My exploit yellow punto 75elx

[simon_16vpunto1]

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.......
















And my main/ daily car

 

[Stuart]

Welcome back stranger, long time since ive seen your name pop up.

Tidy wee punto there, keeping it 100% standard and mint?

 

[M21MFS]

Loving the new motor..Canna wait to see that on sat. Will look out a Haynes!

 

[simon_16vpunto1]

Got married and sold the abarth
Yeh this is staying 100% stock, I'll no find another one as good as this

 

[Andi9386]

Taking it back Old Skool.

I remember my mum having the 75SX back in the day, P reg. P580 UCD.

Nice to see an older car in Mint condition, that'll turn a few heads in the showroom.

 

[bad_boy_cinq]

Id love to be able to stick my stilo and my cento in a fiat delership just for pictures

looks a good old punto

 

[simon_16vpunto1]

So, done a few wee things to my car.
Firstly a new set of tyres, the original rear tyres were Michelin mxt's, plenty tread left but are nearly 20 years old so in the interests of safety, I changed them all for a new set of Goodyear duragrips, slightly wider than the originals.

Also fitted my brand new badges and gave the car a thorough clean.
Bought genuine fiat discs and pads for the front and a genuine fiat timing belt, just need to get round to fitting them.

Then just a few wee bits to tidy up.

 

[simon_16vpunto1]

Working In a fiat dealer is awesome.
Whilst I was in Turin driving the 500x, my punto got a genuine 72k fiat service, using genuine parts, coolant and brake fluid change, and timing belt and tensioner renewal-£200 all in
Mechanically she is 100% with a fully green health check

Has also received new genuine fiat discs and pads, which were actually cheaper than aftermarket

So. Today seen me do a couple of messy jobs to the punto.


This morning I set about doing a job i had been putting off for ages.
Cleaning inside the arches, waxoyling them and underneath the car, as well as tidying up the engine bay.

Another job I attempted today was the original radio, the display didn't light up so I took it apart to see if I could fix it and broke it.

I'm now after a genuine punto mk1 radio if anyone has on they ain't using- please

 

[M21MFS]

Bloody hell!

You have to take that to Cupar!

 

[simon_16vpunto1]

I am,
What date is it? Gonna try and wing it off work, as may is a busy month

 

[M21MFS]

24th

 

[mrcinquecento]

Stunner. Complete timewarp condition.

And it has to be said too, a fantastic colour.

In a way it makes me sad to see it, purely because it shows that even on cars like punto's, Fiat were happy to put adventurous colours in as an option when they still had some verve about them as a company.

 

[simon_16vpunto1]

See when I had it in the showroom, it got so much attention it was unreal. I had it parked next to a new panda and it was about the same size as that, shows you how fat the punto has got

 

[mrcinquecento]

See when I had it in the showroom, it got so much attention it was unreal. I had it parked next to a new panda and it was about the same size as that, shows you how fat the punto has got

I just love the idea that there was one single voice in Fiat sat there in the corner when they were designing the latest model punto, and unveiled it to the board

"This is our new Punto, you like?"
"yes!, it covers all we want for our new model.... b......"
"I am glad, look at it compared to the last models, we want to show it has the punto dna in it, give it a sportier edge than rivals"
"yes... but...... for a Punto it's a bit........ a bit..... well....... big?"
"So we call it BIG PUNTO, yes? Punto Large..... Punto Grande, Grande Punto, yes!!"

AT least they acknowledged the fact it had gained size in the name :laugh:

shame all the other models followed suit but dropped the "big" part.

 

[simon_16vpunto1]

So today see me actually go and enjoy the car instead of working on it.
I had to take some photos of the car for insurance purposes so here they are.....

 

[Stuart]

That is just stupid clean... it defies all logic....

 

[simon_16vpunto1]

Right.
I have a brand new old stock set of 15" bravo abarth speedline alloys with brand new centre caps which I'm in 2 minds whether to fit or not.
The car is so original I don't want to ruin it.
But the wheels are so rare also.

Don't know what to do, they are not fitted with tyres and don't want to put tyres on for me to hate them on the car

 

[Stuart]

Jack it up and stick the rim on, lower down onto a bit of wood and photo shop a tyre on it

 

[simon_16vpunto1]

Nice wee finishing touch added to the car today-



Just need a car of the year boot sticker then I'm done

today seen me do a small change to the car.
When I got the car it had the original dealer plates on it which were a bit worn, so I got some new ones made up at work......



I got dmb graphics to reproduce the original carnell fiat plates which came with the car. They have done a fantastic job and makes the car look older again


Brand new cars again




now, I know a lot of you are going to be unhappy with my following decision, but it's not as if I have put a set of 18's on it and dropped it on its arse....

For ages I have been in two minds about alloys for my car. I didn't want to ruin the originality of it, but then thought, I can always put the steelies and trims back on if I don't like it.

I purchased a set of punto gt wheels which were actually a factory option on an elx when new, had them refurbed and put a set of brand new good year efficient grips on them, as well as new centre caps.

I still have the original wheels tucked safely away though if I get fed up with them.

I think the car now looks as if it's come out of a fiat lineaccesorie booklet.
It has however highlighted that now you can see the drums and caliper, they need to be stripped and painted- Matt black drums and silver caliper a me thinks....

P.s- it isn't getting lowered

 

[Stuart]

Looks good, steelies for shows though bud