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Old 27th December 2012, 12:20   #121
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Originally Posted by KarthikK View Post
Thanks a lot for the wishes. Glad you all enjoyed reading my tiny little ownership report. The 3M mats costed me 4700 bucks. It does not include the boot area. This is for the complete footwell at the front and rear of the car.
Dear Karthik... Your report was anything but 'tiny'. I am considering buying a second car for wifey and have to admit that your report has gone a long way in me considering the punto sport as one of the options. Will be following this thread closely over the coming weeks... :-)
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Old 28th December 2012, 00:18   #122
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re: The Red Rocket - Fiat Grande Punto Sport. EDIT: Abarth vinyls & black roof added

An update on the visual modifications : This past weekend, I completed placing the order for Abarth vinyl stickers for the Punto Sport. The purchase was done with a reputed vinyl dealer on EBay UK. No need for any godfathers in UK (I don't know anyone there either) to purchase these things. I requested the sellers to ship it to India, and they gladly agreed to do it via Royal Airmail, albeit at an extra cost. The product is already shipped last week, and should take another week or two for me to receive it here.

These are the original Abarth Punto sport lookalike stickers. There are 2 pieces on each side - the front part goes on the bumper corners and the main strip extends from the driver door, tapering all the way backwards, right above the running board. I've been seeing too many white Puntos with red Abarth stripes lately in Bangalore. Time for a change now - a Red Punto with black Abarth stripes and mirrors .

For illustrative purposes here is exactly how my car will look with these Abarth vinyls. Ignore the fact that this picture is of an Abarth Punto Evo, the pictures were just randomly picked up from google image search
The Red Rocket - Fiat Grande Punto Sport. *UPDATE* Interiors now in Karlsson Leather-red_punto_evo_abarth_-3.jpg

The Red Rocket - Fiat Grande Punto Sport. *UPDATE* Interiors now in Karlsson Leather-2011fiatpuntoevoabarth091red.jpg

Here is the link to the product on EBay UK.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/FIAT-Punto...item3a6b4bfe9f

I paid 3000 bucks including international shipping, and the transaction was done smoothly through PayPal.

My next update will be after I receive and apply these Abarth vinyl stripes on the Punto Sport. I might even get black gloss film on the roof (illusion of a panorama sunroof) if I am crazy enough on the Abarth vinyl application day. Eagerly awaiting the day the stickers reach home.

Last edited by KarthikK : 28th December 2012 at 00:37.
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Old 28th December 2012, 08:41   #123
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re: The Red Rocket - Fiat Grande Punto Sport. EDIT: Abarth vinyls & black roof added

Thanks for sharing a blockbuster review KarthikK! My browser couldn't load the first page completely even after 10 mins.

The only things I don't like are the decals all around, the chrome door handles and the raised 2012 suspension. You could have removed the decals before the paint sealant treatment at 3M. The rest is plum. Have fun with the Sport.
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Old 28th December 2012, 08:41   #124
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Wow ! You have got nice taste for choosing those abarth stickers and with black glossy roof, Im just imagining how sexy the car looks.

How about adding small alluminium Abarth emblem front and rear?
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Old 28th December 2012, 12:31   #125
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re: The Red Rocket - Fiat Grande Punto Sport. EDIT: Abarth vinyls & black roof added

Quote:
Originally Posted by deetjohn View Post
Thanks for sharing a blockbuster review KarthikK! My browser couldn't load the first page completely even after 10 mins.
So my disclaimer was actually true. Thanks a lot for reading through it.

Quote:
The only things I don't like are the decals all around, the chrome door handles and the raised 2012 suspension. You could have removed the decals before the paint sealant treatment at 3M. The rest is plum. Have fun with the Sport.
I echo those opinions, 100% agree. I wanted to just keep the decals on for a while until I get these Abarth decals, just to distinguish my Punto from other red Puntos on the road, hehe. I'll strip them off after seeing how awkward they look with the Black Abarth stripes.

Quote:
Originally Posted by HighOctane View Post
Wow ! You have got nice taste for choosing those abarth stickers and with black glossy roof, Im just imagining how sexy the car looks.
thanks a lot HighOctane! I'll skip a matt finish / Carbon fibre finish roof. Those are becoming way too common nowadays. Let me see how gloss film looks . Sidhu at 3M has been promising that I won't be disappointed by how that looks. Fingers crossed.

Quote:
How about adding small alluminium Abarth emblem front and rear?
I'll try sourcing them from Ebay UK again. The problem with Ebay UK or parts-world UK is many dealers don't ship international parcels even if I am ready to pay extra. I don't have any godfathers or relatives living in UK either. I'll need to find someone to ship these Abarth badges for me.
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Old 28th December 2012, 13:02   #126
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re: The Red Rocket - Fiat Grande Punto Sport. EDIT: Abarth vinyls & black roof added

A bit too late in the day, but congrats on a lovely and hot car, KarthikK. Nice work with the decals you've ordered too.

The Punto is still one of my favourite hatchback car. I hope FIAT comes with the Punto evo in 2013/14, with more back seat space and the same interior quality as available outside India. Will be a customer for sure.

Last edited by k_ajay : 28th December 2012 at 13:03.
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Old 29th December 2012, 23:14   #127
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re: The Red Rocket - Fiat Grande Punto Sport. EDIT: Abarth vinyls & black roof added

Update : Today I received the Abarth decals in the morning via Royal Airmail. What better time to receive it than on a Saturday morning! I spent the entire day with the DIY vinyl stickering job. Most of it is simple pasting stuff, which I'll explain tomorrow with photos. It was drizzling outdoors today (surprisingly in December!!) so I couldn't take the car out for a proper photoshoot, else I will have ended up ruining the vinyls.

I also did a DIY job with some black gloss film on the roof. It was more of an experimentation job, but it has come out really well. This mod makes it look like a true panorama sunroof. Pictures of both these modifications will be making it to this thread tomorrow, along with the DIY steps.

All in all, a saturday well spent. The Punto now looks wicked with the black roof and Abarth decals. I have still left the OEM Punto sport decals on for the time being. Let me see whether it looks really bad with the Abarth racing stripes, and if so I can always peel them off.

My next post will be tomorrow with pictures and DIY steps. Punto Sport is now effectively converted to Abarth Punto Sport, albeit partially.
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Old 30th December 2012, 12:35   #128
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re: The Red Rocket - Fiat Grande Punto Sport. EDIT: Abarth vinyls & black roof added

Quote:
Originally Posted by KarthikK View Post

The Punto now looks wicked with the black roof and Abarth decals. I have still left the OEM Punto sport decals on for the time being. Let me see whether it looks really bad with the Abarth racing stripes, and if so I can always peel them off.

My next post will be tomorrow with pictures and DIY steps. Punto Sport is now effectively converted to Abarth Punto Sport, albeit partially.
Woah bro not that your Punto Sports needed anything more to look good but these will only make it look Exceptional Im sure.

Please tell me you will be working on those Alloys soon to may be a Glossy black or something, which will complete the "Transformation" !!!
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Old 30th December 2012, 16:27   #129
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re: The Red Rocket - Fiat Grande Punto Sport. EDIT: Abarth vinyls & black roof added

Here is the DIY report for the transformation from Fiat Punto Sport 90HP to Abarth Punto SuperSport :

My Precondition - never alter the OEM's specifications. Any modification done should be strippable at any point, and never do I support permanent modifications like painting the roof, etc which cannot be reversed easily. All the vinyls and roof films I have applied can be stripped from my car before anyone can say 'Jack Robinson', and the car can be returned to OEM specs.

Just to refresh your memory, I ordered the Abarth vinyls from this link :
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/FIAT-Punto...50908245663%26

Yesterday morning, as soon as I opened the parcel, it was a cardboard roll cylinder, similar to shuttle cock cases. There were 4 things inside this roll box:

- Abarth Decal roll. Both left and right side vinyls were combined into a single large roll close to 2 metres in length.
- Abarth letters (2 sets) on another roll
- Instructions' sheet with pictures
- hard rubber Squeegee to remove the air bubbles during vinyl application

The instructions were quite vague and useless so I ended up NOT following the steps mentioned there.

I made a mental note of the flow of events:

- paste the side decals above the running board first
- paste the front bumper stripes in the same line
- align and paste the letters above the black stripes
- while allowing these to dry up, attend to the roof film application

I couldn't capture stage-wise pictures since my portico isn't big enough to allow room to focus with the camera, moreover it was raining yesterday morning (weirdly in December!!) so I couldn't do this outdoors.

The decals looked like these when I unboxed the parcel :
The Red Rocket - Fiat Grande Punto Sport. *UPDATE* Interiors now in Karlsson Leather-dsc_0011.jpg


The big vinyl (on the white roll) consisted of all 4 vinyl parts on the same strip.

- First, I cut the entire roll in half, along the length of the strip. This separated the left side from the right side.
- Next, I cut the front bumper parts away from the main Abarth stripes. This way, I can focus on the 4 parts independently.


The Abarth Stripes :

Each vinyl part had a backing tape, actual vinyl and a transfer tape. Effectively, the stickers had 3 layers. Taking the help of a friend, we measured and started sticking the longer piece first, so that the smaller bumper portion could be done later. This took quite a bit of time.

We used the shampoo water spraying method used by sunfilm shops, since it becomes easy to move around the stickers and correct any alignment mistakes. The backing tape was removed and the vinyl was stuck onto the car body, right above the running board, allowing an inch of space from the running board. The squeegee was used to remove air bubbles along the entire length of the vinyl. The long stripe is close to 2 metres in length, so it was quite a handful to align properly.

We used a google image picture (on a laptop) of an actual Abarth Punto as reference, to match the alignment and position where the vinyl starts on the body.

As per the instructions' sheet, we had to leave the transfer tape on the vinyl for 1 hour after application and allow it to settle in there, before peeling it off to expose the actual vinyl fully. We repeated the application process for the other side, and then finally matched the front bumper stripes to the same alignment of the longer stripes. After around 2 hours, we stripped off the transfer tape and allowed it to dry up on all 4 vinyls.


The ABARTH letters :

the next job was to paste the ABARTH text on top of the black vinyl stripes. I would have so much liked it if they had designed the vinyls to have the "ABARTH" as a transparent part within the stripe. Anyway, the text portion was stuck carefully, once again with shampoo solution spray and a hair dryer to quickly dry up the vinyl before it became soggy/deformed.

The entire process for vinyl application took around 5-6 hours. The end result was worth every bit of the trouble. Here's a sneak peak before the actual photos :
The Red Rocket - Fiat Grande Punto Sport. *UPDATE* Interiors now in Karlsson Leather-dsc_0669.jpg


Roof film :

Next I moved on to the roof film. Sidhu at 3M had still not received the stock of the 3M gloss film inspite of him requesting them for it umpteen number of times. He advised me not to wait for the 3M gloss film, but instead go ahead with some other option. One of my friends who was coming from the US was my target - he gladly obliged and procured one for me from there. The gloss film came with adhesive on one side, so sticking this was again a matter of spraying the shampoo solution, and clearing all the air bubbles.

The entire roof film application process took around 2 hours, but it was easier than the Abarth decal application. I had to cut the film for the roof dimensions of the Punto's roof. Since this was a DIY job, some of the edges are rough and unfinished, but it is largely acceptable by a newbie's standards , and moreover who is going to notice those minor glitches up there? It truly looks like a panorama sunroof now (pictures to follow).


There was some confusion going around the front antenna, and I had to make a couple of slits in the film to go around that obstruction. I did not want to remove the antenna from inside the roof trim, since I would have difficulty putting back things again into the antenna assembly (cannot run to the A.S.S again for this). The slits I made in the film showed up as gaps when the entire roof film application was done. I later got carbon fibre wraps at 3M car care to cover up these gaps which were exposing the red roof underneath the film.

The entire vinyl + roof work completed by around 8 PM, and the entire saturday was spent here. There were some bits and pieces of work remaining - the exposed paint around the antenna, and I wanted carbon fibre wraps for some matte finish plastics which looked drab on the Punto's A, B and C pillars, and the front plastic panel housing the windscreen washer jets. I headed to 3M today morning and got these done there.

Here are the pictures of the entire work done in this DIY job:

The side profile look
The Red Rocket - Fiat Grande Punto Sport. *UPDATE* Interiors now in Karlsson Leather-dsc_0032.jpg


A top view from my house balcony
The Red Rocket - Fiat Grande Punto Sport. *UPDATE* Interiors now in Karlsson Leather-dsc_0649.jpg


The Abarth stripe. Note the 2 separate stripes
The Red Rocket - Fiat Grande Punto Sport. *UPDATE* Interiors now in Karlsson Leather-dsc_0650.jpg

Another few shots of the same stripe
The Red Rocket - Fiat Grande Punto Sport. *UPDATE* Interiors now in Karlsson Leather-dsc_0651.jpg

The Red Rocket - Fiat Grande Punto Sport. *UPDATE* Interiors now in Karlsson Leather-dsc_0657.jpg

The Red Rocket - Fiat Grande Punto Sport. *UPDATE* Interiors now in Karlsson Leather-dsc_0655.jpg

The front bumper stripe ends at the fog lamp
The Red Rocket - Fiat Grande Punto Sport. *UPDATE* Interiors now in Karlsson Leather-dsc_0661.jpg


The side stripe starts at the same level from the front fender and tapers away towards the end. This side stripe measures a whopping 1.8 metres in length!
The Red Rocket - Fiat Grande Punto Sport. *UPDATE* Interiors now in Karlsson Leather-dsc_0662.jpg


Now the roof, and the finishing touches of wrapping the antenna in carbon fibre film (done the next day at 3M):
The Red Rocket - Fiat Grande Punto Sport. *UPDATE* Interiors now in Karlsson Leather-dsc_0668.jpg

The Red Rocket - Fiat Grande Punto Sport. *UPDATE* Interiors now in Karlsson Leather-dsc_0666.jpg


The antenna gets Carbon Fibre treatment
The Red Rocket - Fiat Grande Punto Sport. *UPDATE* Interiors now in Karlsson Leather-dsc_0665.jpg


Getting the CF treatment at 3M car care centre (HSR layout)
The Red Rocket - Fiat Grande Punto Sport. *UPDATE* Interiors now in Karlsson Leather-dsc_0024.jpg

The Red Rocket - Fiat Grande Punto Sport. *UPDATE* Interiors now in Karlsson Leather-dsc_0025.jpg

Every plastic/matt finish panel which was prone to fading, got the same carbon fibre treatment. Thanks to nkrishnap for the idea

Front quarterpanel on the A pillar
The Red Rocket - Fiat Grande Punto Sport. *UPDATE* Interiors now in Karlsson Leather-dsc_0658.jpg

On the B pillars
The Red Rocket - Fiat Grande Punto Sport. *UPDATE* Interiors now in Karlsson Leather-dsc_0659.jpg


A closer look at the CF wraps on the B pillars
The Red Rocket - Fiat Grande Punto Sport. *UPDATE* Interiors now in Karlsson Leather-dsc_0653.jpg

The Red Rocket - Fiat Grande Punto Sport. *UPDATE* Interiors now in Karlsson Leather-dsc_0654.jpg


On the C pillar
The Red Rocket - Fiat Grande Punto Sport. *UPDATE* Interiors now in Karlsson Leather-dsc_0660.jpg


And the bonnet plastic panel housing the windscreen washer jets got the same treatment too. Goodbye to plastic polish now. Basically, every exposed piece of plastic outside is now carbon fibre wrapped. If you can't beat them (at fading), destroy all evidence that they exist!
The Red Rocket - Fiat Grande Punto Sport. *UPDATE* Interiors now in Karlsson Leather-dsc_0663.jpg

The Red Rocket - Fiat Grande Punto Sport. *UPDATE* Interiors now in Karlsson Leather-dsc_0664.jpg


The rear of the car is untouched, but you can make out the black roof from the rear too.
The Red Rocket - Fiat Grande Punto Sport. *UPDATE* Interiors now in Karlsson Leather-dsc_0670.jpg

The Red Rocket - Fiat Grande Punto Sport. *UPDATE* Interiors now in Karlsson Leather-dsc_0671.jpg


A departing picture of the visual DIY jobs from my balcony. The glossy roof literally looks like a panorama sunroof now.
The Red Rocket - Fiat Grande Punto Sport. *UPDATE* Interiors now in Karlsson Leather-dsc_0672.jpg


I have allowed the OEM black stripe decals to co-exist with the Abarth stripe for now, but if need be I can strip them off later. I will take that decision next year. Does anything look gawdy? It can always be reversed in a jiffy *smiles*

Funny aftermath of this visual change : I noticed all the bikers keeping a distance from me in dense traffic at BTM layout *lol*. One curious guy at a signal asked me if this was a race car. I replied in the affirmative and said this particular version of Punto is imported from Europe *rotfl*. He was staring in awe and kept a safe distance away from my car even after the signal went green and traffic started moving. If this visual change means more peace of mind in traffic, I am really really happy.

Last edited by KarthikK : 30th December 2012 at 16:43.
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Old 30th December 2012, 17:04   #130
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Superb !!!!!!
Can't describe more than this. Loved the black gloss film on a Red coloured car. Those Abarth stickers and the OEM 90hp sports sticker indeed matches and keep them as it is, nothing gaudy. Would like to see the car in flesh during any of the next tbhp quick meet.

And nice DIY job too. Next I suggest you to paint the radiator grill air vent grill from silver to black, it suits the black stickers and black mirrors.

Last edited by HighOctane : 30th December 2012 at 17:12.
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Old 30th December 2012, 17:50   #131
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re: The Red Rocket - Fiat Grande Punto Sport. EDIT: Abarth vinyls & black roof added

Fantastic job Karthik, your car looks brilliant with all the stickers.

What's next Abarth styled headlamps and taillights ?

Last edited by shashank.nk : 30th December 2012 at 17:51.
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Old 30th December 2012, 20:38   #132
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re: The Red Rocket - Fiat Grande Punto Sport. EDIT: Abarth vinyls & black roof added

Brilliant job mate, the alignment of the ABARTH stickers on the doors, the bumpers is precise. For a DIY, awesome job! Hope are very satisfied! Now the only thing you need is to take care of the chrome door handles & the silver front grille. Hope you take care of them.

The 3M guys have done a great job with the wiper plastic area, it looks carved out of CF.
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Old 30th December 2012, 22:01   #133
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re: The Red Rocket - Fiat Grande Punto Sport. EDIT: Abarth vinyls & black roof added

A wonderful DIY job Karthik.
The CF treatment is just wonderful...thanks for that

Your car must be the most pampered one in town.
With all this pampering, the elder sibling must be feeling jealous now.
don't leave the two together. She might hurt the younger one
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Old 30th December 2012, 22:02   #134
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re: The Red Rocket - Fiat Grande Punto Sport. EDIT: Abarth vinyls & black roof added

Wow Karthik .
I think that's how you wanted your Punto to look , i still remember the discussion which we had while we were waiting for Avijit before going to Nikhil's marriage .
I guess only think which is left will be smoked headlamps .

Also , i remember when i got the roof of my car vinyled, the guy actually cut the vinyl in the such a way so that it has some xtra part in the edges and other area so that the edges can be properly covered .
The Red Rocket - Fiat Grande Punto Sport. *UPDATE* Interiors now in Karlsson Leather-dsc_0668.jpg

As Vikram pointer out, you need to do something to those alloys yaar :-)
Also when is the RD thing happening ?


Cheers
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Old 30th December 2012, 22:50   #135
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re: The Red Rocket - Fiat Grande Punto Sport. EDIT: Abarth vinyls & black roof added

Super pics there Karthik. Seriously the red punto looks a killer now. Hope no evil eyes fall on the car now.

Get the front grill and the fog lamps bessels painted black. And get the alloys powercoated black in color.

Smoked headlamps and tail lamps, if you can import these, just to ensure that everything can be reversed to stock set up except from front grill and bessels.
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