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-   -   The Red Rocket - Fiat Grande Punto Sport. *UPDATE* Interiors now in Karlsson Leather (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-drives-initial-ownership-reports/129039-red-rocket-fiat-grande-punto-sport-update-interiors-now-karlsson-leather-14.html)

Hi, did these guys tell you when they will stop taking Fiats for service?
I have my 2year service coming up. Coolant, brake fluid and transmission oil change.

Do you mean Prerana motors, Kudlu gate? They are starting their independent Fiat servicing from mid-March. After that, Fiats will not be allowed in the Kudlu gate tata service centre. Instead you have to take it to Vecto motors (Prerana owned subsidiary which will be handling sales and service for Fiat, Jeep and Abarth). Vecto showroom/service centre is around a kilometre from the current Kudlu gate centre, along the same side of the road near Kropex Chevrolet.

All the existing Fiat staff, including technicians, Fiat technical guru (Satish) and service advisors (Surendra et.al) will continue as is, under Vecto motors from March, whenever the launch happens. I will post an update as soon as I get the exact launch date from them. :)

Till then, you can give your car for service at the current Kudlu gate service place. Rest assured, there will be no gap period between Kudlu gate closing and Vecto motors opening :D, so customers won't be left stranded at all. The launch is going to happen much before the deadline from what they told me.

Hi!

The duster works & I hope the Car wash I used to give is halved. Now I don't really have to wash it to get rid off the dirt (the daily used or parked one) Thanks for that :-)

It doesn't work on the bike as wonderfully as it does on the Car. I have to use the MF cloth (after duster usage) to wipe it down.

Seems from the next time, I shall have to carry MF towel & car wash to the place where my Car gets washed.

Maybe we can move few posts which are dedicated to Car cleaning over there (the one by Rudra)

Thanks :)

Finally got some time to go through your review and I should say it is on par with team-bhp official reviews. Excellent!
After the mods, the car looks awesome!

By the way, where do we get this Jopasu duster?

You can get it from e bay.

http://www.ebay.in/itm/120889327260?...84.m1423.l2649

It was Karthik who introduced me to the Jopasu duster on the Muthathi trip. I think the price has gone down now for the gift set (a set of four items) on eBay. It was 1315/- when I bought and last week when I ordered for my neighbour, it was 1090/-.

Thanks guys! I ordered the gift pack, 1090/- with free shipping.

You could have got the same thing from reliance auto zone for 800 bucks. Provided the closest one to you is not too far and they have one in stock. I got mine from double road auto zone. They had quite a few in stock.

Some more Extreme Detailing to follow :D:

While the whole red/black theme began with the Abarth decals and the roof, I resorted to getting 3M carbon fibre wraps for almost all plastic / matt finish surfaces on the OEM parts - A, B, C pillars, bonnet panel, roof edges, etc. There were 2 more parts left on the front, which were interfering with the red/black theme : one was the chrome grill and another was the fog lamp bezel pair, both of which were silver in color.

Some pictures from the earlier 'Kaccha' days :

Front view : a closer look at the chrome grill and fog lamps playing havoc with the red/black theme



The silver fog lamps were the other eyesores at the front


Abrupt silver color on the bumper



Solution for grill color mismatch : I have placed an order for Punto Active's black grill (at the Prerana spare parts shop), which is a direct OEM screw-on replacement for the chrome grill. The grill change will most likely happen this following week.

Solution for fog lamps : There was no way I would resort to painting the bezels to black. The only other solution? Get CF wraps artistically moulded onto the insides of the fog lamp holders to completely mask the silver paint. 3M car care to the rescue once again! :uncontrol I got it done there today afternoon, and could manage to take some snaps of the changed look.

Here are some pictures of the transformation of the fog lamps :

Fog lamps carved out of carbon fibre, anyone?



Transformed look at the front with the CF fog lamps



The passenger side (while finishing touch was still going on so there are some gaps) :




After the process was complete:
Switching on the fog lamps shows no difference



But move closer, and you see this if you look closely:



Daytime pictures of the transformed look





Side profile closeup : The fog lamp now looks like a continuation of the stripe



Front profile transformation. The only thing pending now is the black grill



My next update will be after I get the grill changed to black. That will effectively complete my red/black theme goal. Watch this space for more updates.

Great look.
But please take care of Chrome Door handles. Seems it needs 3M CF wrap.

Wow! You come up with a nice mod just when we thought you were done. It looks very good now!

In addition to the grille how about blackened headlamps ? It'll complete the red/black theme

I agree with the chrome handles mismatching. I'll see how CF looks on the handle, and then go for it. Thanks :thumbs up

Thanks a lot shashank!
For the blackened headlamps, I won't be going for smoked OEM headlamps. I am instead thinking of buying and fitting this :
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Fiat-Grande-...-/230623689766

They are bolt-on replacement headlamps with projectors for low beams and LED turn indicators with integrated DRLs. I'm just hanging on till month end before I take the jump, since it is a pretty huge amount (~300 pounds) :Frustrati. I spoke to the seller and he is willing to deliver to India. I hope I can seal this purchase by next month. It is 3 birds with 1 stone for me if I buy this product :
- Integrated DRLs
- Better visibility with projector headlamps
- Black theme look taken care of

Great stuff on the Punto, its totally changed from what I saw long time back. By the way hows the black sticker on the roof holding up? Do you observe any swirl marks or peeling?

Thanks motomaverick :thumbs up. The black gloss film is holding up well now. A few weeks back, it had started peeling in the edges due to improper sticking by me. As soon as I noticed this, I went to 3M and got CF wraps along the border of the roof film, on all 4 sides. This now protects the gloss film borders from starting to peel :D.

Details in this post :
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-d...ml#post3031828

There are no swirl marks as of now. I don't wash/scrub that filmed roof at all. Even when it gets dirty, I use the duster for dry dust and for rainwater marks / bird droppings, I use a moist cloth and do a wet wipe.

I think the real test for the roof is during rainy season 4-5 months from now *fingers crossed*

Yes, I think they charge around 850.(not sure whether it comes with all four items - Duster, Mini Duster, Magic Wipe, Magic Glove). I have enquired couple of times with the Reliance Auto Zone, HSR Layout but it was out of stock. I checked with them before ordering in ebay as well but no luck.