[KarthikK]

Originally Posted by Pedaltothefloor

The red rocket is capable of how many horses? I am guessing it is remapped and hence the red rocket?

Sorry to disappoint, but it is not remapped. The mechanicals are absolutely bone stock . I have just played around with the exterior looks all this while, and will play around with the interiors in the near future. I might plonk the RD box after a few months since it is safer from a warranty point of view.

Originally Posted by PAVAN KADAM

For your viewing pleasure..maybe you'll like them.

Attachment 1070461

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Thanks a lot for the photos. They look very good and aesthetically done up. This kind of color combination is what I'm looking for when I re-do my interiors to full leather.

Is this the dynamic edition? Are those hub caps from the Linea's active version?? From a distance, the hub caps can easily be mistaken for the T-Jet's turbine blade alloys. Looks very nice on the Punto too.

The only eyesore (or improvement area) for me is that ICE unit on the dashboard which seems a bit out of place with the surrounding console area.

Originally Posted by ku69rd

Congrats Karthik, She does look very gorgeous. With all the body modifications done, why don't you start to work on the engine to keep her ahead of the herd
Do I smell a RD ECU being fitted in shortly or something from La Italia to compliment the looks? With 7000 kms run in am sure the engine will have broken in just fine and must be very free. Ideal Time to harness a few more ponies from the heart?

I was recommended by to wait till 10k kms and then go for the dieseltronic box, so I had slightly moved that plan ahead by a few months, and will instead be taking on interior improvement. What I will next concentrate on is upgrading to (sport-themed) full leather interiors at Karlsson or Stanley.

I had a look at the powder coating option you suggested earlier for the alloys. It was suggested to be more durable as well, but like you mentioned, they asked for a 7-8 days time. Since this is a daily office-drive vehicle, I couldn't afford to wait that long, hehe.

[ku69rd]

Originally Posted by KarthikK

I was recommended by to wait till 10k kms and then go for the dieseltronic box, so I had slightly moved that plan ahead by a few months, and will instead be taking on interior improvement. What I will next concentrate on is upgrading to (sport-themed) full leather interiors at Karlsson or Stanley.

Karthik,
Yep you are correct on the powder coating, they do tend to take a lot of time because of the process. My basic recommendation of getting into powder coating was to ensure it gives a good long life without any scratches. Did some more research on it, If you had gone in for Powder Coating then ceramic coating would have been very ideal. That ways it would have given you 100% life and scratches would not have damaged the wheels. But yes its quite an expensive affair. Am planning to do it on my FZ so that it will be able to cut off any damage.

Regarding the leathers I would suggest you to take a call after you visit the 3 leather technicians Karlsson - Stanley - Ovion. They have some pretty much inspiring designs and ones that will match the interiors of your Punto.

[Eminenttismo]

Finally!, great job! The alloys came out very better than expected, in fact, KILLER!. Now, you have accomplished such a feat (painstakingly or more kinda lovingly doing all those ext mods) the car looks fantastic with everything in place. Kudos, to your patience, research, TASTE and all. And, I thank Vik0728 for suggesting you to go for Gloss Black intead of Matt Black, right call mate.


I suppose KarthikK is a little reserved, having such a tastefully modded car, yet not taking part in our thread.


You have indirectly increased the sales of tiger balm, as onlookers WILL have to turn heads for sure!

Drive Safe, and keep it high.

[Arch-Angel]

Absolutely great looking punto you got there. Your ownership report shows how this maiden has transformed into a great looking car from the stock condition she was in. Good choice going with gloss ( by the way, the reason i suggested matte was because i felt the vinyls were non gloss). Give her a nice remap and maybe, FFE/CAI to give her a boost in power and attitude .

[Arkesh]

Great job there. On the exterior the car is transformed to an abarth version. I am sure its going to be transformed under the hood also very shortly. To be frank the 15 inchers don't go well with your exterior now. It needs something bigger. The tyres are looking puny taking into account the overall exterior modifcations. On the outside the only thing left out to make it real Abarth are the wheels. It was just my suggestion but i am sure you too will agree and once you do that it will again be a feast for our eyes.

[sagarpadaki]

Amazing transformation Karthik! Do you wash the car daily? How come you manage to keep it in such a glossy condition?

Well the exteriors are matching the abarth. Now its time to soup up the engine part . I would suggest a proper Re-map from tune-o-tronics rather than the RD box since it will be completely customized to your needs. That will make your one of the best punto-inside out - in the town! Not to mention it will be a complete sleeper like your TJET.

Oh BTW, i dont see much about TJET now-a-days from you. Have to kept it out of action?

[BigBrad]

Hey Karthik, Lovely car and an awesome review. Your review was truly exceptional. I wasn't even a member when you had put up that review, so I couldn't appreciate it. Superb it is!

Your alloys do look good though I personally prefer the dark gunmetal kinda finish, similar to the one of the pics posted in the previous page. What about the interiors update? Waiting to hear that from you.

[KarthikK]

Originally Posted by Arch-Angel

Absolutely great looking punto you got there. Your ownership report shows how this maiden has transformed into a great looking car from the stock condition she was in. Good choice going with gloss ( by the way, the reason i suggested matte was because i felt the vinyls were non gloss). Give her a nice remap and maybe, FFE/CAI to give her a boost in power and attitude .

Thanks a lot Arch-Angel! Some performance mods are definitely on the anvil, and will probably start getting on to the car after a few months, hehe.

Originally Posted by Arkesh

Great job there. On the exterior the car is transformed to an abarth version. I am sure its going to be transformed under the hood also very shortly. To be frank the 15 inchers don't go well with your exterior now. It needs something bigger. The tyres are looking puny taking into account the overall exterior modifcations. On the outside the only thing left out to make it real Abarth are the wheels. It was just my suggestion but i am sure you too will agree and once you do that it will again be a feast for our eyes.

Thanks a lot Arkesh! I wish I could do something about the 15" wheels. The 16" wheels are way too expensive for my budget right now (alloys will come to 5-6k each aftermarket, and tyres will be 10k+ each). Lets see how soon I reach that stage to be able to upgrade the tyres. Another option is to upgrade to 205/55R15 so that I can save cash on the alloys at least.

Originally Posted by sagarpadaki

Amazing transformation Karthik! Do you wash the car daily? How come you manage to keep it in such a glossy condition?

Thanks Sagar. I don't wash the car at all unless it gets really dirty. I just use the Jopasu duster for all my daily dry dust removal. The car gets a once-in-a-fortnight wash at the 3M HSR store, and I then apply a coating of TechWax 2.0 which keeps it going (or glowing, rather) for the next 2 weeks *winks*.

Well the exteriors are matching the abarth. Now its time to soup up the engine part . I would suggest a proper Re-map from tune-o-tronics rather than the RD box since it will be completely customized to your needs. That will make your one of the best punto-inside out - in the town! Not to mention it will be a complete sleeper like your TJET.

Completely agree there. I have just done 7k on the odo, so some of the remapping tuners suggested to wait till 12-15k kms to let the engine open up fully before we remap the engine. T-O-T is definitely one good option, and is on the cards for an Oct-Nov timeframe job.

Oh BTW, i dont see much about TJET now-a-days from you. Have to kept it out of action?

Not at all, the T-Jet does all the weekend runs and long drives on highways, so the elder sibling is quietly having more fun than the Punto actually, which is reduced to doing bumper-to-bumper traffic to/from office .

This Punto thread receives more updates due to my constant modifications and additions. The T-Jet remains bone stock, and has been niggle-free since a long time, so there has been no chance for me to update anything about it . I've just been detailing it to a glossy mirror finish, so I might be uploading a few pictures and videos this weekend on that thread.

Originally Posted by BigBrad

Hey Karthik, Lovely car and an awesome review. Your review was truly exceptional. I wasn't even a member when you had put up that review, so I couldn't appreciate it. Superb it is!

Thanks a lot BigBrad! Glad you liked reading through it. I've recently gone through your ownership review thread. Hearty congrats on your Punto purchase, and hope you have great fun with it clocking miles and miles!

Your alloys do look good though I personally prefer the dark gunmetal kinda finish, similar to the one of the pics posted in the previous page. What about the interiors update? Waiting to hear that from you.

True, the gun metal finish definitely looks good. The issue with going for that was the cost (charges 4k per alloy) and the time required, which was almost 10 days to get my alloys back. Apart from the cost part which seemed out of budget, this was my office drive car, so grounding it for such a long time was out of question, and I had to settle for gloss black.

[BigBrad]

Originally Posted by KarthikK

The issue with going for that was the cost (charges 4k per alloy) and the time required, which was almost 10 days to get my alloys back. Apart from the cost part which seemed out of budget, this was my office drive car, so grounding it for such a long time was out of question, and I had to settle for gloss black.

Woah, that's really steep. 4k per alloy is almost the equivalent cost of a new after-market one. But like you said earlier, they do match with the overall gloss theme of the car.

[Xryder]

Sidhu@3M recently got a nice ICE overhaul in his Nissan. Now I know who is funding it.

Nicely done KK. You have scripted a great mod and the thread following shows it all.

[KarthikK]

My tryst with 3M Carbon fibre wrap has not ended yet. For the past few days, I kept thinking about the rear of the car every time I looked at it. It was so bland, so normal, so common like other Puntos, so Un-Abarth-ish. Also, there was a tiny spec of paint chipped off near the number plate (happened due to some moronic biker touching his mud guard in peak traffic). I had to do something about the rear profile to make it look similar to an Abarth Evo, whilst masking the black spec of chipped paint.

This is how an Abarth Evo looks from the back



While I couldn't get the rear air diffuser / spoiler recreated, what I could recreate with CF wraps was the black panel enclosing the number plate. Here's a closer look at what I wanted :


All I had for the 3M store staff to show was this image on google search. Kudos to them for being able to recreate virtually the same dimensions and finish of the black panel, with just carbon fibre wrap! Here's how the work unfolded:

My car's rear profile before the work began : able to see the tiny black spec of chipped paint above the number plate??



Curtains down on the rear bumper, while the artistic planning was in progress on how to recreate the Abarth Evo look with CF wraps. Sorry, but the "got bhp?" sticker had to go. I will search some other place for it later.



Sidhu's boys at the 3M store (HSR layout) started their work with the CF wrap. I told them to first make a big rectangle and then we could cut out the Abarth-like panel shape out of it



The number plate area is prepared to perfection



Simultaneously, the boy who takes care of CF wraps here, marked the Abarth panel shape with a pencil



We arrived at a rough, unfinished version of that shape



There was more fine-tuning around the number plate area. This guy is a perfectionist so he leaves no unfinished edges or gaps. Flawless exection!







He asked for another look at the image on the laptop (displayed at the beginning of this thread), and resorted to some more fine tuning





A look at the CF finish now



Here's the finished product :





Anything Abarth can do with the Punto, 3M car care can do with Carbon fibre wraps. How does this finish compare with the original Abarth now, side by side? I'd say the 3M version looks much better!

Rear faux panel, done by 3M Carbon fibre wraps at 3M car care



Original Abarth rear panel, done probably by normal plastic/fibre material


The slight difference in the shape towards the bottom can be excused, if you consider the fact that this artistic piece of cutting work is handmade stuff. The symmetry and accuracy on both sides for something which is hand-cut without any ruler is incredible! Hats off to the CF boy at the 3M store.

Now, if we can just do something about the faux air diffuser at the bottom end of the rear profile. Hmmm, I'll think of something the next time I visit the 3M centre. Meanwhile, I am in the process of ordering for Abarth badges for the front grill and boot door, and the 4 alloy wheel caps (thanks to BHPian speed_kills for putting me on to the right sources). As soon as I get those badges, I'll get rid of the 90HP and Fiat badging and switch to full-time Scorpion venom.

P.S - I am doing a D-I-Y on smoke tinting headlamps and taillamps on the Abarth. Pictures of that should be up on the thread in a day or two. Watch this space for more details to follow.

[aks_karthik]

You could spend more amount than your Punto in 3M itself someday
But the output is looking good and only remaining upgrade is in your engine.
Hope we will get that details too in near future.

[nkrishnap]

Your Abarth now looks complete except for one bit, the sports stickers on the boot lid. Get rid of it and you can fool even the service centers guys that its the Abarth and not the puntp

[KarthikK]

Originally Posted by aks_karthik

You could spend more amount than your Punto in 3M itself someday
But the output is looking good and only remaining upgrade is in your engine.
Hope we will get that details too in near future.

Thanks a lot aks_karthik. A tune-o-tronics remap is on the cards (as opposed to a RD box on the car), and will happen after a few months . My first target is to get the Abarth look done up, then do up the interiors to full leather specs. Last but not the least, the remap will be done for better juice extraction .

[F150]

Nice job Karthikk !!
How much did 3M charge you for the work ?
Please remove the sport sticker running across the hatch door.
Did you explore the options for importing the EVO rear bumper ?