Introduction
John Dragon Mans 899 SX
Hello to all,
This is my first road going car, i passed my test in April. at the time i already had a car, a vauxhall corsa 1.5TD (as i really wanted my first car to be a small diesel) however that wish was soon crushed when the insurers asked for a sizable £4000 to insure it. (google "John Dragon-Man's 1.5TD" for a thread on it)
so i sold that, and looked for another car, i was looking for a classic fiat panda as we had one when i was back in school.. i loved the car then, and i still love them now. however they seem to be getting rare, so i found the only local group 1 insurance car in any paper, website and magazine.
£400 for a bright PiNK Cinquecento SX with a nice sensible 899cc petrol engine.
Yes, Very pink. but i had a car. all that was needed was a smaller sum of £1645 to insure it. keep in mind that i am 23 years old and have had 4 years road experience with a moped and learning (being my mum and dads chofer) to drive.
when we got it the car had a few faults (some hidden) one was no brakes (realllllyyy spongy), the gearbox was running on 400ml of oil (gator failure) and .. well Italian wiring (most electronic things not working)
fixed it up with a new master cylinder, replaced the gator and filled with oil, and i set about it with a soldering iron. so now i have a fully working car.
------
a few months pass i discover Fiat Forum and i do some small things to the car, here is a few pictures:
a week or two after i got it.. (note seat colour)
side view, nothing to report here (all pictures below were taken on 9/9/2011)
The front. nothing good here really, ahh.. theres the LED scanning bar below the number plate. its not wired up yet mind.
the cars bright pink.. in for the penny in for the pound.
The back. despite the yellow window sticker, i left The Inbetweeners to find out that this car can do 100mph. 70mph is fast enough!
Little car, big twin aerials. what the hell.. its bright pink. besides the aerials do have a use.....
The Trim. i had to change the old seats because they were ripped. i wanted to find the same seats as i liked the colour of the old ones.
i found a sporting, set about it with a socket set and took most of the goodies from out of it. this is the result..
The clocks/dash. i waited quite some time for a sporting to come into the scrappers, just so i could pinch the rev counter out of it. i try to keep the revs below 5000 rpm as im not a speed demon or a fan of screaming engines. i try to drive as cheaply as possible!
the radio.. no not the music one, the one that i can talk all over the world on.
i don't have it in the car much as it is my home station radio. its a good place for the faceplate, and it does not interfere with the rear view mirror one bit!
the dash, i had fitted a radio, as the car didn't come with one :/
i like how the ash tray makes for a great place to clip the mic to
the lighting is controlled by the switches next to the window switches
The boot, nothing good in here... well ok. the battery.. thats to run my radio gear from. it also powers the sub, but thats not used much. its more of a thing to impress friends.
The power controller. i built this myself, this basically lets me choose how much power i want to go to the front or to the back of the car. makes starting the car very easy as it uses both batteries during starting of the car but only sends power to the back battery. the amp meter scale is a little out but i made my own switchable shunt and full scale is actually 500 amps instead of the normal 50 amps
This is a modded clock i fitted to it. the display is meant to be lit up by 2 standard dash bulbs, but a bit of cut out and glued in cardboard and 3 LEDs and we had 3 colour display!
well that is basically how the car stands today. well the large 9ft aerials have been taken off as the radio is not in the car and it will help my MPG.
Click here to see BIGGER pictures
Please do leave a comment, tell me what you think. thanks for looking.
Hello to all,
This is my first road going car, i passed my test in April. at the time i already had a car, a vauxhall corsa 1.5TD (as i really wanted my first car to be a small diesel) however that wish was soon crushed when the insurers asked for a sizable £4000 to insure it. (google "John Dragon-Man's 1.5TD" for a thread on it)
so i sold that, and looked for another car, i was looking for a classic fiat panda as we had one when i was back in school.. i loved the car then, and i still love them now. however they seem to be getting rare, so i found the only local group 1 insurance car in any paper, website and magazine.
£400 for a bright PiNK Cinquecento SX with a nice sensible 899cc petrol engine.
Yes, Very pink. but i had a car. all that was needed was a smaller sum of £1645 to insure it. keep in mind that i am 23 years old and have had 4 years road experience with a moped and learning (being my mum and dads chofer) to drive.
when we got it the car had a few faults (some hidden) one was no brakes (realllllyyy spongy), the gearbox was running on 400ml of oil (gator failure) and .. well Italian wiring (most electronic things not working)
fixed it up with a new master cylinder, replaced the gator and filled with oil, and i set about it with a soldering iron. so now i have a fully working car.
------
a few months pass i discover Fiat Forum and i do some small things to the car, here is a few pictures:
a week or two after i got it.. (note seat colour)
side view, nothing to report here (all pictures below were taken on 9/9/2011)
The front. nothing good here really, ahh.. theres the LED scanning bar below the number plate. its not wired up yet mind.
the cars bright pink.. in for the penny in for the pound.
The back. despite the yellow window sticker, i left The Inbetweeners to find out that this car can do 100mph. 70mph is fast enough!
Little car, big twin aerials. what the hell.. its bright pink. besides the aerials do have a use.....
The Trim. i had to change the old seats because they were ripped. i wanted to find the same seats as i liked the colour of the old ones.
i found a sporting, set about it with a socket set and took most of the goodies from out of it. this is the result..
The clocks/dash. i waited quite some time for a sporting to come into the scrappers, just so i could pinch the rev counter out of it. i try to keep the revs below 5000 rpm as im not a speed demon or a fan of screaming engines. i try to drive as cheaply as possible!
the radio.. no not the music one, the one that i can talk all over the world on.
i don't have it in the car much as it is my home station radio. its a good place for the faceplate, and it does not interfere with the rear view mirror one bit!
the dash, i had fitted a radio, as the car didn't come with one :/
i like how the ash tray makes for a great place to clip the mic to
the lighting is controlled by the switches next to the window switches
The boot, nothing good in here... well ok. the battery.. thats to run my radio gear from. it also powers the sub, but thats not used much. its more of a thing to impress friends.
The power controller. i built this myself, this basically lets me choose how much power i want to go to the front or to the back of the car. makes starting the car very easy as it uses both batteries during starting of the car but only sends power to the back battery. the amp meter scale is a little out but i made my own switchable shunt and full scale is actually 500 amps instead of the normal 50 amps
This is a modded clock i fitted to it. the display is meant to be lit up by 2 standard dash bulbs, but a bit of cut out and glued in cardboard and 3 LEDs and we had 3 colour display!
well that is basically how the car stands today. well the large 9ft aerials have been taken off as the radio is not in the car and it will help my MPG.
Click here to see BIGGER pictures
Please do leave a comment, tell me what you think. thanks for looking.
