imagejpg10_zpsef21d6fb.jpg

Punto (Mk1) My exploit yellow 75 elx

Introduction

Hi.
My name is Simon and I haven't been on here in ages.
I'm a fiat nut who has owned fiats all my life as have my family. I work in a fiat dealership in dundee and have treated myself to a new car, as it's the first time in my life I have been without a fiat.

I bought the following car off ebay for 4 reasons

1. I had one as my first car
2. I just bought a house and have somewhere to keep it
3. My mum had a brand new exploit yellow 55 sx back in '95
4. Have plenty fiat techs to fix it when it breaks

So, I'm in dundee, the car was in Yorkshire, so my dad and I left 5:30am Saturday morning in his 500L to pick it up. I was worried about bringing a near 20 year old fiat 260 mile up the road, but it didn't miss a beat. It drives like a new car.

History- we'll it was sold new to a mrs crappe, at carnell fiat, she had the car garaged from new, done 70,000 miles in it. It had its original dealer plates on it which I changed, as they were tatty. Full years mot with no advisories, and a full service history. She specced it up with a drivers airbag!

The car come with a few parking dings, original scuffed wheel trims, and a couple of light scratches, otherwise it's mint.
Luckily working in a fiat dealer, I can get parts, a workshop with a 40 years served fiat technician, a dent man and body shop.

Took the car into work today to get all the dents removed, was up on the ramps for a health check- solid underneath, just needs new discs and pads and a rocker cover gasket. Underneath is solid, clean and all present and correct. It also needs a new cam belt cover as mine is burst. Then that's it mint.
Turns out the rear tyres are the factory originals, made 3rd week of 1995, so it will be getting a full set of brand new Goodyear duragrips I have in my garage.
Surprisingly every single thing works on the car, even the remote locking and being an elx it has an electric sunroof!!!

It's quite funny because all the fiat techs were all over it today, donating parts. One of them had an exploit yellow touch up pen that's been in his toolbox for 15 years, got handbrake cables and a rocker cover gasket, with more bits offered. They also went on e-sigi and printed out the complete history of my car, showing recalls for brake pipes, airbag ecu etc which is nice to keep.

Work so far done-

New genuine wheel trims
New genuine punto mats
Original fiat tape deck
Genuine fiat lineaccessorie front and rear mudflaps
General tidy up
Clay, wet sand, machine polish bodywork
New numberplates
Dents removed
Brand new badges
Full valet

I love this car, I can't believe how mint it is. Taking bad with no power steering though.
I put it in the showroom and took some piccies.
Anyway the pictures.......

imagejpg1_zpsc924ba6a.jpg

imagejpg2_zps873fb497.jpg

imagejpg3_zps2d221895.jpg

imagejpg4_zps38ab8098.jpg

imagejpg5_zps96eb4620.jpg

imagejpg14_zps41d3d93c.jpg

imagejpg7_zpsbccf4ace.jpg

imagejpg6_zps92be4983.jpg

imagejpg9_zps849942d5.jpg

imagejpg8_zps6e832c96.jpg

imagejpg13_zps5e04db80.jpg

imagejpg10_zpsef21d6fb.jpg

imagejpg11_zpsc7b4da7e.jpg

imagejpg12_zpse1b5bd02.jpg


And my main/ daily car

image_zpsc9fa3907.jpg
The mk1 was actually my last Fiat before I got my 2013 Punto, I jumped ship across several cars for a few years, a Renault, Saab & a Smart, all good in their own rights tbh but ultimately I never got that feeling you get, (I hope this isn’t specific to me), when you come out of a petrol station and you can’t help but admire your own car under the forecourt lights.
I’ve always loved the styling of Puntos and the final facelift is no exception, if it weren’t for the TwinAir engine spicing things up a bit it wouldn’t be a very exciting drive mind....

What's mad to me is I've only had 2 cars since I sold my mk1 in 2008! So I've still owned more Fiats than I've owned anything else. Know what you mean about the forecourt thing, polished pearl white absolutely pops!

I still look for what I liked about the mk1 in cars I buy, so nice zingy NA petrol engine (the power isn't that important as long as it feels willing), decent communicative controls and handling that is fun at normal speeds.

Unfortunately that's a list of 0 new cars available unless you want 2 seats and no roof...so you end up on the net reminiscing about the good old days.
 
I must admit, I do like the design of the mk1 Punto, but it's the mk2 and the Grande that I'll always have a fondness for.

I can relate to you guys when you say about admiring the car whenever you walk away from it, or see its reflection in a shop window: I'm still like that now, and I've had it for 6 years, lol! [emoji846]
 
I must admit, I do like the design of the mk1 Punto, but it's the mk2 and the Grande that I'll always have a fondness for.

Would say without driving an earlier car be it an original Panda or an Uno or a mk1 Punto you don't know what went missing.

Not that I'd necessarily want to jump in one now, it was bad enough when after a fortnight of 85 Elx ownership I hopped into my 55s to drive it to it's new owner. Despite being the same model of car it felt like a truck with it's lack of any mod cons compared to high spec mk1.

Sometimes the memories are better..

I imagine if I was to get into mk1 now I'd either drive it very slowly or quickly find out just how far brakes, tyres and suspension have progressed since 1994.
 
I love all mod cons, but I would still get a lot of fun out of driving an old mk1. Even an uno or the old panda would be a laugh but I wouldn’t want to daily it or take it on any long journeys.

The only “old” car I would consider these days is either some sort of exotic classic or something like a land rover defender. But only because they are old by design, I can still get a 5 year old one.
 
depends on your definition of old though, I can't see me ever buying a new car. I still view even my suzuki as a modern car even though its 16 years old now, the panda on a '59 plate is like a new car to me haha. Think the newest car i've owned was the alfa 159 which was an '09 plate that i got right before xmas 2012. Beautiful car and super comfy and did everything i wanted it to but i couldnt bring myself to love it.
I don't think i'll ever bond with a newer car tbh, they all feel to heavy and woollen, even the really small 'light' ones :shrug: The Suzuki is literally everything I want in a car really, its simple, its really light and really responsive - the 100hp is kinda the same but it lacks the immediacy of inputs. But nearly every car i have a desire for is either a classic or almost old enough to be one. Super tempted to try find a solid mk1 punto as my next 'project' but finding one isnt easy anymore
 
It was only a basic 55 model but is drove really well and was simple.

Just found a picture of in when looking for something else, now I think it was actually a 60 model, can't be 100% sure but looks more like a 60 on the front wing than it does a 55.

Then on the back it is a Punto "S" so i'm guessing a 60S ?

Very posh !!
 
I don't think i'll ever bond with a newer car tbh, they all feel to heavy and woollen, even the really small 'light' ones :shrug: The Suzuki is literally everything I want in a car really, its simple, its really light and really responsive - the 100hp is kinda the same but it lacks the immediacy of inputs. But nearly every car i have a desire for is either a classic or almost old enough to be one. Super tempted to try find a solid mk1 punto as my next 'project' but finding one isnt easy anymore

I ended up with a Suzuki as it did a much better job of being a Fiat than later Fiats did. Swift I had shared an engine with the iggy sport, marvellously chuckable little thing.

Don't miss it at all though, mainly cos it never made me suffer probably so I had it for 6 years and 60 odd k miles and while it was fun at the time I'd never consider buying another as I had no unfinished business with it.

Current car will come and go as well...Still enjoy it after 6 years but if anything the flaws that made older cars enjoyable and frustrating in equal measure aren't really present.

Modern cars tend to do job so much better...but as a result you don't consider what they do. It becomes about where you've been rather than how you got there.

I'd love to have a space for project MK1...instead for some reason we keep buying Citroëns.
 
the swift does share alot with the ignis, but the ignis is more 90s feeling, the swift has fly by wire throttle for example whereas the ignis has a cable. I like the swift but really the iggy feels way more like a 90s fiat than the swift does, has that biscuit tin quality to it (i get that most people might not see that as a plus mind haha). I feel the swift is to the ignis what the mk2 punto is to the mk1. And actually if you live in japan the ignis was a swift and the swift was its replacement (depsite both being on sale at the same time).
The iggy sport also has much higher compression ratio than the swift 1.5, its 11:1 rather than 9.5:1 - as a result feel mega peppy, its surprising how nippy it is really. On paper its pretty much the same as the panda 100hp but put them side by side and its a different story, the ignis literally drives away even if you give the panda a headstart. Its pretty mad how much quicker it is really. But I'm not here to try convince fiat forum to go buy ignis' lol -good condition sports are few and far between anyway so its not actually that easy to go get one, there is far more 100hps about and they holding their value way better too :shrug:
 
Fresh mot today.

Also had a look at this poor 75. Engine is going in a cinquecento but no trim parts are compatable with mine as it’s an SX
 

Attachments

  • D2EE2655-7B74-490B-8D00-16D04B3F1AFB.jpeg
    D2EE2655-7B74-490B-8D00-16D04B3F1AFB.jpeg
    2.3 MB · Views: 80
  • 59139899-403D-4AE0-97B1-8C4EC7E413C1.jpeg
    59139899-403D-4AE0-97B1-8C4EC7E413C1.jpeg
    2.6 MB · Views: 90
  • 5061BE71-5BDD-4F37-9D9E-F3D4BDFEA8C4.jpeg
    5061BE71-5BDD-4F37-9D9E-F3D4BDFEA8C4.jpeg
    3.1 MB · Views: 102
Looks like they have over done the headlight fluid... that’s what will have caused the rust.

Make sure you regularly check your headlight fluid and blinker fluid levels
 
That is exactly what it is, a key to close sunroof should electrical system fail.
 
It’s my birthday on Monday so my 4 year old daughter supplied me with these retro anti theft fiat metal dust caps. Have put plenty grease on them so they don’t seize, and the car is never wet anyway so shouldn’t be any issues with them.

Also my punto keyring has lost its t and o, so started today with my exploit yellow touch up pen to colour in the letters. Not perfect but isn’t finished yet.....
 

Attachments

  • C22C522D-2E50-402D-88F5-D7A67DB209B8.jpeg
    C22C522D-2E50-402D-88F5-D7A67DB209B8.jpeg
    2.4 MB · Views: 98
  • 07B380AC-A8B0-4427-9F07-BF292BAFD99F.jpeg
    07B380AC-A8B0-4427-9F07-BF292BAFD99F.jpeg
    3.5 MB · Views: 87
  • FD22E64D-F2C8-4144-865C-3608BCE482CB.jpeg
    FD22E64D-F2C8-4144-865C-3608BCE482CB.jpeg
    2.4 MB · Views: 77
  • E8278E03-9305-4A52-A95D-652A8AAFA506.jpeg
    E8278E03-9305-4A52-A95D-652A8AAFA506.jpeg
    3.4 MB · Views: 138
One thing I have never changed in the 6 years of owning the car is the HT leads. Found a set of genuine plugs on eBay for a fiver so thought I’d be as well changing the leads as well- were about £20 all in from Shop4Parts.

Still waiting on my water pump and timing belt arriving though
 

Attachments

  • 2449527D-4B0D-4070-BC88-6928A01606BF.jpeg
    2449527D-4B0D-4070-BC88-6928A01606BF.jpeg
    2.3 MB · Views: 138
Back
Top