RHD 131 Sport on ebay

[brensport]

Good man Martin... Full steam ahead! Like your style!

[sid131]

My god thats some bull that came out there, as far as i saw on cars coming out of the uk especially 131s toyota celicas mantas etc those that were prone to rusting all were patched over rust holes isoponed & shutzed,
i have to go now because i cant stop laughing at that one, better stop now before i say more!

[curt]

yo sid - i think your being unfair -for 400 quid (not that i expect it to stop there) the radio could be worth that as an original fiat feature 
I think the car can be saved -there are not many rhd sports out there in any shape or condition 
So in my opinion -as a genuine RHD sport -if it can be re built to a high standard with a full catalogue of its re build -then it will be worth serious money in the future 
If i only had the space and money -that would be me 
Still if it stays at 400 quid -I would love to park it in my garage and if it had front seats  -On a very stressfull day i would sit inside it drink a beer and chill out and remember the good old days 
Some of us arent as lucky as others 

[mirafioriman]

I suppose anything can be restored you just have to replace more metal

There comes a point though when there is very little original metal left and you basically have a new shell which has the original cars identity and oily bits. (A lot of MGB's are now like this as you can buy new shells for them).

I have not seen this car in the flesh so I can only guess, but, I would suspect if it is restored and put back on the road then this may be the case with it.

With regard to Sid's comments, yes many cars are just bodged up. In the UK there are good restorers just like there are in Ireland, but, to restore a car that way costs a lot of money. Few people are willing or able to spend thousands on a car that will possibly never be worth the money invested in it. Therefore they are tidied up to keep them on the road and to make them look respectable.

I am sure there were also many bodged up cars in Ireland too, but, these have now been scrapped and therefore people import cars from the UK.

[djape1977]

you must scan that book and make it available to all 131 entusiasts

[curt]

I totally agree-there are many so say 'professional bodgers' out there ?
beleive me when i say there were many more about in the 80s and 90s than there are now ( I think having been out of the trade 15 years )
You did strike a chord in me though -can yagmur supply new 2 door body shells if there was enough demand ?
Still one mans dreams ?

[mirafioriman]

Heritage (who make the MGB shells) were able to buy the original BL tooling and therefore were able to remake shells to original standards. I suppose it depends if the Fiat tooling (or Tofas for that matter) still exists. If it does then new panels could be made and of course then alligned and spotwelded together to make new shells. However I fear the cost would prevent anybody who is not very rich being able to buy one! Of course it is supply and demand and there is much more demand for MGB bits than Fiat 131 bits no matter how passionate about the 131 the members of this site are.

With regard to the Fiat body manual I have one too. They do come up on ebay from time to time, mine came as part of a full service manual. Incidentally mine is in German, but the book in question is multi-lingual so no problem. It is worth asking ebay sellers to look in the manual to see if this book is there. That's what I did and got a bargain.

With regard to scanning it in that could be done, but, it has quite a few pages and would take a while. If we as a forum are able to do this (copyright?) then it would be good if we could get all Fiat 131 publications scanned in and posted on a section on this site as PDF files. This could upset a few book dealers though

[131NZ]

Well done Martin!!!  I hope you are the winner and manage to restore the car in the way you described and maybe even post ongoing pics of the restoration. Especially for Sid!! I agree that any 131 is restorable if the funds are there. I dont have the funds to do something like that but if I did, the car would be done properly. I know for a fact killie kennys super was done properly, along with a few other classics i knew of that were restored some years ago before i moved to N.Z.  So Sid, despite your ongoing opinion...... 
...........a lot of cars in the UK do get restored properly just the same as in any other country!!!!

[djape1977]

i don't think it would upset anyone enough to do something about it. most user/repair manuals are available on the net these days and such sections are common on many forums such as http://lada-klub.com/viewtopic.php?t=34 or http://www.zsiguli.hu/index.php?action=cikk&id=121 or http://www.fiat-lancia.org.rs/forum/index.php?showtopic=37216&hl=manual or http://rapidshare.com/files/224343486/Manuale_Officina_Lancia_Y.pdf.html or http://www.cbc.rs/forum/viewtopic.php?f=60&t=4532&start=225

and sorry about my stupid question. i wasn't aware that you had such repair capacity. than it will be no problem for you and i'm truly happy that yet another classic car will be saved from oblivion

[kev131]

I wonder is the real debate here more about the likelihood of the car being restored rather than the possibility ?

As others have said, if time and resources are made available... anything can be fixed ...but I've lost count of the number of standby and unfinished 131 projects that began with a much sounder beginning than this car. I'm not criticising anyone in that position either as I imagine that the amount of difficult work involved, unexpected additional tasks plus the scarity of parts needed to complete the projects can be de-motivational.?

Best of luck to whoever takes it on and I'll be delighted if it results in another saved 131 Sport.?

[eugene]

This is my opinion.Anyone who would pay 400Uk sterling for that car is not right in the head.One should be paid for removing it out of the way.When it looks bad in the photos,what must it be like when one sees it for real .If it was mine,i would be very grateful if someone removed it for free.Eugene

[sid131]

Hi Mclements131 how about sharing some pics of all the 131 sports you have with the 131 community here on the forum?
seeing as you run your own body shop thats insurance approved it should be no problem to you to post pics as you will have to email crashed car pics to the said insurance companies, so how about some nice before & after restoration pics?

[theredx19]

Ah Sid that is a minter that car sure probably has an mot but I love the Flintstones brakes on her (dirty big hole in the floor) 

[sid131]

Floor ? what floor? its just got 12 months ticket today ha ha
seriously Dave would you like to see some pics of all these 131 sports or what?
i cant wait until Martin posts them up on the forum.

[mirafioriman]

Will be interesting to see what it makes. At around ?400 it is still reasonable in my opinion even if only used for parts. Apart from the front seats it looks complete and we all know how some little bits of trim and stuff can be hard to find.