This is my Daughters car. It was supposed to be mine but as soon as she seen it she claimed it. She was 2 at the time.

This is it just after I got it home in 2004. I bought it from a man from Belfast who is on TV now, certain MR M Carrigle who is currently doing a TV doc of his 1080 day trip around the world.The little car is in very good condition and at the time of buying it all it needed was a good clean and a little bit of tidying. 

  When I got it home I stripped out the rubber floor and gace the floor pan a good coat of chasis black to preserve it.

This is it once the rubber map had been cleaned and put back in.

 

The seats were the next thing to get a good cleaning. I took the front ones out to do it. 

 

Once the car was cleaned and tidyed up a little I took her to a couple of shows, It wasn't long before the clutch started to slip. It was just old age and sitting in a garage for 4 years. A very easy job to change and the best way to do it is to drop the engine and gearbox out as one then split it. I had the whole job done in 2 hours and that included cleaning the engine and box.

   

Engine is placed on the trolley jack but as you can see I used a large piece of wood to cushion and steady the engine.

Engine out and gearbox off.

All ready for a good cleaning.

 New clutch kit

I had a brainwave about fitting a new type of power plant but was told I might have problems with the mot.

I decided to clean the engine bay instead ready for the engine to go back in.

Next job was to fit the engine, boot rack and the new picnic basket as a finishing touch. I think the car looks super now. It certainly attracts a lot of attention at the shows.

After I put the engine back in I decided to give it a service and replaced the PLugs, plug leads, Points, Distributor cap and rotor arm. Now this was away last year and the car only had one drive to a show just up the road from were I live. On the way home it went onto one cylinder and once home just refused to start. Well it hasn't went since!   I had tried everything and the car was getting a spark, it was getting fuel, all the ignition parts had been changed, but it just refused to start. That was until I took the plug leads off the plugs and just left them with the rubber bit losely on top of the plug. Then it would start!!! I couldn't figure this one out and spoke to all the mechanics I know who were also at a loss. A couple of them even came round to see for themselves. Everyone was baffled.  As a last resort I seen a set of plugs being advertised on Ebay for a Fiat 500 along with a new coil so I bought the both of them.     I put the coil in and it made no difference. My mate Neil who was over from England had just put the timing belt on my Fiat 127 engine and as he didn't like not having oily hands decided to put the plugs in for me. "Hey presto" the car started first go and has been running great since. The only difference in the plugs is the ones in the car were about 2mm longer than the 500 ones I got from Ebay. We can only assume that because of the extra 2mm the engine had went onto the exhaust stroke before the ignition fired and the fuel had been exausted before the plugs fired? But with the lead rubber just siting on the plug it was firing in time to catch the fuel. It's the only sense I can make of it.     

We took Luigi  as the 500 is now called to the largest show in N.I. and as we were with the NIIMC decide to put up a theme. Ian from the Club made up a hat, eyes and a mouth for the car after the film cars. The 308 was there to. Luigi got a great reception.

Luigi following the 308.  

   

"Ahh" doesn't he look well.

   

"It's a Real FERRARI in my store" 

Luigi lights a blaze shouting......... "Luigi only follow the Ferrari"

Disaster struck. I had just finished getting Luigi ready for a local show and while going to get petrol just at the top of our road, the bonnet flew open and hit the windscreen. I hadn't closed it properly! You can see the result below.     

So as the show was the next day, I had to hastily sort the bonnet out. It didn't take long to get the crease out and get it primed.  

The problem was I didn't have the code for the paint to match it, but I had been given paint in a tin with the car. Unfortunately it was very old and thick and there wasn't much of it. So given I have one day to get it done I thined the paint out as much as I dared and put it on. You can't really see the result in the photo but lets say, I've done a lot better. Once I polished it up it polished right through in a couple of places. So when I get the show over and have more time I will repaint it. In fact I'm tempted to repaint the entire car as I would like it to be perfect at some point.  

Sept 13th 07. I was asked by the Main Fiat/Alfa dealer Mervyn Stewarts, if they could borrow Luigi for their showroom. The new Fiat 500 is due for official launch in the UK in Feb 08 and they wanted to have a 500 to promote this. So Luigi is off on his hols until Feb. This is him when I left him at their place. 

My Daughter wanted to see how Luigi was settling in on his hols so we went to visit him today. We got a very pleasent surprise as he has taken pride of place right in the middle of the showroom and the guys at the dealership even got a little dent he had, taken out. My Daughter went home satisfied he is safe. I'm not so sure as they have had quite a few people in looking to buy him.  

Daughter checking he's ok.

15/01/08. The New Fiat 500 arrived at the dealers today and I was allowed to compare old and new together. I have to say a BIG thank you to Dez the Manager, Kim and the rest of the Guys at Mervyn Stewarts for giving me free reign to move the cars about for the photos.

What a difference in size 50 years makes. The photos really speak for themselves. But clearly the people at Fiat tried to stay true to the old 500 were possible. Having seen the 2 cars together now I can see so many similarities. Excellent. 

 

Although bigger the silouete is really close.

27/06/08. There's local cavalcade heldevery year just up the road from our house and it has sort of became a family tradition to take Luigi to it now. This year though He wasn't for playing ball. He decided to run out of electricity and we had to keep putting the jump leads on to get him going. We made the show though and my Daughter stood guard as ever over Luigi

My friend John in his 1955 Riley RME had to keep lending us the electricity out of his car while my daughter kept Luigi running. I think she really enjoys it now because she's old enough to help out.