Hello guys well my fiat Stilo 2002 3dr
Is pretty much a expensive as hell shed with wheels but a reliable engine!
Anyways I was trying to swap/sell it for ages got no offers bar one for £100 I paid 1k 8 months ago so was not having that no way,
So I've decided to just use it as a project, I'm on a pretty low income atm due to debts I'm paying off, so I'm doing this car up for practically nothing on really low budget.. Unfortunately I do not have photos of the car before I started work but only got 5% of it done so starting the photos from 5% got a lot to do!!!

Original car...
- all silver.. (No photo)

Changes made...
- black bonnet.. (Part photo)
- black bumper... (No photo)

Changes to come/made...
-Paint all the car white (only 1/6 done)
-paint trim/bonnet/spoiler/wing mirrors gloss black
-under car LEDs...
-limo black tinted windows
-either black or dark blue tinted headlights, taillights, indicators...

Inside...
-Paint dash white and blue...
-Swap LEDs to blue...
-Dye cloth and seats white and blue
-Under dash, front seats rear side blue LEDs.
-subs in boot with custom case with blue LEDs

So that's my plans I will get them done but in my own time, and every time I change/upgrade my car I will upload a photo of the change and the price I paid... Also I am doing All the work myself to make it cheaper for me... I'm no expert but I know the basics I hope lol, it's not going to be the best car on the roads but it's going to my car with my money and sweat that's gone into it.

Also upgreads I want (probably never have) but when I'm on better money...
-lowered suspension..
-remap/chipped

My car seems rubbish on fule so only way I know of to sort that is to have it remapped, but I'm thinking the fule injection might be faulty? Not to sure on this but only getting average of 20mpg and I'm changing at every 20,000 revs, but maybe one day If possible I'll have a JTD engine put into my car if it's better on fule, and under 2k for a swap (I'd buy a JTD and have all parts swapped if possible)

Anyways the start of the photos are here....

Kinda original..

Paint job, bumper trim bar two sections sprayed gloss black, both wing mirrors sprayed gloss black, front wing painted white, drivers door painted white.

Cost: £5
1x 16 wet & dry sand paper (£1)
1x paint roller and tray (£1)
2x white metal paint (£2)
1x black gloss spray paint (£1)

So do you want it to go fully white or are you not decided on the colour. As said its a bugdet project paint work could be roller paint(loads of tutorials on utube) as well as the bonnet if you want it black as seen alot of great finnished cars done this way. Depo the headlights give it a more aggresive look smoke the rear lights out colour the bumper strip lower it slightly but tbh imo the 3 door looks sporty already

Aj80 said:

So do you want it to go fully white or are you not decided on the colour. As said its a bugdet project paint work could be roller paint(loads of tutorials on utube) as well as the bonnet if you want it black as seen alot of great finnished cars done this way. Depo the headlights give it a more aggresive look smoke the rear lights out colour the bumper strip lower it slightly but tbh imo the 3 door looks sporty already

Click to expand...

I love the idea of smoking the rear lights so I will find a cheep way to do that, I've heard a few ways to do it on the cheep, and tbh the paint looks worse in person so doing to sand it down again and use a paint pad instead and hope it's better, the wing mirrors are done in black gloss spray paint believe it or not but from poundshop witch is better then expected so I want a hole car mat (ish) white with black gloss trimming (eg the grills, side trim you get the plan) bonnet and spoiler,

Give it a rather se*y look
And I was looking on eBay at some headlight tints you can get at around £3.50 for a pair in all sorts of colours so might have the front ones tinted black (if legal I'll have to look into it)

1% Rear tinted windows so pure black nearly (should make the White paint stand out more)

Gloss black wheels (help make the White paint stand out)

In the long run,
Lowered (even more sporty look)
(Roughly £100 for springs, and £30 for tools)
Air vents on bonnet (just for looks no purpose)
(Roughly £20 for a pair on eBay)

But the budgeting is mainly
Painting the car and making it look nice and I'm going to try and do this for all under £30 I know that's like what!!! You can't even get paint for that!!!

But I'm going to spend £30 and see what I can get done I'm going to buy...
1x paint pad (4 pads and tray) (£5)
7x gloss black spray paint (£7)
2x gloss black paint (£2)
1x 12 sheets of sand paper (£1)
14x white metal paint (£14)
1x white spirit (to water paint down) (£1)

Shops I intend to use for supplies
1) pound land..
2) B&Q or other DIY shop (cheapest)

I should hopefully succeed on this cheep paint job but also hoping it looks nice

After that I'm moving onto the expensive stuff (eg stuff pound land can't sell lol)
Springs, vents, window tints, light tints, you get the picture

I will update photos and what I've done and what I've spent, to see if I can actually do this all for £30 if I can and it looks good then I've saved myself £££ in the long run and will happily help people who live local to do the same if they wanted,

That's the plan, who thinks I can do this on £30?
Also who thinks It'll look good?
Time will tell

I'm working this weekend so hardly any works going to get done, but will get the supplies Friday or Saturday after work

Also car will be lacked in the long run, but that's not included in the budget plan

Thanks for the ideas and your thoughts!

Anyone else want to put something forward or hint? Feel free

Looking forward to outcome jay ? its going to look sick, however I contemplated a new paint job for my 1.6 stilo but have decided to go with vinyl wrapping to save £££, can pick up for under £60 to do whole car in one colour. Can't wait to see the outcome of yours ☺

AlanMcM said:

Looking forward to outcome jay ? its going to look sick, however I contemplated a new paint job for my 1.6 stilo but have decided to go with vinyl wrapping to save £££, can pick up for under £60 to do whole car in one colour. Can't wait to see the outcome of yours ☺

Click to expand...

Thank you for your support
I was looking at vinyl wrapping but I did my bonnet in carbon fibre wrap about a month ago and boy did I make a sh*t job of it so I'll never touch that stuff again lol unless I'm paying someone to do it, but personally I find wrapping so hard where as painting comes naturally to me so I followed the easy one for me but everyone has there easy and hards I guess,

Anyways I'm at work tomorrow from 9-5 so after work I'm going shopping with £30 getting all the stuff I shall need for the paint job and get a recipe to prove I am doing this on a budget because I know there is people out there who are worse off then me and they might of just got there 1st car but it looks horrible so they want to paint it but there tight on money, I'm wanting to show people you don't need ££££ for a good paint job if you have the time and dedication you can do it for next to nothing (depends on car size and paint ovs)

I mean I would class myself quite well off, im 19 soon 20 have my own car a job for life (family buissnes) own place own bills ect,

I paid £1,112 for my Stilo 9 months ago, now I'd be lucky to get £75 (webuyanycar quoted)
But once your car is customised to how you want it it's not just a car, it's your sweat and time in it and no other car on your eyes could ever be better,

Sure fast cars exist, but what turns heads?
A 6.2lt that does 5mpg and sounds nice with turbos and all the specs?
Or a little LT that looks amazing and you can tell people you did it yourself?
I mean if you want your car to sound stupidly loud here's an idea, get a 12v siren (that scrap men use)
Hard wire the unit, put it all to max volume put the mic in your engine compartment out the way of all the belts and hot parts, and put the siren/horn in the boot, dam your car would sound so loud people would think your driving a 1000bhp car when it's just a mic and horn? And as I suggested this idea to you guys I shall add that to my to do list!

*New mod*
12v siren mic and amp (no more then £15 on eBay)
(Burn might sound better under hood as well tbf)

***UPDATE****

Got all my equipment today!
7x black gloss spray paint (£7)
12x White Gloss (not very glossy) metal paint (£12)
1x tray and rollers (£1)
1x Plastic paint sheet (£1)
1x 5 wet and dry sanding blocks (£1)
1x 5 different size paint brushes (£1)
1x wash and wax (£1)
1x 3 sponges (£1)
All in all £25 spent!
Will I do it?
Also got the day off tomorrow!
But due to weather (tropical thunderstorms) I don't think I'm going to risk it,
Oh forgot
1x white spirit that I have laying around but brought it months ago for £1
So £26 in total now,
Think I can do this? I do!
Plan is in order...
1. Sand the car fully!
2. Wash with water (leave to dry)
3. Open white paint and mixing with white spirit
4. Mask areas off with plastic paint cover
5. Roll on to car with up and down motions all the way around (using 6 tins hopefully) leave to dry,
6. Coat if need be but side to side motions instead. (4 tins hopefully) leave to dry
7. Get paint brushes, do the fine painting (eg inside door, panel joints, inside boot) leave to dry
(Bonet still looks ****)
8. Cover new paint work on left, with plastic paint cover and spray then move paint cover to right and spray, cover window and bit of both sides with paint cover and spray top, move paint cover to bottom (Pop the hood and place sheet under) spray bottom. Leave to dry. (5 cans hopefully)
9. Cover all around the spoiler spray it (1 n half cans hopefully)
Leave to dry
10. Sand wheels.
11. Spray all 4 tiers.
12. Done.

Hopefully this will work also guys you choose!

White roof or black?

Here's the photo of the items guys!

What colours the bonnet going to be?

Black, OK, I was going to try and convince you to match the roof with the bonnet, however black finishing on an all white car (wheels, tint, lights etc) looks really nice, im now arguing with myself over whether the black roof might be too much... I'll get back to you after I'm done arguing with myself ??

I think it might be to much but it might look nice I'm arguing with myself about this too lol, but with the windows being tinted darkest black legal I think it would be too much, but that's me lol I'll let you guys decide

do you not think the look your going for is a bit "Audi/Vag"???


next you'll be saying your going to bag it on 18inch 3Dsm's

Since he had no luck selling it, there's no harm in making it "his own". I ran into a similar issue selling it so now "B" is rocking zombie vinyls and it really turns heads, especially when the police are walking around it having a chuckle.

Although Mario, I have to say although I'm new to ff, I've used it a lot and you've helped with many issues, so thank you muchly ??

I wasn't having a dig lol, just a mear perception of my point of view lol.


Pleased that I have been of help. My personal knowledge lies more with the pesky Centos but I am learning with these stilo's. The FF is a great community and so far I think there is only 1 or 2 idiots I have had to block lol.


Come on OP, where is the update with the finished look??? dying to know what they look like in White.

Not touching its wheels I already like the fiat Stilo original wheels (wouldn't mind angel lights like a aldi though )

No I was thinking it's more of a ford ST kinda look, but I had no look selling it so thought I'll just have a play with it and see how it goes, it seems to be going nicely,

People can have digs if they want I don't mind everyone has there own opinion I'm doing this myself (got my sisters brother helping me though)

Here how it's going...

Good progress so far. Just looks like it needs more coats and it will look fine. My only advice would be to mask up around the window and door seals and remove or mask around the lights. You'll get a much better finish around these areas then and will save on the cleaning later.

Very interesting thread though keep up the good work.

Looking good jay, can't wait to see the outcome ??

Gotta agree looking better jaydkirk but have to agree with@Fiatpuntomk2b mate mask all the parts you aint painting to make it look a better fin but my advice remove the rear lights and number plates and and when your finnished painting let it dry and wet and dry it to smooth the paint

Thanks for the support guys!
I would mask the parts off like door seals ect and everything but I'm painting them in the long run (give more of a new look)
And I will sand it to smoothen the car for second coat, so far I have used 4 tins so 8 left,
4 and 1/2 spray cans
(Bonnet, spoiler, and 2 wheels)
(2 wheels left)
They was mat black but been changed to gloss black.

All in 4 hours...

What needs doing.....
Sanding!
Roof (decided it's got to be white)
More coats till pure white!

When all coats done....
Taping off area around the trim, spraying all trim gloss black,

Spent so far £25

What I think I'll need...
Paint pad £3
2x gloss black spray £2
So in total that will be £30!
So I would have painted the hole car for bang on £30!
And look how it looks atm?
Imagine how it's going to look!
I've saved myself grands! And it don't look exactly cheep, it looks good, not professional but good! And unless you have ££££ for professional then good for £30 is good enough for me!

Bam! Budget paint job!
Will it be good? Only the final results will tell but I'm thinking that it will be!

What's to come off the budget now...
1st. Tinted windows (1% or 5%)
2nd. New stereo housing she'll (drill 4 holes for switches)
3rd. 4 Blue LED switches
4th. New stereo (built in DVD player SatNav ect,)
5th. Under car LEDS (switch one)
6th. Siren with mic for engine bay (switch 2)
7th. In car BLUE LEDs under dash and rear seats. (Switch 3)
8th. Hard wired road angel (switch 4)
9th. subs in custom made wood holders with blue LEDS (hand made by myself of wood, painted gloss black)
10th. Lowering springs (done myself)
11th. Bucket seats.
13th. Car dash lights changed to LED Blue to replace original orange colour,
14th. Dash hand painted white and blue
Maybe more see what you guys can think off...

Think of it like this...
It's my car.
It's my project.
It's my money.

But if someone thinks of something I like I will do it so in reality the members of the "fiat forums" are also involved in my project!

Any comments or hate is all welcome it's opinions everyone is in title to them,

If anyone would like any videos or special photos of any of the car or how to eg LED fitting, window tinting ect I'll do my best to do it, and upload to here direct if I can or if not YouTube and link it,

Oh yeah cars also been debadged!
(Going to have a custom logo made don't know what yet, or might just have the aberth badge as its sexy)

Anything you guys want or would like to know please don't feel afraid to comment!

Oh yeah I've seen people in America do paint jobs for $50 but I though I'd do a English one!

The past thing you forgot to put is changing the colour on the log book :lol: and there was a guy on ebay selling a genuine arbarth grill for i think it was £20 if your intrested

Oh forgot about that and I'll look into that grill