a) Wipe the seats down with a damp cloth - Terry Towel is good for this

(b) Apply the GT12 with a soft cloth, use circular motions to work it on and use a soft brush to work in on the dirtier areas. Allow to dry for 5 minutes.

(c) Wipe off GT12 with a clean damp cloth and then allow the seats to dry.

(d) Apply the GT11 (Leather conditioner) with a terry towel pad and work into the leather. Wait for it to dry (soak in) and then apply again in the same manner. If you have particularly dry of worn areas - apply a little more and let it dry in.

(e) I then wrapped the seats in cotton bed lining and taped up.

Some pics of the process - before and after

Before After

Put on new personalised plates today. Supposed to spell my name but the more I look the less I think they do. Oh well! Actually, I always thought this personalised plate thing was a bit nonsey! Here we are then


Thanks to FCSS for doing the plates for me.

Planned changes to car over next week and a bit. Hopefully all done and dusted for the Bristol event...

- Newly refurbed hybrid superspool turbo
- Fit a pro alloy charge cooler
- New Clutch
- New rear swing arm bushes
- New radiator
- De-cat (after MOT)
- Flea stage 2 map

All work to be carried out at FCSS. I am hoping that I will be up to around my benchmark of 300bhp after this little lot. Having spoken to Flea today he thinks that I will be around the 280-290 bhp figure. I won't be rolling road it, power will be what it will be and I'd rather spend the £60.00 on something for the car.

22/4/2010.

OK - Huge changes made to my Plus, you know the one with the best wheels on! All work now done and dusted with just a Flea map left to do (tomorrow).

So what's been done? All sourced and fitted by Joe at FCSS (bar the BlueFlame)

NEW PARTS
- Valeo Radiator
- Clutch
- Hybrid T28 Turbo (newly refurbed)
- Welded and strengthened front sub-frame fitted (FCSS Special)
- Rear swing arm bushes
- New oil (for the second time in 500 miles)
- New coolant
- Group buy hose clamps
- Water Bosch pump for Charge Cooler
- MOT

SECOND HAND PARTS
- BlueFlame with Sports-cat
- Air con rad
- Pro-alloy charge cooler
- Bottom rad bar
- Flywheel
- Undertray (Patch cleaned)

So, with the Flea map tomorrow, I am hoping for 300 bhp. Fingers crossed on that one.

Driving the car home from Joe's tonight (all off boost) I have got to say that the handling has been improved by 100%,

She turns in solid, no movement from front or rear (front being particularly strong) and she feels like a new car. I am absolutely stoked with the drive. That strengthened front sub frame must be put down as one of my wiser purchases.

Thanks go to Joe at FCSS for his high level of workmanship and expertise with fitting and setting up all these changes, mods that there is no way on this earth I could do.

As I say, I am truely chuffed with all this work carried out and for the service that Joe provides.

Total spend incl. live map over £2000.00 - Ouch!

I'll post pics on Sunday after the Bristol Show.

Latest development.

Had a FCSS (bespoke) short shift adjustment made to the gearbox. As was stated in the Autocar Article "The gearbox is a bit sloppy", this is actually a rather large FAIL by the writer, as it's the selectors that are sloppy, the gearbox is fine

Anyway's, Joe did what he does best and using lateral thinking has come up with a great mod, making his own short-shift (Version 1) that is now functioning in my car.

Difference is ten-fold again! Short, precise and positive gear changes are now enjoyed and I am sure that if I were in a racing scenario, I'd be saving significant time between changes.

Extremely pleased, can't say anymore than that!

16/05/2010

Fitted a nice K&N panel filter today. Will see the difference in the drive & maybe sound tomorrow I hope.

Joe at FCSS also lent me some indicator tinting spray to do my side repeaters with.....

From this


To this


All in keeping with my stealth look. I have also sourced some rather nice 17" alloys from Joe and will be fitting these soon. Currently having them powder coated in black.

Watched the car drive off tonight with a new owner driving it. Sorry to see her go? Yes. Right over that, next project will be better still.

PROJECT CLOSED