[hillram]

Originally Posted by funkykar

Ram, the white color bumpers was not cos of mundaneness or any experiment; but because this model of Padmini featured body colored bumpers.

Chrome has become mundane for me,hence I would like to breakfree for my Padmini.The experiment would be from my side.

[allana13]

Originally Posted by shivshanker

allan A, do you have a PP or a Fiat in Bombay, are u planning on restoring one or searching for one to be restored.

Hi Shi,

I am on the look out for 1
Either
Dukkar Fiat
All model (Dukkar Preferable)
Or PP (S1 type)
Or 137D PP

I might Just start ask random Cabbies.....

[DHABHAR.BEHRAM]

Originally Posted by funkykar

Behram Sir, Can you please confirm about Economy Model features: 1. Did Economy model in 1991 have Reverse lights? Arun's car had the reverse lamps as per the old pics and also has original wire for the reverse lamps. 2. Did the windshield beading have the aluminium inserts in them?

Dear Karthik - PAL started selling "PP Economy" model cars in 1986. Please read very carefully. The word "Economy" was put on the car in the same place as "Deluxe BE" etc but this was discontinued after very few cars were made. The car was sold in 3 colors, Sabbia (light pinkish) / Ellora (light greenish) and Pale Lilac (Arun's car color). The dress level was black honeycomb grille with black powder coated self tapping screws / radiator side sheet metal plates eliminated and small plates assembled with the grille / body colored bumpers / full rubber but same dimension as chrome bumper guards which became smaller in 1988 as the big ones used to flex while tightening / no side signal lights, so headlight earth wire on the radiator side studs, so M6 connectors instead of M5 but with same wire length / no reverse lights / black upholstery / no rear parcel mesh in very few cars / thin bead finish steering wheel / black horn button surround / small plastic wheel caps with PAL written on them / 45 Ah battery but with same (longer) holding bracket as other models / 75 mm long rubber bead on the lip of the LH fender to prevent short circuiting during battery servicing / 2 row radiator instead of 3 row radiator which was withdrawn after very few cars / 8 slot front center panel for 2 row radiator / no aluminium strip on the front and back glasses / no rear ash trays / no front ash trays on very few cars (dash panels were specially made) / ignition key in the center / Autometer instrument cluster instead of Yenkay / no pull handles on doors / reduced jute inside the seats / less thickness jute below the rubber mats / thinner piece below glove box plastic body support / lesser application of sound deadener spray in paint shop. In March 1987, quarter glasses were removed from all cars including Economy. In 1991, very few Economy cars were made with chrome bumpers and reverse lights as painting bumpers in-house was not economical in the long run due to additional cost of material handling equipment required to prevent scratches. If you say the reverse light wiring in Arun's car is original (it should be part of the wiring loom coming down from the LH roof panel side), the wire should be black or black with a yellow streak, ending in a soldered joint which got connected directly inside the reverse light, that's why the rear side panels had 3 nos 6 mm diameter holes each, the center holes were slightly offset to match the wire routing. Arun's car can be one of them.

I can post like this as I used to make the designs, make and release drawings, make the prototypes, test the cars, release the FPC / RDS / OEG / EEG documents as per the original FIAT system of Italy. FPC means "Future Production Change". RDS means "Release Delete Schedule". OEG means "Optional Equipment Group". EEG means "Extra Equipment Group". This by far the best R&D control system I have ever worked with in my life. Hats off to FIAT of TURIN, ITALY.

Dear allana13 - if you are looking for a proper way in which your fiat can be worked on in Mumbai, send me a PM. I'll guide you in totality. You'll have to spend good money but you won't have to break a bank! .

Best regards,

Behram Dhabhar

[kavesh55]

Originally Posted by allana13

Hi Shi,

I am on the look out for 1
Either
Dukkar Fiat
All model (Dukkar Preferable)
Or PP (S1 type)
Or 137D PP

I might Just start ask random Cabbies.....

Hi Mansoor- I would just say your just a little late, had a premier padmini, single owner, maintained at BCMA and then AM Motors. Awesome bodyline but enitre drive train, tyres, required replacement. Yes replacement. The car was not started in the past 1.5 yrs and was standing in the same place. Flooding had water in the tappets, so obvious in the chamber too (law of gravity )
Had bought the car in principle but had to give it up cos the cost of the rebuild would not give 'value'.
Paint was mirror finish, and the no. was totalling to 5 my birthdate.


Regards,
Kavesh

[allana13]

Originally Posted by DHABHAR.BEHRAM

Dear Karthik - PAL started selling "PP Economy" model cars in 1986. Please read very carefully. The word "Economy" was put on the car in the same place as "Deluxe BE" etc but this was discontinued after very few cars were made. The car was sold in 3 colors, Sabbia (light pinkish) / Ellora (light greenish) and Pale Lilac (Arun's car color). The dress level was black honeycomb grille with black powder coated self tapping screws / radiator side sheet metal plates eliminated and small plates assembled with the grille / body colored bumpers / full rubber but same dimension as chrome bumper guards which became smaller in 1988 as the big ones used to flex while tightening / no side signal lights, so headlight earth wire on the radiator side studs, so M6 connectors instead of M5 but with same wire length / no reverse lights / black upholstery / no rear parcel mesh in very few cars / thin bead finish steering wheel / black horn button surround / small plastic wheel caps with PAL written on them / 45 Ah battery but with same (longer) holding bracket as other models / 75 mm long rubber bead on the lip of the LH fender to prevent short circuiting during battery servicing / 2 row radiator instead of 3 row radiator which was withdrawn after very few cars / 8 slot front center panel for 2 row radiator / no aluminium strip on the front and back glasses / no rear ash trays / no front ash trays on very few cars (dash panels were specially made) / ignition key in the center / Autometer instrument cluster instead of Yenkay / no pull handles on doors / reduced jute inside the seats / less thickness jute below the rubber mats / thinner piece below glove box plastic body support / lesser application of sound deadener spray in paint shop. In March 1987, quarter glasses were removed from all cars including Economy. In 1991, very few Economy cars were made with chrome bumpers and reverse lights as painting bumpers in-house was not economical in the long run due to additional cost of material handling equipment required to prevent scratches. If you say the reverse light wiring in Arun's car is original (it should be part of the wiring loom coming down from the LH roof panel side), the wire should be black or black with a yellow streak, ending in a soldered joint which got connected directly inside the reverse light, that's why the rear side panels had 3 nos 6 mm diameter holes each, the center holes were slightly offset to match the wire routing. Arun's car can be one of them.

I can post like this as I used to make the designs, make and release drawings, make the prototypes, test the cars, release the FPC / RDS / OEG / EEG documents as per the original FIAT system of Italy. FPC means "Future Production Change". RDS means "Release Delete Schedule". OEG means "Optional Equipment Group". EEG means "Extra Equipment Group". This by far the best R&D control system I have ever worked with in my life. Hats off to FIAT of TURIN, ITALY.

Dear allana13 - if you are looking for a proper way in which your fiat can be worked on in Mumbai, send me a PM. I'll guide you in totality. You'll have to spend good money but you won't have to break a bank! .

Best regards,

Behram Dhabhar

Thank You Bheram Sir.

Will definitely get in touch.

[funkykar]

@Behram Sir: Thanks a ton for the info about ECONOMY model.

I guess reverse lights were present from factory as seen from older pics.

[funkykar]

A couple of years back! Celebrating the 19th Happy B'day of 297!

[Karthik1100]

Some pics of the Padmini at the FCB Meet!

[Karthik1100]

Lokesh, as seen in the pic, has been the only mechanic who worked on this Fiat since 18 years. Today he is no more. 297 will miss you Lokesh. R.I.P

[funkykar]

Originally Posted by Karthik1100

Lokesh, as seen in the pic, has been the only mechanic who worked on this Fiat since 18 years. Today he is no more. 297 will miss you Lokesh. R.I.P

Felt very sorry to know about this fact. RIP.

On another note mechanic Murthy has been ill since a few months and never turned up to the garage since few months. Felt very sad and called him today. He has slightly recovered and should make it to work in few feeks

[samsag12]

Thats sad, may his soul rest in peace. Another worrisome aspect is there are hardly any mechanics left who are willing to fill the void created by the departed/retired.

[Sunsh!nes]

Its a Superb restoration. I personally like Fiat Premier Padmini and want to buy one and make it better and "Own it for Life". We had one in the family 15 years back but sold due to pressure from my family. I may need your help brother. I will definitely get in touch with you.

[autocrat]

Originally Posted by funkykar

Felt very sorry to know about this fact. RIP.

On another note mechanic Murthy has been ill since a few months and never turned up to the garage since few months. Felt very sad and called him today. He has slightly recovered and should make it to work in few feeks

If only people could be restored...

[schakravarthy]

Bumped into this thread quite by chance, and boy am I glad I did! A very compelling read, and quite informative too. Happy to learn that 297 has been with you since new and given your passion for Fiats, I'm sure it'll stay forever! That's one lucky car.
Rated it a well deserved '5 Stars'; my first on TBhp! :-)

[swami69]

I currently own a used XUV500 W8 which takes care of my family requirements and long distance touring. I also own a 13 year old Toyota Corolla H2 which went through floods, but repaired and runs beautifully, which I use it to get some pep out of a 1.8L VVTi petrol engine for City runs. I drive both these cars alternatively for my regular office and weekend purposes.

Since I am person who keep myself busy with something or the other e.g., Model Railroading (a shelf layout), Photography, Little bit of Speaker building (recently one Open Baffle), water color paintings and offcourse maintaining both my cars religiously over the weekends, I wanted to get into buying a old car which was extremely popular in its days and get it back to its original condition as a project.

Was thinking of a gypsy, but the carb ones are not very good and if I want to go in for a mpfi version, to pickup a good one, that will cost me close to 2L + restoration costs and I am not looking into that budget. Then, an AMBY which probably could fall in my budget and in an incremental manner, but somehow, my wife says NO to an AMBY stating that it is huge and not even as a third car. Then comes Fiat/Premier Padmini which me and my wife both like as it was extremely popular during its days, smaller profile, looks great and very classic. While we may not be able to really term it as classic, it is very different to today's cars and we like it

Just to let the members know, my family or its closest relatives never had any legacy of owning cars in their days, and I was looking at the family tree and identified only two persons atleast owning a motorbike, i.e., my father owned a Rajdoot for few years and his brother owned a 1962 Royal Enfield, but No cars at all. Therefore, there is No emotional or sentimental attachment to any particular brand and it is a freelance choice of my own to go for a Premier Padmini.

Pre - Conditions :

While I can spend time and effort, I am not for a SCRAP Up restoration
It should be in running condition with descent mechanicals
It can have requirements of some body work, painting, that is not an issue
It should not have changed hands too much, probably 1 or 2 owners
Petrol or Diesel ? I lean towards Petrol S1, but a 137D ? not sure and I need expert opinion from the forum as I do not see any restoration threads in TBHP.
It should be as much original as possible

I know it is tough to locate one, but I am willing to go through this patiently and try to find a good one for the job. The idea is to get it back in clean good order on Mechanicals first. Then move on to replacing any non original parts back to originals which is probably more from a cosmetic angle, then work on the body/tinkering, rust prevention, then select the exact paint as it was delivered during those days, replace any modified upholsteries with original pattern/designs and NO MODS. i.e., if it did not have a OE stereo or A/C, the restored one will NOT have it too. I can look for some mods to make it look more classic, i.e., if white walled tyres will look good in the overall scheme, even it was not part of original, I will probably go for it to get the best aesthetics out of this car, but will not overdo.

The budget is something like this - "subject to" I get a car with the pre-conditions met - Rs. 30 to 40K for the car and another 60 K for all the work to a total of 1L. This is what I am sidelining for this project and not more than that.

I request the forum gurus to let me know whether it is feasible ? and whether the path is right ?

I know I can get all the help from this forum friends where I have seen lots of fiats restored and many clubs prevail which makes Premier Padmini and ideal choice for mid level restoration.

Any comments/ideas/suggestions welcome. Thanks all

Note : I may have acquired 10% knowledge on these stuff so far, but I can put in honest effort to learn and build this one and I need help, a lot of help from the forum once I lay my hands on one which will then become very technical and I am close to zero on it

The Journey begins !!

Mods - if this does not belong in this section, kindly move it to the right section. Thanks.

Swami