[Arch-Angel]

Wow Karthikk, i must say your punto is one of a kind now! Absolutely droolmaal stuff you got there. I guess the headlamps change is in the pipeline now? I agree about the part where you said " if i don't have one, i'll make one!" Waiting for the day you are completely done with the car and i guess it'll be a sight to behold. Waiting for that day . Can't blame the pedestrians for their lack of knowledge about cars lol. Surely i wouldn't want to see a "Bharath" punto after seeing a lot of Lakshmi Swifts and Sridevi altos.

p.s: As far as the attention goes, get used to it . Its your efforts thats causing people to go gaga over your car.

[nipcarlover]

Originally Posted by KarthikK

The worst comment ever, actually came from a biker some months back. He pointed to the side stripe and told me "Sir, I think your sticker pasting shop has made a spelling mistake for the name Bharath". I was shocked for a minute, then realized what he meant, thanked him for it and told him I will get it corrected ASAP. *ROFL*. Bharath Punto anyone?

Almost fell off my chair laughing at this!
This really needs to go in this thread, even though it is not by a friend as such.
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/shifti...riends-72.html

[Raneeth]

Hi Karthikk,

A fellow Punto Sports owner here (BNW).

I too am looking to get something done on my car and hence had a few questions. I thought who better to ask!

1. Reg the Black Film on the roof : I believe you never got the 3M one. Where did you manage it from? Also, would the 3M guys have one now after seeing your car?

2. Reg phone compatibility : I am currently using a BB 9900. Just enough for calls. I was considering an upgrade to either the Lumia 920/925 or the HTC One. Lumia works well, I hear from you. But what about the HTC one? Any idea?

3. And lastly, what time generally are you at the Silk Board signal?

[KarthikK]

Originally Posted by Arch-Angel

Wow Karthikk, i must say your punto is one of a kind now! Absolutely droolmaal stuff you got there. I guess the headlamps change is in the pipeline now?

Thanks a lot Arch-Angel! glad you liked it. The headlamp change was in the pipeline all along, but the cost part is a bit worrying - 30k for headlamps is not at all good from a wallet perspective. I might go the route hemanth took - sounds more practical and achieves the purpose of enhanced cosmetics.

I agree about the part where you said " if i don't have one, i'll make one!" Waiting for the day you are completely done with the car and i guess it'll be a sight to behold. Waiting for that day .

That day is at least 6-8 months away, but there will be incremental additions every now and then, which should keep me busy all the while. I'll try to make it even better than the original. What say?

Originally Posted by Raneeth

Hi Karthikk,

A fellow Punto Sports owner here (BNW).

I too am looking to get something done on my car and hence had a few questions. I thought who better to ask!

1. Reg the Black Film on the roof : I believe you never got the 3M one. Where did you manage it from? Also, would the 3M guys have one now after seeing your car?

Hey Raneeth! nice to meet a fellow punto sport owner. I didn't get the 3M one from here, since the company is not supplying stocks of gloss film and matt film to the 3M stores. They had only CF vinyl in stock. I got it through one of my friends in the US who happened to be coming to India around that time, and did a DIY. He bought it from some local accessory shop there I guess. I don't think you need to go through that tough path though.

There are others like Hemanth.anand who have got Gloss film for the roof at some places in JC Road. It shouldn't be a very difficult thing to source (or even fit) gloss black vinyls if you pay a visit to JC road. This is a very common accessory. Hemanth would be able to help you by posting about where he bought his roof vinyls.

2. Reg phone compatibility : I am currently using a BB 9900. Just enough for calls. I was considering an upgrade to either the Lumia 920/925 or the HTC One. Lumia works well, I hear from you. But what about the HTC one? Any idea?

Lumia works like a charm since it is windows. All features of the Blue & me work very well now (I assume this is because both are MS products). I'm not an android guy. I've never liked their complicated infinite homescreens and layouts, 'download-an-app-for-everything-you-want-to-do' philosophy and laggy UI (no offense to android users). I went for the Lumia because of the much superior tank-like build quality, easy to use, intuitive, super-fast UI, and to try something new apart from what the rest of the world was buying in hordes nowadays - a galaxy or note .

Coming to the main point itself, all Android phones shouldn't have any problem with basic functionalities on Blue&Me such as calls. I did have trouble pairing up and using the Xperia Arc S once though (was using it as a stop gap phone for a few weeks before getting the Lumia). I constantly had trouble with the phonebook working improperly (all contacts weren't copied), message reader not working, etc. In this regard, W8 works well in everything. Other android users may have differing opinions to share on B&M compatibility.

Windows 8 doesn't have as many apps as the android universe, so you may want to consider this in your purchase decision if you download/use a lot of apps and games. W8 just has some common ones such as whatsapp, viber, skype etc, but still has a long way to go, simply no match for android's or iOS app market. PM me if you want any more details on the Lumia920, since its a bit OT on this thread. Or maybe we could continue the discussion in the phones thread under shifting gears.

3. And lastly, what time generally are you at the Silk Board signal?

Generally around 8-8.30AM on Mondays-thursdays, and around 7-7.30AM on Fridays. I just pass through that place on my commute to ITPL. If your car is stickered, I'll catch you one of these days *winks*.

[hemanth.anand]

Originally Posted by KarthikK

That day is at least 6-8 months away, but there will be incremental additions every now and then, which should keep me busy all the while. I'll try to make it even better than the original. What say?

Even my car's cosmetic makeover project timeline is till the end of this year. After that, I'll not spend; atleast that's what I've decided for now

In a way its good that our Abarths have not yet met each other. We can have a photoshoot once the outside looks are complete

Originally Posted by Raneeth

1. Reg the Black Film on the roof : I believe you never got the 3M one. Where did you manage it from?

There are others like Hemanth.anand who have got Gloss film for the roof at some places in JC Road. It shouldn't be a very difficult thing to source (or even fit) gloss black vinyls if you pay a visit to JC road. This is a very common accessory. Hemanth would be able to help you by posting about where he bought his roof vinyls.

Raneeth
I'm quoting my own post from another thread here below.

Originally Posted by hemanth.anand

I got the stickering done in a small JC road shop.
Below is the link from GMaps where you can get the location
12.956877,77.580637 - Google Maps
Also is the picture of the exact location(Green arrow)

Even though I have marked exactly (green arrow), Its actually not easy to find the exact shop because they are really small shops there.
But as KarthikK has written, its not a very difficult job sourcing this vinyl from JC road. One half of a Saturday is what you'll need for this


KarthikK
I enquired Stanley, Ovion and Gsport for the seat covers (black with red stiching is what I'm also looking at) and had decided to get it done today. But unexpected expenses made sure that I couldn't go for it.
I'm eagerly looking forward to your rocket's interior makeover

[KarthikK]

The photoshoot is still pending, but I am going to upload the photoshoot pictures in another post. For now, I am uploading pictures of the debadging and rebadging process which was carried out last week, and of the final nail in the coffin (steering logo) which was added this week. Special thanks to nkrishnap who helped me source these Abarth OEM badges from the UK through one of his friends who happened to be coming to India from UK around the same time. I am providing the link which was used to order these badges from Parts-world UK's eBay online store.

For the complete Abarth OEM badge set, here is the link. Luckily, the price increased from 80 pounds to 99 pounds after I bought it!
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/FIAT-GRAND...item563bf8b804

The EsseEsse emblem had to be ordered separately, but from the same online store so the shipment was combined
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/GENUINE-AB...item3f1dbbc21d


In true red rocket detail, let us go over the step-by-step recap of how the re-badging was done :

The parcel contents were opened up. They contained the stuff shown in this picture - front grill badge, bootlid badge, 4 alloy wheel caps, 2 badges on the sides behind the front doors and a steering wheel scorpion logo. I am repeating this photo from last week's post, for the sake of completeness



These are OEM Abarth badges. Needless to say, the quality was top notch!



All these badges are made in Italy and come with the 'Ricambi Originali' tag.



They are nearly of the same size as the OEM Fiat badges. They are bolt-on replacements without requiring ANY kind of damage or modifications to the stock Grill or bootlid slots.



My first stop was at Vecto motors. The friendly and cooperative service staff here agreed to do a badge swap job in spite of them being overloaded with pre-booked cars on a busy Saturday. Special thanks to CRM head Mr. Channabasappa, technical lead Sathish and senior service staff member Ultaf for going out of the way to help me with something which isn't even their regular job. Like other brand showrooms, they could very well have refused this if they wanted to, citing it is not their cup of tea.

Senior staff member Ultaf sir from the body shop took up the job of unscrewing the front bumper to reach the lug nut and screw for the grill badge.





The Fiat badge was neatly removed after 10-15 minutes. This thing is so well designed on Fiats that it is nearly impossible for vandals to steal this logo. The badge is tightly secured with a fat screw and nut.



The next part was to fit the Abarth badge in place of the older Fiat badge. It was a straightforward thing to secure it in place, whilst aligning it to be straight.



Pictures after the front badge was replaced





Next, we moved on to the back of the car to replace the bootlid badge. Initially we thought there could be a securing lug nut for this too, so I made them dismantle the bootlid inner panel and try to see if we could access the bootlid badge screw. Ultaf sir was almost sure that the bootlid badge had just been pasted with double-sided tape and didn't have any screws, but I didn't listen .



Dismantling the internal assembly inside the bootlid inner panel. We found (to my shock) that the bootlid badge was indeed just held by 3M double sided tape.



We then wedged out the existing Fiat badge, cleaned up the area and made it free of adhesive and dirt marks and pasted the Abarth replacement badge.



Here's how it looked after the bootlid badge was in place





The last part of the job at Vecto motors was swapping the alloy wheel centre caps. Fiat has designed these caps well, in that it is impossible to remove/steal the caps from outside. The only way to remove them is by removing the tyres from the car and pushing the cap out from the inside of the alloy wheel. In normal conditions, the centre cap is secured on all sides by the wheel nuts, so no one can steal these caps by slipping a hand behind the wheels either.


Getting a staff member to remove all the 4 wheels and swap the alloy wheel centre caps (Fiat) with Abarth ones.



A closer look at the new Abarth alloy wheel centre caps



Now for the significant part of the debadging, stripping the rear profile and pasting the remaining badges into place. I got the car washed at 3M and took their help in cleaning the rear (especially the boot lid) of the car to make the surface plain, dirt-free and smooth before I could paste the remaining stickers in the set. The first step was to strip off the once-nice-but-now-hideous 'Sport' sticker stripe on the bootlid.



Then we proceeded to remove the chrome decals of 'Punto' and '90 HP'. I safely collected these and kept it for future use, if ever the need arises.





I got the surface cleaned up with their detailing process on the portions where the logos (and now glue scars) existed. Then I put the EsseEsse emblem in the same position as is found on the European Abarth.



The overall rear profile after debadging and rebadging to Abarth EsseEsse



The Italian flag lightning logos were supposed to go on the sides of the car. I had a look at how and where it fits on the European Abarth Evo. Turns out it was just behind the front door below the door-handle crease line.



And since we have no 2-door version here, I put that badge in the very same position on my Punto, but that is now on the rear door



A closer look at the side lightning badges



The last nail in the coffin was to replace the steering wheel Fiat logo. In a normal scenario, it was an easy job to get the horn pad dismantled and get the Fiat logo swapped for the scorpion. The locating screws were of the same size



But mine was the 90HP version which came with Airbags. The service technicians outright refused to dismantle the swap job and advised me not to mess around with the horn pad logo, since the airbag was housed directly behind that. I had to think of a safe workaround without dismantling the horn pad, and quickly. And then the Eureka moment came! At 3M, I got the Fiat logo dressed up first with Carbon Fibre vinyl to black it out. CF always comes to the rescue for me, somehow!





The scorpion logo had the 3 protrusion pins shaved off. I used 3M double sided tape at home and pasted the scorpion badge directly onto the Carbon fibre masking done on the earlier logo in 3M car care. Mission Accomplished! All references to the brand FIAT have been completely removed, and replaced by Abarth!



A departing picture - the Fiat OEM decals which were removed are now safely packed and kept for future use, if ever the need arises.


Thanks for reading! I'll be back with another update very soon - the photoshoot out on the open roads.

[nipcarlover]

Awesome work mate!
Any plans to remove/change the stupidly showy exhaust tip?
Ruins the clean-ness of the rear end IMO..

[hemanth.anand]

As always, nice detailed description KarthikK
Its coming closer to the actual evo...it can only get better from here

Originally Posted by KarthikK

The last nail in the coffin was to replace the steering wheel Fiat logo. In a normal scenario, it was an easy job to get the horn pad dismantled and get the Fiat logo swapped for the scorpion. The locating screws were of the same size
The scorpion logo had the 3 protrusion pins shaved off. I used 3M double sided tape at home and pasted the scorpion badge directly onto the Carbon fibre masking done on the earlier logo in 3M car care. Mission Accomplished!

Unless you had decided to use it that way, the silver scorpion monogram is not meant to be on the steering wheel.
It is actually meant to be on the dash n the passenger side.
Those 3 locattor pins are meant to be put in 3 holes drilled to the dash (Since I didn't want to drill holes, I cut those and used 3M double side sticker just as you did but I put it on the dash.

The steering logo is similar to the grill and boot logo but smaller than both of them.
I'm still in search for that logo but have been unsuccessful. For now I've got the red "FIAT" area covered with CF leaving the silver border untouched.
If I don't get the actual logo I'll get a vinyl logo made and put it on the CF.

A picture of the actual abarth is attached below showing the scorpion and the steering logo


(courtesy:http://www.gminsidenews.com/forums/f...me-over-74470/)

Below is the picture from My car



One more suggestion, the actual abarth logo is tilted everywhere by around 40 degrees. But on your steering wheeel its straight
Since its only pasted, check if you can remove and paste it again

All said, scorpion on the steering wheel is not looking bad at all...if the vinyl results are not satisfactory, I may go this way as well

The Italian flag lightning logos were supposed to go on the sides of the car. I had a look at how and where it fits on the European Abarth Evo. Turns out it was just behind the front door below the door-handle crease line.

I noticed this now that there are two different positions for this lighting logo. The look I'm out to achieve has this logo above that crease line.
The look that you are after has this way below that crease line. Not sure but I feel that its the esseesse that has these logos below the crease line

This is the one I'm out to achieve

Courtesy: http://www.eurocarblog.com/post/2404...tch-technology

And this is from my car

Originally Posted by KarthikK

The Fiat badge was neatly removed after 10-15 minutes. This thing is so well designed on Fiats that it is nearly impossible for vandals to steal this logo. The badge is tightly secured with a fat screw and nut.

+1, I thought I could do a DIY by just removing the grilles but after seeing how it was fixed, I was forced to go to Concorde to get this done. I was not charged anything for this and was done in a quick service bay
Punto owners in Mumbai (infamous for this logo theft) will be happier than other car owners

the Fiat OEM decals which were removed are now safely packed and kept for future use, if ever the need arises.

I've kept this is a chain(jewellwery) box

All the best for the future mods KarthikK

[KarthikK]

Originally Posted by hemanth.anand

Even my car's cosmetic makeover project timeline is till the end of this year. After that, I'll not spend; atleast that's what I've decided for now

In a way its good that our Abarths have not yet met each other. We can have a photoshoot once the outside looks are complete

Eagerly looking forward to the meeting of the two versions for a photoshoot Grande Abarth and Abarth Evo Esseesse .

KarthikK
I enquired Stanley, Ovion and Gsport for the seat covers (black with red stiching is what I'm also looking at) and had decided to get it done today. But unexpected expenses made sure that I couldn't go for it.
I'm eagerly looking forward to your rocket's interior makeover

Hemanth, did you find any impressive designs on their brochures? Ovion showed me a few good designs but they weren't ready/flexible to make the changes I wanted such as red stitching, racing style seat texture, etc. I'm yet to get a quote from Karlsson. Stanley is way too expensive, although they agreed for customized designs. They are charging almost 1.5 X the price of Karlsson for 1.5mm thickness leather. I still have some research to do in this regard. Most likely it will be Karlsson depending on whether they are willing to give me the designs I am looking for.

Originally Posted by nipcarlover

Awesome work mate!
Any plans to remove/change the stupidly showy exhaust tip?
Ruins the clean-ness of the rear end IMO..

Thanks a lot nipcarlover! The exhaust will go when I manage to find the Abarth lookalike twin muffler tip somewhere. Still looking for something like that without much success.

Originally Posted by hemanth.anand

Unless you had decided to use it that way, the silver scorpion monogram is not meant to be on the steering wheel.
It is actually meant to be on the dash n the passenger side.

Those 3 locattor pins are meant to be put in 3 holes drilled to the dash (Since I didn't want to drill holes, I cut those and used 3M double side sticker just as you did but I put it on the dash.

You're absolutely right there. A lot of googling brought out the same results too- the scorpion is on the passenger side, while the steering got the same chrome ring logo similar to the grill badge. But here's the catch - the instruction manual sheet which came (from the Abarth factory) with the badges clearly mentions that this is for the steering wheel horn pad! the 3 pins are apparently locating lugs for the steering wheel badge according to the OEM instruction sheet. After you showed me the pictures now, I'm thinking maybe there are 2 versions of this scorpion usage, not sure why else the OEM would mention it for the steering wheel badge.

On second thought, the default version might be the chrome ring one which you mention. Maybe this scorpion is like an optional OEM replacement accessory for the default logo. Not sure, just wondering.

The steering logo is similar to the grill and boot logo but smaller than both of them.
I'm still in search for that logo but have been unsuccessful. For now I've got the red "FIAT" area covered with CF leaving the silver border untouched.
If I don't get the actual logo I'll get a vinyl logo made and put it on the CF.

That's a superb idea. Like always, I'll keep an eye out on your thread and borrow the same concept for my car when your version clicks. Anyway mine is a CF strip covering the 'FIAT' text, which can be peeled off in a minute.

I noticed this now that there are two different positions for this lighting logo. The look I'm out to achieve has this logo above that crease line.
The look that you are after has this way below that crease line. Not sure but I feel that its the esseesse that has these logos below the crease line
All the best for the future mods

Yeah, another eye opener for me. You've got the Grande Abarth look perfectly now. If you could just complete the look by tampering with the alloy wheel paint shade somehow, hehe. The inner bends of the 'centipede claw' alloys could be painted black leaving the outer edges silver. Just a wild thought / suggestion, but that would resemble the Grande Abarth version which is in your picture.

P.S - PM coming up to seek help with black headlamps *winks*

[hemanth.anand]

Originally Posted by KarthikK

Eagerly looking forward to the meeting of the two versions for a photoshoot Grande Abarth and Abarth Evo Esseesse .

I'm looking out for some sceninc places around Bangalore for this... whenever it happens, I want it to be a good one

Hemanth, did you find any impressive designs on their brochures? Ovion showed me a few good designs but they weren't ready/flexible to make the changes I wanted such as red stitching, racing style seat texture, etc. I'm yet to get a quote from Karlsson. Stanley is way too expensive, although they agreed for customized designs. They are charging almost 1.5 X the price of Karlsson for 1.5mm thickness leather. I still have some research to do in this regard. Most likely it will be Karlsson depending on whether they are willing to give me the designs I am looking for.

Thats exactly what I felt. Ovion were not at all ready for any sort of customisations I asked for. and their designs were also not very impressive(subjective).
Stanley is the expensive of the lot and Gsport dealer gave me more options. Karlsson was average on both counts.
Now that I've postponed it due to some other reasns, I'll do more research before taking the plunge.

But here's the catch - the instruction manual sheet which came (from the Abarth factory) with the badges clearly mentions that this is for the steering wheel horn pad! the 3 pins are apparently locating lugs for the steering wheel badge according to the OEM instruction sheet. After you showed me the pictures now, I'm thinking maybe there are 2 versions of this scorpion usage, not sure why else the OEM would mention it for the steering wheel badge.

I had bought it from partsworld-uk's ebay store (link below).
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/FIAT-GRAND...ht_3068wt_1051
Here you can see it is clearly mentioned as dashboard logos! We definitely cannot rule out the possibility of two different versions

If you could just complete the look by tampering with the alloy wheel paint shade somehow, hehe. The inner bends of the 'centipede claw' alloys could be painted black leaving the outer edges silver. Just a wild thought / suggestion, but that would resemble the Grande Abarth version which is in your picture.

Planning underway expect some updates soon

[AbelAFC]

KarthikK, your car looks the part, so when will your under-the-hood mods happen? I haven't really read through your thread, so excuse me if I'm missed out on something! :P

[jatinpatel]

Hey karthik

the abarth center alloy wheel cap diameter is same as that which is in Palio ?
and also can you tell me whats the dimension of the front grill logo of fiat which came on your punto ?

Doing something on my car which is gonna be unique very unique hence this question.

[KarthikK]

Originally Posted by AbelAFC

KarthikK, your car looks the part, so when will your under-the-hood mods happen? I haven't really read through your thread, so excuse me if I'm missed out on something! :P

thanks AbelAFC! Under-the-hood mods will happen at the end almost, maybe around this year end. Until then, it will mostly be cosmetic and utilitarian mods. I don't get much paisa vasool out of remapping/performance modding the car, because it is restricted to doing daily city traffic duty , where I can barely use the potential of the souped-up performance.

Originally Posted by jatinpatel

Hey karthik

the abarth center alloy wheel cap diameter is same as that which is in Palio ?

Hey jatinpatel. The centre cap should be of the same size as that of the Punto and Linea, since all of these 3 fiats run the same 98 pcd size and might have the same dimensions of the centre cap.

and also can you tell me whats the dimension of the front grill logo of fiat which came on your punto ?

Doing something on my car which is gonna be unique very unique hence this question.

I'm currently at office and the Fiat logos are at home. I'll check the dimensions when I reach home in the evening, and will update this information for you here. Good luck for whatever you are planning to do on your Palio!

[Karthik1100]

Now, I'm pretty sure, some auto mags guys will capture pics of your Fiat and post them as scoops pics of Abarth coming to India!

Awesome work Karthik!

[sivadeep]

Karthik, Amazing changes and great pictures. A true connoisseur in you !!! This is the only one deserves the "Scorpion Sting" realted titles