I've had a silver '03 Punto Mk2 for about 11 months now and have recently started modifying her a little, partly to improve her looks, partly because... well, why not?

So far I have....
- Switched the LEDs on the instrument cluster to blue dials, white needles and blue lights for indicators, headlights, etc.
- Switched the LEDs on the switch rail to blue
- Switched the heating control bulbs to blue LEDs (well, that one's a work in progress)
- Added an engine-start push-button switch to the blank panel on the switch rail
- Removed the plastic strips along the side of the car
- Sanded and re-sprayed the plastic Fiat-badged wheel trims to spruce them up a little

I'll upload some photos tomorrow when I get some daylight.

I'm considering de-badging the rest of it and there's a couple of scratches I want to sort out, but aside from that... any suggestions for some more mods?

Cheers!

will be good to see a picture of the push to start button, see how it looks compared to mine...

It looks exactly the same as it did before the mod - I haven't so much added a button, rather I've turned the blank plastic panel into a button that presses like the other 3 on there. Once you take the switch rail apart, there are only 2 bits of plastic to break off that stop it from being depressed. I added 2 metal contact pads that work as a switch that sends 12v from the cigarette lighter to a 40 amp relay hidden behind my steering column cover (I know 40A is overkill for the ignition, but it was in stock when I went looking).

I'll stick some photos up tomorrow

As Promised - Photos

Attached photos:
- My lovely Punto (smooth-sided)
- Blue and white LED head unit
- "Disguised" ignition push-button (note the missing plastic behind the heating controls - that's a work in progress!)
- Installing the ignition push-button

Re: As Promised - Photos

does wiring it to the cig lighter mean that when you press the button when the key is out, it does nothing?

The way I have mine, is a push to make switch wired into the ignition wires + and -, but that means when I press it with the key out, it will still turn the starter motor.

Might rewire it to the way you have it.

Yeah, that's right. The cigarette 12V only comes on when the key is in the ignition and turned to the first notch, so without the key there's nothing to turn on the relay.

The relay I used for mine was Maplin part number N00AW (£2.29)

It's actually visible in the photo above with my centre console and steering column covers taken off. If you go straight up from the clutch pedal, it's the little back box (bigger than I thought it was going to be).

Car modifying is generally a rather personal thing, it always makes me cringe when someone posts a picture of their own car and half a dozen people pitch in with "I don't like...." or "you should....." often without much consideration to the person who's car it is or to their financial abilities, suggesting expensive things.

Essentially from the outside the car looks stock, the removal of the bump strips often makes a budget car look like an even cheaper model, as cheap models don't have them fitted to save costs. But the 3 door cars look more sporty wouldn't look out of place.
It would obviously benefit from a set of alloy wheels colour coded wing mirrors, door handles would make it look like a more 'upper class' I am a bit of a purest so prefer to see cars standard and unmolested