Brought home a 50 year old Fiat President: Initial impressions

Thankfully, 90 percent of the trims and cosmetic parts are original.

BHPian vishy76 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Drove a 1990 Padmini belonging to a mutual friend and fell in love with it. However, the car I drove was quite battered up. Needed a grounds up restoration almost.

I was looking for something that was 70-80 percent there and just needed basic TLC in the form of running repairs and some cosmetic touchups.

Rejected numerous cars. Some slipped through. Finally found a diamond in the rough. I will keep the longer part of this story for my ownership report, but for now, here's my 1972 Fiat President. She's a single owner car.

Mechanical work done so far:

• Oil and oil filter change

• All fluids topped up including differential and gear oil

• Entire cooling system was flushed. Radiator had a crack on the neck. Welded. And the core was cleaned

• Spark plug and plug wires changed

• Carb tuning done and tappets set

• Exhaust system was changed excluding the manifold since it was all rusted

• Suspension greased and the car washed

• Fuel tank sender changed since it was always reading wrong. Left me stranded once thinking I had enough fuel

• All the electricals were brought back to working condition. Couple of light weren't functional before

• Got new wheelcaps (Original President ones cost an eye watering amount. I got Padmini ones for around 1/4th the cost)

Work pending:

• All four shocks are bust. Will change them with the bushes and spiders if I can get hold of good quality spiders

• Cross member needs to be changed

• Timing chain in the future sometime

Water pump and fuel pump can run as is. Will stock them up and change if needed. The tyres are 20 years old. They will also need to go next month.

Coming to aesthetic mods, I don't want to screw with the originality of the car. Having said that, I don't want to pay through my nose for minor cosmetic parts either. Would much rather invest that money in mechanicals and enjoy driving her. Thankfully, 90 percent of the trims and cosmetic parts are original. Still a few aesthetic changes I plan to make:

• Already removed the roof carrier and fender mounted radio antenna. Both looked ugly

• Get the bumpers rechromed since they were painted black

• Get clear lens indicators rather than the orange ones. They don't suit the car in my opinion

• Will be putting whitewall inserts shortly

Sharing a few pics clicked by my friend and trusted mechanic in Pune. He's done a fabulous job bringing her back to former glory.

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