Adrian, I did think about gold, and I think green and gold do go together, but wouldn't really fancy it I don't think.

And bluejhon, I know what your saying mate, and totally agree that the car should be preserved in its standard form, however regarding sloppy 60 profile tyres and rolly suspension, believe me when I say, even in standard form the car has too much power for it's own good, it's the most comfortable car in the world, totally irons out bumps and I feel I'd happily drive it round Europe it's that comfy, but show it a corner whilst driving hard....and jesus lol! I'm quite an enthusiastic driver, and as much as I don't want to ruin the car, tyres and Uprated suspension are next on my list, not because I want to make it a hot rod project, but because I feel it will benefit the car in a huge way. I've managed to find a sutbtle suspension kit, it only drops the car by 30mm, but is supposed to really improve the handling whilst maintaining comfort, and the shockers are uprated 30%. The tyres won't be a major change, but the 60's are far too tall for me, I'll be going for 195/50/15's had them on all my old hgt's and they felt spot on. Like you say optimised standard well...ish obviously I'll be keeping all the standard parts also.

Little update, few bits and bobs came in the post last week, as the interior is pristine, and my home away from home being my garage, I've tried to winter proof it as much as possible.

Got some rubber tailored floor mats, I ordered them black and green ones turned up! Had a small rant on ebay and black ones are on there way and I get to keep these, result

Also a tailored boot floor protector, some seat covers and some new aero wipers. I took the old crappy untailored mats out today, cleaned the carpet and put the new ones in, there a bit green but at least they cover the whole floor area, so they'll do for winter! Also gave the boot a clean before fitting the floor liner, I have to say it's the cleanest old boot I've ever seen, not a speck of muck or pet hair anyware in sight! Even took the spare wheel out, it's clearly never been on.

Couple of pics for anybody interested.

Ok, the marea is booked in for paint on Monday, the only really noticeable problem with the body work, is a small crease and ding in the passenger rear door, that the previous owner has had touched up, but when the sun hits it, it really stands out, now normally for a daily 15yr old car I could live with it, but because the the rest of it is so clean, it's pissing me off so I have to sort it, as well as having the door repaired, I'm having the roof bars refreshed in black along with the rear light clusters as they've faided over the years, and this is the hard bit, the bottom of both bumpers and sills! Do I colour code them to the car as I was intending or spray them black? These have also faded and would benefit from a refresh. Any/all opinions welcomed.

What do you guys thing of a similar wheel colour to this? This is how I reckon it will look finished, with colour coded sills etc, obviously minus the rare turbo alloys

i don't like to be negative, but urgh :yuck:, looks like a couple of tesco value bin bags have been put over the seats, glad you're not keeping the green mats, they are grim too!

Lol, to be fair the seat covers only cost a tenner for the 2, and I've yet to come across any seat covers that look nice They fit ok, there waterproof and Tbh as long as they do there job of keeping, oil, grease and mud of the seats for the next few moths, I couldn't give a monkeys arsehole what they look like

Regarding the floor mats, couldn't agree more! As soon as the black ones I ordered arrive, I'll be switching them out... Anybody for a free set of mats?

Personally I don't like rubber mats at all, but they're the only ones that do the job in winter months.

Looks and sounds like you're well on track, but I'd say thay 195/55 x 15 tyres would actually be the best tyres for the car, and possibly the actual standard fitment?

I'd imagine if you're going for a sensible suspension drop anyway you wouldn't really benefit much further from a serious profile reduction, you'd just mess up the gearing for no real gain (including visual...).

Maybe if you spec a decent correct tyre with stiff-ish sidewalls you will improve handling and response?

195/60 R15 is original fitment for mareas with full disk brakes.

If you paint, you lose the colormatching between interior and exterior. I got metallic red (Rosso barocco) with red interior (floor carpet is dark blue as red would be stupid).

Tough call regarding painting the lower sections... if you paint green as standard then the car will probably look lower to the ground, but if you go black then there will be the nice contrast together with the other black bits. It could also make the car look longer and sleeker...

But I don't think I'd go black on the sills, Fiat never did. But the bumper lower sections.... could be a change from the huge expanse of painted plastic that is inflicted on modern car "bumpers".

Very nice car, my wife 2.4jtd is currently on the drive with terminal rust.
Paint the wheels white and put 55 tyres on.
Lovely green same as my 155 20v.

50 are good on the 20v don't know about diesels

Colour code the sills and bumpers as it looks nuts and a lot cleaner

Did my sills myself and never regretted it once

Thanks for all the comments guys, bluejohn125 your right bud, the more I think about it, the more I'm deciding against lowering the profile, it's not a touring car, it's a comfy old bus, I think 55's will be a decent compromise so that's what I'll get

Notorious131, thanks mate, I've always been a fan of your motor, the amount of money and time you've thrown into that thing is crazy, but completely justified as you've owned it from new, I wish I'd had a car from new and kept it that long! Great work dude, hats off

No further progress, the black mats finally have arrived (green ones in the bin ) and I've decided to colour code the bumpers and sills.

Annoyingly, 2 days after the car was belted, the altenator began playing up! First squeeling quietly, then getting progressively louder and now sounding like a 20yr old transit van, so it's back in the garage, dropped it off this morning so it's looking like a new altenator and for the sake of a tenner, I'll just stick another belt on too.

Soon as it's done it will be going in for the paintwork.
Cheers.

Quick update nothing major.

Picked up and fitted my newly refurbished wheels and tyres yesterday, along with a set of 15mm fiat hubcentric spacers to widen them out a touch, the wheels now sit flush with the arches and look way better IMO.

Colour I went for is shadow or ghost chrome over a gray Base coat/primer, resulting in a colour that looks an almost standard alloy colour(silver) in the sun and a medium gray colour in any other light, I didn't want them too dark, and they go great with the green body, I'm well happy with them

Regarding the rubber, I stuck with the 195/60 standard profile, and Tbh I'm glad I did, there very comfortable and just look right for the car, not as rolley as I remember but the 60's that came with the car were just about bald, as for flat out hard cornering... I'll leave that for the coupe

What do you guys think of the rims?

I'll give it a clean over the next couple of days and take some better pics.

Well thumbs up all round I reckon.... wheel colour is interesting as you say.... not too dark "raw" but on the car they're a nice deep grey that makes the whole car look solid and purposeful... especially with the correct "chunky" tyres on. The spacers do work quite well... presumably there's no rush to lower it now that your ambitions for the car are a bit more restrained?

What tyres did you go for in the end?

Thanks blue, and thanks for the opinions and advice mate, I tend to need some sense thrown in my direction from time to time

Just budget tyres, there called nexen nblue's, cost me 185 all in, new valves and balancing etc, so there cheap but decent, I've used nexens for years and always found them a decent, capable tyre (for there price) All year round.

To be honest bud, I don't think I'll bother lowering it at all now, you know me, I change my mind like the weather!
The way im looking at it, for a full overhaul that let's face it, the car doesn't really need as it's solid, it's going to cost around 4 to 500 quid, spending all that, sacrificing ground clearance and comfort for a bit better handling and aesthetics... Nah! God just writing that has made me feel old keeping the chunky tyres seem to take up quite alot of the arch gap, and combined with the spacers, it looks good enough.

I'll think about it again, when the suspension actually needs doing.

The whole altenator thing is pissing me off! I put it back in my friends garage to have it replaced, but the suppliers send the wrong one, and because I needed the car over the weekend, he just greased the barings up as a temp fix, it was as quiet as normal again... For a while, then a 200 mile trip to Manchester and back has finished it off, and now it's squeeling like a ***** again! The correct altenator is 160.00 that I'll get at cost price, then 2 hours labour on top of that, so 240 odd all in, annoying but necessary I suppose! I'll be re-booking it in tomorrow, then I can finally get the paint work done.

Yeah I tend to agree about Nexens... great balance of performance and value... they seem to be advertising themselves around various footy grounds as well these days. It's shocking how many crappy Chinese tyre brands are being dumped on the UK budget market nowadays, at least the Koreans have a respectable and established car industry...

As regards your future modification plans.. it seems your spending decisions are being made for you! Alternator is a big hit but it's an old car now and at least you're 100% sure that it needs doing. And you squeezed a final 200 miles out of the old one.. Plus you said you wangled a £150 drop on the agreed price when you bought the car, so I guess it's payback time for that!

Should be a very enjoyable ride when all is done.

I wouldn't mine the altenator needing changed so much, but it had to happen 2 days after the car was belted! Must be payback for something lol! I couldn't get the car booked back in until Monday for the altenator, so I just dropped the car off at the body shop this morning, to get the paint work out of the way while I'm waiting, it's quite embarrassing driving the car now as the squeel is so loud, so best of there anyway.

I've still not got around to cleaning the car, but managed to grab a couple of 'before' pictures today, showing the faded roof rails and light clusters, and sills etc.

I've tried to show the dents in the passenger side rear door as much as possible, but it looks like nothing in the pictures.

So plans are:
Roof rails, and rear light clusters are going black.
Rear door is getting fixed and re-painted.
Sills and bottom of bumpers are getting colour coded, along with the 2 black strips on the front bumper, either side of the number plate.

No major changes, but it should hopefully freshen the car up a bit, I also had a bit of a guilty purchase today, I was trolling ebay last night and came across a brand new leather luggage cover, I've wanted a leather one for a while, as they look so much nicer, and my cloth one sags down in the middle and at the ends. It was originally up for 50.00 + 20.00 postage, but I put an offer in for 30 and my offer was accepted, however I've still just spent 50 quid on a bloody luggage cover! :bang:

I also bought some super heavy duty seat covers for my coupe, but they don't bloody fit over the recaro bolsters, so there now on the marea (I didn't like the bin bag comment! ) there 3 times thicker, about 10 times the quality and they don't look like bin bags! they did however cost 25 pounds each! But I suppose like all things, you get what you pay for, the money is stacking up lol, I'm not expecting the paint work to be a penny less than 300quid either

On the upside, I lifted the bonned today, first time since the belts were done, I've done 900 mile and the car has not used one drop of oil or water! Is this heard of for a fiat? If my coupe hadn't used a drop of oil in a thousand miles, or lost a bit of Coolant somewhere I'd be worried!

I do seem to have a condition or illness, maybe a mental defect or god knows what, where by I buy a cheap fiat, plough hundreds into it, and then fancy something else, and sell it a few month later for peanuts.... Then repete the process all over

I'll try and and keep this one! Enough babbling... Photos!

Wheels look really good (white would have been better lol).
I wouldn't lower the front as the wifes 2.4jtd used to bottom out on bumps all the time.

F1ANG said:

I didn't like the bin bag comment!

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hehe yea, sorry about that, but seeing as you took action, i was obvously just saying what you were already thinking :devil:

Notorious131 said:

I wouldn't lower the front as the wifes 2.4jtd used to bottom out on bumps all the time.

Click to expand...

i lowered just the back recently, looked rubbish.

Thanks for the replys guys.

Another update.. I picked the car up from the body shop yesterday, looking so much better now! I'm glad I colour coded the bumpers and sills, it definitely looks a little lower to the ground, and with the painted rack and lights, looks freshened up all round I reckon. The painter decided not to paint the door to save me a few pennies, instead got his dent remove guy, to take out the dents and polish it, apart from a tiny mark where the dent was, it looks like a new door. All in I paid 230 quid witch I'm quite pleased about, the quality is top notch, and I know how much time goes into paper and masking the roof alone just to spray the roof bars, never mind the fiddly bumper bits.

Anyway, I've had quite a mad (normal) week at work, and didn't want to take any pictures before I'd cleaned it. I dropped it off back at the garage this morning to finally have the altenator replaced, might be wierd driving the car with out people turning there heads and other motorists looking for what's making all the noise!

Hopefully I'll be picking the old beast up tonight all going well, ive a full day off tomorrow so I'll have no excuse not to clean it and get a few pics

Ps. franglais, I'm quite liking the tints! Might be on the cards next.... Must not keep spending on this car!!! I only bought it so I could drive it and plough a load of money into the coupe, but since buying it, that things just been bombed right off!

Picked it up this morning, absolutely chuffed, it's such a relief not hearing that f***ing noise! Bill wasn't too bad, got the new altenator at cost so that was £155 odd and 75 quid labour ontop of that, actually took him 4 hours, but only charged me less than 2! He did say it was a pig to do, had to remove drive shaft and casing etc to make room to drop the altenator out....glad I didn't attempt it then!

Anyway as promised I gave it a good clean today and the sun was out so...pictures

What do you guys think? I'm happy with it anyway, it's a pleasure to drive now too

Next job, squeeze a few more horses out of it. To be continued...