Hi everyone,
Many thanks for the responses. Also, sorry about taking a while to respond, but I've been busy the last few days and only got back late last night. Those in the southeast might have seen on the news that on Monday part of the M25 was closed because of a bad accident between junction 8 and 6. Guess who was coming up to junction 9 and needed to get off at junction 5! It was absolutely gridlocked as all the traffic around south London/ Surrey/ Sussex got held up, and I had to get down to East Sussex to pick up a 1.0 FIRE engine and gearbox that I won off Ebay for £10! Hours later I picked it up and then got to Horsham where I was collecting a friends car to work on. It took six hours to do 120 miles. I was so knackered I crashed there for the night and came home late the next day.
Anyway...
Back to the spotlight grill and bonnet vent scoop. Ironic that I bought it for the grill and thought the scoop might be too boy racerish, but now I like the scoop but think the grill might be too prominent! The spotlights stick out a bit from the grill and make it look a bit too Lego brick like.
Also, I tend to go for the more subtle modifications. I DON'T want it to look like a turbo because I want to go for a different look, but do want to go for a look that makes people double check when seeing the car. I'd like to make it look just a little different from standard, but using parts that look like they were factory options rather than outlandishly after market.
So in short, I want to make it look different from a standard Uno, perhaps looking a little beefier and purposeful without being too obvious.
The bonnet scoop I will paint in body colour to match the rest of the car. That will give the bonnet a subtle change in appearance and look almost as if it came from Fiat looking like that.
The grill, contrary to what most people have suggested(!), will more likely be done in black. That will help to make it look more discreet and less like it's sticking out from the front. I'll keep the Fiat logo in silver, so again it will look like the standard grill but with two built in spotlights. I do quite like CM246's suggestion of painting the spotlight surrounds in red, perhaps just a simple red pinstripe line on the flat surface. But like Turboned, I also like the 'clean' look of the standard mk1 front end.
But it's all subject to change depending on my tastes! If I do decide to get rid of the scoop Fro$ty gets first choice as he asked first, followed by Louie who asked second! But I do rather like it, so don't hold your breath guys ;-)
Fro$ty also asked what else I'm planning with the car. Well, nothing drastic as I'm an impoverished musician at the moment! A turbo conversion would be great, but I really can't justify the costs involved right now. I will stick with the 1.0 FIRE engine for the moment, as for all intents and purposes I don't need anything more in my current situation. It would be nice to have more power so I might be more likely to go down the 1.6 Tipo engine route when funds allow as it's supposedly a very easy conversion to do.
Also, my Fiat must be one of the oldest still on the road, and at 19 years old it's almost getting into classic car territory! So I want to continue going over it and making it look really clean while making a few subtle modifications. I desperately need a drivers door as mine has rusted through, so when one turns up that will be a priority.
The only other 'mods' as such that I want to do are to fit the mk1 turbo tailgate that I have, and refurbish the X1/9 alloy wheels and fit those too. All in I hope it will look like a more purposeful and unique Uno that looked like Fiat actually made it that way.
Oh, I forgot to mention as well that I am hoping to pick up a turbo anti roll bar tomorrow. Been after one for ages, and they do help stop the car from rolling about in corners. That will help tidy up the handling and make it a nicer car to drive.
Other than that it's very much a case of cleaning, polishing and detailing. Just making it look really nice for a 19 year old car.
AlexGS, yes, the bonnet does show the results of a lot of elbow grease! When I got the car, the red paint had badly oxidised (like red paint is known for). T-cut didn't work very well, so other than a respray drastic measures were required. I used Turtle Wax Cutting Compound to take off the oxidisation and probably the top layer of paint too. Then I used T-Cut to polish up the paint to a shiny sheen, and then gave it a good coat of polish to seal it all in. The fact that I did that last year and it's still not oxidised noticeably is quite a relief. Takes a LOT of work to get the paint looking like that, and I still have the right side of the bonnet to do. And the roof. And the sides... Good for building up biceps at the very least!
Unfortunately my bonnet has a couple of dents in it and is showing signs of rusting on one corner. I have another spare bonnet in black, so if I do get round to respraying all/ part of the car I'll swap them over.
Lastly, I like the Turboneds idea of fitting a turbo front bumper. (Yes Louie, PLEASE, I'll have it!) I only have two standard bumpers and I was going to repaint one, so the turbo/ SX bumper will be another nice but subtle upgrade.
This will all take time, as I do all the work on my car myself. Hopefully the summer will be a good one so I can spend a lot of time outside getting things done. I'll keep you all updated with the progress.
I've also attached a picture of one of the X1/9 wheels that I hope to fit. Haven't decided for sure, but I like it that they are different from Uno alloys yet still a Fiat wheel. My plan is to paint the centres silver and keep the rim edges bare alloy so I can polish them.
Thanks again to everyone for helping with suggestions. It's given me food for thought.
Regards!
Chas
