My 'new' Abarth arrived today, bought as a Cat N from Copart:

Not a bad looking car from one side:


But not quite so good from the other:


Drove off the lorry and into the garage under it's own steam, but noticed it was getting a quite hot considering it had moved so little. Checked the expansion tank - empty. So looks like I'll be needing a new radiator. And then did a quick measure of the distance between a headlight mount and the bulkhead - 2 cm different which was a bit worrying...



And then noticed the camber was a bit off:


Jacked it up and removed the o/s/f wheel - oh dear:


Still need to investigate why the wheel was grinding against the shock, but guess I'll be needing a new wheel (or set of wheels) and will definitely be needing the nice new Konis I bought

Then had a look at the bumper - it's worse than it appeared in the pics - the lower grille is damaged and there's a weirdly shaped hole in the middle. I'll get to that later...




So set about removing the damaged front wing, needed to be done ASAP since it was damaging the driver's door. Bit of a faff because of the sealant and I ended up having to bend the door a little more to reach the top wing bolt:



Once the wing was off a bit of a 'tweak' with an edge setting tool sorted the door ok:


But I go a nasty surprise when I took the bumper off 



Looks like that hole in the bumper (and 2cm difference between headlight mounts) was caused by hitting a tow hook. Just goes to show how much damage that can cause...

Kept on stripping down until I finally came to good components (so I'll need offside headlights / indicator, rad, aircon condenser,  front panel and crash bar), and finally got to the turbo. Looks like the cat took a hit so I hope it isn't crumbling inside now.



So, a bit more of a project than I hoped. Still, it'll be interesting...

Sounds sensible, is there any way to move this post to there, or should I just copy / paste the text?

 Hello,

I shall follow this with interest not because I need to do similar but because I watch your projects over on UKLegacy.com with more than the usual interest.

Good luck!

Best regards,

David

Spec: TBC once I know if I can bring it back to life!

More images to follow, along with hopefully the project thread

I'll move it across when you open you new Abarth garage

Hope I've done it right...

https://www.abarthforum.co.uk/the-abarthisti-garage/mj2k-very-poorly-2015-abarth-595-turismo/

I know why the wheel was so badly canted over now



Never seen a banana-shaped strut before

Once it was replaced the wheel angle looked much better:



Replaced the spring of course at the same time, old springs were Eibach too but nowhere near as cut down:

I would suggest taking a few measurements between easy to find points on the body/chassis and post them here.

I'll compare with mine and perhaps other 500 owners will join in.

...And yesterday my replacement front panel arrived. It's come from a much older car which presumably died of rust / neglect rather than crash damage, so though I'll need to do a bit of respraying and rust prevention I know it's not bent. If I'd bought one from a newer car I could almost guarantee it had come from another Copart victim so I might have been trying to align a bent panel with another bent panel, which would not be good.

Fitted - it doesn't look bad at all. You may notice I've left the rad and aircon condenser off, the reasons for that will become clear...



So refitted the intercoolers and headlights, along with the wing.



Still looking good, and the distance between the front crossmember and the bulkhead has been returned to normal :slayer:





Since all was looking good I fitted the reshaped front bumper, not looking bad at all, the lights all work and the 'check DRL' light has gone out







Looks like it's almost ready for the road

However, there is still one issue to sort (hence why I didn't fit the radiators) - the crumple zone on the bumper mount is bent.



If I was really iffy and was just turning the car round for a quick buck I'd just stick a couple of washers in there and have done with it (a good reason to beware of Cat N / S cars if they've been repaired and are being sold on quick by a trader). But my plan is to make this car a 'keeper' if I enjoy driving it, so cut out the damaged section:



I've got a new crumple zone panel on order via Ebay (a v lucky find) so it'll all have to come apart again once that panel arrives so I can weld it in. Been a while since I've done any welding, so I hope my skills aren't as rusty as some of the classics I used to patch together