That's perfect, but shipping a non runner from NY to BC would kill me cost wise. Oh well. If only it was in Seatle or Bellingham...

this might help //www.ebay.com/itm/FIAT-128-1974-2-door-sedan-Rally-tuner-project-race-car-or-restoration/301806313947?_trksid=p2045573.c100034.m2102&_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIC.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20131003150253%26meid%3D33fb6b5292404c2aa815d4f0369c4519%26pid%3D100034%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D3%26sd%3D252160190664

 

1975 X1/9 engine was 1290cc 86.7mm bore, stroke 55.5mm, 8.5 compression ratio, 66.5 hp SAE net. Final drive 13/53 (4 to 1). Wheels 5.5" J x 13. Tires 145 - 13 Michelin XAS with tubes!  Not alot of power, but that engine would sing. Very smooth and would rev easily. 2-barrel Webber down-draft carb.  When I had the head gasket fixed, the head was planed slightly to ensure a good seal. That upped the compression ratio and power a bit.

4-wheel disk brakes were interesting: the shoe backing plates were identical, but the front friction materia was twice as thick as the back. When they wore down, I'd buy new fronts and move the old fronts to the back. The front hubs were also unusual: they had the hub nut in the inboard side.

Hi

it was on EBay recently one Fiat 128 two doors, use to have one in 80, great fiat 1128 cc engine ,common engine share next :Fiat  X1,9: Yugo 55 :Zastava 101:Fiat TF .

Not so sure, after Carlo Abarth  pull out from  racing, it become  famous   Fiat 128 tuner  Trivelleto,  Fiat 128 Rally  yellow with two black lines on trunk ,great car.

In 1975, I bought a brand new FIAT X1-9. Dad suggested we go from Ottawa to Montreal to see about a better deal, which I did get. While there, he looked at the 128 4-door and decided to buy one. Shrewd dealer that he was, he even asked for a 'finder's fee' discount for having brought my business to them.

Fast-forward to 1976 and a trip from Ottawa to Wolfville NS on the Nov 11th long (4-day) weekend - we made it a long weekend - with a buddy. He was pining to see his fiancee atr Acadia University, I'd never been to Nova Scotia, so what the heck. 1000 miles each way didn't seem too bad.

Now, the power train was based on the 128. One weakness is that the oil passage to the over-head-cam cylinder head is very close to the front edge of the block, and my car had developed a slight weeping there. But off we went, with a couple of spare quarts just in case. We left Ottawa about 2AM as it was a 20 hour drive. The trip down was "interesting" - it started to snow before we left, and once east of Montreal it was snowing pretty heavily. The only traffic on the 4-lane road was 18-wheelers, and they were lifting huge clouds of powdery snow. But I could pass them safely: I'd pull into the left lane, flash my high-beams and wait for the driver to flash his mirror-mounted back-up spot-light. Then I would go from one side clearance light to the next until I got past him. This was on Michelin XAS tires, for you who remember those beauties. The only thing that passed us was a Rolls-Royce, probably heading for Quebec City. The snow stopped before dawn and the sky cleared about Riviere-de Loupe, where the Trans-Canada Highway turns south towards New Brunswick. Nice drive until dark and Nova Scotia where we hit rain and fog.

By the time we got to Nova Scotia, the oil weep had become a leak at a nice steady 80 psi (+/-). The trip back was better weather-wise, but the leak wasn't. Instead of stopping for gas, we'd "fill up the oil and check the gas". we'd also buy 4 more quarts for the road. The oil guage would stay rock-steady until we were down about 2 imperial quarts, and then it would start to droop. When it drooped low enough, we'd pull over and add 2 quarts. The weather stayed mostly good and more than half the trip was in the dark.

Now an X1-9 is a transverse mid-engine car with very good aereodynamics. Air flow under the car very smoothly too. The muffler is also transverse, between the power plant and the rear end. The steady stream of oil would dribble down the front of the block to be carried off by the under-car slip-stream, only to be caught by the muffer, where it would be warmed, vapourized and released as a nice BIG blue cloud. Ever seen an engine blow at a race track and the car trailing a long plume of smoke? That was us. Good thing it was dark! From Montreal back to Ottawa. we hit heavy fog, which helped conceal our passage.

The best part of the trip was I met the lovely female student that became my wife. Still married 37 years! "Smokin'!"

 

Oh man, actually the cop never stopped me.  I had gone maybe a quarter mile down the dirt road in the desert just so he'd go by down the freeway.  So I would've been stuck in the desert without oil or water.

For some reason the pain has sort of vanished from my mind, some kind of self-preservation instinct.  Impoartant part of the story was that the sender was bad, there was an OP problem and it was all for naught.

As I recall I tried to sleep in the car that night because it was so cold it made the burns feel better.

 

My mother had a 124 automatic when I was in high school. It was my main transportation until I bought my first car....AH Sprite. Still have fond memories of my mom's 124.

The Fiat 128 and Lada are different animals. The Lada was a 124. bigger, but still boxy

they still produce em in Egypt hehe

So when the cop arrived, how did you explain your state?  What did the girlfriend think of your 'tan'?  Inquiring minds want to know...

A very similar boxy little Fiat was popular in Baghdad when I was a child. I never knew about the joint venture with the Russian Lada (and really? ...those made it to Scotland?? and why would anyone 'restore' them?)... Anyway, they started building these in Egypt in the 70s, and what a hopeless joke those were!  It was rumored that the road leading from the factory in Cairo was littered with parts that just fell off the cars!  It did enormous damage to Fiat's reputation.... kind of like now with Chrysler!!

I remember seeing a bunch of Lada Niva Sport 4x4s when I was stationed in Iceland in the 80's. I always thought they would be a blast to drive. 

 

OK I have to tell a story here because that was my first car.  I was 19, driving to Utah to crash with a girlfriend, had no money, no registration or insurance of course.  Car piled high with guitar cases, amps and smelly clothes.

I didn't know the first thing about cars, this one had a faulty oil pressure sender that would light up the OP warning light when it got up to temperature.  So I had always thought it was about to blow up and would only drive for 30 mins at a time and let it cool down - so the light would go off.  Yes multiple dumbass assumptions there, but hey I was 19.  My fix was to always overfill it with oil thinking that would stop the oil pressure problem (!).

So as I'm driving across Nevada stopping every 30 mins I can see a cop tailing me.  I pulled into a gas station to buy even more oil in case the light went on.  Then for safety, I figured I would dump in two more quarts just to be sure.

Once out on the highway again in the mirror were massive clouds of cumulus smoke behind me - like you couldn't see anything behind the car.  I thought and thought and decided perhaps that's what happens when you put too much oil in.  A huge "Come and get me" sign to the cop, wherever he was.

I pulled over and went a little bit down a dirt side road off the freeway - away from the cop - and now had to figure out how to get all that excess oil out of the car.  Undid the drain plug just a touch, to let it slowly dribble out.  Then a touch more, and of course the drain plug popped merrily out and bounced out of reach under a tire.

Now I'm underneath a flood of hot oil in the desert, drain plug out of reach, off down a dirt road and have only seconds to stop the flood or I would be stuck in the desert in the days before cell phones.  I bunched up my shirtsleeve to cram into the hole which slowed the torrent.  With my foot was able to get the drain plug up to my other hand and it actually threaded on the first attempted spin.  It was so hot I don't know how I was able to hold it.

I'd stopped at the gas station long enough for the engine to cool a bit so fortunately wasn't completely up to temperature.  I was totally soaked in hot oil and my skin was peeling all over for weeks afterward.  

Painful, oh yes.  Just like seeing a picture of a Fiat 128 coupe.

you might even find something in here too //www.fiatspider.com/f15/index.php

good idea/// I don't know they share that much in common, but it's a lead! Cheers!

Check out the Xweb forum and put up a wanted post, you never know...

//xwebforums.org/forumdisplay.php?f=3

 

That Vaz is very cool, but I really want a 128. I wish I could get both actually...

.... or maybe a Vaz/Lada

//www.ebay.com/itm/Other-Makes-VAZ-2101-Fiat-124-SEAT-124-Tofa-Murat-124-VAZ-2103-/121813385324?forcerrptr=true&hash=item1c5ca4c06c:g:mLoAAOSweuxWRMJe&item=121813385324

 

Wouldn' t you prefer a Fiat 124 sedan with a complete trunk? They are as hard as 128 to find here in the US. 

I have been considering to import one of its Spanish cousins, a Seat 124, but the shipping costs are not really worth. For a car that can be bought for $4000 in very good condition, shipping is as much if not more than that,

Cheers,

Abel

Think the Lada was based on the Fiat 124, a pretty Bombproof engine, but worse than UK built cars of that Era for Tinworm....which was saying something.

Ironic that a LOT of my business back in the early 2000s was collecting Ladas all over Scotland and taking them down to Hull Docks to be shipped to St Petersburg for restoration. Labour costs were so low over there that it made economic sense.

the ladas were based on the fiat platform yes