What is happening with this build. I have a 128 build going on and would like to talk about your build.
What is happening with this build. I have a 128 build going on and would like to talk about your build.
Burrito will be along shortly to tell us that the car is still alive and still in the project queue...and our job is to remind him that he can't dedicate all of his time on motorcycle racing and that his 128 is worthy of love.
Five years later...
Not dead yet.
I am very happy to see you back here you are one of the people I truly missed when they left.
Love this car, glad the thread is back up.
I love little cars. Glad you're back.
Slippery said:Love this car, glad the thread is back up.
Same. Car is looking great.
So.....?
Where did you go?
Often wondered what happened to the build and the builder.
Pete
NOHOME said:So.....?
Where did you go?
Often wondered what happened to the build and the builder.
Pete
I've been around. Never really left GRM, just kinda stopped posting. Most of my projects in the last five years have been old Spanish motorcycles. I did the dual sport thing with my wife for a while, but then she kinda fell out of love with it, so I started going racing to fill that void, and with racing came the full time hobby of building and maintaining a fleet of temperamental vintage two strokes.
And then last summer I drug this old Nova out the barn it had been sleeping in since 1994, and that reminded me how fun old cars can be.
Naturally it took some time, but it's mostly a daily driver now.
And now we're here, working on this poor little Fiat that I've walked past every day for nearly five years.
In reply to Ethnic Food-Wrap Aficionado :
quad cab!
Happy "Put a Fiat motor in your wife's Prius" to all those who celebrate.
And a huge thanks to Craig for both the engine, and a great day of shop hangs / pottery chitchat. 
I had forgotten all about Spanish enduro bikes. That this is nice! Is there a reason you focused on these other than they are way Kool?
Food Wrap.....my apologies I first really paid attention to your moniker this past week on the birfday list, but when NoHome posted I decided to peek inside......WHOA what a surprise!!!!!excuse me as go to page one....the two strokes rock
In reply to NOHOME :
Please, sir, these are Spanish race bikes. 
It's a family thing. My father and his two brothers suffer/suffered the same affliction.
Here's my Uncle Mike on that bike circa 1972 or so.
Successful week here.
Finished, sold, and packaged a Stiletto pipe to put a few Fun Bux back in the Burrito Discretionary Account.
Hopefully those welds aren't too wobbly looking on something other than my phone.
I did some late night beer infused googling last week searching for an off the shelf solution for the passenger side motor mount bushing on the 128. The stock inserts are NLA, and the offset mount I cast (twice...) is one the biggest reasons I parked the car. Unknown durometer polyurethane a guy might steal from work isn't the best option, apparently. It was fine at idle, but would absolutely rattle your fillings out from about 1200rpm to 7000rpm. It made the car absolutely undrivable.
I ended up ordering some E30 solid offset lower control arm bushings. Same O.D. as the Fiat bushing, but a few mm narrower. Also needed a new pin, which was nice excuse to spend some time on the little clausing lathe.
Quicky test fit of the pin to make sure I know how to use the metric system.
And then reinstalled as a nearly factory unit, while keeping the raised engine position for the 5 speed trans/sway bar clearance issue that's plagued the car since forever.
And I'm very happy to say that the death rattle is gone!
Next big item on the punch list is seat mount brackets, which should happen this week. We've got some electrical gremlins to sort, and then we might be rolling for the first time in half a decade.
It feels good to be back. Thanks for tuning back in and picking back up where we left off. I truly appreciate everyone chiming in and showing support. It really helps with the mojo around here.
Woohoo!
Nice 
A couple of years ago I picked up these mk5 golf seats and sent the completely rotten 128 seats to the dump. I got as far as drawing up a rough sketch of the mounts, then promptly moved on with my life with no further action.
They're heavy, too tall, and don't exactly fit the feel of the car, but they're mounted and will serve the purpose until something better comes along. They're absolutely 100% better than a milk crate.
A little jiggery pokery later and actually drove my wee little beater around the neighborhood!
I'm having a bit of trouble reviving some of the electrics. There's some less than stellar wiring modifications performed by previous owners, and I think I'm at the point where it makes the most sense to return everything to factory, and then troubleshoot it from there.
Wow, it runs with no fuel in the tank, er, well on the gauge......I must do that engine mount trick for my X1/9.
In reply to TurnerX19 :
That's Benzina, pal. I always loved the Benzina gauge on my 124 sport coupe.
I need a "temperamental vintage two stroke........." Great bikes you have !!
Epic amounts of win in this thread.
In reply to Ethnic Food-Wrap Aficionado :
I think the plaid looks quite snazzy. Maybe someday you will do the door cards to match.
I found a fourth scabbed in icecube relay stuffed in under the dash, and honestly I don't think I even knew about it when I put the car together the first time around. Naturally it controls almost all of the lighting, and it was chock full of white fuzz. It hasn't exactly been dry inside the car the last 5 years, so no great surprise there. Cleaning the contacts got me a lot closer to a legal amount of lighting, and combining two of the other scabbed in relays into one got me even closer. Currently just missing license plate lights, corner markers, and instrument cluster lights.
With lighting largely sorted, I pulled it off storage insurance and renewed the registration. I spent a little while doing a little nut and bolt check to make sure it wasn't going to try to kill me, tossed a handful of tools and a fire extinguisher in the passenger seat and hit the nearest gas station for some not 5 year old gas.
And I gotta say, I have no berkeleying excuses for letting this thing sit so long. It's SO MUCH FUN!
I spent an hour and a half just blasting around town, dodging traffic, going wherever everyone else wasn't going. Absolutely grinning from ear to ear the whole time. It isn't quick, but it makes some glorious noises.
The only real problem that presented itself was an occasional flame out if you let the idle drop too quickly without padding it, so I'll have get into tunerstudio before too long to try to suss that out.
I also definitely need to roll the fenders a little more. I did a little bit on the rears, but the fronts are still stock. Whole lot of rubbing going on. I'll toss the wagon spring pack on the rear when I do that.
A few other nagging things; when you chop throttle, the pedal kinda over returns and then there's maybe 3/4" of free play before you take up the slack when you get back into it. The trans is pretty noisy, it wasn't exactly quiet 5 years ago, and letting it sit didn't fix anything. I expected this and I'm likely just going back to a 4 speed while I figure out what to do longer term. The fuel pump needs some sort of isolation or sound deadening. It makes a racket at idle.
But still, I'm STOKED! We're back, baby!
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