500 Meet Gina

Gina recently joined us, a special edition Spiaggina ´58 in volare blue



She is a 1.2 8V with most extras and some special trim included (sadly not the Xenon headlights).

Early Mods:
Nice leather seats were added instead of the original grey/beige cloth





Moon caps to give it that "classic" touch (and to hide the ugly steel rims for the winter tires). For the summer in case we get one, it has the original Fiat "retro" rims

Space saver wheel and tool inlay came from a Punto for small money via ebay



And, since the wife did not want anything with a plug for Christmas, she got the extra classic touch for the dash

Those wheels suit the car very well.

I must say I really like the retro look. Looks clean and crisp. Well done

Thanks for the positive feedback.
Here now with the summer wheels - finally the winter seems to be over

Looking very nice. Such the classic look. All blends very well.

Gina got a boot rack recently. Made of stainless steel, it adds to the classic look. Not that it will be used much in winter, but it will definitely not rust



It does also come handy as a handle to close the boot lid, which wasn´t all that easy with the normal chrome handle.

As the damper is at its limits already with the lid alone, I fitted a second one on the left side. The holes are already there, all it needs is the ball joints (the holes will take M6 or -barely- M8) and a second damper. That brings the lid with the rack up very well and probably has some reserves for a lightly loaded rack. I assume it is better for the joints anyway if the lid is lifted symmetrically.



One thing to note: With the normal dampers, the upper bar of the rack presses onto the roof just above the bottom edge when open, means the boot opens slightly too far. To correct that, I fitted a shorter damper (normal one is 288mm fully extended, new one is 270mm). That holds it away from the roof. Downside is the lid angle is now good for short people, not so good for taller ones. (We´re both on the shorter end, fortunately ).
A damper with 275 to 280 mm would probably be the best choice to stop it "just barely" before the bar touches the roof. It´s a bit difficult to find exactly what you want, since dampers are usually sold by car model and technical parameters are not always given. The standard one for the 500C is 288mm and 370 N.

ok, turned out the Mrs didn´t like the limited opening angle. I knew I shouldn´t have gone for those long legs when I was out proposing.....
Anyway, I extended the new damper slightly (probably + 8mm), which brings the opening angle up quite bit and still keeps the bar off the roof.



So the final recommendation is a 280mm damper, a possible option is the boot damper for the Alfa 166 which has 280mm and 390N

The latest project, just finished: Inside wheel covers

The nice retro alloys get quickly covered in brake dust on the front wheels. While is makes sense that the brake produces dust as part of its job, it´s pretty annoying to have to clean the rims ever so often.

On my other car, where I had the alloys polished to high gloss, I was facing the same issue. The guy who did the polishing gave me a pair of thin aluminium discs that fit inside the rim and prevent the dust from reaching the outside (some leftover from old US cars, he said). Needed some fitting work and now has been working perfectly fine for over 5 years. No dust on the outside any more. No overheating brakes that the sceptics were warning against.

I decided to make the same for the Fiat. The basis are 14" aluminium pizza trays that I ordered from China. IIRC, they were less that 15 GBP for the pair and fit snugly inside the rim. Mounting them to the rim needed a bit of experimenting, the middle needs to be cut out, 4 flaps are cut and folded inside the lower grooves of the wheel, so they are not between the rim and the brake disk. It needs a bit of "shaping" around the inner tapered part of the rim, but the material is soft enough to shape it by hand and/or a piece of wood and a mallet. They are held to the rim with 2 bolts and 2 M6 aluminium blind rivet nuts that fit into the alignment holes of the wheel.

The first one took a bit of experimenting, the second one worked fairly fast and looks cleaner. You only get to see the second one, of course
Inside

Outside

Sommer can come now.

I really like the rims. Where can i buy some? I searched everywhere and i cannot find a retro model like this one.

Fiat OE 52028548, available e.g. from Axel Augustin group, a large Fiat parts dealer.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Original-Fi...-/123034367881

And the matching hubcaps OE 53210135

Hello and welcome to the forum.

Those rims are really nice. The price, less so.

An OE set from Fiat with matching trims and tyres won't leave you with much change out of £2000.

There aren't many tyre fitters I'd trust with these. Most tyre fitting machines come with plastic holders to protect vulnerable alloys, but I've only ever once seen them used.

They're also quite easy to kerb; all the secondhand ones I've seen are carrying some damage.

My £40 steel wheels may not be the prettiest, but the relative peace of mind is priceless!

Thank you !

So beautiful but so expensive ! I will keep dreaming at them for a while, hehe ! Thanks for info !

A nice little addition to the rims - valve caps with Fiat Logo



The covers inside the front rims work fine btw, so far the usual brake dust on the wheels stays on the inside. Much better than last year.

And now something very special, back to the classic 500 roots.
Some will probably love it, others may think it is total nonsense.
I felt a deep desire for the beehive sidelights of the classic 500 and I found a way to get them.

These are lenses from Lucas L594 lights that have been used on classic British cars for many years, including the landrover.
They cover the fog lights that I never use anyway.
The lenses needed a bit of machining around the outer diameter to fit through the openings of the fog lights. My first hope was that I could just fix them behind the fog light frame, however, that is curved and the lens did not quite fit and blocked the cover.
Now I fixed them with heat shrink to the body of the fog light. Not super elegant, but it does the job.