It's great to have got to the point where I'm not constantly sending off orders for essential items for my rebuild. So very nice to be able to take receipt of a breathable, garage car cover which is just the right size for the little Fiat.
I also got some car mats. Only one type available for RH drive. It has a quality finish and a grippy base and they are tailored for the floorpan of the car with, for instance, a cutaway for the rear of the heater tunnel. They don't seem to have considered seat-belt fittings and there's no cutaway at the throttle pedal which makes things a bit tight. Overall I am really pleased with them and it's nice to almost have the luxury of carpets and yet be able to keep the nice old rubber floor-mats.
I was able to get a few rubber grommets and covers that have been missed and a replacement mirror glass as the original has developed a Victorian patina.
VdL also threw in a free keyring..cheesy I suppose, but appreciated by me.

Mats in situ.

very nice,
Peter have you tried using a hot air gun to warm your seat cover up, it usually lets the material reform its original shape and get rid of that bum crease you have there. Unless you like the lived in look

I'll try that if I ever get my hands on a hot air gun. Might try it on my face wrinkles too
Mind you, you probably know by now that I don't mind a bit of age related patina.
Good job too whenever I look in a mirror; especially the new one just fitted in the car.

I picked up some of those floor mats, too. They really make the interior perk up. Have you figured out what to do about the driver's side not fitting the accelerator pedal? I'm currently thinking of options on that one...

Bob, I thought about slitting the mat just inboard of the edge binding and removing a sliver of fabric. Then it could be superglued together.
I am lucky that the pedal is very well sprung and for the moment, doesn't seem affected by the squeeze. I am hoping the mat will bed down and find its own fit.

They look nice those mats Peter I might invest in some. When you said VDL the other day I thought that was some website in the UK or something. Stupidly it never occurred to me it was Van Der Laan.

Your car is pretty luxurious already Tony, but they are a nice touch. In my case it's a bit weird since I have carpeted mats to protect a rubber floor; role reversal?
I'm trying to guess what your planned luxury is; a rear luggage carrier and/or wicker hamper maybe?

I actually have the opposite at the moment with rubber mats on carpets, that have always been in the car and fit well, so I may just stick with them.

My luxury which I am starting to regret to a degree!!!!!!!!!!!! Was to go out and buy a 123 ignition probably because my tinkering mind was bored. What in my stupid head decided to do it? I don't know, as the engine was running as sweet as it has every done in the nearly 20 year ownership.

It has this stupid knobby bit where the wires go in that pokes out from the side of the distributor body that just seems to get in the way of the thermostat flap. I spent hours trying to get it in a position where it wouldn't snag the flap. I got bored eventually and gave up as I couldn't get it to fire up the engine.

I must admit I couldn't be bothered in the end and gave up today as it was getting on my nerves. I will go through the basics tomorrow and no doubt get it running.

I have gone in the opposite direction with my accessories from Van Der Laan- no carpets or rubber mats yet but I just finished installing a great retro look stereo with concealed CD player and inbuilt Bluetooth telephone.
Maybe I will need to fit some sound deadening and carpets so I will be able to hear it when I have built the engine...

Tony, that sort of annoying problem always gets sorted in the end. You've done the right thing by walking away for a while. It's got to work in the end, hasn't it? There's been debate here before about the efficacy of the 123 and it always gets rave reviews. As you say, the engine is well capable of running sweetly without it so long as components are in good fettle. My similar luxury would be a catalytic exhaust with lambda sensor which I think was developed as some countries demand a clean emission from the poor little Fiat.
I like Damon's retro sound setup and there are holes in the shelf on mine where the old guy who previously owned it must have had a radio; personally I can manage without at the moment.

I revisited it again today. I refitted the old setup and it wouldn't start. Odd.

Eventually tracked it down to the HT leads insulation had broken down and was causing the spark to jump between the leads internally. I discovered this by resting a spare spark plug on the block and opening and closing the points to make sure I was getting a decent spark, which I was. Took the distributor cap off and open and closed the points again and noticed I was still getting a spark on the spark plug even with the cap removed.

I had some spare leads swapped them over tried starting the car and it started first time. Swapped out the old setup for the 123 and tried again the car started.

All I can conclude is that the Bosch Blue coil and the 123 ignition combined are producing such a strong spark that they finally pushed the old leads over the edge.

Hi Damon
Just ordered the same thing from vdl. Did you get the connectors and aerial too?
I think mine will sit on a shelf for some time before going in.
Tim

Hi Tim,
Good idea- you won't be disappointed. I looked at a wide range of Retro style radios and the Caliber unit seemed to offer good features for the money and doesn't look out of place. I polished and re used the original aerial (only salvageable piece of trim on the whole car!) and just cut the connector and spliced the wires- there is a connector that comes with the unit which is an adaptor from the becker style plug at the back of the unit to a more modern European style connector.
Finding speakers that look 'right' for the age of the car was the challenge- found a couple of NOS parcel shelf box speakers new in the box locally which I have fitted under the dash and another set of NOS 1967 Motorola door speakers on ebay which will hopefully arrive soon and I will fit in the rear side trims. Was hoping not to cut a hole in them but there is really no other neat option on the Giardiniera.
The Bluetooth operation is good- I had to cut the plug off the microphone and replace it (standard 3.5mm speaker plug) so I could feed the wire around the windscreen seal and through the interior light wire hole and mount it up the pillar. There is plenty of length so you may be able to run it down inside the door seal on an 'F' and under the dash.
As long as you don't listen to AM you are fine (ironically for a Retro radio it doesn't have this function...!) but the FM station seeking is good and sound quality seems good on CD and Radio- haven't tried Audio streaming or USB input yet.
If you order the console you might want to do what I did and cut off the base and mount to the glovebox- it is offset to the Right (presumably for LHD) and looks a bit silly let alone getting in the way of your clutch foot.
Hope this helps! Something to look forward to when the project nears completion...

Hi Damon,
what is the colour of your vehicle? I am not sure what blue to go for when I repaint mine.
The wife has set her mind on a pastel blue.
Choices are Azzurro Acquamarina or Celeste Crociera, that's if I don't stick with the original colour.

I went for a current model Fiat 500 colour for ease of future matching (and I like it too) - 952 Azure Blue (also called Sky Blue, Volare blue or Legend Blue)
If you want a paler blue you could use the earlier New 500 Colour Cha Cha Cha Blue, (2008-2010) I was originally going to paint it this colour but in certain lights it looks white so decided to go for the Azure blue instead, i'm glad I did as everyone who has seen it seems to like it..... except my wife!