Seicento My 2.0 16v Seicento Project

[arc]

if the battery and cooling is going in the boot, then that'll help balance it a bit!

 

[sei16v]

The handling on my previous nova was mint, other than torque steer... That was due to all the poly flex bushes i used, anti roll bar, uprated suspension and the fact the car had more strengh than standard... I will be doing the similar stuff to the fiat.

Today i realised the fiat is made out of paper rather than metal... the engine bay metal is paper thin, and my welders kept blowing through most of the time... sorted it out by using a really low amp welder, although had the odd blow through... The welding is strong but far from my tidy welding... its been a bloody nightmare.

Ive built a new left panel, and replaced it with some new metal.. its stronger than it was, but obviously not as strong as when the horn was in place...

Tomorrow i will start making the frame, this will be welded to most of the existing metal, and will get the car a lot stronger than the original set up...

Im far from finished, still got a lot of welding to do...

All the engine bay will be smoothed/filled for a factory look when done... il keep the post updated...

 

[fingers99]

Couldn't you borrow a TIG?

BWTH, it's coming along fast -- puts me to (extreme) shame!

 

[sei16v]

Couldn't you borrow a TIG?

BWTH, it's coming along fast -- puts me to (extreme) shame!

Lol im out of work at the min (sparky) so im just doing this to kill time until some work pops up...

 

[sei16v]

Will normal fiat 14" steel wheels clear the punto GT brakes?

Im after getting banded steels for my sei, but need to know wether to go 14 or 15 inch.

 

[fingers99]

14" will clear fine. 15" might help control the torque steer a little!

 

[sei16v]

14" will clear fine. 15" might help control the torque steer a little!

Im just worried about the wheels clearing the arches, as i want the wheels on around a 9-10j on the rear, and 7-8 on the front (estimated at the moment until i cen get out the tape measure)... Either way the wheels will stick out the arches... All in all id rather have 15's but not sure if it will cause issues or not.

 

[blu73]

well if your going that wide then your gona end up doing some serious arch work to get them on, might as well go 15's. My cinq has 15's that are 6" wide and theres no room under there anymore, think the sei arches are a bit bigger than the cinqs but not by much. Width is going to be your biggest problem.

 

[fingers99]

That wide, yes, serious arch work (probably easier than on a Cinq than a Sei). All logic suggests wider at the front (on a FWD car) than the rear or you'll just compound the understeer.

 

[sei16v]

Hmm i will have a look, i might get away with minimal work using a big stretch on the tyres as it brings the profile down.. Something i need to look into really.

Anyways heres todays update... Im rushing to get the engine in, so i can get the drive shaft's made up for it...

Been busy building the frame.... got a third of it done, still need to get the rear and the bottom supports done....

 

[sei16v]

After another 4 hours of fun today, i have the rear part of the cage/frame made, and have skimmed a lot of the bay with glass fibre (or p40 as most people would call it).. This is due to me wanting to smooth everything down the line, but i want it to be 100% cured before getting the filler out.

I still need to crack on with the mounts and the bottom half of the frame. This will support the front bar (which runs under the main front panel) and connect to the rear bulkhead. This will need to be fabricated once the engine is in place, and i have the drive shafts to hand, as i need to make sure the cage clears EVERYTHING!!

Heres a few snaps....

 

[ilsonemo]

looking gd, soooo much work into it allready, keep it up, will be intresting to see it finished

 

[BlueDan]

Not reinstalling the original heater box then, or is that the last thing on your mind at the moment?

Plus I agree with everyone else about the pace of this project

 

[arc]

good to see such an ambitious project moving along so rapidly. very impressed

 

[sei16v]

Not running a heater matrix with this car as will need all the room to run the pipework... We may run a fan for practical reasons (steamy windows) or what not but most of the heat will come from the rads at the rear.

Cheers for the support... Another busy day, and some crude engine mounts have been knocked together, which will be finished and tidied up tomorrow...

Also had a quote on the driveshafts to be custom made.. £120 each side plus VAT Lol... Although it will be worth it, and the turn around is 3-4 days rather than weeks.

 

[sei16v]

Right heres another update... i have built the basic part of the amp rack ready for my mate to sort the pipework out. This supports 2 x vauxhall vectra 2.0 16v radiators and a pug 306 double 'Push' fan set up... (i will be supporting the rack using some fabricated metal at a later date...)

My friend popped over and started work on the pipework internally.... using 4 x 22mm copper pipework, with brass fittings (all will be polished up)....

We are using two 22mm pipes as the IN feed, and then the other two as the OUT feed...

While he was busy with that, i have been smoothing out the engine bay.... (theres loads to smooth, and its being done by hand... so will take a good few days lol)

 

[sei16v]

Oh and as for the wheels, i am now going for the seicento abarth wheels (14") with some big spacers, to widen the wheel base... i am looking at a set on ebay that are 25mm hubcentric... but not sure if these will be too big to go on all four corners....

 

[gazzaman2k]

ur mate a plumber by any chance? lol

 

[BlueDan]

Still nice to see this progressing

Do you need two rads or are you playing it safe?

 

[sei16v]

ur mate a plumber by any chance? lol

Corgie gas man,,, who has free copper lol....


Oh and two rads are just playing it safe, should be fine with just the one rad tbh...