Show off time.... a bit of before and after

Jeremy128

Jeremy128

True Classic
I have never neen happy with the stock look of my 128. So, over the last several months, I have been palying around with a few ideas. As you all know, I got a rear X bumoer from Jim, and mounted it on the 128. I put my Hellas on it a coupel weeks ago, but never got around to wiring them because of Feul Pump, Voltage Reg, and coil issues.
Now that the Fiat gods are happy with me (for now) I had some time to play.
I just got the honeycomb grill from Carl F yesterday, so I had to throw it on, when I was finished with the lights. If you look at the pics, you will see my littel LED blinkers mounted on the bumper. These are actualyl sidemarker lights for a motorcycle. Not D.O.T. approved as a blinker, but that doesn't matter.
Mounting the lights was easy. RUnning the wire, relay and then making ti look clean was a P.I.T.A.!
Before and after (so far)
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By jeremy128, shot with COOLPIX L14 at 2009-06-02
Bone stock

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By jeremy128, shot with COOLPIX L14 at 2009-06-02

tucked away with the spider I sold a few weeks ago.


Cockpit
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By jeremy128, shot with COOLPIX L14 at 2009-06-02

First attempt at customizing
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By jeremy128, shot with COOLPIX L14 at 2009-06-02

now
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By jeremy128, shot with SPH-M540 at 2009-06-02

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By jeremy128, shot with SPH-M540 at 2009-06-02

Trying to pay atention to detail to keep the wiring clean
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By jeremy128, shot with SPH-M540 at 2009-06-02

128rallylights3.jpg

By jeremy128, shot with SPH-M540 at 2009-06-02

Next on the list..... install header and free flow exhaust, then lower suspension, allignment, toe in, camber, then tires.
Further down the road, rebuild the 1500 on the stand, and install

(Jim, I think you created a monster!)
 
Two words

Rallye Stripes :dance:

Niw that you have mastered picture posting, we need to get you up to speed on Photshop. :)
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You don't need the Pizza Hut sign unless you deliver.
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It would be scarier

with Rallye Stripes!!

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I guess you are using a camera phone? The pics are pretty good. My phone's camera is kinda lame.
 
Yeah, camera phone. My wife dropped our cmaera dn broke it.
I am thikning rally stripes, but not like that. I am tinking about M1 stripes. 4"stripe next to 2" stripe running over pass side.
 
Jeremy... I don't think you should see Jim anymore...

I'm not sure if he is a good influence for you... He appears to be FEEDING your fantasies instead of giving you fatherly guidance.

Shame on him...

(HAHAHA)
 
HA... Well... stay away from him for the next few days...

... until AFTER his doctor finishes with him ... You just NEVER know.

(contact Jim for the DETAILS...)
 
HAHA. Funny you shoud mention keeping it yellow. My wife was not too happy when I decided to keep the 128, and sell the spider. SHe liekd the spider, and thinks the 128 is ugly. But, it came down to the fact that was my choice. Afterall, I gave up my Triumph motorcycke to get into Fiats. She absolutley HATES the 128. She says it would look "a little better if it wasn't yellow".
Over the last few months, I have really started to like the fact that my wife hates the 128! This means, that she doesn't care about the car at all! So, I figure, as long as I can keep her hating the car, I can keep doing what I want to it! Because of her remakrks abotu the yellow, I am gonna keep it yellow. I will repaint it, but want to keep the same.
I do want to add some stripes eventually.......but that is a long way out, so we'll see.
 
Jeremy... here's a quarter's worth of advice...

... you can Paypal me...

I completely agree with the feelings you have about your car and the fact yor BRIDE hates it... Kinda like you feel like yur gettin' away with something...

With 41+ years of married bliss under my belt... might I offer that you be SURE she is happy with HER ride and that you only serve to MAINTAIN it for her, and nothing else. She'll appreciate your thoughtfulness and although she will never love the car, she'll resolve to let you have your way with it.

Works for me... might work for you!
 
Very good advice Tony! I learn3ed long before I was married that, as long as you keep her happy, she will LET you be happy.
While she does hate the 128, she does let me have alot of fun with it. I have to brag here. I have the coolest wife on the planet. She was wide open to me getting a FIat a couple years ago. She knew I liked playing with old cars, and bikes. I already owned my old 65 Triumph, so now it was time for a car. After buying the spider, I decided to sell my bike. SHe told me not to, becuase she initially thought that I would regret it. Abotu 5 weeks after selling the Triumph, I found the 128. SHe told em to go ahead and buy it :dance:
I quickly realized that I did not/do not have time for 2 fiats. So, I had a hard time figuring otu which to sell. Eventually I told her the SPider was gonna be sold. She didnt liek that, but she respected my decision. SHe KNEW I fell in love with the hardtops. I told her that if I sell the 128, I would sell the SPider in a couple years, and get a much nicer (more expensice hard top, liek the Lancia Fulvia/alfa GT and so on. So why sell a hard to, just to buy a har top down th eroad. So now I have the 128, that she hates, and sold the one she liked.
As far as her car is concerned, she knows very well that she can pick ANY car that she wants. The lease is up on her 07 VW Passat in nov. We have been looking at cars for severl months, so she can make an informed decision, and pick her own car, without me telling her what to get.
She also knows that, in the future, she can get her own little toy car.
SHe was interested in the Miata, and a couple other small cars. SHe recently mentioned that she is very interested in picking up one of the "new" 500, after they have been on the market for a while, so she can get a used one.
I keep my wife very happy, so she will LET me be happy. If the wife is good, so is your life. If your wife is miserable, you can bet that......
 
HAHAHA... Yeah but...

Watch out for those... "sure, go ahead and buy it if that's what you want"... phrases with the "I DARE YOU UNDERTONES!"

You'll end up paying for it dearly in other ways! HA!

Anyway... I enjoyed your tale... Mine was never planned, but unfolded this way:

Several years back Jeff Zucker on this site had 4 X's and I had driven 50 miles to help him work on a few... He calls on a Sunday eve and says come get his WHITE car... 'cause if I don't its going to the wrecker tomorrow!

(I can imagine what was going on at HIS house... anyway...)

I tell my wife I just GOTTA get this car as its too good to be crushed and she said FINE, JUST FINE... kinda thing. I told her I would just rescue it, get it in reasonable shape, and unload it. FINE, she said...

I pay him a buck... We put a battery in it, lit it off and I drove it home... and started to tear into it a few days later... I began to say something to my wife about the car when she INTERRUPTED and said... OK, you can keep it, as long as you build a Playhouse for our Granddaughter. Hmmmm... OK, I thought... sure takes the pressure offa me on one hand...

Well, the Playhouse ends up being a two story, air/conditioned, dutch door, carpeted, TV, DVD, running water, microwave and refrigerator thingie and consumes about 5 months of my time and 2300 dollars... that I'm aware of...

I did enjoy the crap outta White Fang as he ran like a scalded dog and I never could figure out why... and when all was said and done... I sold him for $2350 BUCKS!

HA!

I didn't have to sell him... but I built him similar to Black Tooth and found every time I did something to one, I needed to do it to the other. If one was radically different or a race car, that woulda been different. But it really got down to which COLOR did I wanna drive that day, white or black.

Now my white car is a '69 Vette... and its all the difference in the world. She FORCED me to buy that one too...

Good yakkin' with ya!
 
Ahh yes, the old wifes tones. A dangerous trap indeed. YOu need to be very careful with that. Tone of voice, and body language is the universal "tell" of a wife. If she says one thing, and her body and tone say somethign else, be VERY careful. If you fall for it, they will OWN You, like they don't already!
A 'Vette and an X. That is a cool combo of cars there Tony!
I found that owning the 128 and Spider became a competition of each car. I swear they were jealous of each other. If I did one thing to the Spider, the 128 would get pissed and jealous, and act up, causing me to have to do soemthing more for the 128. Then the Spider would get jealous and.....
 
Just made the 128 a little cooler. I got my hands on a free flow air filter for a weber, from a VW shop. I fabbed it up, and made it work. Looks better. I also got a little breather filter to put on the PCV hose.
 
Great... but your fotos did not appear... try again!

HAHAHAHA...

C'mon Jeremy... otherwise ya gotta write 1000 words each and we'll still not believe ya!

Hopefully, you used a K&N... I dunno why... but they work better than even NO filter! Probably 'cause they "comb" the air and align it or develop more turbulants... who .lknows, but your BUTT does not lie! They WORK!
 
OK TOny. I'll go out and snap a couple pics. I assume you are talkig about pics of the filter and breather?
I gotta go out and smoke one anyway.
 
Now, lets see if I can remember how to do this...

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By jeremy128, shot with SPH-M540 at 2009-06-05


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By jeremy128, shot with SPH-M540 at 2009-06-05

aircleaner3.jpg

By jeremy128, shot with SPH-M540 at 2009-06-05

I still have ALOT of work to do under the hood to get it where I want it. As you can see, I have the choke disconnected. I have the hardware to install a manual choke. I hope to get this done over my next set of days off. In teh first pic, you see the rust on teh bottom side of the hood. It is no wehere near as bad as it looks it the pic. It is light surface rust, with 30 years of dirt, and a bit of oil all marinating.
When I replaced teh fuel lines (while trying figure out the fuel prob, I rerouted them in th emanner shown. I think it looks pretty clean, and it keeps the lines farhter away from the exhaust manifold. As sai, it is nowhere near done. But, it looks worlds better than it did a year ago.
And no, it's not a K&N. Since this was teh first go at the cutting/grinding to make the filter set up fit, I decided against buying an expensive set up. This way, if it didn't work out, or I screw something up, I'm only out $20, and about 10 minutes of fab work.
Besides, it came from a VW shop. The VW crowd is generally about the only group that is cheaper than the Fiat crowd! So you know its not goona cost a fortune!
 
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