Introduction
Hi! I'm Dirk, from The Netherlands. In this thread I'm planning to document the restoration of my Fiat 126 from 1974.
My first two cars were Fiat Panda's (both 1000cc from late 1980s). I learned how to do my own maintenance on these things. That was over 20 years ago, and for the past few years I've been toying with the idea of restoring a classic car as a hobby. I always liked the Fiat 500 but they're a bit too 'cute' for my liking.
Last year May (2023) we took a holiday to Italy and I saw this beauty sitting outside at a garage near Siena:
From that moment I knew that I wanted a 126 Prima Serie! I walked inside but sadly they couldn't sell it: the owner of the little Fiat was apparently missing and it's been sitting outside for the past 8 years. You can see it on Google Maps, it's at Belligni Vasco Carozzeria in Sociville. Great guy by the way, he proudly showed us around his workshop where he was restoring a nice Alfa Giulia!
I couldn't get the little white Fiat out of my mind. I wanted one! Here in The Netherlands they rarely ever come up for sale. The combination of soft Italian steel and ever present precipitation is a bad one, as you probably all know. For a relatively rust-free Fiat there's only one place to source them from: southern Italy.
My quest for an Italian Fiat
Italy has some weird rules about exporting cars. The main problem is that in order to export a car, it needs to have a recent Italian MOT (< 6 months ago). Yes, all exported cars need a recent MOT! That means it's virtually impossible to buy cars like the white Fiat as a foreigner, as fixer-uppers tend to not have a MOT.
Now, for used cars in Italy you use subito.it, an online marketplace. There are quite a few 126 for sale, for reasonable prices! Most of the time the pictures show a license plate, and you can use an online database to check if the car has a recent Revisione (MOT): https://www.ilportaledellautomobilista.it/interrogazionistoricorevisioni/spa/
The problem is: in order to contact a seller you need an account for subito.it. In order to get an account, you need an Italian mobile phone number to verify your account. And in order to get an Italian mobile phone number, you need to have an Italian tax number. I tried everything: I emailed the subito.it customer service, I harassed people on Italian Reddit and I even tried using a couple of shady websites where you can spoof mobile phone numbers (and pay in Russian Rubles
), all to no avail.
That's when this came up:
In the advert (I cut the last line off here) was his mobile phone number as he prefers to use Whatsapp instead of the subito.it messaging system. Now this Fiat ticks all the boxes: it's a prima serie from 1974, a recent Revisione and apparently it runs and has had some maintenance. I messaged Gianluca if he'd be interested in selling it to me. (I used Google Translate to communicate in Italian, it works really well that way!). He was super nice but was a bit apprehensive since he didn't know what exporting it would entail.
Over the course of the next two weeks we messaged back and forth. He would send me other subito.it ads and even offered to broker for them. However, these other cars were either too young for me, didn't have a recent MOT or were out of my budget. We fell silent for a couple of days when I got a short message
"Salve, lei e' ancora interessato alla macchina?"
I don't think I've ever been so happy with a text message! We set up a date for the next week, I rented a car carrier lorry and my son (Chris, he's 13) and I set off to Bari!
My Fiat 126!
After a beautiful 2 day drive (it's 1980km from my home to Bari!) we met up with Gianluca at a gas station in Bari. The night before I had a little nightmare: what if this was some elaborate prank? I've arranged to buy a car from some Italian guy at a gas station and all I have is his first name and a phone number, what if he doesn't show up? Fortunately my fears were ungrounded: 5 minutes after the agreed time a rather large guy drove up and said "Dirk? Sono Gianluca. Piacere!".
We went to his house and loaded up the little Fiat (it ran!). We drove for a short while to the local PRA agencies in order to finalize the export process. The process itself is quite simple: the owner hands over all registration papers and both license plates, the agency enters it in the database and hands over the export papers. However, the website that the agency uses to enter all data was out of order! Gianluca, the agency guy, my son and I had coffee and lunch and we took a walk around the not-so-beautiful outskirts of Bari. After 3 hours the website was working again and I was handed the export papers. The Italian part of the process was finished!
It's home
After a 2 day drive back (we got LOADS of thumbs up underway from both Italians and Polish truckers) we safely made it home.
(It's so tiny we could've fitted 2 of them!)
Beautiful sunny Italy
And some abysmal weather in Switzerland
It's the perfect size for a 8-year old as well!
History of the Fiat
Another neat thing: if you know the targhe (the Italian license plate number) you can get a full history of the car registrations online! It's 25 euros and apparently you can use your European eIDAS (or DiGID here) to request it. Sadly, that wasn't working but I emailed the ACI office in Pavia (my Fiat's license plate started with PV) and I promptly got a request form back. I filled it in, made the bank transfer and 2 days later I got the report in my email inbox. How's that for so-called Italian bureaucracy!
I received a scanned copy of the handwritten entries in a booklet. They revealed that:
https://crononet.aci.it
So now what?
My plans with this Fiat are as follows:
I'm planning to use this thread to post updates on the restoration process.
My first two cars were Fiat Panda's (both 1000cc from late 1980s). I learned how to do my own maintenance on these things. That was over 20 years ago, and for the past few years I've been toying with the idea of restoring a classic car as a hobby. I always liked the Fiat 500 but they're a bit too 'cute' for my liking.
Last year May (2023) we took a holiday to Italy and I saw this beauty sitting outside at a garage near Siena:
From that moment I knew that I wanted a 126 Prima Serie! I walked inside but sadly they couldn't sell it: the owner of the little Fiat was apparently missing and it's been sitting outside for the past 8 years. You can see it on Google Maps, it's at Belligni Vasco Carozzeria in Sociville. Great guy by the way, he proudly showed us around his workshop where he was restoring a nice Alfa Giulia!
I couldn't get the little white Fiat out of my mind. I wanted one! Here in The Netherlands they rarely ever come up for sale. The combination of soft Italian steel and ever present precipitation is a bad one, as you probably all know. For a relatively rust-free Fiat there's only one place to source them from: southern Italy.
My quest for an Italian Fiat
Italy has some weird rules about exporting cars. The main problem is that in order to export a car, it needs to have a recent Italian MOT (< 6 months ago). Yes, all exported cars need a recent MOT! That means it's virtually impossible to buy cars like the white Fiat as a foreigner, as fixer-uppers tend to not have a MOT.
Now, for used cars in Italy you use subito.it, an online marketplace. There are quite a few 126 for sale, for reasonable prices! Most of the time the pictures show a license plate, and you can use an online database to check if the car has a recent Revisione (MOT): https://www.ilportaledellautomobilista.it/interrogazionistoricorevisioni/spa/
The problem is: in order to contact a seller you need an account for subito.it. In order to get an account, you need an Italian mobile phone number to verify your account. And in order to get an Italian mobile phone number, you need to have an Italian tax number. I tried everything: I emailed the subito.it customer service, I harassed people on Italian Reddit and I even tried using a couple of shady websites where you can spoof mobile phone numbers (and pay in Russian Rubles
), all to no avail.That's when this came up:
In the advert (I cut the last line off here) was his mobile phone number as he prefers to use Whatsapp instead of the subito.it messaging system. Now this Fiat ticks all the boxes: it's a prima serie from 1974, a recent Revisione and apparently it runs and has had some maintenance. I messaged Gianluca if he'd be interested in selling it to me. (I used Google Translate to communicate in Italian, it works really well that way!). He was super nice but was a bit apprehensive since he didn't know what exporting it would entail.
Over the course of the next two weeks we messaged back and forth. He would send me other subito.it ads and even offered to broker for them. However, these other cars were either too young for me, didn't have a recent MOT or were out of my budget. We fell silent for a couple of days when I got a short message
"Salve, lei e' ancora interessato alla macchina?"
I don't think I've ever been so happy with a text message! We set up a date for the next week, I rented a car carrier lorry and my son (Chris, he's 13) and I set off to Bari!
My Fiat 126!
After a beautiful 2 day drive (it's 1980km from my home to Bari!) we met up with Gianluca at a gas station in Bari. The night before I had a little nightmare: what if this was some elaborate prank? I've arranged to buy a car from some Italian guy at a gas station and all I have is his first name and a phone number, what if he doesn't show up? Fortunately my fears were ungrounded: 5 minutes after the agreed time a rather large guy drove up and said "Dirk? Sono Gianluca. Piacere!".
We went to his house and loaded up the little Fiat (it ran!). We drove for a short while to the local PRA agencies in order to finalize the export process. The process itself is quite simple: the owner hands over all registration papers and both license plates, the agency enters it in the database and hands over the export papers. However, the website that the agency uses to enter all data was out of order! Gianluca, the agency guy, my son and I had coffee and lunch and we took a walk around the not-so-beautiful outskirts of Bari. After 3 hours the website was working again and I was handed the export papers. The Italian part of the process was finished!
It's home
After a 2 day drive back (we got LOADS of thumbs up underway from both Italians and Polish truckers) we safely made it home.
(It's so tiny we could've fitted 2 of them!)
Beautiful sunny Italy
And some abysmal weather in Switzerland
It's the perfect size for a 8-year old as well!
History of the Fiat
Another neat thing: if you know the targhe (the Italian license plate number) you can get a full history of the car registrations online! It's 25 euros and apparently you can use your European eIDAS (or DiGID here) to request it. Sadly, that wasn't working but I emailed the ACI office in Pavia (my Fiat's license plate started with PV) and I promptly got a request form back. I filled it in, made the bank transfer and 2 days later I got the report in my email inbox. How's that for so-called Italian bureaucracy!
I received a scanned copy of the handwritten entries in a booklet. They revealed that:
- My Fiat was registered on 22 August 1974 to a then 45 year old gentleman in Vigevano with an economical value of 1.000.000 lira (about €8200 in today's money)
- It was transferred on 13 January 1981 to a then also 45 year old gentleman, also in Vigevano
- It was transferred on 20 August 1984 to Bisceglie (Bari Province), I can't read the handwriting here
- It was transferred to the current owner in Bari on 30 October 1992
https://crononet.aci.it
So now what?
My plans with this Fiat are as follows:
- Strip it down to bare metal (I've already started with the hood and bonnet, not a spec of rust so far)
- Paint it white
- Replace every gasket, rubber, bearing and grommet
- Full mechanical overhaul, replace what needs replacing
- Get it fully up to spec as a Prima Serie (somewhere in its lifetime it was converted to something that resembles a Personal 4, so with the plastic bumpers, wrong engine cover, different interior and steering wheel, and a newer (wider) dashboard. I already sourced most of these parts.
- Engine upgrade! The past year I've been in the process of upgrading a 650cc engine to a 700cc Abarth spec. It's going to the machine shop shortly, I already have the cylinders, larger valves, oil pan, fast cam and Dell'Orto FZD32/28 lying around.
I'm planning to use this thread to post updates on the restoration process.
