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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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I've found when there is a big change in temp you can get condensation on the discs in my garage, it does have air vents at one end an a slight gap around the door , I would like one of the car bubble type things to put it in but they are a bit pricy [emoji386][emoji386]
 
my mate has a carcoon and I can confirm its epic...

tbh though i wouldn't spend that kinda money as you have a garage, the money would be better spent changing the roof to not a single skin bit of metal so it doesn't get condensation on it... Like the style thats a wooden board, they tarred and felted doesn't do that. In the meantime I would just get a good quality car cover that is breathable - car will stay dry and also will not get dusty etc.

I can highly recommend a StormForce cover, meant to be for outside but best quality cover I have ever seen and as it does get dripped on probably better than an indoor one... Expensive for a cover but totally worth it imo.
http://www.stormcarcovers.co.uk/collections/stormforce-car-covers/products/fiat-car-covers-1
 
Not at all, it's your very much cherished classic: it's perfectly understandable that you'd want to keep it preserved in the winter.





This is Australia dollars however is still puts the cheapest cover at over £600 which is still more than the car is worth

You also have to weigh up how long the cover is going to last and if it is going to save you £600 worth of work, if the car can be kept in a garage and then dusted off and polished up come summer time then sits hardly going to be worth it.

If it was some vintage Ferrari or Aston Martin fixing a pain blemish from pooled water and dirt, it is like to cost many more times the cost of the tent to fix, especially on delicate 1960/70s pain, making it worthwhile.
 
wonder how long till it starts degrading, it says 2 year warranty

I had a car sat under one outside for 2 years, it was good as new.. infact we don't have the car anymore but the cover itself is still like new, must be about 6 or 7 years old now and its fine - albeit rarely used being a fitted to a car we don't have but have used it on other cars that are smaller than the merc it was bought for.. Also bear in mind Simon would be using it indoors so sunlight is never gonna degrade it - I would put money on it being totally fine and like new in 2 decades time using it in a garage.
 
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