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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.......

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And my main/ daily car

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So this morning, my car was treated to

Coolant change
Timing belt
Water pump
Spark plugs
Ignition leads

All done by my Fiat mastertech from my work.
Took only two hours.
 

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So......

I’m in two minds about the car.
I had it out today and tbh the way I’m feeling just now is that I can’t be bothered with it.
It’s pretty much perfect now, and I have ocd. But still it’s got to the point that it’s not as enjoyable as it used to be, and it’s hardly used.

The car doesn’t really move now out of the garage, and I haven’t washed it since I got it back from the bodyshop 18 months ago- I give it a wipe over on the odd occasion it’s outside.

My home and work life have changed dramatically over the last 18 months, and at first the car was therapy for me, as I’d lock myself away in the garage and just do wee jobs on it. But now my wee girls getting bigger and I’m on my own, I don’t have as much time as I used to.

My friends tell me I’d regret getting rid of it, but it just seems a total waste just now.
My worry is that I have put a lot of work into it, and the car will sit and delapidate.
 
So......



I’m in two minds about the car.

I had it out today and tbh the way I’m feeling just now is that I can’t be bothered with it.

It’s pretty much perfect now, and I have ocd. But still it’s got to the point that it’s not as enjoyable as it used to be, and it’s hardly used.



The car doesn’t really move now out of the garage, and I haven’t washed it since I got it back from the bodyshop 18 months ago- I give it a wipe over on the odd occasion it’s outside.



My home and work life have changed dramatically over the last 18 months, and at first the car was therapy for me, as I’d lock myself away in the garage and just do wee jobs on it. But now my wee girls getting bigger and I’m on my own, I don’t have as much time as I used to.



My friends tell me I’d regret getting rid of it, but it just seems a total waste just now.

My worry is that I have put a lot of work into it, and the car will sit and delapidate.



You’re friends are right you would regret it .ive had a few similar thoughts over the years , my gt sat for 4 years in the garage and I said I’d sell it but the day before I put it up for sale it broke down [emoji849]and I’m so glad I didn’t as I’ve had lots of good times at shows etc with it . I know this year has been a bad with everything being cancelled but sure you and your daughter can have some good adventures going places in it , mine did very little miles in the last year but hasn’t deteriorated and I’m sure yours won’t, keep hold of it you’ll never find another one like it [emoji1303]
 
Virtually every car (or bike) I sold because my life had "moved on" was a mistake. I dont stress about it but regret every one.
Triton 500 Pre Unit alloy barrels
MG Midget 1275
NSU Quickly moped
Honda XL250 K0
VW Spliity van (mega rusty but I should have tried a resto)
Citroen CX 1.9
Punto Abarth HGT
 
The other issue is that I have genuinely no idea what it’s worth.
Try and find another low mileage, low owner one like it that has the benefit of an owner who works in a fiat garage, the car wants for nothing and with a full fiat service history.

I know it’s not a GT So won’t be worth as much but it’s rarer, and is genuinely immaculate.

I don’t know. I’ll probably just leave it in the garage just now and forget about it.
 
So......

I’m in two minds about the car.
I had it out today and tbh the way I’m feeling just now is that I can’t be bothered with it.
It’s pretty much perfect now, and I have ocd. But still it’s got to the point that it’s not as enjoyable as it used to be, and it’s hardly used.

The car doesn’t really move now out of the garage, and I haven’t washed it since I got it back from the bodyshop 18 months ago- I give it a wipe over on the odd occasion it’s outside.

My home and work life have changed dramatically over the last 18 months, and at first the car was therapy for me, as I’d lock myself away in the garage and just do wee jobs on it. But now my wee girls getting bigger and I’m on my own, I don’t have as much time as I used to.

My friends tell me I’d regret getting rid of it, but it just seems a total waste just now.
My worry is that I have put a lot of work into it, and the car will sit and delapidate.

It sounds like the enjoyment is in the work rather than the car it’s self. Having reached the limits of what you can do, you’ve lost interest and enjoyment.

For now you may be bored with it, but it sounds like you might need to sit on it for a while and see if you then develop an attachment to the finished project. If you’ve already spent a long time feeling like you do l, maybe if would be worth looking for a new project.

If you did get rid of it you’d never get anything like you might think it’s worth. The main problem is it’s not fancy enough to be high on a collectors wish list, therefore it’s not going to be desirable enough to command much of a price, you could use you down time with it to put out some feelers and see if someone is interested out there. Put some adverts out at some higher prices and see what happens?
 
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