Styling Kicking, squealing Gucci little piggy

[mj2k]

I've been waiting 24 years to use that line, so please excuse the silliness Really I'm trying to get feelers for if anyone's interested in how to lower the passenger seat, aside from the blatant 'for sale' plug below...

That's a line from an old Radiohead song, but aside from demonstrating I'm getting on a bit and rather like 'Paranoid Android', I will be getting rid of a couple of GQ / Gucci edition parts soon; I'm definitely getting rid of my GQ / Gucci edition matte door handles (put on Ebay - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/294709203175) and may (depending on how I get on with Sparco seats) be putting a good pair of GQ edition front seats up for sale too, so please reply here or drop me a PM if you're interested in the handles or rather plush front seats (I've done a cheap, reversible modification to the passenger side to give 4-5cm more headroom but can easily revert to standard; I can do a 'howto' on that if anyone's interested) and we can work something out cost-wise.

Passenger seat base rear dropped by around 5cm, gives some useful extra headroom! Drop a reply in on here if you want to know how I did it and I'll stick in a 500 'howto' - same mod can be done to any 500 / Abarth passenger seat, LHD or RHD

GQ / Gucci matte finish handles:

 

[mj2k]

As an interesting aside, the GQ and Gucci editions are special trim levels for a standard 500 in the UK, whereas judging by reviews / specs, in the USA the GQ Edition was really an Abarth 500c with different trim / bumpers.

Wonder if they made the two special editions the same standard 500 spec in the UK to avoid any accusations of sexism, or were they simply trying to make sure the Abarth retained it's separate brand identity whilst selling a few more branded 500s? And how did the rest of Europe handle the two special editions? Wonder if it was the same as the UK everywhere in the EU.

 

[Baglady1990]

I had the matte handles along with all the other matte chrome …. Mirror covers outer door handles ect ect but chose to replace with shiny chrome
I have also replaced / modified a lot of my interior to my own liking .. matte black & alcantara wrap I’ve also customised an arbarth steering wheel
Bit off your topic sorry thought I’d share as you too seem to love upgrades

 

[Baglady1990]

Forgot my fiat badges that I gave the “gucci” look!

 

[mj2k]

Same here, didn't really fancy the matte-look GQ Edition door handles either, so swapped to the standard shiny ones.

I do love upgrades (especially ones which make the car feel / handle more how I want it to) but that badge upgrade looks a bit too complicated and intricate for me

Not sure if they'll stay but I seem to be doing a few 'sideways upgrades' (aka sortof downgades) at the moment like fitting the GQ Edn interior in place of the Abarth and may fit a 500 sport round wheel in place of the Abarth wheel because, well, I like my steering wheels to be round and having a black wheel will look better with an all-black interior than the current brown one.

 

[Baglady1990]

The badge wasn’t that hard yeah I’m same I just like to tweak things a bit
My gucci is the car I would have bought if I won the lottery never thought I’d own one let alone have to sort so many mechanical issues myself
I fitted koni shocks all round that made a huge difference to the standard
Speaker upgrades and a sub another big difference
But since my gucci was basically a lounge with gucci leather seats and an opening sunroof oh and gucci seatbelts I just decided to simplify my interior to black now it looks nothing like a lounge and more like a sport gucci

 

[mj2k]

The badge wasn’t that hard yeah I’m same I just like to tweak things a bit
My gucci is the car I would have bought if I won the lottery never thought I’d own one let alone have to sort so many mechanical issues myself
I fitted koni shocks all round that made a huge difference to the standard
Speaker upgrades and a sub another big difference
But since my gucci was basically a lounge with gucci leather seats and an opening sunroof oh and gucci seatbelts I just decided to simplify my interior to black now it looks nothing like a lounge and more like a sport gucci

Definitely looking good with all that work

I hunted down some original Konis (the black ones) and Eibach lowering springs for mine too whilst I was waiting for it to arrive, only to find it already had them fitted But one of the front struts was damaged, so replacing them wasn't a total waste of time.

Just did a couple of other minor interior mods on mine (I've christened it the 'biker's boudoir' because it's all black leather), perhaps a bit marmite but I do rather like having the round steering wheel, even if it does weigh a bit more than the Abarth one. New black mats too, so now all I need to do is replace that rather-too-cheery air freshener

 

[A3jeroen]

Do airfresheners come in black?

gr J

 

[mj2k]

Do airfresheners come in black?

gr J

Yes, even with a Harley engine on them to match the 'biker's boudoir' style, or the ubiquitous 'little tree'

 

[mj2k]

Ooh, or even more appropriate given what I've done to my poor little car:

 

[A3jeroen]

Now a gold Esteticostripe on the dashboard.

gr J

 

[mj2k]

Now a gold Esteticostripe on the dashboard.

gr J

Not a bad idea, though that'd spoil the whole 'blacker than a black hole' aesthetic inside...

At least it won't show any oily fingerprints as it is now

Edit: good grief, I really could go for black leather overkill if I wanted:

Think I might give that one a miss though, there's more black leather in there than a boot factory already

 

[Baglady1990]

We are on a similar page with the colour scheme it works well … till you get dust! My original dash panel (coloured plastic one) was matte black soft touch …. Soft touch is right!! A slightly stiffened patch on a microfibre cloth is all it took to scratch it!! I’ve seen those leather covers on eBay thought about it but all the glue needed put me off!
They do ones for the rear quarter panel too and head lining wouldn’t mind a black suede headlining but again … glue!

 

[mj2k]

We are on a similar page with the colour scheme it works well … till you get dust! My original dash panel (coloured plastic one) was matte black soft touch …. Soft touch is right!! A slightly stiffened patch on a microfibre cloth is all it took to scratch it!! I’ve seen those leather covers on eBay thought about it but all the glue needed put me off!
They do ones for the rear quarter panel too and head lining wouldn’t mind a black suede headlining but again … glue!

Don't think I'd fancy a black suede glued-on headlining, it'd be so heavy the first time it got condensation in it you'd end up wearing it

I'm doing a couple of other mods whilst waiting for the seat bases - I've finally got round to adding the alarm, I've wired in my boost gauge in properly, need to fit my new 'accidental purchase' (a silver Comp gear knob) and might change the stereo whilst the dash is out so even that matches the 'everything black' colour scheme.

 

[Piccolo Nero e Bella]

Don't think I'd fancy a black suede glued-on headlining, it'd be so heavy the first time it got condensation in it you'd end up wearing it

I'm doing a couple of other mods whilst waiting for the seat bases - I've finally got round to adding the alarm, I've wired in my boost gauge in properly, need to fit my new 'accidental purchase' (a silver Comp gear knob) and might change the stereo whilst the dash is out so even that matches the 'everything black' colour scheme.

Very 70's vibe. Now all you'd need is to play the 1967 hit 'Black is Black' whenever you're driving... (or 'Paint it Black').

My car's only black on the outside - apart from the black dash panel that I'm forever dusting. I'm heading the other way having just ordered the ivory gear knob and gaiter.

 

[A3jeroen]

...Back to black?
CF gearknob would 've fitted nicely.

gr J

 

[Baglady1990]

What stereo do you have in? The original? Upgrades are good especially for my ageing 2011 the blue n me was past it in my opinion have you added soundproofing yet? I did mine a while back it’s done wonders for road noise!

Except I have developed a rattle from the rear quarter it’s driving me insane… it’s a loose clip ..somewhere..had the panels off n on looking for the bugger … I should just turn up the tunes and ignore… but I’m ocd and can’t

 

[mj2k]

Just got back in from a cold morning's worth of tinkering...

Decided to fit the Boss Audio since it suits the car's 'vibe' better, and for some reason sounds better than my old top of the range Pioneer in the 500, which doesn't make much sense.

Swapping to the Comp-style gear knob and round steering wheel really help with the feel of the car for me, so there's been some definite positives from all this fiddling

 

[mj2k]

Very 70's vibe. Now all you'd need is to play the 1967 hit 'Black is Black' whenever you're driving... (or 'Paint it Black').

My car's only black on the outside - apart from the black dash panel that I'm forever dusting. I'm heading the other way having just ordered the ivory gear knob and gaiter.

Paint it black would be more appropriate for the car's vibe, or given it's all gone a bit 'biker' inside, maybe this




Actually, the interior colour is entirely accidental - I really liked the brown 'classic' interior it came with, but my other half kept hitting her head on the roof, so I've had to lower the seats, and it wasn't possible to find anything which didn't clash dramatically with the original colour so it's ended up going all black.

 

[mj2k]

What stereo do you have in? The original? Upgrades are good especially for my ageing 2011 the blue n me was past it in my opinion have you added soundproofing yet? I did mine a while back it’s done wonders for road noise!

Except I have developed a rattle from the rear quarter it’s driving me insane… it’s a loose clip ..somewhere..had the panels off n on looking for the bugger … I should just turn up the tunes and ignore… but I’m ocd and can’t

Bet it's the rear seat back or parcel shelf, they're really annoying when they start to rattle

I wanted to keep the Blue & Me since it worked with the TomTom (which fits in the port in the dash) well, and wanted to keep the media port in the centre console, so ended up doing a little experimentation and found out the big browny-red connector has line outs for the Blue & Me, so needed to find a stereo with line inputs on the back. Using that line out means pretty much everything except the steering wheel volume controls still works, which is rather nice

Since the chip shortage has affected the availability of high-end stereos (top of the range models seem to be the only ones with rear line inputs) that meant I was basically limited either to a very old stereo, or a Boss Audio (which actually does pretty well in audio reviews, given it's cost) so I did have an old top-of-the-range Pioneer fitted, but I've just swapped to the Boss.

As for the soundproofing, except for fitting speaker baffles to the rear I've left it standard because I rather like the sound of the Monza exhaust.