It's that time of year again...

Saturday, sat at terminal 5 at Heathrow, waiting for a flight - the start to my year always seems to involve disappearing to far flung corners of the globe - so far in the past 4 weeks, I've been to Poland, Korea and today I'm off to the US.

I don't mind travelling and it's nice to see some different parts of the world (albeit for work, which sometimes means I don't see much more than a hotel and an office). Jet lag is unpleasant, but thankfully I'm pretty good at sleeping on a plane. To be fair, I'm pretty good at sleeping anywhere - I think I must be making up for the little sleep I wanted as a baby according to my mum and dad.

I've timed this trip badly though - it's the start of the F1 season this weekend. It's a bit frustrating to be heading off the when it all starts again. As a Fiat fan, some of my allegiance lies with Ferrari (they do have Fiat written on the front after all!), but I like to see the British drivers doing well (my car's called Jenson - there you go!). 

Did you know there have been a few F1 drivers who've owned Fiat 500s over the past years? Michael Schumacher did - if it's good enough for a 7 time world champion, then who's going to argue with that? Other F1 owners have apparently included Jarno Trulli, Nick Heidfled, Jean Alesi, Johnny Herbert. I've even seen mention of Sebastien Vettel having an old Fiat 500 among his collection of cars.

Why would anyone who makes a living out of driving cars as fast and hi-tech as a Formula one car want to own something as simple (and lets face it, comparatively slow) as a Fiat 500? Maybe it's a nostalgia thing, maybe it makes a nice change not to drive a car with that many buttons on the steering wheel  - who knows. It's nice to think that someone who has the chance to drive something as amazing as a Formula one car would also enjoy something like a Fiat 500.

Well, my flight will be heading off in a bit - time for me to sort myself out for the flight to Chicago. Hopefully I'll get to see some of Q2 and Q3 when I arrive, given the weather issues in Melbourne. Who do I think will do well this season? My automotive head says Ferrari (Fiat), my patriotic head says an Englishman, my practical head says Vettel is in with a chance again. Let's see what happens!

Good day sunshine...

It's the first Saturday in February 2013 - and it's been a beauty! Glorious winter sunshine, a little bit on the chilly side, but nothing a jumper wouldn't keep out. There was only one thing to do - get the car out!

My last post was looking back at the state of him when he first arrived - definitely in need of more than a little TLC. Well, now he's looking much, much better.

He started first time - a little bit of choke, turned over for a few seconds, then the unmistakable sound of 650ccs chugging away.  Everything has started to bed in nicely now - the gearbox is much smoother than it was when it was first fitted, the engine runs smoothly and idles beautifully once it's up to temperature - wonderful stuff.

The body work is in a much better state now - no more holes, no more tired paintwork:

There is now a functioning bonnet catch, which is much better than the "stick a finger in the hole and fiddle about with the mechanism" method previously used, especially if the engine has been running for a while and things have warmed up (ouch!). Yes, that is a GB badge on the back. We've been toying with the idea of taking on a bit of a trip at some point - not this year, but maybe in the future (watch this space, as they say). This year we'll be sticking to the UK!

The front badge is something that did get changed  - the sloping 1970's Fiat badge although original just isn't as nice as this one. Maybe if the car had been more original in terms of the running gear, I might have left it as it was. I like this one - it matches the horn button nicely!

It's not only outside that has been improved:

The roof and fittings are rust free now, which is a big improvement. The dashboard was in reasonable shape anyway, but a little cleaning and tidying has helped things along.

The door linings are properly attached now and as you can see, the roof opens perfectly. Just the thing on a sunny day!

All in all it's been a good day - I'm hoping that we're in for a few more sunny weekends so that I can get out in my car!

One final picture - my Little Blue Fiat and his younger brother, my 500 sport in the background. He was getting jealous of all the attention his older brother was getting!

 Here's hoping 2013 has it's fair share of good weather!

So, the new year started optimistically - get out on the road, get a few more miles on the clock, enjoy getting my car out. I'm currently looking out the window at a rather lovely Christmas card scene with more snow falling from the sky and a good layer of ice on our street. As much as I love driving, now is probably not the time to go out unless it's a necessity.

To console myself, I've been having a quick dig through some photos of my Little Blue Fiat, dating back to the point he first arrived.

As you can see. he's come a long way - this is him when he first arrived (hanging out with a Stilo and a Punto Sporting - yes, it is a Punto Sporting. You can't see that clearly from the photo (other than the slight spoiler over the rear window), but trust me it is - it was my other half's car at the time!)

 Probably the first thing you'll notice (other than the lack of a bonnet catch and badly faded light clusters) is the paintwork - after the best part of 30 years driving round various parts of Italy and the UK, time and weather conditions had taken it's toll. Anyone that's owned an older Fiat or any older car will know all about this - my 1989 Fiat Uno which was, according to the manufacturers plate Rosso Corse, was as everyone else called it "Fiat Orange".

Some of the paintwork damage was superficial and with a bit of time and some careful polishing, would have been fine. Other bits - well, other bits had stopped being bits and had turned into holes. Again, anyone that's owned an older car (especially an Italian one) will know of their reputation for rust. My little car had succumbed too.

 The roof fixings, odd patches on the wheel arches and door sills, one or two blisters round the windows. It wasn't only on the outside...

 Yes, the bodywork needed some work, bits would need replacing, it would probalby need a resapray as a result, but nothing was impossible.

The front panel needed a bit of work as well:

Obvioulsy a new number plate was in order! There were also four small holes on the front, just above the bumper. These were where the original Italian Number plate would have been. It would have been lovely to find him with that still attached, but it was long gone. As he was a 500R, he had the later Fiat badge on the front (the sloping letters). Although the authentic badge for the age of car, we opted to swap this for an older version, purely on aesthetics.
And so onto the next part - the engine, gearbox and running gear.

 It needed work, there was no doubt about that. It's actually not that difficult to get a complete replacement engine and geabox, which is waht we did in the end. The beauty of the Fiat 500 is that it was designed to be easy to work on, so the engine is small, accessible and removable - it was intended as a car for the people, cheap, practical, city friendly. If you watch the shots of Turin in the Italian Job (the original and by far the best version), you can see that this was the case - the city is full of them. They were ideal for the hustle and bustle and narrow streets of the Italian town or city. The first time I saw the new engine and gearbox for mine, it was happily sitting on a workshop bench, not taking up surprisingly little room - a compact uncomplicated air cooled engine with equally compact gearbox. So, that was the engine sorted. We chose to go for a 5 speed gearbox to make the most out of a slightly larger engine than the original one would have been. As a result we also changed the brakes all round to disc brakes - if we were going quicker, we wanted to be able to stop quicker too. 


And so, the interior. Well, you've already seen the roof. Yes, that would need a bit of work. That wasn't the only bit.

 The door liners were on the loose side and were worn.

Most of it wasn't too bad - certainly nothing too serious.

The dashboard was in a reasonable state as well - yes, it's in kilometres and the writing is in Italian, but that's half the fun of it! And yes, that's pretty much it in the way of dashboard features. Lights, battery, petrol, oil. Nice and simple.  The steering wheel and associated swtiches and levers was fine - quick coat of paint on the metal work and it would be good as new.

There were also other things like wheels, petrol tank, window trims - all of which would need looking at and deciding whether they could be salvaged or would need replacing.

It was a longish list and it took some time to complete, but now it's done. It's nice to look back and see how far he's come and the improvements that have been made and a few little customisations.

All I need now is some decent weather and a free weekend...

Happy new year - time for some resolutions...

A quick hello to 2013! Those last few months flew by. One minute it was the Jubilee weekend, then all of a sudden Christmas was here! In between times, I've been busy with work, managed to spend two weeks in Korea (some work, some time to have a look round) and probably spent too much time watching sport (bit of football, the Olympics, quite a lot of F1). Christmas seemed to arrive out of nowhere!

It's the start of 2013 and time to look ahead. My car arrived back just before Christmas (my other half collected it - I was off to Norwich and Cambridge, but that's a story for another day!) so the plan is to get out and get a few more miles under our collective belt. I have been informed that he's driving like a dream, the gear box has bedded in nicely and he's got quite a turn of speed (in Fiat 500 terms). Here's hoping that the weather smiles on us!