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Old 5th June 2015, 10:29   #1
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Hyper Fiat 1100 - Restoration & Mods of WMJ 333

"Here I go again"...

"What are you going to do with two identical Fiats"? Every person asked me this question, of course except Fiatians.

AUGUST 2010
Hyper Fiat 1100 - Restoration & Mods of WMJ 333-1.jpg
I had found her around same time that I had bought BROWNIE (http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/post-w...illecento.html) but the young owner was reluctant to let her go. He was a TBHP visitor and had bought her for restoring himself in Jamshedpur.
But somewhere in my heart, I knew that this will not happen. So I made an offer and left it at that. We stayed in touch and I kept reminding him of my offer.

Come 2014, the young owner got married and his priorities changed and he accepted my offer. We negotiated further, because in last four year she had not moved from her place and from being washed everyday, she had now become untouchable. In her lifetime, she had had some awkward mods done to her tail lights & steering, probably due to unavailability of original parts but she also had some very hard to find parts including full set of original aluminium patties on outside.
NOVEMBER 2014
Hyper Fiat 1100 - Restoration & Mods of WMJ 333-4.jpg

The computerization of local RTO delayed registration process and it took us almost 8 month for same. At last on one fine day of September 2014, I got the news that she was now officially MINE (To be true in my wife's name, who hails from Jsr). This also helped me in retaining the awesome VIP number.

BROWNIE's restoration had begun in November 2011 & was completed by April 2012. The restoration process and interaction with hardcore Fiatians had left me much wiser but during Brownie's restoration, I had noted one particular Fiat on net and I had dreamed of making an identical Fiat in future.

LONG BEFORE I BOUGHT HER, I KNEW WHAT MY NEXT FIAT WILL LOOK LIKE.
Hyper Fiat 1100 - Restoration & Mods of WMJ 333-01.jpg

Thus began the hunt for proper restorer, who could give wings to my dream. PAVAN KADAM was the first choice and I made numerous calls to him. He shared my vision but the poor guy was so burdened with work load that he was unable to commit. Meanwhile the young owner wanted his parking lot cleared ASAP. I went to few other places in Bombay but found their tin work examples to be of very low standards.
So off I went back to the garage that restored BROWNIE. I knew that the affair will be expensive but then the love knows no bounds.

Her condition before we moved her from her resting location of last 5 years:
Hyper Fiat 1100 - Restoration & Mods of WMJ 333-9.jpg
Hyper Fiat 1100 - Restoration & Mods of WMJ 333-12.jpg
Hyper Fiat 1100 - Restoration & Mods of WMJ 333-15.jpg
Hyper Fiat 1100 - Restoration & Mods of WMJ 333-16.jpg
Hyper Fiat 1100 - Restoration & Mods of WMJ 333-22.jpg
Hyper Fiat 1100 - Restoration & Mods of WMJ 333-23.jpg
Hyper Fiat 1100 - Restoration & Mods of WMJ 333-25.jpg

On 17th November 2014, she began her journey from Jsr and to my amusement the entire neighborhood came to see her off, alas in negative way. All aunties were very happy to see a rotting eyesore being towed away. Learning from similar journey of BROWNIE in past, I removed all the important parts, including original solex carb and brought them with me to Bombay. The Ranchi airport security had whale of a time going through my baggage.

How she arrived in Mumbai:
She was towed from her resting position to outskirts of Jamshedpur and from there a car carrier brought her to Pune (15K) . Though it was agreed that transporter will off-load it near outskirts of Mumbai but somewhere something went wrong and car landed at a transporter depot at Bhosari (Yes its a name of place near Pune). The transporter agreed to share half the cost (10K on Flatbed/upto garage) of transporting car from Bhosari location to Mumbai and thus began her last leg of journey before transformation:

Car at Bhosari depot:
Hyper Fiat 1100 - Restoration & Mods of WMJ 333-imag0908.jpg

Car on FB and enroute to Mumbai:
Hyper Fiat 1100 - Restoration & Mods of WMJ 333-imag0919.jpg
Hyper Fiat 1100 - Restoration & Mods of WMJ 333-imag0925.jpg
Hyper Fiat 1100 - Restoration & Mods of WMJ 333-imag0927.jpg

She arrived in Bombay on 06th December 2014 and was straightway taken to the garage.
Once stripped of her paint, we found that we had much more tin work to be done than anticipated.
The engine & other things were already thought upon but garage insisted to do it later and first go ahead with skin transplant.
Hyper Fiat 1100 - Restoration & Mods of WMJ 333-wip8.jpg
Hyper Fiat 1100 - Restoration & Mods of WMJ 333-wip9.jpg
Hyper Fiat 1100 - Restoration & Mods of WMJ 333-wip10.jpg
Hyper Fiat 1100 - Restoration & Mods of WMJ 333-wip11.jpg
Hyper Fiat 1100 - Restoration & Mods of WMJ 333-wip12.jpg
Hyper Fiat 1100 - Restoration & Mods of WMJ 333-wp_20141218_13_19_24_pro.jpg
Hyper Fiat 1100 - Restoration & Mods of WMJ 333-wp_20141218_13_20_08_pro.jpg
Hyper Fiat 1100 - Restoration & Mods of WMJ 333-wp_20141218_13_28_52_pro.jpg
Hyper Fiat 1100 - Restoration & Mods of WMJ 333-wp_20141218_13_28_58_pro.jpg
Hyper Fiat 1100 - Restoration & Mods of WMJ 333-wp_20141218_13_29_05_pro.jpg

...so here is my story of MODestoration (MODS+Restoration) of a HYPER FIAT while maintaining the SOUL of ORIGINALITY to my best ability.

Regards-Sonu

Last edited by ariesonu : 9th July 2015 at 12:57. Reason: Adding narration
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Old 10th July 2015, 09:49   #2
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re: Hyper Fiat 1100 - Restoration & Mods of WMJ 333

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to the Post War section. Thanks for sharing and good luck with the restoration!
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Old 10th July 2015, 10:34   #3
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re: Hyper Fiat 1100 - Restoration & Mods of WMJ 333

Ah, finally! It's good to see someone take up the restomod of a Fiat 1100 in India. Hyper Fiat you say? Can't wait to see how she turns out. Is she a '56 like Brownie?
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Old 10th July 2015, 10:37   #4
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re: Hyper Fiat 1100 - Restoration & Mods of WMJ 333

Dear Sonu - so finally WMJ333 is on the forum! Congratulations and all the best!

Best regards,

Behram Dhabhar
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Old 10th July 2015, 12:19   #5
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re: Hyper Fiat 1100 - Restoration & Mods of WMJ 333

Quote:
Originally Posted by coloneljasi View Post
Ah, finally! It's good to see someone take up the restomod of a Fiat 1100 in India. Hyper Fiat you say? Can't wait to see how she turns out. Is she a '56 like Brownie?
BROWNIE got lots of HARD-TO-FIND original parts from this car and now is almost 95% original.
Hence I wanted my second FIAT to be different than the league but with a condition that we will not do any ugly modifications.
The basic idea was to build a DAILY DRIVE with modern car amenities.
# Hyper engine with original gear setup (Column shift in this case)
# Improved brakes & suspension setup
# AC
# Front bucket Seats
# HID headlights / LED taillights+indicators (2nd phase of mods)
# Digital Speedo & other Gauges (Still looking at options, anything that will fit into original setup)
# Fiat Alloys (STRICTLY)
# Best set of tyres to improve looks and handling of car. (175/60 R15) Bridgestone or Goodyear
...and this was just the beginning.

While going through all threads pertaining to FIATS, I had seen few members wishing to build a classic FIAT with powerful engine & works. For example there is one FIAT mentioned on forum with GYPSY engine & setup & another with BALENO engine setup or something.
When we began the work, I also wanted to plonk MG413 MPFI engine & we even found a brand new engine but the required harness was not available.
Then came the dilemma of body mods in engine bay. I wanted a HYPER car but not at the cost of major alterations, either INSIDE or OUTSIDE. I had set a limit of about 15% leeway (still to be as close as possible to original) on all type of mods.

Quote:
Originally Posted by DHABHAR.BEHRAM View Post
Dear Sonu - so finally WMJ333 is on the forum! Congratulations and all the best!
Best regards, Behram Dhabhar
Thanks. NO FIAT is complete without your guidance.

Regards-Sonu
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Old 10th July 2015, 13:20   #6
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re: Hyper Fiat 1100 - Restoration & Mods of WMJ 333

Wow Sir!! Ive seen some bad rust, but this is another league!! Will keep a close eye on this thread!! Wishing you all the best on this awesome venture!!

P.S: a few pics of the Defender would be appreciated!

Last edited by bivin : 10th July 2015 at 13:21.
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Old 10th July 2015, 13:46   #7
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re: Hyper Fiat 1100 - Restoration & Mods of WMJ 333

See if you can get a Maruti Eeco engine (given the kind of mods you are looking for) or even the Fiat diesel from the Chevrolet Enjoy (Its the 1.3 mjd engine sitting in a longitudinal layout driving the rear wheels)
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Old 10th July 2015, 14:42   #8
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re: Hyper Fiat 1100 - Restoration & Mods of WMJ 333

Quote:
Originally Posted by bivin View Post
Wow Sir!!Will keep a close eye on this thread!! Wishing you all the best on this awesome venture!!
P.S: a few pics of the Defender would be appreciated!
Your wish my command:
Hyper Fiat 1100 - Restoration & Mods of WMJ 333-wp_20150114_14_07_20_pro.jpg
Hyper Fiat 1100 - Restoration & Mods of WMJ 333-wp_20150114_14_07_38_pro.jpg
Hyper Fiat 1100 - Restoration & Mods of WMJ 333-wp_20150114_14_07_27_pro.jpg
Hyper Fiat 1100 - Restoration & Mods of WMJ 333-wp_20150114_14_08_11_pro.jpg
Hyper Fiat 1100 - Restoration & Mods of WMJ 333-wp_20150114_14_08_02_pro.jpg
Hyper Fiat 1100 - Restoration & Mods of WMJ 333-wp_20150114_14_09_13_pro.jpg
Hyper Fiat 1100 - Restoration & Mods of WMJ 333-wp_20150114_14_09_24_pro.jpg
Hyper Fiat 1100 - Restoration & Mods of WMJ 333-wp_20150114_14_09_31_pro.jpg
Hyper Fiat 1100 - Restoration & Mods of WMJ 333-wp_20150114_14_09_45_pro.jpg

Quote:
Originally Posted by 1100D View Post
See if you can get a Maruti Eeco engine (given the kind of mods you are looking for) or even the Fiat diesel from the Chevrolet Enjoy (Its the 1.3 mjd engine sitting in a longitudinal layout driving the rear wheels)
Noted but what about diff ratios?
Will the rear differential fit directly in my car?
Don't want to go diesel way. She will lose her soul.

Regards-Sonu
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Old 10th July 2015, 16:29   #9
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re: Hyper Fiat 1100 - Restoration & Mods of WMJ 333

Congratulations Captain Sonu,

You really have the aptitude and patience to go for the extraordinary. Something that is going to be an exclusive and unique attention seeker and get you a thumbs up wherever you go. Cannot imagine your courage to pick up a rust bucket that it was earlier, only to transform it and make it shine out amongst the rest of the few humble Fiats surviving in our mumbai.

Well done once again and looking forward to more pictures coming our way.
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Old 10th July 2015, 17:02   #10
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re: Hyper Fiat 1100 - Restoration & Mods of WMJ 333

'Had heard several mentions of this car previously!

Great car- and has good potential.

Your restoration reminds me- I still need to take out PYS 5775 - our 1972 FIAT 1100D out of storage. Hasn't been fired up in the last three months, sadly.

'Found several traces of the original paint (creamish beige) in the car in multiple areas.

About eight months ago, I remember observing the cars wiring system minutely. Noticed that a complete wiring loom ran behind the dashboard, and stopped all of a sudden- behind the glovebox.

The glovebox itself had a rectangular cutaway hollow section. And the wiring loom stopped just behind it.

Then it dawned upon me- the rectangular hollow section was for housing the radio, and the wiring loom was for the radio.

The radio itself was missing.

Missing.


______________________________

Family elders informed me that sometime 1986/87, in Bombay- some crooks/lowlifes had broken the front windows, entered the car, broken open the glovebox, and stolen the radio.

The radio was itself a 1970's Pioneer unit.

Well, that does explain a lot of things- namely -

A] The Windows are of ATALTUF make. The windows are obviously parts lifted off the Premier Padmini (a.k.a PP) parts bin, and are not original for a FIAT 1100 Delight.

B] Curious looking dents around the glovebox lid.

________________________

All said and done, these cars are such a joy to tinker with!

Here's wishing you best of luck for the transformation!
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Old 11th July 2015, 14:53   #11
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It's an amazing car that you have taken up for restoration. I was just wondering if you are going to get the engine swapped how will you get it endorsed in the RC book. Till my knowledge goes the RTO has stopped this endorsing the conversions. As you are planning to change the engine with a newer one, What would be your selection of gearbox as you want that to be a coloum shift only? Anyways on an different note wishing you all the best for this restoration project.
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Old 11th July 2015, 18:22   #12
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Re: Hyper Fiat 1100 - Restoration & Mods of WMJ 333

Quote:
Originally Posted by ariesonu View Post

Noted but what about diff ratios?
Will the rear differential fit directly in my car?
Don't want to go diesel way. She will lose her soul.

Regards-Sonu
Quote:
Originally Posted by vdm View Post
Anyways on an different note wishing you all the best for this restoration project.
I would say- Buy a Premier Padmini S1 engine block, and then,

A] Weber 40 DCOE carb

B] Higher compression via milled block, head AND domed pistons (yeah, all the three together), balanced and reshaped combustion chambers, balanced rotating assembly, lightened flywheel, and yeah- offset bored rockers, lightened pushrods, special valves, swirl ported intake and exhausts, close ratio gearbox, LSD.

Lest I forget, also a 4-1 exhaust with zero muffling.

Quite the recipe for a rally-spec FIAT 1100!

____________________

Recently the MH RTO's have become quite strict about rules though. I doubt that the engine change will be endorsed.

Maybe an ''agent'' could do that for you, somehow? I doubt that though.

I'd restore this one to the closest level of originality possible, though.

Last edited by FINTAIL : 11th July 2015 at 18:24.
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Old 12th July 2015, 17:42   #13
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Re: Hyper Fiat 1100 - Restoration & Mods of WMJ 333

Quote:
Originally Posted by ariesonu View Post
"Here I go again"...

"What are you going to do with two identical Fiats"? Every person asked me this question, of course except Fiatians.
Though it was agreed that transporter will off-load it near outskirts of Mumbai but somewhere something went wrong and car landed at a transporter depot at Bhosari (Yes its a name of place near Pune).
ariesonu, congratulations. No one but a car enthusiasts would understand why two of a kind. But what to do we are like that only! I am eagerly looking forward to the story and please share lots of photos of the end product especially as you have shared a peep with us of what your dream girl looks like. By the way the folks who live in Bhosari can take comfort from Lailunga in Chattisgarh and Gande in Jharkhand! All best wishes.
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Old 12th July 2015, 18:29   #14
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Re: Hyper Fiat 1100 - Restoration & Mods of WMJ 333

Quote:
Originally Posted by bivin View Post
Wow Sir!! Ive seen some bad rust, but this is another league!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by ariesonu View Post
during Brownie's restoration, I had noted one particular Fiat on net and I had dreamed of making an identical Fiat in future.

LONG BEFORE I BOUGHT HER, I KNEW WHAT MY NEXT FIAT WILL LOOK LIKE.
I just love "rallyfied" versions of these classic European compacts, including the VW's, Triumphs, Alfas, and others. They were created largely with economics in mind, and the resultant small size/light weight/simplicity of design made them very well suited to race/performance-oriented modification.

Found this snap of a Triumph (Herald?) somewhere, too, which also to me looks so much better than an original:

Hyper Fiat 1100 - Restoration & Mods of WMJ 333-capture.jpg

Some years ago I'd bought a car whose fundamentals would've inspired similar mods, if I'd not lost it to some structural rust (much less substantial than yours exhibits) and the lack of time / inclination to deal with it at that time. If I'd found it a little earlier during my college days, when I was liable to be found skipping Chemistry class in favor of whichever junkyard run seemed expedient for the latest resto project (all in the name of earning a bit towards school fees, of course!), I'm sure I could've done a great job with her - and out of all the cars I owned, it would've been among the most practical and appealing as a sporting daily-driver type classic:

Hyper Fiat 1100 - Restoration & Mods of WMJ 333-pv544-rally.jpg

(it was a 1964 Volvo PV544 Sport [twin SU carbs etc], shown here in rally trim, at speed).

Bought it from a friend's father; Had done over 3L km, but still running and driving despite some years' storage).

Looking back, would not have been right at that stage in my life to make it happen (there were other priorities more eternally significant); but thinking about it still makes me wistful.

Thanks for the inspiration.

-Eric
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Old 13th July 2015, 10:59   #15
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Re: Hyper Fiat 1100 - Restoration & Mods of WMJ 333

Quote:
Originally Posted by President View Post
Congratulations Captain Sonu,
You really have the aptitude and patience to go for the extraordinary. Something that is going to be an exclusive and unique attention seeker and get you a thumbs up wherever you go.
I really enjoyed our tel-con over the weekend. This is one of the dreams that have come true and my stubbornness to achieve same has surprised me too. Though been heavy on my pocket but then real dreams are expensive

Quote:
Originally Posted by FINTAIL View Post
'Had heard several mentions of this car previously!
Great car- and has good potential.
Your restoration reminds me- I still need to take out PYS 5775 - our 1972 FIAT 1100D out of storage. Hasn't been fired up in the last three months, sadly.
'Found several traces of the original paint (creamish beige) in the car in multiple areas.
Family elders informed me that sometime 1986/87, in Bombay- some crooks/lowlifes had broken the front windows, entered the car, broken open the glovebox, and stolen the radio.
The radio was itself a 1970's Pioneer unit.
Here's wishing you best of luck for the transformation!
Thanks bro. The BROWNIE seems to be the shade that your PYS 5775 might be. Its called IVORY something. Pls fire her up.
I did that to BROWNIE once and my carelessness costed me a drained & dry battery. Since she has dynamo, I did not take chance & bought new battery itself & since then fire her up every Friday and take her for ride early Saturday morning.

I found unique way to counter my radio problem.
I have bought a BOSE bluetooth speaker and have created a charging point on dashboard.The speaker connects with my phone & plays the music. In case of calls I can answer them too.
Once parked I take speaker (almost the size of head-unit's face plate) home with me.

Quote:
Originally Posted by vdm View Post
It's an amazing car that you have taken up for restoration. I was just wondering if you are going to get the engine swapped how will you get it endorsed in the RC book. Till my knowledge goes the RTO has stopped this endorsing the conversions. As you are planning to change the engine with a newer one, What would be your selection of gearbox as you want that to be a coloum shift only? Anyways on an different note wishing you all the best for this restoration project.
The "NEW" engine is from FIAT family only as plonking anything else required huge alterations & which I was not ready to do and also because the respective garage is so used to do the ORIGINAL work that alternations are not their cup of tea.

Quote:
Originally Posted by FINTAIL View Post
I would say- Buy a Premier Padmini S1 engine block, and then,
A] Weber 40 DCOE carb
B] Higher compression via milled block, head AND domed pistons (yeah, all the three together), balanced and reshaped combustion chambers, balanced rotating assembly, lightened flywheel, and yeah- offset bored rockers, lightened pushrods, special valves, swirl ported intake and exhausts, close ratio gearbox, LSD.
Lest I forget, also a 4-1 exhaust with zero muffling.

Quite the recipe for a rally-spec FIAT 1100!

I'd restore this one to the closest level of originality possible, though.
As I mentioned in beginning that this will be HYPER but my daily drive car and not a rally spec car, so to be true the most I intend to push this engine is to get a performance based exhaust (AUTOMECH is already working on same) and may be PIPER CAMSHAFT setup later on.
For now she gets NEW HEAD, OVERSIZE PISTONS & CUSTOM EXHAUST only.
The car is registered in JSr & not in Mumbai.

Quote:
Originally Posted by V.Narayan View Post
ariesonu, congratulations. No one but a car enthusiasts would understand why two of a kind. But what to do we are like that only! I am eagerly looking forward to the story and please share lots of photos of the end product especially as you have shared a peep with us of what your dream girl looks like.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ringoism View Post
I just love "rallyfied" versions of these classic European compacts, including the VW's, Triumphs, Alfas, and others. They were created largely with economics in mind, and the resultant small size/light weight/simplicity of design made them very well suited to race/performance-oriented modification.
Thanks for the inspiration.
-Eric
Thanks Narayan & Eric.
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