[anjan_c2007]

Originally Posted by anjan_c2007

Fantastic, majestic looks with little details preserved. A great example , maybe one of the few in India. There was a white 1100D with a left hand drive configuration in our city with original paint, but its not seen since 2002.

Karl no do not have any pictures of the white Fiat LHD.Maybe someday, if its spotted in some garage I'll try and get some.

[karlosdeville]

Originally Posted by amit V8

another brilliant example from wikipedia. this is a later DELIGHT (mk2).
Attachment 142514

whereas this one, of our fellow member cyrus is an earlier DELIGHT (mk1), which you are talking about.
Attachment 142515

see the difference between the front and the rear bumpers. maybe this later delight came as PRESIDENT in india with some minor changes. Fiat gurus do correct me if i'm wrong.

Sorry, but there is no Mk1 and Mk2.

Firstly the disctinction (and comparison) should be made for international markets and Indian markets.

Internationally the Delight was launched in 64 with a 1200cc engine and bumper guards with rubber.

In India the car was introduced around 65, with thinner bumpers with earlier style bumper guards. These went through various small iterations over the years, till in 72 the Fiat name was dropped and the car became the Premier President. Bumpers were similar in design to the Italian Delight units. Engines were always 1100 locally. More later.

[anjan_c2007]

Originally Posted by karlosdeville

Internationally the Delight was launched in 64 with a 1200cc engine and bumper guards with rubber.

Even the front grille of the Italian 1100D was of steel with chrome plating. This design with the chrome finish was later available in the post 1976 Padminis (only Deluxe/ BE and not the fully black ones of plastic fitted on the Standard models), that were of plastic with chrome plating.In fact Premier Automobiles Ltd continued to use the same 1089cc engine, that powered the Dukkars of the 1950's till the Super Select and later the 1100D's. Other than the Maranelli distributor being sacrificed for a I believe Lucas in the 1970's and an allternator for the dynamo in the 1990's there was virtually no change.

[SuperSelect]

Originally Posted by adheesh

The speedometer has a red ribbon which moves corresponding to the speed. Say if the car is traveling at 40 mph, the portion from 0mph to 40mph would be covered by the red ribbon. It is indeed a pleasure just to see the speedometer work !

Regards,
Adheesh Parelkar

Yes indeed, it's a pleasure to see the speedometer at work ! Note an interesting detail guys - The speedo shows 0 -20 -40 -60 -80 -100 mph as against 0 - 10 -30 -50 -70 -90 mph in the indian selects. Rony's LHD has a similar speedo if I'm not mistaken.
Lovely lovely car imperial. Hats off for keeping her this way.

[amit V8]

Originally Posted by karlosdeville

Sorry, but there is no Mk1 and Mk2.

Firstly the disctinction (and comparison) should be made for international markets and Indian markets.

Internationally the Delight was launched in 64 with a 1200cc engine and bumper guards with rubber.

In India the car was introduced around 65, with thinner bumpers with earlier style bumper guards. These went through various small iterations over the years, till in 72 the Fiat name was dropped and the car became the Premier President. Bumpers were similar in design to the Italian Delight units. Engines were always 1100 locally. More later.

i know that fiats never came in mk1/2s. i wrote it to make the difference as i was not familiar with the international and Indian market model.

[imperial.s.a]

Originally Posted by the mole

Wow a beautiful car, Again i am confused by the position of the battery. Again it seems to be in the path of the air duct, was the battery position changed during the life time of this car? Also can you post better and more detail pictures of the keys. Thanks and enjoy the ride.

i will post the keys and the battery position in couple of days take pics from my instruction hand book

[DHABHAR.BEHRAM]

Dear all - let me try and sort out the battery position riddle once and for all. For this purpose "LH / RH" means as sitting in the driver's seat. The main difference is in the LH and RH wheelarch position (wheelarch is the "patra" above the front tyres"). The distance from the fender to the wheelarch is more on the LH side as compared to the RH side by 13 mm. The RH wheelarch is horizontal whereas the LH wheelarch slopes downward. The original fiat layout and drawings indicate so. Why it is like this is a mystery to all but it is there. The original drawings of the car indicate the battery on the RH side. Maybe the reason is to keep the battery horizontal. The horn is mounted on the battery bracket gusset. I do not know when the battery was changed over to the LH side but it must have been very early on as it has been this way for many years. During diesel AC / S1 AC car projects which I did in 1990/1992, we needed to accommodate the battery on the RH side as the AC compressor occupied the LH envelope. We had a huge problem as the reduced dimension to the wheel arch meant that the battery was touching the fender / bonnet on the layout as well as on the car as the Exide EF50Z had a bigger elvelope. After a great deal of difficulty, we relocated the RH wheel arch downwards by 13 mm for which body tools were changed. As you can imagine, this was a huge effort, considering the tooling condition in Kalyan plant.

As far as cars with Weber carburettors are concerned, the battery had to be perforce on the LH side as the dry air cleaner was located angularly on the RH side. Please remember that this car is originally LHD, the RHD version was for "export" to India.

Best regards,

Behram Dhabhar

[DHABHAR.BEHRAM]

Dear imperial - I do not doubt your car's originality but looking at the photograph, I think that the following components may have undergone change. Kindly check up.

1 - Engine assembly due to vacuum type carburettor / distributor / intake manifold without manifold heat pot as it is not projecting below the carburettor tray / air cleaner without pipe. We introduced these parts in production in 1989. 2 - Starter solenoid switch is fitted on the RH fender with self tapping screws so starter motor and solenoid seem to be adapted from the Premier Padmini. The battery cables are crossing each other which is not original. 3 - Radiator assy - this is a PAB46000 series part number radiator which I designed in 1989 (I may be wrong on the exact part number but I vaguely remember it to be PAB46299). This was done to enhance coolant capacity and increase inlet and outlet pipe connection strength. The original radiator has a remote filler neck and has tapering tank ends. 4 - Ignition coil is from Lucas TVS, possibly to match the new distributor. However, its mounting location on the battery tray seems to indicate that this was an LHD body as this position was used only for LHD. 5 - I think that your bonnet cable handle will be on the RH side which is quite surprising, looking at the bonnet holding pawl position. The front valance panel has embossing suitable for LHD.

Best regards,

Behram Dhabhar

[wasif]

Dear Mr. Behram.

I was reading your posts no 22 & 23 and from them I gather that you were associated with Premier Auto. This definitely makes you a person who has inside knowledge on these cars.


I just wanted to share a picture of a original LHD Fiat which has the air vent opening on the cowl on the opposite side as compared to the RHD cars we see in India.

In light of this I was curious as to why you think the blue car which is the subject of this thread could be a LHD converted to RHD.

Also finally what is the correct position of the batteries in these cars. If one is standing in front of the car facing the engine it is correct to asume that the factory fitted the battery on the right side opposite the distributor ? Or should it be on the other side which would put it opposit the carb.

I happen to have a few original single owner Fiats fron the early 1960's in my family and all the cars have their batteries on the right side, that is the die that has the distributor and I ams positive none of these cars has been ever tampered with.

Wasif

[karlosdeville]

Originally Posted by DHABHAR.BEHRAM

5 - I think that your bonnet cable handle will be on the RH side which is quite surprising, looking at the bonnet holding pawl position. The front valance panel has embossing suitable for LHD.

Actually in the interior shot it appears that the bonnet release lever is on the left hand side itself, as expected.



Strangely my 1967 Delight has the release cable mounted on the right. I suppose that was a later alteration? In which year was it shifted to the RHS position?

[DHABHAR.BEHRAM]

Dear Wasif - re. your queries, yes, I am ex PAL. I was the project engineer working on various programs. I still work in the automobile industry in a different company. My comments in my posts are completely clear and I hope they answer all your queries. As a normal engineering practice, for LHD / RHD, the "not required" opening for any application is embossed but not cut as the case may be, to simplify tooling. By the way, as the car in your 03-10-2001 photograph is a super select LHD and as your post mentions your location as Hyderabad, is this car AAX8734 by any chance? What is the present location of this car? What is its registration number if it is not AAX8734?

Dear Karl - the RH should be LH. My typing error. The pawl position indicates so. By the way, this car shows piano switches. Were they there in 1965?

Best regards,

Behram Dhabhar

[wasif]

Dear Mr.Behram.

What picture are you refering to ? My grandfathers car which is now with me, parked in our cellar garage in Hyderabad is APY 6354. There are three more such cars in my family one of the is APH 5. These are all from the early sixties.

I have seen the car you are refering to,AAX 8734, used to belong to a family friend. Not sure where it is now though.

BTW did you see the picture of the LHD Fiat I attached in my earlier mail of today.

Also Sir, if the comments in your posts were actually clear then trust me I wouldn't be asking you to elaborate on them.

Wasif

[the mole]

Originally Posted by wasif

BTW did you see the picture of the LHD Fiat I attached in my earlier mail of today.
Wasif

Dear Wasif I think te position of battery, windshield washer bottle are correct for a left hand drive model, Even my elegant manual confirms this. However I dont think a Fiat manual has never shown the engine compartment for a RHD model and thats where the confusion lies. regards
Amol

[karlosdeville]

Originally Posted by DHABHAR.BEHRAM

Dear Karl - the RH should be LH. My typing error. The pawl position indicates so. By the way, this car shows piano switches. Were they there in 1965?

Why would it be strange if the bonnet release lever is positioned on the left hand side (while sitting in the car)? As it was a left hand drive design, when converted to RHD they never bothered to change the release lever, the wipers, the handbrake position. Only in the 80s (?) was it changed in India, and wipers and handbrake in S1 I think.

Piano switches were very much originally fitted to all Delights internationally. In India they were offered till 67. 68 onwards they reverted to chrome toggle switches, and I think it the last Presidents/first Padminis went back to piano switches, local. I have an original box of brand new Sipea made in Italy piano switches to go on my 65 whenever it comes.

[President]

@Imperial : VOW!, I must say that you have a very very OH REE G NAL, Exclusive, Unique and Virgin Italian Delight in India. And I'm that it is a single owned family car and really meticulously maintained and preserved in pristine condition.
I can see that most of the fittings are absolutely OH REE G NAL and the body condition and bodyline is really clean and Grand.
I was also owning a similar kind 1964 Italian Left Hand Drive Delight, which I unfortunately had to sell in unavoidable circumstances a few years back and for which I regret very much today.
Therefore, after seeing your similar amazing beauty my heart is touched and memories being revived. Do visit my pic gallery and check out my ex-Delight aka MRY 9501.

Congratulations for owning such a wonderful Fiat and may you have many many more years of happy moments and good sentiments with it.