Hi again,

I am back with another project. This time it is a car project. I have decided i want a ‘new’ more economical car. Therefore i found an old Fiat Marea Weekend and started a light restoration to make it road legal.

I found this car on my fathers property, where it has been sitting since 2019.

This is where i found the car:

The car

Make: Fiat Model: Marea Weekend Year: 2000 Engine: 2.4 JTD (5 cylinder) Power: 130 HP Gearbox: 5 speed manual Fuel: Diesel

The plan

The plan is to get the car road legal again. This means fixing the minimal rust, getting it through inspection and getting it registered.

Most of the problems with this car has been electrical and lack of space in the engine bay. Changing the timing belt is a nightmare. According to the internet, the engine has to be lifted out of the car to change the timing belt. I made it work though.

The car had issues with the gearbox. A bearing inside the gearbox is worn quite a bit and has a lot of play in it. The best way to diagnose this is to remove the gearbox and inspect it. This is quite annoying since there is so little space to work wiith. This will be done at some point, once the weather gets above -10 degrees celsius.

I will take down the gearbox and inspect it, i have a spare gearbox from a Alfa 166 2.4 JTD. I do not know if it will fit, but i will try.

The work

So far i have done the following work on the car:

• Changed the timing belt
• Changed the water pump
• Changed oil and filter
• Changed air filter
• Changed fuel filter
• Changed cabin filter
• Changed brake pads
• Changed brake discs
• Restored brake calipers
• Purchased new exhaust

The remaining work is mainly gearbox related, but also some rust work. Most of the rust is in the back around the tow hook.

I have also taken off the tow hook and cleaned it up. To prevent it from rusting again i had it sent to get galvanized. It looks really good now!

Unfortunately i do not have any pictures of the tow hook ;(

Random images

That is all for now. I will update this post as i progress with the car.

See ya. 🦉