Hi from a very happy Fiat 500R owner of all of 2 days,

Need to attend to a few things on the new beastie, beginning with replacing the old and damaged seat covers/door cards.

Have heard conflicting opinions on how easy this is and doing some digging in the forum, a number of people have mentioned it can be a nightmare. Various comments also made about poor quality kit but not alot I could find about good quality.

So, 2 questions.
(1) Does anyone know of a walkthrough guide for replacing complete seat and interior door card trim?
(2) Any positive recommendations for suppliers of good quality trim parts for a 500R?

Thanks in advance,

Chris

Went through this on a D, though not too far off an R. I ordered from Passione500 and the products are great. They have both basic and premium door cards, and a range of seat cover options.

Replacing the door trim, the most difficult thing will probably be getting the handles on and off, something touched on a few times in the forum. The cards themselves just sit on easily. Sorry I can't recall where I read about the handle removal and reattachment procedure! What I do know is that there should be a U shaped Pin that sits in a notch at the back of the window winder. You can hook something under it and pull it out, then the winder pops off. Might need to push the door card in firmly and rotate the handle to see behind the bezel and view the little open notch.

The seats, it depends on how your foam and all the bits underneath look. The covers are always tight and so it requires patience and a lot of wiggling but nothing too drastic, and the end result is always great

Welcome to the Forum Chris and congratulations on becoming a Cinquecento owner---still probably the best city car ever designed. Where do you live? The Forum is so spread out that there is a fair chance that you will have a Forum member fairly close to you who can help. A 500R is a fairly rare beast in the UK because, as far as I am aware, they were only built LHD and not sold in the UK.
'Bambino' is correct---the door cards are fairly easy to remove/fit---you fit them into the groove at the bottom of the door, and then carefully bend them just enough to pop the top into the holder. The window winder can be a bit of a bugger---there is a thin 'U'shaped (sort-of!) clip that slides down a slot on either side of the handle in the part that slides over the window winder shaft (at the back of the handle) and locates into a groove on the winder shaft. The best thing to take it out with is a small hook---you can buy little 'hook sets' from car accessory shops. You will most probably have to push the door card in, behind the handle, to gain access to the retaining clip.
The sear cover can be purchased in a number of trim colours. It might be worthwhile seeing if you have a upholstery business in you area if you are not to confident fitting new covers, and possibly padding.
Passione500 is as good as any of the supplying companies, and there are quite a few. Axel Gerstl, Van de Laan Fiat 500, F.D. Ricambi are 3 of the top continental suppliers, with Motobambino in Carnforth a very good UK supplier.Mark Jayes who owns/runs Motobambino is a very helpful guy. If you are in the London area, there is Franco Roselli at 'Ricambio international' and Proietti (not far from Swiss Cottage).

Welcome to the Forum from one R owner to another.

Lets see a picture of the beast !

Rob

It’s also a good idea to get a set of plastic interior trim tools. They are under $10 USD here, and likely similarly inexpensive in the UK. Although 500 interiors are very simple, these tools come in handy any time something delicate needs to be pried and can prevent breaking trim clips or tearing the backs of door cards. They will also stop you from being tempted to use a screwdriver, which can scratch things.

Cheers for the welcomes and all the helpful advice. I have already had the passenger door card off to try to reconnect the winder mechanism after my step daughter encouraged it to fall off on the day I collected it. And yes, that Omega clip on the winder ...
Window winder mechanism is smoother now though still sticks at times ... will revisit when I switch the trim.

Re where I'm based - just on the Kent/East Sussex border outside of Tunbridge Wells so hoping to get to know some fellow owners locally.

Re seat condition - aside from a split on the seam on driver side and a small rip in the passenger seat, I think the pads are in good order. I drove 160 miles in the car when I picked it up from the Midlands and could walk when I got out the car. The WD40 is beginning to work on the driver's seat runners and it now moves. The passenger seat runners are fine but the seat does sometimes pop off a runner - I think there might be a securing latch missing? Fingers crossed the metalwork internally is all ok.
LAst but not least, for Lazy Lobster - I'll upload a photo when I can work out how to bloody well do it - apparently I either have to link to an online image or upload to a gallery somewhere ahahahahahaha,

Chris