Great picture.
Great picture.
Paint or no paint, it's a sharp looking little sedan.
Love it! More pics please...
And welcome Bride of Burrito! I appreciate your willingness to drive classy old clunkers like so many of us here.
It's going to look great in chrome yellow.
Burrito wrote: Well, the "128" in the junkyard was a bit of a disappointment.
Reminds me of my gofer days back in 88 at a place that fixed these and every other euro car of the 70s and 80s. They would sit waiting for parts for months. And now this one has reached its final resting.
Thanks y'all!
Welcome to the forums! Car looks amazing.
bgkast wrote: Looking good. This thing is going to look fantastic with a coat of paint.
Paint is highly overrated
I took the car on the freeway for the first time this morning and it didn't kill me, but I noticed a few things. It's geared hilariously short. I'm betting it was turning 4200rpm at 60mph. It's got a pretty good shimmy at after 55mph, too. I know one of the tie rod ends has a torn boot, so that'll be a good place to start; an alignment probably wont hurt either. I know there's polyurethane bushings available for X1/9 lower control arms, hopefully they work on 128s, too. NVH be damned.
I had a startling realization when I was robbing parts off of the X1/9 in the junkyard the other week. The transmissions are very much different. The shift linkage exits out of the back of the 128 trans, and out of the front of the X1/9 trans. I don't know why I (or any of you lot...) thought of that before. So, to get a 5 speed into the car, I'm looking for a Strada or Yugo GVX box. I can't say I'm hopeful of finding either and I've started thinking that maybe an engine swap is in the future. Even if I do find a 5 speed for the car, there will be some fitment issues with the transmission and swaybar wanting to occupy the same space. The transmission in the car isn't very happy at the moment. There was some roller bearing remnants on the magnetic drain plug when I changed the oil last week. Probably explains the second gear "AAARRGGGGGGH".
Other than that, the thing is running like a top and hasn't missed a beat since I did the electronic ignition.
Too bad Gear Vendors doesn't make things for 40 year old Italian sedans, otherwise you'd be set with eight (or six, at least) gears. 
IIRC Fiats have stupid little steering rack bushings like Subarus do, so maybe your rack is shifting around on the mounts if you're getting memory steer in addition to the shimmy.
(Edit: http://www.midwest-bayless.com/p-21298-steering-rack-bushing-internal-fiat-x19-128-yugo-strada-lancia-scorpion-oe.aspx Not quite the same thing.. probably not at fault, because it sounds much scarier than what you're experiencing)
For poly bushings you could always try the "make your own bushings" approach, which I know you've fantasized about at least once by now: https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/fabricating-bushings/37399/page1/
The internals are the same, just the shift rod portion is different. I think one could cobble up a proper orientation with some spare parts, but that's a bit of work and for little gain.
Of the 4 speeds, I know the Yugo has the tallest final drive.
If you're going for a swap might as well find a lancia beta and have a 2ltr and 5speed. More power, front driver and still fiat based.
In reply to Kenny_McCormic:
Yeah, looks like the Yugos had a 3.76 final drive, opposed to the 4.08 in my car. That's an improvement, I guess. It would take the rpms from about 4200 to 3900 at 65. Not anything to get particularly excited about.
In reply to ssswitch:
Uhhh, that would explain some of the, uhh, unique feedback I'm getting through the steering wheel. I'll be looking into that before driving it again. Thank you for the link and heads up. That's actually slightly terrifying.
In reply to brad131a4:
If I go through all the trouble of fabricating motor mounts, modifying shift linkage, and sorting out bundles of wiring, it is more than likely not going to be an antiquated engine with no aftermarket. I really hate to say it, but the answer is probably Honda B Series. Lots and lots of used go fast goodies from kids who can't make next month's rent and a small, lightweight package. The X19 guys have already paved that path. This car is probably never going to see more than a couple AutoX events a year, so it doesn't really matter if it gets put into some ridiculous class because of an engine swap from another manufacturer.
But as a VW nerd it really, really hurts to admit that...
I started playing around with the instrument cluster tonight. I can't stand not having a tach anymore.
I was really hoping that I could just scab the gauge from the Spider in next to the stock speedometer, but it's just not going to happen. Not only would the fonts not match(!), bUT the circuit board for the rest of the gauges lives there. Luckily, the speedometer from the Spider has the same drive arrangement as the 128 and, after a quick trip up the road, it appears to be quite accurate according to the GPS speedo on my phone.
So, naturally I'm making a new cluster from scratch. 
I popped the cover off of the stock cluster to make a template and knocked out a copy in some 22ga. I wanted do do it in something a little heavier, but this was the only piece big enough on hand.
After a little smoothing, if fits into its home nicely.
I can't quite fit either the fuel or temp gauge in the center, but they will fit nicely in the ash trays former home four or five inches to the right.
It would be too easy if the gauges mounted flush and square.
So, another template and some more 22ga to solve that problem.
And after a little rolling it appears to be just what I need.
I think this is going to work.
I've been looking for a suitable project to try out the charcoal wrinkle powder coat I bought a few weeks back, and I think that it will help make this look like more than just a piece of sheet metal when I'm done. Hopefully it will add some "weight" to it.
I did gauges on the Manta last night. Mine was a little easier just adding the spare OEM tach I had to the previously blanked-off hole in the cluster.
What steelies are those? VW?
You say the X1/9 trans is totally different. Is this really the case? For many transmissions the shifter assy. bolts on. Is it a case that the actual trans is the same, but the shifter tower is different? Could you get the X1/9 trans and bolt on your current shift tower?
Those speedo and tacho needles are really awesome. I wonder if they got the idea while playing golf.
The gauges even have little baby turn signal lights in them. God I love Italian cars.
What are you using to get that clean and flat of a cut on thin sheet metal? I don't see and signsof heat, so I think you are using cut off wheels.
In reply to EvanB:
The steelies are off of a new 500. Fiat is weird with their 58.1mm centerbore and 4x98 pcd, so there would have been a few issues to overcome if I went the VW route.
Adrian: It doesn't sound like that is the case, no pun intended. I believe that the center section of the main case is unique. The internals sound like they are the same, so you can put yugo guts in a Fiat box, but I think it has to be 4 speed to 4 speed, or 5 speed to 5 speed. After a little late night soulsearching, I kinda decided that overcoming one hurdle (ie shift linkage) is probably better than inviting in a whole host of engine swap issues.
Ssswitch: Yep, radical needles, huh? I should be able to use the 3 small dummy lights for highbeams, turnsignal, and hazard indicators. I really like the look of these gauges and I think they're going to look right at home in the 128.
Dusterbd13, I'm just using the hardware store sheet metal shears you see on the bench. I usually make two cuts; the first about an eighth inch outside my scribe line, the the finish cut on the scribe line. It's effectively twice as much cutting, but the results are twice as good so it's worth it. I go around the perimeter with the little right angle die grinder with a room sanding disc to even any unevenness out after that. I'll try to remember to grab a few pictures of the tools this evening.
Well I'd have to disagree on the antiquated as where do you think Honda got the their dual overhead design from? Copied it from fiat as they wouldn't sell them the rights to build them for there cars so I've heard. There is plenty of go fast goodies for the Lancia/Fiat 2ltr enough to get a good reliable 200hp out of. Now it may not have the fancy vtec head or as much aftermarket as the Honda but it does have enough to keep it going for a long time. It might not be as cheap as swapping a Honda into your car but it would be still a true Italian car. I'm by no mean's a traditionalist when it comes to cars and swapping drive trains. I help a friend swap out vanagon motors and transmissions for Subaru 2.5 and 5speed trannies every now and then. I'm working on saving up the cash to get the reverse ring and pinion to install the subaru tranny I have to install into my vanagon hopefully next spring. Just do it justice if you do a Honda swap into it and have the valve cover engraved with Abarth on it so it at least looks the part.
I spent a little more time at the shop that I was expecting to last night, but I got to the point I needed to be before calling it a day.
I started off by forming the second ring and welding them both up.
Then punched out the center and scribed the final diameter for the rings to fit into.
The biggest hole saw I had in the collection was 2.75", which was a fair bit off of the ~3.75" of the gauges.
After some bigificating with the powerfile, I test fit the first bezel. Looking pretty sharp. Also, beer.
After opening up the second hole, I spent a good 15 minutes trying to get the two rings oriented as similarly as possible. It might not be perfect, but I think I can live with it. I can always adjust it a bit with the ol' grinder.
The gauges still fit snugly in the rings, so we're heading in the right direction.
Pretty well pleased with this. Speedo is a little crooked here, yes, but it can be rotated in the ring. No worries.
Now, I knew I wanted a slight fillet at the base of the rings. Both to help defeat the faraday cage effect when powdercoating and to give the look a little more "weight". There's not many high-temp, conductive fillers on the market. There's some high end, specific for powdercoating fillers, but they are cost inhibitive and can't be sourced locally. Luckily there is one product that you can get just about anywhere that is both conductive and good for 500*F...
So, tonight will be finish sanding and forming, then powdercoating. I'll probably start on the wiring, too. I believe there is only 10 wires to chase down, so it shouldn't be too difficult.
Burrito wrote: Now, I knew I wanted a slight fillet at the base of the rings. Both to help defeat the faraday cage effect when powdercoating and to give the look a little more "weight". There's not many high-temp, conductive fillers on the market. There's some high end, specific for powdercoating fillers, but they are cost inhibitive and can't be sourced locally. Luckily there is one product that you can get just about anywhere that is both conductive and good for 500*F...
Have you tried Lab Metal?
http://www.amazon.com/Hi-Temp-Lab-Metal-24-oz/dp/B003YESZM4
http://www.alvinproducts.com/ProductLine/tabid/62/aT/View/ProductID/6/Hi-Temp-Lab-metal.aspx
EvanB wrote:Burrito wrote: Now, I knew I wanted a slight fillet at the base of the rings. Both to help defeat the faraday cage effect when powdercoating and to give the look a little more "weight". There's not many high-temp, conductive fillers on the market. There's some high end, specific for powdercoating fillers, but they are cost inhibitive and can't be sourced locally. Luckily there is one product that you can get just about anywhere that is both conductive and good for 500*F...Have you tried Lab Metal? http://www.amazon.com/Hi-Temp-Lab-Metal-24-oz/dp/B003YESZM4 http://www.alvinproducts.com/ProductLine/tabid/62/aT/View/ProductID/6/Hi-Temp-Lab-metal.aspx
I have not. It's on the to-do list, but not until I have something that requires a fair amount of product. It only has a 6 month shelf life, and I didn't want to spend $50+ for something that will turn into a brick by the time I need it again.
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