Me & My Resto: Fiat 127
Memories of his previous Fiat 127 Sport prompted Nigel Ford to restore this identical example
A stunning restoration built on nostalgia by Nigel Ford.
When I was 19 years old I owned a Fiat 127 Sport just like this one, even down to the Racing Orange colour. I’d had a poster of one on my wall since I was 16, when the Black and White Garage, then a Fiat dealer, let me drive one. I was hooked and bought the 127 as my second ever car in 1988. I did over 42,000 miles in that Fiat and sold it in 1990. Then I got into Triumphs. After restoring a Herald and a GT6 I wondered what had happened to my old Fiat. I never did find KPM 32W and I’d love to have it back.
In 2018 I was watching a Youtube video from 2010 that had a couple of black Fiat 127s in the background. I got in touch with the guy who’d made it and was invited over to look at his orange Sport. It had been rebuilt and resprayed about ten years before, but after being left unused it had started to rust and most of the wiring was unattached. It barely ran, and was misfiring and stalling. Somehow it had a current MOT, though I’m sure that it shouldn’t have.
He wanted £4000 for it – but I could see £1500 of work ahead of me, so I offered £3000. I went home empty handed. So few of these cars change hands it’s hard to know what they’re worth. Two weeks later I was on the phone to him, doing a deal involving a few of his spare parts including the original engine. In July 2018 I trailered the orange 127 home behind my Rover 75.
Back into the world of Sport
I particularly wanted this car because it’s a genuine Sport, which means it has various special parts including larger front brake discs, a stiffer and thicker anti-roll bar, wider wheels, reprofiled camshaft, bigger valves with increased compression ratio, Abarth twin exhaust and spoilers front and rear.
First I spray-painted the wheels silver, then I turned my attentions to the metalwork. The passenger door was so rotten at the base, the doorskin wasn’t even touching the frame. I stripped it and Mig-welded in a new section of metal across the base, fabricating the curved section at the front and adding a lip to give me something to weld the new exterior metal to. Next I repaired the rust holes in the bonnet, which helped me get it to fit properly. I then repaired a lot of other small areas including both rear corners.
After I’d prepped it, Ady Godwin Specialist Car Body Repairs Ltd in Membury resprayed it. The roof was the only section unpainted.
My friend Bryan Mcgee made the Sport stripes based on photos and measurements of the car. There’s supposed to be a rubbing strip along the base of the door, but they usually cause rust, so I had Bryan make one in vinyl that included the all-important 70HP badge. Fortunately, all those parts exclusive to the Sport came with it, including the correct engine and manifold, twin-choke Weber, door mirrors and the correct gearbox with lower final drive ratio. It’s surprising what is still available – you can still buy things like brand new front wings and most engine parts.
None of the electrics worked, as most of the dashboard components were disconnected, but I’d rewired my old GT6 and did the ECU on my Smart Roadster, so I had previous experience in troubleshooting.
Making light work of it
A new offside tail light was a lucky find for me on ebay, at just £25. Fiat used colour-coded plastic screws on each of the lenses – clear, red and amber– and they’re fairly tricky to source since, being plastic, they break very easily. The brakes had been rebuilt by the previous owner but had rusted, so I had to clean and free them off.
Of course, there’s always more you can do, but I don’t want to get obsessive about the car. I want it good but not too nice to use. The previous owner had done a lot of hard work, but hadn’t finished it. It’s one of the forgotten Fiats and was a personal thing for me – a labour of love. I’d have still restored it even if it had been completely rotten.