Hello all, first post here.
I've always wanted a project car. Something I could mess around with, without the pressure of knowing that a mistake would put my daily driver out of commission. For the first 7 years or so of my driving "career", I didn't have that luxury. As a young driver faced with exorbitant insurance fees, I quickly realised that this Fiat was the obvious choice. See, in MY day, you didn't get first time drivers leasing Audis and BMWs. If you were sensible and a bit boring, you bought a VW Polo. If you had a fascination with tracksuits and hair gel, you got a Corsa B. If you were a bit of a sadist, you bought a Saxo. But if you wanted something less obvious, more sporty, whilst still being financially viable, you bought a Punto sporting- 3 door, naturally- and that's exactly what I did. It would have been about 2012 when I bought this car for the princely sum of £950. It's a 1.2 16v sporting and it had 80K on the clock, plenty of paperwork, plenty of MOT and plenty of tax (remember when it carried over for the year?). Here it is shortly after I bought it.
I drove the car extensively over the next few years. I'd say a big part of why I still have it are the memories which I forged driving the car between 2012-2016, which were mostly trouble free. I'll outline the work which has already been done below in a separate post, but honestly it doesn't seem any worse that any other car in terms of the upkeep. This car took me to sixth form, then after a summer of aimlessly driving and doing the typical first time car owner mods, to five years of university. It then took me to my first job, and later to the interview of my current and, at the time, dream job. Impromptu drives to London or Essex, back and forth to Canterbury more times than I can remember. My first date, and then my first kiss. Most of the most significant events and fondest memories of my life have been spent looking out over this dashboard (note the pioneer head unit- more on that later).
Sadly, the years were not always too kind to the poor Fiat. The most obvious issue was the paint, which started flaking and peeling. With no income, I didn't have enough to get a new bonnet or a respray, so I sprayed the bonnet black.
The metamorphosis then continued with a faux-rally look. Note the Italy stripe and crossed headlights.
Anyway, the dream job I mentioned earlier materialised and with it came a dream pay-packet. It also meant that I'd need some flash new wheels to go with the status of the new job, and with the money coming in, the time felt right. The Fiat was unceremoniously binned off to live in my Grandad's garage whilst I took to cruising around in a Saab convertible I bought from a mate of mine.
As fast as the Saab entered my rotation of cars, though, it was gone. The initial fun of having a "flash" car and putting the roof down in front of good looking girls soon wore off when it rained and I found out my roof didn't repel water. It also developed the dreaded Saab steering wheel wobble. The Saab was swapped for this, which I still have now.
Throughout all of that, though, the one constant was the Fiat. It sat there, biding its time, waiting for me to realise that I actually really missed it. Make no mistake, I had it in mind that I'd sell it on. I didn't even think about it until one day I got asked to move it because my Grandad needed something from the back of the garage. I sat back in it and everything came flooding back to me. The smell of the seats, the sound, the steering wheel. all of it. Suddenly I was 17 again. I knew that I wanted to get the car back to its former glory. With a long list of stuff which needed to be done, I set about doing making it happen. Some work has already been done and some is yet to be done. No doubt I'll still be working on the car in 20 years time, but here's the journey thus far.
I've always wanted a project car. Something I could mess around with, without the pressure of knowing that a mistake would put my daily driver out of commission. For the first 7 years or so of my driving "career", I didn't have that luxury. As a young driver faced with exorbitant insurance fees, I quickly realised that this Fiat was the obvious choice. See, in MY day, you didn't get first time drivers leasing Audis and BMWs. If you were sensible and a bit boring, you bought a VW Polo. If you had a fascination with tracksuits and hair gel, you got a Corsa B. If you were a bit of a sadist, you bought a Saxo. But if you wanted something less obvious, more sporty, whilst still being financially viable, you bought a Punto sporting- 3 door, naturally- and that's exactly what I did. It would have been about 2012 when I bought this car for the princely sum of £950. It's a 1.2 16v sporting and it had 80K on the clock, plenty of paperwork, plenty of MOT and plenty of tax (remember when it carried over for the year?). Here it is shortly after I bought it.
I drove the car extensively over the next few years. I'd say a big part of why I still have it are the memories which I forged driving the car between 2012-2016, which were mostly trouble free. I'll outline the work which has already been done below in a separate post, but honestly it doesn't seem any worse that any other car in terms of the upkeep. This car took me to sixth form, then after a summer of aimlessly driving and doing the typical first time car owner mods, to five years of university. It then took me to my first job, and later to the interview of my current and, at the time, dream job. Impromptu drives to London or Essex, back and forth to Canterbury more times than I can remember. My first date, and then my first kiss. Most of the most significant events and fondest memories of my life have been spent looking out over this dashboard (note the pioneer head unit- more on that later).
Sadly, the years were not always too kind to the poor Fiat. The most obvious issue was the paint, which started flaking and peeling. With no income, I didn't have enough to get a new bonnet or a respray, so I sprayed the bonnet black.
The metamorphosis then continued with a faux-rally look. Note the Italy stripe and crossed headlights.
Anyway, the dream job I mentioned earlier materialised and with it came a dream pay-packet. It also meant that I'd need some flash new wheels to go with the status of the new job, and with the money coming in, the time felt right. The Fiat was unceremoniously binned off to live in my Grandad's garage whilst I took to cruising around in a Saab convertible I bought from a mate of mine.
As fast as the Saab entered my rotation of cars, though, it was gone. The initial fun of having a "flash" car and putting the roof down in front of good looking girls soon wore off when it rained and I found out my roof didn't repel water. It also developed the dreaded Saab steering wheel wobble. The Saab was swapped for this, which I still have now.
Throughout all of that, though, the one constant was the Fiat. It sat there, biding its time, waiting for me to realise that I actually really missed it. Make no mistake, I had it in mind that I'd sell it on. I didn't even think about it until one day I got asked to move it because my Grandad needed something from the back of the garage. I sat back in it and everything came flooding back to me. The smell of the seats, the sound, the steering wheel. all of it. Suddenly I was 17 again. I knew that I wanted to get the car back to its former glory. With a long list of stuff which needed to be done, I set about doing making it happen. Some work has already been done and some is yet to be done. No doubt I'll still be working on the car in 20 years time, but here's the journey thus far.
