1957 Fiat Elegant - Restoration advice and help needed

[Stanher]

Wow, Suren, congrats! Your lucky, even though its only a replica!
Now that I'm free I'll be happy to be more in touch and offer any more 'advice' (if you choose to call it so! )

Decided on the colour atleast yet?

[SuperSelect]

Originally Posted by suren181

@ SuperSelect: I really appreciate the trouble you have taken on my behalf. This is what the camaraderie of Team BHP is all about. Thank you and have sent you a PM.

The pleasure's mine, buddy !!
Waiting to see your beauty completed

[suren181]

@SuperSelect: Received the Badge dude. Thanks a ton once again for couriering it to me. I owe you one bro.

@Stanher: You just asked for trouble by volunteering to help. Am gonna take your offer on that. Regarding the colour I am yet to make up my mind. Will do it after the sanding and seeing the body line.

[jubin]

check out mine dude............
its in mint condition i never wanna sell it off man not even for a crore of rupees ! !!
i rather wanna buy 15 more and make a full fleet of these cars ! !!
anyone wants to sell or is an agent here....conact me ! ! !

[suren181]

Back, with a small update. As all of you know, The Fiat was primed and prepped once before, ready for painting, but the keen eyes of Prabhu (who is doing up my car) threw up some flaws and he made his men work all over again, I need to thank him for taking the trouble to do so.

So it was back to work for the guys and his best men were put on the job. The car now is finally ready for paint, but sadly cannot make it for the Rally to be held in Hyderabad, as I had mentioned earlier to our Stanher.

Did not want to do a rush job, especially after such a lot of work gone into it.

However I am posting pics of the car in the current state for all of you to see and comment on. First thing on the Agenda is the 3M's Underbody coats which would be sprayed onto the chassis/ engine bay area, the underbody, the dicky inner the bonnet inner, inside the doors and the floor board areas. Preparations of these area is underway, as I key in this.

[hillram]

Suren..Good Progress.Would have loved to see this beauty for the Aug 15th Rally.
But make sure you dont miss the Tourism day rally on 27th September.

[suren181]

Ram, thanks for the nice remark on the progress. Will definitely get her up and running before September 27th.

Trust me you guys would definitely be updated about the progress as days go by for I'd be troubling all of you gentlemen for advice, for this is where the actual hard part starts as far as I know.

[Cyrus43]

Finally there is one proper progress.
The car must be really really smooth right now..I used to love just gliding my hand over the smoothness when the left hand drive was in the shop!!

[SuperSelect]

Hey Suren, great to see your car again, all the best !
Are you getting original wheels ? Also, please make sure the holes / screw holes for the front parking lights are as they should be, as your car did not have original parking lights when you first got her. The original ones will be oblong, and will culminate in the "moustache" of the grille on both sides. Check what screw holes these would require.
The same would go for your bonnet monogram. Do you have the original one, with the fiat badge at the end ? Check the holes for this.

[suren181]

Originally Posted by Cyrus43

Finally there is one proper progress.
The car must be really really smooth right now..I used to love just gliding my hand over the smoothness when the left hand drive was in the shop!!

You bet it is really smooth and silky to the touch.

Originally Posted by SuperSelect

Hey Suren, great to see your car again, all the best !

Thank you and I will not forget that you have helped me in a major way too.

Are you getting original wheels ?

Yes I am Boss, Stanher has graciously kept aside a set of the original wheels for me.

Also, please make sure the holes / screw holes for the front parking lights are as they should be, as your car did not have original parking lights when you first got her. The original ones will be oblong, and will culminate in the "moustache" of the grille on both sides. Check what screw holes these would require.

The trial fitment with the oblong indicators has been done, but thanks for pointing it out to me.

The same would go for your bonnet monogram. Do you have the original one, with the fiat badge at the end ? Check the holes for this.

Yes I do have the shorter original one with me alongwith the Badge. The Longer one, as you pointed out, was fitted on the car when I bought her and that has been removed.

[Stanher]

Suren, any updates??

And btw, I'm sorry I forgot to point this out earlier- you'd need to make a couple of holes in the dash for the warning lights- check out the pic. of any original '57 dash to find out where exactly these would come! I hope I'm not too late!

[suren181]

Originally Posted by Stanher

Suren, any updates??

And btw, I'm sorry I forgot to point this out earlier- you'd need to make a couple of holes in the dash for the warning lights- check out the pic. of any original '57 dash to find out where exactly these would come! I hope I'm not too late!

Shyam, updates???? The truth is it ain't going too pretty. Originality would not happen soon. In fact I guess, I'd be getting them all together with not much of originality and change the registeration number to WIP 6050 instead of AHO 6050.

There have been a few glitches which would warrant many more rounds to Chaderghat, for bits and pieces that had/have been procured earlier.

[Stanher]

Originally Posted by suren181

Shyam, updates???? The truth is it ain't going too pretty. Originality would not happen soon. In fact I guess, I'd be getting them all together with not much of originality and change the registeration number to WIP 6050 instead of AHO 6050.
There have been a few glitches which would warrant many more rounds to Chaderghat, for bits and pieces that had/have been procured earlier.

Hmmm......now what went wrong again?? Pray tell me! I hope it wasnt an unfortunate incident like what happened to the front grille back then!

And again pray tell me what WIP means??

[iraghava]

Shyam ji, WIP means Work in Progress!

[suren181]

As the title says it all, I am back seeking advice as always. I have been suggested to get the Following Fiberglass coated (i.e., two layers of Fiberglass will be layed).

The parts are:

The floor board, The underchassis and underportion of the floor board, The insides of the Doors, insides of the Dicky and the Roof.

It is going to be an expensive proposition and it is my general understanding that this would benefit the lighter panels like the doors and the dicky and maybe the roof (to keep out the heat) to a large extent. But what would your opinions be on this?

I am attaching a few pics of my cars floor board and the Fiberglass layering (first layer - beginning of work) on a M800 for you reference and comments.

The first layer of Fiberglass being layed on to the M800











The floorboard of my Fiat as seen from the side and the front