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Punto (Mk1) My exploit yellow 75 elx

Introduction

Hi.
My name is Simon and I haven't been on here in ages.
I'm a fiat nut who has owned fiats all my life as have my family. I work in a fiat dealership in dundee and have treated myself to a new car, as it's the first time in my life I have been without a fiat.

I bought the following car off ebay for 4 reasons

1. I had one as my first car
2. I just bought a house and have somewhere to keep it
3. My mum had a brand new exploit yellow 55 sx back in '95
4. Have plenty fiat techs to fix it when it breaks

So, I'm in dundee, the car was in Yorkshire, so my dad and I left 5:30am Saturday morning in his 500L to pick it up. I was worried about bringing a near 20 year old fiat 260 mile up the road, but it didn't miss a beat. It drives like a new car.

History- we'll it was sold new to a mrs crappe, at carnell fiat, she had the car garaged from new, done 70,000 miles in it. It had its original dealer plates on it which I changed, as they were tatty. Full years mot with no advisories, and a full service history. She specced it up with a drivers airbag!

The car come with a few parking dings, original scuffed wheel trims, and a couple of light scratches, otherwise it's mint.
Luckily working in a fiat dealer, I can get parts, a workshop with a 40 years served fiat technician, a dent man and body shop.

Took the car into work today to get all the dents removed, was up on the ramps for a health check- solid underneath, just needs new discs and pads and a rocker cover gasket. Underneath is solid, clean and all present and correct. It also needs a new cam belt cover as mine is burst. Then that's it mint.
Turns out the rear tyres are the factory originals, made 3rd week of 1995, so it will be getting a full set of brand new Goodyear duragrips I have in my garage.
Surprisingly every single thing works on the car, even the remote locking and being an elx it has an electric sunroof!!!

It's quite funny because all the fiat techs were all over it today, donating parts. One of them had an exploit yellow touch up pen that's been in his toolbox for 15 years, got handbrake cables and a rocker cover gasket, with more bits offered. They also went on e-sigi and printed out the complete history of my car, showing recalls for brake pipes, airbag ecu etc which is nice to keep.

Work so far done-

New genuine wheel trims
New genuine punto mats
Original fiat tape deck
Genuine fiat lineaccessorie front and rear mudflaps
General tidy up
Clay, wet sand, machine polish bodywork
New numberplates
Dents removed
Brand new badges
Full valet

I love this car, I can't believe how mint it is. Taking bad with no power steering though.
I put it in the showroom and took some piccies.
Anyway the pictures.......

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And my main/ daily car

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Just a wee update.

On 21st January when I put the car back on the road, I stuck in £30 fuel. When I was doing my usual Sunday day off thing of pottering about with the car, the fuel light come on, so 3/4 of a tank has lasted me 4 months ?

I decided to buy some redex injector cleaner seeing I had a full tank, so to run this through I've been putting some miles on the car.

Also I have the Scottish Italian day on the last Sunday in May and have a few wee jobs to do before then.

My wiper arms are bubbling so need rubbed down and painted, and needs a good detail, wheels off etc.
Also I've been told I'm sad, cos I have old rubber mats over my pristine punto ones, to protect them and keep them clean.
Thoughts?
 
After seeing a Fifth Gear video on YouTube, I put a shot of redex in my Grande last week.

And nope, you're not sad. You have a very rare car, and you just want to keep it well looked after. Personally, I admire you! :)
 
Also I've been told I'm sad, cos I have old rubber mats over my pristine punto ones, to protect them and keep them clean.
Thoughts?

I've always done that, manufacturers mats aren't cheap and drivers side always wears a hole where my heel sits. That and in snow a pair of rubber mats can get you out of bother and catches the melt water in the car which you can then pick up and throw out rather than soaking the carpets through.
 
I seen that, i think its rubbish though personally. I'm no chemist or expert on chemical cleaners but redex is pretty much just paraffin, and paraffin will lubricate the engine from the top - as in it will line the cylinder walls and thus reduce friction with piston rings and from this point of view it guess it could realise some power but really it will be short lived and once the paraffin has completely gone it will be back to how it is. Really if you think about what redex is claiming it does its just silly talk, cleaning out the fuel system... I not sure if you have ever noticed but petrol is pretty good at dissolving crap and cleaning things, the only dirt inside the fuel system is actual particles and thats why we have fuel filters - which is something often missed from servicing. If you want to do anything, change the fuel filter and then take the Throttle body off and clean it by hand with some carb cleaner as that can get really dirty, particularly if a car has an egr valve. FIREs of mk1 age do not have egrs and I have seen ones will well over 100k that have TBs clean enough to eat dinner off, but the 90 has an egr (i found out on this very thread only recently) so its potentially quite dirty - plus fuel is injected after this so petrol or any additives will not clean it even a little bit.

I would add as well that paraffin like what is in these fuel system cleaners does not like rubber, so the rubber bits of fuel line and any o-rings it might come into contact with it can cause to perish - exactly why they don't say you can use it in carb'd cars, it will eat away at the seals in the carb and can cause failures... More modern cars tend to have different composition of rubber piping and seals and often will be fine with it but i wouldn't want to use it in something as old as a mk1 myself (although just the once would prob be ok if you want to, but its kinda pointless really)

So yeah, my advice is to not bother at all with redex or the like - it will prob feel smoother and quieter while its in there but as soon as any remnants are gone from the tank it will revert to exactly same as before.
 
Day of today and with the Scottish Italian car day creeping up, I thought I'd crack on with a job that's been letting the car down, the bubbling window wiper arms.

Rubbed them smooth and black hammerite to keep the rust away, sorry for the crap iPhone pics.







That's the exterior pretty much perfect now, I has considered getting the bonnet painted as there are a few chips but that's part of the cars life.
Happy Simon
 
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