Since my green Jtd rusted behind the doors I had to buy a new car. Now it had to be a diesel for economy and be fast but could'nt be a golf or anything like that because everyones driving them. Had thought of a 306hdi but there expensive enough and although handling would be way better the engines not as good or tuneable as a jtd.
Could'nt find any jtds for sale in Ireland so bought a white jtd100 from england and got a truck driver to collect it for a small fee.


The paintwork was good and it looked nice but needed some tweakin. So a list of tasteful mods were planned:
Colour coded door handles
colour coded fiat solid mudflaps
Alfa romeo seats
Marea polyeliptical headlights with nightbreaker bulbs or maybe Hid's.
Foglight front bumper
clear indicators
bonnet lifters
flat wiper blades
roughly 30mm lowering.
New shocks
Renew all perishable componements
Rear disk conversion and painted red callipers
Lightly tinted windows
Remap
Alloys
and more I will think of to make it better.

Luckily I have my other bravo as a donor for any non-rusty parts I might need.
Ill update it more soon.

The front section had some surface rust so the first job was to start stripping off everything out of the way, radiator, intercooler, suspension, subframe and all that. Then a day or two was spent cleaning off all rust on the front and front wheelarches with grinder and drill attachments. Then I masked it all off and acid-etch primered it and sprayed the areas.




So the front was looking a bit better, even though no-one would see these areas I hate rust and want this bravo to last!

I like your mod list and I like your fight against the rust Should be a good project keep the updates comeing.

Next it was onto the underside, everything was stripped off and the usual grinding with wire wheels and spraying. underseal was put on any areas that previously had it. This was a **** job but had to be done and the underside was looking alot nicer after.
.


I also cleaned up the wheelarches and sprayed stone-chip seal on the inner lip of the arches.



Heres a pic of the completly dismantled rear beam. the swing arm bearing bolts were a bitch to get out.



And after it was painted.

]

And the swing arms with new bearings installed along with plenty of grease for long life.

looking good,keep us in formed.
Like the way you got it transported,you dont find many drivers who will do that

I dream about doing this to my Bravo
Any chance of slightly bigger pictures

nice!!
like the project idea!!!
good luck!

After that I got the rear beam mounted, and swing arms bolted in.



Cleaned up the rear callipers and sprayed them. When your doing this clean the sliders and regrease them.



Then mounted them and other bits and the fuel tank.



Sorry about the small pictures, hope these ones are better and cheers for the encouragment lads. Its really coming together now!

Looks like its coming steaming along! thats gonna be one nice car once youre done ther!

Moved up to the front then. Changed the clutch and the DMF was still in good condition, and got the gearbox back on.



Cleaned up the front subframe, painted it and mounted it. Did I forget to tell ye this jtd came with so ABS, so i retro fitted it from the donor. If you lose the head easily dont try this. Its very hard to do with the engine still in trying to route the brake lines and cables. Heres the ABS unit,

Looking good. One bit of advice though. You've fitted the rear callipers wrong. The mounting bracket is upside down. Easy mistake to do.

It would be nice if you made a guide with lots of pictures for how to install ABS to a bravo.


:
Fiat Marea Chrome Front Grille. Fiat Bravo MK2 Front Grille.
ePER V4.0 2008 DVD, Bravo & Marea Workshop Manuals, Fiat Bravo Haynes Manual &, Fiat Bravo Owners Manual on CD etc...

Loving this thread Ned!

I only hope you are as diligent with the outside as you are with the underside. You seem almost fanatical about returning it to factory condition and for that I salute you.
Agree with Joske Re a guide for retro fitting ABS but it sounds like a "5 spanner" job.
If I brought my JTD to your neigbourhood how long would you need to....

I really enjoy this thread, thanks for the updates looks good.

I remember Shaun got some stick for fitting his caliper mounting plate wrong hehe

Nice bit of work there. As others mentioned, you have the rear calipers on wrong.

I've had 2 rear disc conversions and you need to get the caliper at the 9 o'clock position when the wheel is on. If you fit a wheel on yours, it'll be more like 11 o'clock if that makes sense.

Not quite sure of the effects of wrongly fitting a caliper, but I know I wouldn't want to find out

Longest Serving BOO Member

Stilo (3dr): Mar 06 1.4 16V Active Sport / 28,500 miles
Coupe: Feb 97 20V N/A / 136,000 miles

Ye ill make an ABS fitting guide once Im sure its working properly. As for the brakes I had them fitted in that position on my other bravo for a year with no ill effects. Different manufacturers put the callipers in different places, a suzuki swift Gti has the rears at the very top in the 12 o'clock position, so Im not sure if makes any difference.
But thanks for pointing it out Lads, Ill mess around with it some more to get it into the correct position.

Ned

Alots been done since here are just a few pictures of painted parts.







The front suspension is now fully assembled and timing belt, pulleys, idlers and waterpump changed. Also oil and filter and all other serviveable parts.

just a small query. what is the point of removing perfectly good paint or underseal? surely it would have been better to leave the factory stuff well alone. it's not as if the car is a real rust bucket. seems like a lot of work for nothing. it might look good for a few months but will then look like any other used bravo.

Ive only removed underseal on areas that have rusted, removed the rust and resealed. I bet If you look underneath every bravo there will be rust in the same places.
Fiat did a good job of undersealing them but theres still areas that get affected by rust, and in my opinion the steel is not as good as german, french or jap cars. Hate to say it but thats the way it is.

Hey Ned
Thanks for the update. I like seeing pictures of parts. I know what to expect when im working on mine

I need to do this, the slam pannel is not galvanised I was thinking of getting one galvanised somewhere. I did not know those legs came off but glad they do, I painted mine on the car black for now.

Ye they come off. They rust where they bolt on to the chassis. My slam panel wasnt bad but I sprayed it because its a very visable part when you open the bonnet.
Oh Ive used triflow metal paint on all the suspension bits like subframes,. hubs etc.
Seen your car over on Fiat-forum Adrian and its very tidy.... fair play.

Ned

Thank You ned

Just need to fit my spoiler and its finnished. I recently fitted a full leather interior.

I might start building up a bigger engine for it, but work space is a problem. I curse myself for not having some kind of garage space.

So all major mechanical parts were finished and engine was started and running fine and the aircon works too .

So started cleaning the bodywork and cutting it. Notice in the picture the difference between the cut paint and normal.



Then prepped and sprayed a foglight front bumper, Gt spoiler and door handles.



I got some aero flat blade off an Alfa 147(to keep it Italian) and made some Hybrid wiper arms using the bravo ones aswell. Welder comes in handy here. At least when I need replacement blades I can get them in my motor factors instead of ordering them on the net!



Also took out the wiper motor assembly and regreased all the joints.

Sorry same pic in twice, heres the sprayed bumper.

Ned - i'm about to respray my f/bumper too. How many and where are the fixings for the bumper so i don't miss the prep with WD40 to loosen the bolts. One at the front already broke off last year. Cheers

There are two bolts on each side that connect the top of the bumper to the wings.
Two bolts in the middle between the lights that connect it to the front crossmember.
A bolt on each side that connect the bottom of the bumper to the 'legs'.
And a few bolts holding on the undertray.

Ye alot of bolts can snap when taking a bravo apart, Ive cleaned all mine with a tap and die set and greased and I think might try to rust in the future.

Heres a picture of the paintwork after cutting, polishing and waxing. It came up really shiny, I used meguirs stuff. More pics soon

Ive been doing a lot of work since and its on the road. The abs is working, so a guide will be coming soon aswell.
Put the bumpers, mudflaps, handles and electric mirrors on.



Oh and I converted it to a van as planned which involved tinting the rear-side windows limotint black and a panel in behind them, and a van floor with carpeting and acess to the rear wheel.



Also got alfa 156 momo-leather seats for the front, a marea centre console and a leather gearnob. Now Im thinking I want to retrim the armrest and doorcards in leather! And it needs a nicer steering wheel- say a punto sportings?

And a few pics of it.





Its sitting a bit high though, especially on the rear wheels and Im just waiting on a set of KW springs to sort the handling and looks.

But its driving really nicely, a big step up from the td100 ive been driving recently. Ill put up some more pics when its lowered.

Ned