[theexperthand]

Originally Posted by PuntoMania

Well I too am facing a few issues with interior quality in the car, specifically the plastics, but nothing serious. The lower glove box on my car is just a bit difficult to unlock (unlike yours which just comes off). I guess its a problem with the rubber inside ?

Even my dashboard + plastic on top of the bonnet started to fade off. I used a dashboard shiner (bought from Carax Balewadi) and it does the job of maintaining the shine well. I am in office atm, will post pics of the product and its results after I go home (dont remember the name ). You should be fine.

Also, used Turtle wax on the car over the weekend. The paint feels extremely smooth to touch after a coating, not to mention the beautiful shine, even better than it was straight out of the showroom (have had a few people commenting about how much it was shining after the wax job )- but its real hard work !

Edited to add : What about your wheelcaps ? Do they fit the tyre rims well ? Mine seem to have a lot of gaps in them. Also, please check if your car veers ever so slightly to the left on a straight road above 60 kmph. I think I have this issue will confirm it again in a couple of days.

Thank you! will look forward to the dashboard cleaner.
I have used turtle wax and F1 on my Vista and this time, I am thinking of getting Collinites.

I do have gaps between the rims and weelcaps - I used these gaps to tuck my car cover in so that the cover do not fly away

I have checked for this veering but did not find any - will try again when i get a decent stretch of road where I can do this safely at 60 kmph.

For me, the problems is the stick like thing which connectes the glove box cover to dashboard keeps coming out. Next time it comes out, I will take a pic and will post.

[PuntoMania]

Originally Posted by theexperthand

Thank you! will look forward to the dashboard cleaner.
I have used turtle wax and F1 on my Vista and this time, I am thinking of getting Collinites.

I do have gaps between the rims and weelcaps - I used these gaps to tuck my car cover in so that the cover do not fly away

I have checked for this veering but did not find any - will try again when i get a decent stretch of road where I can do this safely at 60 kmph.

For me, the problems is the stick like thing which connectes the glove box cover to dashboard keeps coming out. Next time it comes out, I will take a pic and will post.

Hi experthand,
Sorry I wasnt able to upload pics yesterday. The product I used for the car dashboard and outside plastics is called "Checkmate- Dashboard Shiner" Its a black coloured bottle with spray which you have to put onto a sponge / soft cloth and wipe over your dashboard or outside plastics.

Infact I got the full set Checkmate - 3 in 1 which had a car shampoo, a dashboard cleaner and a dashboard/tyre shiner all in one. The set cost me Rs 880.

[nkrishnap]

On the car wash and the wipe, here is a little insight I got at the 3M car care center.

Firstly remove the dust using a Jopasu Duster (i think its got something like the micro-fiber material)

Never use the water directly on the car without neutralizing it. For various reasons which was told by the 3M guy (most of it i did not understand), its always recommended to use a neutralizer and leave the water mixed with the neutralizer for a few minutes and then use it to clean of the car.

One needs to use a micro-fiber cloth to wipe the car and ti ensures the swirl marks don't appear.

Also do not wash the car in the hot sun, washing in a covered area or with ample shade is preferable.

[vigneshram]

Congrats the car looks great.
My suggestions to make Jai look better.
1) Get the grill painted in silver.Tuscan wine begs for a silver grill and also body coloured door handles and mirrors.
2).A 15 inch alloy and rubber.
3).Black vinyl on the pillars.but i think since you have pasted the visors already i think this would be difficult.
4).Get the IND plates asap.

[W.A.G.7]

Congrats, thats a cool looking car. How many kms have you covered? The heart skips a beat when you see a Punto and when you see one in Tuscan wine or BNW color, it skips two beats!!

Originally Posted by vigneshram

1) Get the grill painted in silver.Tuscan wine begs for a silver grill and also body coloured door handles and mirrors.

The black grill looks great with BNW, but for T.Wine it should be silver. I agree completely. But I think you should keep the handles and mirror black to keep the originality of the car.

[Guderian]

Hi teh,
Congratulations ! Jai is a stunning head turner.
Well designed car and a great colour too. That T-BHP 'LTD' sticker goes very well with the colour.
Wishing you many thousands of delightful miles with Jai.
Do let us know about the Tata service quality in due course of time.

[theexperthand]

Originally Posted by nkrishnap

On the car wash and the wipe, here is a little insight I got at the 3M car care center.



Also do not wash the car in the hot sun, washing in a covered area or with ample shade is preferable.

Thank you nkrishnap, for the tips - I am getting the Jopasu duster probably by next weekend. Now I am using old soft cotton cloth, (which, from my personal observation, is as good as micro fiber) but will be getting the 3M micro fiber cloth soon. Thank you for the tips again - the neutralizer is something I will surely look at.

Originally Posted by vigneshram

Congrats the car looks great.
My suggestions to make Jai look better.
1) Get the grill painted in silver.Tuscan wine begs for a silver grill and also body coloured door handles and mirrors.
2).A 15 inch alloy and rubber.
3).Black vinyl on the pillars.but i think since you have pasted the visors already i think this would be difficult.
4).Get the IND plates asap.

Thanks Vignesh, the point no 4 will be addressed soon. I am also thinking about blacking the B pillar, might get it done too.

The 15 inch tyre+alloy will be done some were around 25K km, or when I get some healthy dose of Vitamin M - which ever comes first

Personally, I do not like most of the the silver and chrome accents - I love the simple black grill much more than the silver one. I have plans to get a mesh grill done, but not any time soon.

Originally Posted by W.A.G.7

Congrats, thats a cool looking car. How many kms have you covered? The heart skips a beat when you see a Punto and when you see one in Tuscan wine or BNW color, it skips two beats!!



The black grill looks great with BNW, but for T.Wine it should be silver. I agree completely. But I think you should keep the handles and mirror black to keep the originality of the car.

Thank you W.A.G. I love your DP - I have a long standing fascination with rail travels and though i am not an active member of any rail forums, I love train journeys, train spotting and have always been mesmerized by those huge engines.

Punto is a looker - no two opinions about that, and though I still keep a big soft spot for a Punto in Black or BNW, the T.Wine is growing on me

He have covered about 1200+ km and is now one month old, as of today.

Originally Posted by Guderian

Hi teh,
Congratulations ! Jai is a stunning head turner.
Well designed car and a great colour too. That T-BHP 'LTD' sticker goes very well with the colour.
Wishing you many thousands of delightful miles with Jai.
Do let us know about the Tata service quality in due course of time.

Thank you general, Jai sure appreciates the kind words you all TBhpians have showered on him. I am very happy with the levels of Tata service for my Vista - keeping my fingers crossed and hope the experiences will be same.

Now, some updates:

Did I ever tell you how much i dislike the puny horn which Fiat gave with Jai? The anemic horn is one of the first things I wanted to throw out - I gathered from different threads that Punto used to come with twin horns but from 2011, they have done some cost cutting and the Active model comes with a single Hella 'Popular' horn. Now, for a guy who uses Hella Redgrill on his Unicorn, this single horn is as unimpressive as they can get.

This week, we were out at Reliance mall and while LOH was happily browsing through the apparels section, I slipped away and started browsing the Reliance Autozone and thought a pair of Hella Silver horn will make an ideal gift to Jai. After clicking couple of pics of some other bottles (not THAT kind of bottles which we men of stronger soul usually lust after, but the automobile equivalent of Olay and Garnier and all that stuff you get to see in your bathroom, if you are that kind of bloke who got yourself married to a PYT) I managed to extract myself with some dignity (of course, after paying the amount and all that) before the sales chap decided to kick me out for disturbing his daydreams.

Took Jai to a neighborhood workshop and got a quote for fixing those lovely silver disks - but being a Saturday, they were already full and wanted to come back on Monday and they want me to drop Jai and collect him after three hours - now, i was ok with the high estimate and everything but 'the dropping him to get things fixed' part - if they want to open him and fix the horns, better they do it when I stand there.

Came home and the DIY keeda started gnawing me - 250 rs for bumper removing and fixing it back, and 250 rs for fixing a horn, which you can even do in your sleep plus all the wire, relay etc on actuals - no wonder these workshops are mushrooming and I am sure they are making a neat packet.

Opened up my tool kit and after rummaging a bit, I got what all I needed - hella horn relay, couple of spade connectors and lots of wire and insulation tape. Armed with some DIY horn fixing gyaan from some other forums, I started opening up the front grill of Jai - I managed to pry open the grill, but the size 8 nut was proving to be a tough nut to crack, so after some futile attempts, i took Jai to the FNM (Friendly Neighborhood Mechanic) and asked him to open up the bumper for me. once we removed the bumper, I started working on fixing the horns - he was amused to see me pulling out all the tools and sitting down to get the horns fixed, and during some small talk told me that I am the first car owner he have seen really working on the car, after taking the car to a workshop.

I was almost hoping that I will find the wiring for the second horn tucked away, and FIAT did not disappoint me - when the bumper was removed, I saw the wiring for one more horn neatly taped and tucked away. Fixed both the horns and was back home in about an hour with a mighty pleased Jai.

Tech specs:

Name: Hella Silver Horn
Current consumption : 6 Amp (Max)
Frequency: 335 Hz/400 Hz
Sound pressure : 117dB
price: 675 INR @ Reliance autozone, Arekere.

Some WIP pics:

[theexperthand]

Did some medium speed driving last week and man, driving him is a joy at triple digit speeds. So sure footed at about and the steering is so communicative that you never feels that you are out of control when you are cruising at triple digit speeds - you really feel confident chucking him around the corners - if he feels like this, I can just imagine what proper shoes can do. Should get him a proper set of shoes soon.

This weekend I decided to unleash some lavish TLC on Jai. The T.Wine color suits the car well, and I thought it will be nice to gift him a polish session to make the beauty of the color really stand out. When it comes to detailing, the first name came across my mind was that of our resident detailing experts - Team UD. Called up Mohsin and he graciously agreed that he can come to my home on Sunday morning.


Saturday I took him to the FNM and gave him a through wash. The young chaps were amused by the sight of an eccentric guy who was spending more time inspecting the under body of the car and helping them out to wash the car than just sitting in the shade and watching them doing the work - I do not want to be a spectator when they are working on Jai. The under-body inspection did throw some pleasant surprises - Fiat have given a very good under-body coating covering almost all parts - so chances of rusting is very less. The engine guard have taken some hits - Thank you Fiat for providing one (OT: how many cars in India come with engine guard as a factory fitted standard equipment? )

Came Sunday morning and Mohsin turned up as promised. By 8.30, he started working on Jai. After taking a look at his paint, Mohsin advised me that we can go for a protective coat polish - First he started cleaning Jai with the water less wash solution and then applied buffed the whole body and finished the task with a coat of glaze. He took really good care of Jai - it was pure pleasure watching him work his magic slowly and by the time he was finished, Jai was totally transformed - he was looking all shiny and dashing!

I will let the snaps talk.

Before the work started:



On the delivery day



And this is how he looks now!



The plastics never looked so good!



Reflections



Poser:









I have acquired a Jopasu duster and the water less wash solution and micro fiber from him. He was very educative and showed me how to properly take car of Jai so that he will stay in his dazzling best.

[Guderian]

Originally Posted by theexperthand

This weekend I decided to unleash some lavish TLC on Jai.

Hi teh,
That looks like a nice and spiffy Jai. Looks gorgeous.
But do remember not to polish Jai too frequently. Over a period of time repeated polishing can wear off the the upper layers of the paint. Mentioned to me by an old experienced hand on these matters.

Not sure what the frequency should be but I think once or twice a year should be more than adequate.
What do the rest say ?!!

[theexperthand]

Originally Posted by Guderian

Hi teh,
That looks like a nice and spiffy Jai. Looks gorgeous.
But do remember not to polish Jai too frequently. Over a period of time repeated polishing can wear off the the upper layers of the paint. Mentioned to me by an old experienced hand on these matters.

Not sure what the frequency should be but I think once or twice a year should be more than adequate.
What do the rest say ?!!

Agree with you, general. The de regular polish do cut off microns of paint to give you the finish.

What Team UD have done is called a protective polishing and all the stuff they have used are non abrasive - absolutely 0% cutting of paint. in fact, there is another process which they use for heavy swirl mark removal, but Mohsin was of the opinion that Jai does not needs that - he was against cutting microns of paint on Jai.

Most of the micro scratches happen when you wash and wipe him clean using the ordinary clothes. After I saw the effect the old cotton cloth I was using had on Jai's paint surface, I have switched to micro fiber cloths. This is one main reason I do not allow the GDW in our compound near Jai.

With my usage pattern, the coat is good for almost 2 months and after that, I need to wax him once in a month. For regular wash, I have got hold of this: Detailer's Pro Series Rinseless Wash & Shine, Waterless Wash, Quick detailer, dp waterless wash and shine, 4-n-1, clay lubricant

Combined use of this and the microfiber cloth should be able to keep Jai shining.

[theexperthand]

In the previous post, I mentioned that the last round of polishing was done by applying glaze, but I was mistaken. The compound applied last is sealant, not glaze.

A snap of the few item I have added to my car care kit -
Jopasu car duster, 3M car detailing microfiber cloth and Detailer's Pro Series Rinseless Wash & Shine:



Need to supplement this kit by adding a wax and a car soap too, in near future.

I need a good quality leather steering grip for Punto - checked with a guy near our place (Imperial INC - near Vijayabank layout) and he quoted 700 for pure leather hand stitched steering grip. Is this a good price, or is there a scope for bargaining?

[rock*]

Congrats on your new car. It looks stunning in this shade. Do active variants come only with black grille? As suggested by others a silver grill would result you with more glances on the road Just my opinion

I see that your car is KL registered and your location as Bangalore. Did you have to pay certain taxes to use it in bangalore? Any updates on the ICE front?

[theexperthand]

@Rock: thanks.

Hm.. it seems like most people are thinking in your lines - Silver grill for TWine color. but some how, i am not fond of silver, chrome or beige, and always prefer black. Active comes with only black grill, and you know what - I was all set to paint my grill black if it ever come with silver colur

I have not paid Karnataka road tax.

No update on ICE front yet - as of my, by BB is doing the ICE duty. I am not an audiophile, but I love my music. I want to get the ICE done but taking it slow and steady - do not want a very basic ICE, I want some thing better and it will take some more time.

I was planning to give a set of cloths to the most yummy part of my GP - the steering wheel. After some looking around, I decided on a place near Vijayabank Lay out - Imperial leather INC. I have seen some of their works in Team-Bhp and have referred one of my friend there some time back, and all the feedback were good.

Went there last weekend and he quoted 700 for leather steering grip. Yesterday evening, I called him up and went there. I opted for black leather (Bovine leather, 0.9~1.1 mm thick) with read stitching and they promptly started working on the steering grip. After taking the measurements, they stitched the pieces together and then started hand stitching the cover on my steering wheel. The counters on the steering wheel did give them a hard time - this was the first time they are doing the Punto steering wheel grip in leather, all the work they have done before was in Luster.

I was very satisfied to note that they were not satisfied with just stitching it up - they took time and tried different ways (using sponge like stuff, using cotton wool like stuff), and after each attempt, he was telling to himself 'I am not satisfied'. At last with the help of SR, he was able to get the counters done perfectly. After almost 2 hours of work, Jai now wears a perfectly tailored steering grip.

Contact info:

Shivakumar
Mob: 9448685679
landline:08042287635 (you can give my reference -Anoop, Wine color Punto)

Imperial Inc.,#387, 11th Cross,Vijaya Bank Layout, Bilekahalli, off Bannerghetta road.

(He was telling me that he is getting lot of business through Team Bhp and was eager to know from where I purchased the LTD sticker)

Few snaps:

[theexperthand]

After a long silence, some update on Jai - when I opted for the active variant over the Dynamic, the main feature I want to add was the central locking. I did enquire about adding it at the time of delivery and the SA assured me a good deal if I am planning to fix it, but I decided I will try other sources before I put the OEM unit. By not opting to put the central locking during the delivery, I was able to bargain and made my deal a little more sweeter.

After I took the delivery, the search for a central locking system started and I realized that it is not an easy task to find an aftermarket system for GP Active - I drew a blank at all the well known accessory shops in Bangalore. I decided on OEM kit and called up Concord and Prerana motors to check the availability and came to know that not only the kits are not readily available, there is a waiting list too - I added my name to the list at both places and went back to my search for another non OEM kit.

Thanks to @pri2 and another GP owner I met on road, I got 2 leads and I did actively consider the options but one guy was too far from my place to go and check his work before I entrust him with my car, and the other guy was a JC road shop - I have never been a fan of the work quality of JC road and certainly did not want to experiemnt with my car to find out whether he actually do a god work. So, after all this poking around, I decided it is better to stick with the OEM kit and started the waiting game.

I used to called up both Prerana and Concord once in two weeks but the response was always same 'Stock is yet to come'. I called up concord last week and to my surprise, they told me that they have a very limited stock and I can get it fixe if I drop the car at their service center. But after reading many threads here, I was more keen on getting the work done from Prerana, but to my dismay, they did not had the stock. The accessories guy - Manzoor - assured me that they are expecting stock in tw days and he will call me when the stock comes. I was skeptical but to my surprise, I got a call the very next day from Manzoor - he said he have got few sets. But as luck would have it, I was tied up that saturdya and I was not able to go to Prerana to get it fixed. I was almost sure that all the units may get sold before I get a chance to go there, but to try my luck, I called him again last thursday and what a joy - they still had stock.

Took leave on Wednesday and reached concord by 9.30 am. The showroom was slowly waking up, and I got a slot to park in the yard. No one was bothering me, so I did wander around, checking the brand new GPs, Vistas, Nanos and Indicas. Met Manzoor as soon as he came in and he said he will try to get the work done quickly - All the guys I enquired said it will take about 4 hours for the installation, and Manzoor said he will try to get the work done by 1 PM. While waiting for the kit, I was browsing through the accessories and chose a sil plate too - always wanted that. I had half a mind to pick up some more stuff but better sense prevailed and decided I will pick up only stuff what I actually need. it is when times like this, one understand why shopping is such an addictive hobby for many of the womenfolks.

A guy named Louis started working on the car first - removing the door pads and once the pads were out, four guys started working on my car. I told Manzoor that I will be near my car and he had no objections. I was very happy that I was allowed to stand there watching the guys work. The quality of work was good - no excessive forces were applied to remove anything and I was happy to see that the rubber beading of the door were stuck properly - there was not even a single loose plastic part. The guys were all friendly and they actually manged to finish the work with in 2 hours. This was really a pleasant surprise and little did I knew that there were more surprises in store.

Before starting the work on the kit, I asked them whether the locking and unlocking produces a Beep - he said the previous kits did not have the feature and he was not sure but need to check and it turned out that this kit do have the feature. The other feature I was told missing is auto locking - the guys told me that the OEM central locking kit will not auto lock the car once the car reaches 40 kmph like in the other variants.

After finishing all the work, we went to settle the bill and the next surprise was waiting there - no labor \ installation charges. I was expecting at least 1K in installation charge but I had to pay only the MRP on the kit - Manzoor informed me that Fiat reduced the price in between. The old price was about 10K and the current price is below 8500.

After paying up, I started the car but forgot to lock from inside - I started moving to merge with the traffic and I applied breaks and voila - all the doors got locked. After reaching home, I checked it again - if I put the ignition on and applies breaks, the door auto locks (It is same as in my Vista too).

Some out of topic observations:

Saw few Vista refresh models and the interior looks much better than my vista.The combination of black and beige looks pleasing but will be very tough to maintain. Any day, this new scheme is much better than the old boring grey interiors.

Saw lot of Indicas in silver color, with ribbons on them - all of them had seat covers but the designs and colors were different. most of them were some kind of grey but some were light \ beige-ish in color. Not sure if it comes like that from factory itself, but some of the seat covers were looking good while some were ok-ok.

Came to know that Tata have rs 1500 off on Manza alloy wheels for this month.


I am really happy that I chose Prerana motors to get the work done - it was a pleasure dealing with them and they did go beyond my expectations and did a fantastic job before the estimated time line. Kudos to Manzoor and his team.

Few snaps:















The Door sil:



Now, what is this sticker?

[theexperthand]

After the excellent detailing by Ultimate Detailerz, I was on the look out for a suitable wax for supplementing the detailing process.

Its been more than 2 months after I got the detailing done and though I have never done a single water wash after that (thanks to Jopasu and ONR) I could feel the friction when I lightly rub a cloth over the body.

After having my experiences with F1 and Turtle wax and couple of lesser known local brand waxes, I wanted to try some thing better this time. After initial searches, I was almost decided on getting Collinite 845 - it is generally considered as one of the best and most durable wax out there. While trawling the net during my search for the wax, I came across many detailing forums and I spent a lot of time reading lot of posts and got introduced to engineered waxes.

After some more reading and lot more trawling, I came to the conclusion that there is no harm in trying an engineered wax - now the choices where between Meguiars NXT 2.0 and Mothers FX SynWax. The opinions were quite divided on some forums - depending on whether the Forum favored Mothers or Meguiars - but the consensus was that both were more or less equal. Most people were prefering NXT 2.0 for Black color cars and FX for other dark metallic colors. After comparing the results of cars and trucks which were detailed by NXT, FX SynWax and Collinite 845, and after going over all the reviews and posts made by people who have actually used them, I could not find much of a difference to ditch the synthetic wax to get Collinite. For dark colors, FX Synwax was giving really good gloss and reflections and I could see lot of flake popping too.

I was not interested in long lasting wax - I take it as an excuse to lavish some TLC over Jai, so a wax which lasts 1~2 months was good enough for me - I was looking for better reflections and lesser elbow grease. All these and the fact that it is readily available off the shelf tilted the scale towards FX SynWax.

Ordered my bottle of FX from automall using there online store (carpolish.in) on Monday night and the wait started. I so badly wante dto wax the car on Friday afternoon and even took a half day leave (who really want to work after a sumptuous Onam sadhya ) but they took their sweet time to courier me the box. I think i will give 7 out of 10 for the service by automall - I had to repeatedly follow up about the shipping, and I did not get the tracking number as promised by them and though they were available on mobile, my sms and e-mails (using the contact us forum) did not generate any replies. Next time, if I need anything from them, I will go and pick it up from their shop.

I got the wax on saturday (5 days for a order to realize - I stay in same city as the seller )

Sunday morning, I started with my usual dusting with Jopasu, followed by a round of quick cleaning using ONR. After this, I started waxing my car with FX - took me only about an hour to wax my whole car and it was really easy on - easy off, with a great shine to boot. I took some old soft cotton cloth and made a jugaad applicator pad and applied the liquid wax with circular motions and allowed it to dry to haze. After few minutes, I buffed the panels using 3M yellow MF and voila. It was as simple as that. Did one section at a time, and it was much much easier to apply that the F1 or Turtle - the wax have some good cleaning power and the reflections are crisp and vivid. Many people are of the opinion that you need to give some time for the synthetic waxes to bring out the shine, so I am all game to wait and see if I get more of it.

I need to get some tire form and some products for taking care of the plastics - the research is on.

Let the pictures do the talking now:

The package:



The bottle:



Happy Me:



Poser: