[manishalive]

Pawan The mouse is coming out real good, are you free tomorrow, I would like to vist the garage, to see in person the lovely paint shade.

[PAVAN KADAM]

Originally Posted by manishalive

Pawan The mouse is coming out real good, are you free tomorrow, I would like to vist the garage, to see in person the lovely paint shade.

Hi Manish, You dont need to ask me for that, Please do feel free to drop by anytime.

Tomorrow and Sunday will be ruled out since i will be slightly tied up with the Hillman delivery and Also need to hand over Srisha's beetle tomorrow.

Next Saturday / Sunday suits fine.

[manishalive]

Originally Posted by PAVAN KADAM

Hi Manish, You dont need to ask me for that, Please do feel free to drop by anytime.

Tomorrow and Sunday will be ruled out since i will be slightly tied up with the Hillman delivery and Also need to hand over Srisha's beetle tomorrow.

Next Saturday / Sunday suits fine.

That's good will meet you then, also need to discuss on the painting of my car.

[PAVAN KADAM]

Originally Posted by manishalive

That's good will meet you then, also need to discuss on the painting of my car.

Since the Hillman was delivered, now the attention shifts to the topolino,

Though for the last 2 weeks the tinker had been working on fabricating the seats to the original spec, and also largely due to the Hillman restoration, the painter stopped work on the car. But now, its on full flow and we are not allowing anything to stop us from finishing the paint on the car.

It must be understood why we did the mechanicals before the paint, Today when we sanded the car down, there are LOTs and LOT's of dents and scratches courtesy the mechanics and helpers

So ideally we need to Re-Work on the body surface again, anyways..! work started and the painter is wiilling to do it for his FAVOURITE CAR.

[manishalive]

Nice to see work back on track. as for the tinkering, exactly same work is being done on my car .

[rajeev k]

Originally Posted by PAVAN KADAM

It must be understood why we did the mechanicals before the paint, Today when we sanded the car down, there are LOTs and LOT's of dents and scratches courtesy the mechanics and helpers
So ideally we need to Re-Work on the body surface again,

The ideal thing was to complete major mechanical jobs before starting paint. Is it not?

[PAVAN KADAM]

Originally Posted by manishalive

Nice to see work back on track. as for the tinkering, exactly same work is being done on my car .

Nice to know that Manish, Its time your car gets all the attention

Originally Posted by rajeev k

The ideal thing was to complete major mechanical jobs before starting paint. Is it not?

Yes, Thats what we've done all through the restoration. Initially the Bodywork was completed, Did the basic body preperation untill the Engine was being readied and once that was done, we sprayed the first coat of Surfacer and sent the car for mechanical work and Test drives.

Happy to say, the car has passed the road-worthiness without any glitches.

Keep looking at this space for painting updates.

[samsag12]

Nice to hear the attention being diverted to the Mouse and good to know that it has passed the road worthiness test without the glitches. After all more than 70% time of the restoration period was dedicated to it only.
Glad to hear that its mechanics favourite car, may he put his heart and soul into it.

[PAVAN KADAM]

Originally Posted by samsag12

Nice to hear the attention being diverted to the Mouse and good to know that it has passed the road worthiness test without the glitches. After all more than 70% time of the restoration period was dedicated to it only.
Glad to hear that its mechanics favourite car, may he put his heart and soul into it.

15th Jan 2012 Marks the New Calender/Lohri/Gudi Padwa/Pongal and Makara Sankranthi, and thats the day the new workshop opens. This car is going to be the FIRST ONE to ever been painted in the NEW Workshop, you can call it the Inaugural car. Top Priority given to the Little mouse over the next few days

Need all the wishes to finish the painting.

Prep up job in full swing.

[samsag12]

Good that the car will be given Top Priority. Will be waiting for the inaugural pics of the car as well as the workshop. BTW is there any sort of paint booth type setup in the new shop?

[PAVAN KADAM]

Originally Posted by samsag12

Good that the car will be given Top Priority. Will be waiting for the inaugural pics of the car as well as the workshop. BTW is there any sort of paint booth type setup in the new shop?

Well, a paint booth set-up is our first priority, my team is working towards that slowly and will set-it up in the due course of time.

I have no issues with their paint anyways..

Inspite of all the pre-paint prep up had been done, there is still lots of things that needed attention on the car prior to the paint.

Since the car is anyways running, i let the painter drive the 4 km distance to the new workshop, he was more than thrilled, to utilize the empty space, we filled the topolino with seats of other cars and some minor load, the Topolino came over to the new place without a sweat. ( It smoked on the Front Left brake, But that will be taken care of in the weekend)

[Stanher]

Coming good saar!

IMHO the Bottle Green paint on the bonnet looks fab!

'wish the car finally gets painted in it rather than WHITE...!

[DHABHAR.BEHRAM]

Dear Pavan - the car is coming out exceptionally well. I would have removed everything that is mechanical (except chassis) out of the bodyshell during painting. I know that it is easier said than done but please try. Also, please final coat everything else (the internal sheet metal in particular) before you do the final body painting. The engine needs to be given a fresh coat of paint as well. Best of luck. I am eagerly awaiting the final result because I know that it will become the best Fiat 500 TOPOLINO in India.

Dear Shyam - I would have gone for the Wagon-R's cream colour, the same as in my MRY3112. It would look very elegant with the whitewall tyres. Anyways, colour is a matter of personal choice.

Best regards,

Behram Dhabhar

[samsag12]

Pavan ji nice to see the first pics of the new facility. Its seems bigger than the current one. Am happy to see the progress on the Mouse. Few areas do require some work.
BTW i hope the donor Mouse(rather Rat) is still in your possession.

[PAVAN KADAM]

Originally Posted by samsag12

Pavan ji nice to see the first pics of the new facility. Its seems bigger than the current one. Am happy to see the progress on the Mouse. Few areas do require some work.
BTW i hope the donor Mouse(rather Rat) is still in your possession.

Please do let me know where you can spot blemishes, i will certainly improvise on that.

True, the new place is much much bigger, my team was feeling claustrophobic working there, and they made a right move by leasing a new place for my sake.

We infact had a set-back on Monday with the front GRILLE, the last minute we decided to do a FULL REWORK on the grille.

Rest all is done as of now, hopefully..!

Originally Posted by Stanher

Coming good saar!

IMHO the Bottle Green paint on the bonnet looks fab!

'wish the car finally gets painted in it rather than WHITE...!

The color chosen for the car is Certainly not white saar

Keep watching this space..

Originally Posted by DHABHAR.BEHRAM

Dear Pavan - the car is coming out exceptionally well. I would have removed everything that is mechanical (except chassis) out of the bodyshell during painting. I know that it is easier said than done but please try. Also, please final coat everything else (the internal sheet metal in particular) before you do the final body painting. The engine needs to be given a fresh coat of paint as well. Best of luck. I am eagerly awaiting the final result because I know that it will become the best Fiat 500 TOPOLINO in India.

Dear Shyam - I would have gone for the Wagon-R's cream colour, the same as in my MRY3112. It would look very elegant with the whitewall tyres. Anyways, colour is a matter of personal choice.

Best regards,

Behram Dhabhar

Sir, you know, you were the first person to know once the car started running on its own power. And i cant thank you for your Brief but THE MOST IMPORTANT MINUTES you spent with me to advice on the engine head, though the whole world around me had adviced me on GIVING UP ON IT. And i cant thank you enough for that

All the panels are well treated and i have pretty well documented the same on some earlier pages sir, and regarding removing the engine.. I WOULD DREAD TO DO THAT AGAIN he he he.. please sir, let me do it this way. :-)

I had infact sent the chassis and engine numbers to Topolino Casagrande- SWITZERLAND, and got the color code for this particular car. Infact while we were scraping the existing paint, we found traces of Blue/Green.

I got this color code matched with STANDOX and infact the color of the car will be Blue (which infact looks like Green) a very peculiar color, but an ORIGINAL SHADE for this particular Topolino. The contrast color is BEIGE.

Thanks again sir for the wishes, it means a lot to me.

Final surfacer sprayed