Sunbeam

Will do

Yep. One of these have filled with 10/50. Still baffled by the treacle that came out. It’s almost tacky like chain oil.

Both 220 turbo coupes. He hasn’t decided the fate of the other one yet, but it looks far too tidy to wreck

Changing the oil in my compressor today. I got the manual out and it says use 5w50 synthetic engine oil. The factory oil I drained was the colour and consistency of cold golden syrup. I haven’t seen any compressor oil that looks like that, but not an expert etc… No 5w50 in stock but I have 10w50. Good enough. Wot you reckon?

Mean. Old mate in north Taranaki bought two of these in the last couple of months. One is destined at this stage to be a Nazcar/lemons racer.

I took a break from the landscaping chores (lockdown =no decking timber) and the wood splitting (drizzle and cold = no thanks) and set to continuing with some front suspension (in)action. All round good citizen @azzurro dropped by recently on his way home from Auckland to give me some rusted junk treasure from his hoard. A couple of (chuckle) thrust rods - as the book calls them. One was straight with a nick in the thread, the other had decent thread but was a bit bent. I chose the latter. One fat bloke and sturdy vice later it’s more or less straight and then into the blast cabinet, prime and paint. Bet you can’t tell which is the good original and which was the bent rusty one. I’m annoyed at my new swaybar bushes now. The new ones are taller than the old ones and no amount of crushing and cursing will make them fit in the brackets. They assemble like so: When installed, the metal brackets are sandwiched tight. Look at the difference between old and new, allowing for oldness and squashedness: I think I might have to cut most of the chamfered raised portion off. Anyway, I’m grumpy now and I’m going to light the fire and have a Sunbeam’s famous turbocharged hot chocolate. Good evening.

Chur

On with more serious work. Today I removed the castor rods (“thrust rods” in the manual). The nuts were no match for my new toy. The bushes are well past their prime: Then it was off to the vice to strip them. The spacer tubes came off far more easily than their crusty appearance suggested they would. Then it was time to remove the inner nut. Before attempting to wind them off, I employed my newest power tool to clean the threads. Say hello to my new friend. 8 inch bench grinder. My first mod was to buy a wire wheel for it. It’s great, but it makes it shake like MAD. I have stuff walking all over the bench whenever it’s running. Anyway, clean threads or not, the nuts wouldn’t budge. So, I cut a starter slit in the side of the nut And then finish the job with the nut splitter. My heart sank when I wound the nut off the right hand rod. The thread is absolutely stuffed. @azzurro, from all the 125s you harvested bits from, did you happen to keep any of these? Moving on, the swaybar is very easy to remove from the vehicle. I found the clamps on the inner (chassis) bushes very hard to split, but I got there in the end. It needed a beating with a sacrificial narrow flat bladed screwdriver. Now I’m looking forward to using my other new friend to clean up all the brackets and bits

Snapped up this garage ornament. It’s a 1608cc 125 engine. Cams have rust on the lobes, so it’s definitely been sitting a while. Came with a carb (another Solex...) part of a starter motor, and a flywheel (which upon closer inspection has “Holden” cast into it) I’ll tuck it away and give it a good inspection in the future. The vendor alleges it “has good bores”. We shall see.

I like the ratty bumper. Also dents suit these imo. Not to take away from your un denting skills though.

2c +GST so we’re clear.

That bill is taking the piss. My 2c

Cracked into the suspension bushings today, starting with the track rod bushes. The left one loosened off well. So I had a go at cracking the right. This one is putting up a real fight-one that I am losing. I’m stuck here now and it won’t move in any direction anymore. I think I need to borrow Dad’s die grinder and cut it and split it off before I do any more damage to myself or the car.

That’s a nice, straight looking car. Think it should have its own thread. Nudge. Personally I prefer the look of the 13 inch CD66, but certainly you have given me an alternative to consider if I can’t make em fit. +1 on those rotas too. Lovely.

Thanks for chipping in @epoxy124! I have seen the 15 inch versions are available in different offset. Can we see some more pics of the car please. I’d like to see a shot of the whole car, you don’t see many fiats with 15 inch rims. I think a fat 13 suits the car, but I’d like to see yours! ps. Are you running with or without the factory “spacers”

This has to be one of my favourite things-a shipment of new parts arriving!

I’m liking the wheels. Really suit the car!

Recovery mission today. Left home at 7, good driving conditions. I did have a small drama, I noticed that the image in the drivers door mirror was wobbling. I pulled over to investigate, rolled down the window and poked the glass to see what’s up, and it fell into my hand! The glue had failed, and I’m very lucky I noticed before it ended up on the road in 1,000,000,000 pieces. The hardware shop in Amberley didn’t have any double sided tape so I carried on. It quickly became clear that the lack of a mirror is not fun, especially when towing a 2.5 metre wide trailer. A shout out to the staff at Arthur Burke’s workshop in Waikari who hooked me up with some tape and didn’t want anything for it. The Lewis pass was very icy, I could feel the car squirm from time to time so I took it real slow. Stunning day, but freezing cold and the heater in the car has a blocked core so the only thing keeping me alive was the heated seat. I duly arrived to a beautiful west coast day. Too cold for sandflies, yay! Top of the Lewis, I was keen to see some temperatures, so I had the OBD dongle hooked up I don’t even know if thats average or what, since I have never had this data at my fingertips before. On the flat oil sits at around 112, atf 80, and coolant 88-90 St James carpark: Aaand back in the mank cave. 440km, 8 hours total and a remarkable 10.6 litres/100km average. Now waiting on a parcel so I can start putting stuff back in/on.

Ooooooh, page 3! Except for pic no.3 all the internet pics I found of 125s with CD66s ride as high as 4x4s. The smaller tyre diameter exacerbating the arch gap..It looks dark green one has had work done on the arches? I can’t wait to get my car back so I can have another measure. I found some scribbled notes in the shed from when I was checking clearances previously and I had calculated that a 7 inch rim would need a 20 offset to fit. I’m all for laying down some $ on sweet rims but I need to satisfy myself that they will 100% fit.

I was wrong. I had a measure up in the shed of the spare wheel. The offset is actually 29. Therefore the CD66 at 7 inches wide with a 10 offset are going to sit 45mm wider. Now I’m not so sure they’ll fit.

Last two bolts on the rear bumper brackets would not budge, so drastic action was needed. masked around the vicinity VERY carefully ground the head down, and then whacked it through with a punch. The remains pulled out easily with pliers. Now I have to find some more bumper bolts. One of the brackets is very bent also:

Stock is 175sr13 which I believe is equivalent to 175/80 (some say it’s 82). This is an even larger diameter than the 185/70 it’s currently running. 205/60s will make me 6% slower for the same rpm compared to factory. Yes, I would like to get it lower, but not too low. 125T ish stance looks spot on I reckon. Can’t remember what springs you ended up using. Wasn’t it estima or something? Mid engine supercar version or fwd? edit: according to my calculations your 13s are 8.1% slow and your 14s are 9% slow compared to stock size. Also those aren’t exactly common tyre sizes are they?

@azzurro can you speak to the effects of running wider tyres on a 125? I realise with 1,634,210 wheel/tyre combos at your disposal it might prove a challenge to recall meaningful data, but please try...

Me too. Only problem is they are only readily available in 7 inch wide which means a 205/60 and I’m worried a tyre that wide will ruin the way it drives.

It’s coming home soon! As soon as I can get a trailer, good weather and some time organised. I have ordered a swag of miscellaneous parts from fiatparts.co.nz. I also ordered a refurbed bosch alternator for a 124 Spider from Rockauto with a view to going internally regulated. I am also dreaming of some new wheels. So a Poll is in order.. Panasport (minilite style) 13x6, +10 offset Reproduction Cromodora CD30 (available only in 13x5.5) +7 offset, which is the same as the stock steels I think OR Repro CD66 (13x7) +10 offset. I have a favourite, but I’m interested in your thoughts. All 3 sets are available currently on special from Midwest Bayless and would be $1400 landed (plus local GST probably). A bit ouch, but the cheapest I have found on the internet. If any of you have a lead on local (NZ) wheels I’m all ears too.