Punto (Mk2/2b) My Punto MK2b

oldhammer said:

I'm putting a beer mat in mine..

Click to expand...

Thwaites, I hope. (I grew up in Blackburn.)

Here's a quick update on how my Punto currently looks..

I've added a lot of visual modification here and there on my little Active Sport and plan on adding a few more.

Pictures to follow of all the stuff I've done, please tell me what you guys and girls think, I'd love to hear your opinions

Cheers,
Rhys

Here's another few mods I've finished on my car..

The wind deflectors are by far the best mod I've ever done to a car... I can have the window completely down and not get any wind blowing in my face at all. It's my own source of air conditioning

Also I've got the Sporting badge on the back. Some may say this is an atrocity, putting a Sporting badge on an Active Sport.. But I've always liked the sporting badge (my old Seicento was a Sporting Abarth).

And finally I've got the Xenon headlights... They were a pain to fit, but sooo worth it. They make my car look newer and light up the road so much more. Even better when I'm on the windy, dark country roads

Rhys

if its windy on those country roads then having the spats so all the smells can go out is an excellant idea

do us a picture of light pattern on a wall when you have a moment please as ive never actually seen the pattern you would get
i wont slag honest

Just had a few new jobs to tackle...
Ever since I brought the car I had realised a bit of water sitting around in the offside indicator lens. So me being me, I thought when I brought the car; I'll sort it ASAP, its an easy job.. But 3 months down the line and I've only just got to it. When I started looking properly at it, I realised it had a small crack in the lens, this was obviously where the water was getting in.. So I took the indicator out, released the lens and set about taking it apart to dry and possibly fix the damage. I dried out all the sections of it and (as a quick fix till I buy a new one or visit a scrapy) I put a tiny piece of clear double sided tape over the crack on the inside. At least it'll stop water getting in for the moment.

The second job was an idea I'd had recently that I'd seen on a few of my friends cars.. A Xenon or clear white number plate bulb. So I wielded my trusty Haynes manual and got to it.. In pretty much the dark (classic Rhys common sense). Obviously it was an easy job but I'm still not impressed.. The bulb is obviously not blue enough because it doesn't seem to be a difference. See for yourself in the pictures to follow...

I'd appreciate your opinions..

Rhys

Before (all condensated up)


The crack





You can see where the water had been.. Obviously for a while...


Back in all dried out and clear again



Before

New bulb (on the trusty Haynes manual)

After

Just a quick update on an idea I saw on KRaikkonenNo1's Punto thread. It caught my eye the instant I saw it.

I have painted the ring of plastic around the lock stalk, silver. Might need a second coat.. Can kind of see the brush strokes.

Pictures to follow..( i will post a picture of how it turned out once its dry!)

RhysSmoove said:

Just a quick update on an idea I saw on KRaikkonenNo1's Punto thread. It caught my eye the instant I saw it.

I have painted the ring of plastic around the lock stalk, silver. Might need a second coat.. Can kind of see the brush strokes.

Pictures to follow..( i will post a picture of how it turned out once its dry!)

View attachment 140571
View attachment 140572
View attachment 140573

Click to expand...

It's a nice, tidy little touch which adds something a little different to the interior

I also sprayed the handbrake surround and heating surrounds matching silver, which looks a lot better imo, it's the little things that make the most difference sometimes, keep up the good work bud :thumbup:

Thanks mate

Update on my lock stalk... The masking tape was murder to get off. Some of the masking tape had slipped down the stalk, meaning that my car didn't really want to unlock this morning :/ Finally got all the tape off and abit of paint chipped off.. So needs a touch up...

I've also added a new touch to my car. I have to admit, I hate it.. I brought some centre cap stickers with the Abarth logo on them. I'm so glad I brought the stickers instead of the actual centre caps (which were a lot more expensive) because I've only wasted a few quid. Pictures will follow...

Here's my latest visual mods to my little Punto..

First of all, I changed my blue Fiat badge valve caps for Abarth badge ones. I have changed these as a quick an easy mod to making my car more like an Abarth. Another cheap mod that makes a difference!

The second mod is Abarth stickers for the engine bay. I've been interested in the Abarth Punto Evo recently and so I've tried to make mine abit more 'Abarthy'... I've added a red Abarth Scorpion emblem on the air box, and a smaller silver Abarth Scorpion emblem on the fuse box.. This adds abit off colour to the standard full plastic engine bay! Currently in the post is the Abarth lettering to go below the Abarth emblem on the air box.

Rhys

If you can open the side indicators without to much damage take the orange inserts out and glue back together, don't use super glue it reacts with the plastic and turns them white ?? then order some silver indicator bulbs which go orange when lit.
They will look cool.


Sent from my iPad Air using FIAT Forum

RhysSmoove said:

I have painted the ring of plastic around the lock stalk, silver. Might need a second coat.. Can kind of see the brush strokes.

Pictures to follow..( i will post a picture of how it turned out once its dry!)

View attachment 140571
View attachment 140572
View attachment 140573

Click to expand...

you know you can just pull those bits of plastic out and paint them

Went out to an old mill near me and thought it was a great place for some beauty shots. So... Here's some beauty shots! (Literally the day after I debadged the sides.. So I'll put up pictures of that too!

Beauty shots:





Debadged sides:

Finally got round to one of the first things I was going to do when I got my Punto; the radio!

I got an old one off my brother (an ancient Kenwood that he had in a Corsa about 3 years ago!) and set to work... And boy was it hard work!

I found out the hard way that the radios on Italian cars needed to be linked into the ignition, so that was the first thing I had to do. Finally did that and got all the wirings set up.

Next was the radio itself.. Because the radio was so old, the cage was bent to hell. So I decided the best plan would be to get the cage in first then the radio would follow suit.. After a load of jiggery pokery it finally went in.

Then it was onto getting the badly designed plastic cover on. I brought a more expensive one from Halfords, thinking it would better quality, but obviously not.. After a bit of modding, and slamming it finally went in, still looking unfinished. But it's in!

Got a really good auxiliary wire too! Looks all retro with the wire being material!

Pictures to follow..

Rhys

Another job I had planned to sort a while back, which unfortunately I forgot about.. Whenever I put my heater blower on, I could smell petrol. This also happened if i was in traffic for long periods of time.

I was informed that a common problem causing this was the breather hose deteriorating. So..months back, I said I'd check the breather hose for any signs of wear, but obviously I didn't get round to it.. But I finally decided to sort it.

I unscrewed the two screws and the spring, lifted off the air box to find that the breather hose wasn't even attached to the air box! Obviously this was my problem. Other than that the breather hose looked in remarkably good condition... I reattached the hose, but had no jubilee clips to put it back on securely, so I just pushed it back on as far as it would go until I get another moment to get a clip on it.

I went for a long drive down to my girlfriends (160 mile round trip, mainly motorways) and on the way back, I had the blower on all the way home and didn't smell petrol once! (even while caught in the notorious M25 traffic!) So that was a job well done!

Rhys

RhysSmoove said:

I went for a long drive down to my girlfriends (160 mile round trip, mainly motorways) and on the way back, I had the blower on all the way home and didn't smell petrol once! SO obviously that was job done!

Click to expand...

You may even notice your mpg increases, as well!

Here's the lettering I ordered to go on the air box under the scorpion in my engine bay, that I promised to show you all!

I have to admit I really like it, but then again I'm a teenager who likes Abarth's so...

See what you guys think

Rhys

homeward said:

You may even notice your mpg increases, as well!

Click to expand...

Went on another trip down to my girlfriends (only me in the car this time) and my MPG was brilliant! Nudging 65 at some points! The best I had out of it before I reattached the breather hose was about 53/5 mpg!

Rhys

Also today I added another new visual mod to my car. Unfortunately it's another controversial one.. I have changed my old worn out rear Fiat badge for an Abarth badge.

Overall, I think it looks great, and for the effort I had to put in to get the old badge off, I'm really glad it looks good!

Pictures to follow

Rhys

A new touch I thought I'd try with my car... Under-dash lighting. I didn't go for the properly wired in ones, I went for a set of cheap, stick on, cigarette lighter powered ones.

I was faced with a dilemma; how was I going to put the lights in without having loads of wire hanging around, making my car look scruffy.

I decided that a good plan would be to remove the centre console panel and make it so the cigarette lighter plug for the lights could come out of the ash tray to plug in, and be hidden away again in the cigarette lighter when I didn't need them on. Ingenious or what eh? So I set to it...

I started by unscrewing my centre panel screws and pulled it out. I then set about trying to get the plug to go through the hole behind the ash tray. This was obviously never going to happen... I had to unscrew the plug, push the wired half through the hole and then screw it back up on the side facing out on the centre console panel. I also ended up taking half the ash tray apart to even fit half through!

Next I set about sticking the lights in place. There were two for each footwell. I managed to find suitable places for the drivers footwell. However, when I came back to my car later to check how they looked at night, one had slipped, so I pushed it back on.. Unfortunately in the wrong place. So now it points too low down, meaning I need to sort it in the morning (as you'll see in the pictures). The passenger footwell was harder to find a place where the bulbs will actually shine onto the floor. But I only managed to get them to stick facing up into the glovebox. This means that you can't really see the passenger footwell lights that well I tied the excess wire together and masking taped it up near the lights so it didn't dangle down.

Once I'd sorted their positions, i had to sort out putting the wire behind the centre console to hide it. I managed to bundle up all the wire and then masking taped it to the back of the inside of the centre console panel. I screwed the panel back in again and it was job done!

Overall I'm quite pleased, considering they only cost me about £3 off Amazon!

Pictures to follow.

Rhys

Before:

The lights:

The work:









After (needs sorting again):