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Today I realised I couldn't drive to work before I had defrosted my car! Far colder overnight than expected.

Also, I remembered to bring back some scales from work so this weekend I will weigh the OZ 124GT wheels as promised.
Did you make sure to defrost the badge? :)
 
I took a road trip to Hampshire a few days ago, and the car was in a dire state afterwards - the roads are dusty, salty and wet at the moment. Due in part to the cold weather (it's 0°C), the air pressure in the tyres was 3PSI lower than it should have been also - take a look at the rear-left tyre:

Wheel Tire Car Vehicle Hood


In true Fiat fashion a plastic rivet has fallen off too:

Tire Wheel Automotive tire Hood Vehicle


Thus, I took the car for a thorough clean!

Wheel Car Tire Vehicle Hood
 

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I took a road trip to Hampshire a few days ago, and the car was in a dire state afterwards - the roads are dusty, salty and wet at the moment. Due in part to the cold weather (it's 0°C), the air pressure in the tyres was 3PSI lower than it should have been also - take a look at the rear-left tyre:

View attachment 90338

In true Fiat fashion a plastic rivet has fallen off too:

View attachment 90336

Those rivets are constantly falling out on mine. At one point I lost the deflector itself and had to get a new one (only about 7 bucks, maybe 5gbp). Bought some slightly larger plastic rivets and they are holding up better.
 
Those rivets are constantly falling out on mine. At one point I lost the deflector itself and had to get a new one (only about 7 bucks, maybe 5gbp). Bought some slightly larger plastic rivets and they are holding up better.
Snap, an OEM rivet on the other side fell off before and I replaced it with a slightly larger gauge rivet - it's holding up well.

I went to do the same with the missing rivet and it appears that the rivet head has sheared off, leaving the tubular part stuck in the hole. I'll have to break out the needle nose pliers. 😢
 
Beautiful wheels! It is going to be great and it is especially awesome that you are making the "investment" to do it spec. If you have a chance, I would love to get the weight on your genuine 45mm offset wheel Ultraleggeras. There is some debate whether they weigh less than the more common ET37 Ultraleggaras that you can get at a lower price. Do you have a hand scale? Many thanks if you can....
Hi Mikeydred. I finally got around to weighing the OZ wheels (without pressure sensors or even the central cap). The hand scale I used was bouncing around between 7.7kg and 7.8kg, so take your pick of those two! I think that makes them only a couple of kilos lighter than the standard wheels, not the claimed 3 kilos, but I am may be wrong. Weird that they are about a kg about the advertised weight.
 
New tires and wheels installed, alignment completed. More pics after I have a chance to clean her up.

Enkei TS-10 17x8 +40ET
Yokohama Advan Fleva 235/40
 

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Never was a car guy before. So I was very proud that I installed the GFB DV+. Thank you to Bill "BillaVista" Ansell’s website which included great directions and photos.
Also installed a phone holder so I can use my phone’s navigation. The stock navigation is so clunky I gave up on it.
 

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Never was a car guy before. So I was very proud that I installed the GFB DV+. Thank you to Bill "BillaVista" Ansell’s website which included great directions and photos.
Also installed a phone holder so I can use my phone’s navigation. The stock navigation is so clunky I gave up on it.
DIY'ing is a healthy addiction! ;)
 
Hi Mikeydred. I finally got around to weighing the OZ wheels (without pressure sensors or even the central cap). The hand scale I used was bouncing around between 7.7kg and 7.8kg, so take your pick of those two! I think that makes them only a couple of kilos lighter than the standard wheels, not the claimed 3 kilos, but I am may be wrong. Weird that they are about a kg about the advertised weight.
Thank you for that. They look great btw.......As for the weight, even at the lighter 7.7kg you referenced, they weigh a bit more than my et37 Ultragerraras at 7.4kg. I think you did well on yours, however, as your cap looks OEM.
 
I find the interior of the Spider a bit ‘bleak’ and whilst I don’t want it to look like a Bangkok market stall, a little colour does no harm. I had the plaque made up and very happy with it. View attachment 90379
Agreed with you on all counts. Nice upgrade.
 
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I discovered a dent in my bumper. With only 2,200 on the odometer it was painful. So I screwed around with sand paper, heat gun and orbital polisher. I thought it turned out ok.
 

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I discovered a dent in my bumper. With only 2,200 on the odometer it was painful. So I screwed around with sand paper, heat gun and orbital polisher. I thought it turned out ok.
Those little marks are unnoticeable to anybody else, but the first thing you notice when you look at the car. Whether paint or trim. I have two or three, they annoy the hell out of me, but as my car is coming up to 4 years old with 11k on the car, I suppose it is expected. Good job on yours though, what an odd ‘dent’ it was, just missed the paint, but quite deep.
 
Completed the move of the 124Spider badge, and added one of those cheap metal Abarth scorpion emblems you can find on eBay/Amazon. Paid $8 for mine, a couple bucks more than some, so I could have it sooner, rather than later...







Unfortunately, I seem to have burned the clear in the area where the 124Spider badge was originally. I thought I had managed to get away without a scratch, but in a certain light this afternoon, I caught the shadow of the badge in the original location. I'll have to see if I can get it to buff out...

Being a life-long Star Wars geek, I've had a tradition since the first moment I had my driver's license. I like to reference the scene in The Empire Strikes Back where Han Solo and Princess Leia hide from the Empire by hitching a ride on the back of a Star Destroyer by hiding a small Millennium Falcon on the back of all my cars, trucks, motorcycles and even boats. I can't tell you how many times I've had people literally freak out when they see it, want to know where I got it or how I did it.



I've been doing this for over 30 years now. I started in the 80's with the old Kenner diecast Falcons, and since the 90's, until recently, I had been doing it with the diecast Falcons from the toy company Galoob, makers of MicroMachines back in the day. Here's the very first Galoob I ever did, having been moved from car to car to car over the years, currently enjoy its golden years permanently attached to my Meyers Manx...



Unfortunately, Galoob ceased to exist some years ago, and getting ahold of these Falcons became a bit expensive. Thankfully, Mattel began making their own version a few years ago through their Hot Wheels brand. Very cheap at $4 or $5 each, I have gathered a bit of a horde of them, and hopefully have enough to see me out for all the vehicles for the rest of time.



As you can see, the Hot Wheels version is lacking in terms of painted details, the nature of a mass produced, inexpensive toy. I took a week and fully detailed the one for the Spider, marking each of the panel gaps, the correct painted hull panels, rust and soot where appropriate, and 12 (twelve) coats of matte clear coat to protect it.

I ground the bottom flat, and epoxied the ship to a coin case, for collector grade silver dollars, which I had epoxied solid and painted. Initially I was going to mount it to the rear bumper, next to the license plate. But, the more I looked at the car, the more I felt this would detract from the elegance of the car too much. I was quite torn. I didn't want to lose this lifelong tradition, and nor did I want to change the level of class I was trying to create in the rear of the car.

I was pondering the rear of the car, in my pondering chair in the garage, planning the 124Spider badge move, when it came to me... the wind deflector.





Now, the rear of the car remains clean, and elegant, and the Falcon is visible, but hidden in plain sight, exactly how I like it. On my drive today, I caught a couple teens in a clapped out Chevy Cobalt, taking a picture of the back of the car, and judging by the huge smiles and the thumbs up, and the Star Wars stickers in their back window, they had spotted the Falcon.
What do you think of where I put mine? I'm still not sure I'm sold on it in that location. I thought about sliding it over just to the left of the 124 and making it look like one big logo. Or maybe even getting rid of the scorpion completely. I technically put it evenly measured from the stripe ends to where the scorpion starts and the 124. Part of me wonders if I should scootch it to the left a smidge since in essence is should be centered based on the entire 124spider emblem, not just from where it starts from the center. Does that make sense?
Tire Vehicle Vehicle registration plate Wheel Car
 
I took a road trip to Hampshire a few days ago, and the car was in a dire state afterwards - the roads are dusty, salty and wet at the moment. Due in part to the cold weather (it's 0°C), the air pressure in the tyres was 3PSI lower than it should have been also - take a look at the rear-left tyre:

View attachment 90338

In true Fiat fashion a plastic rivet has fallen off too:

View attachment 90336

Thus, I took the car for a thorough clean!

View attachment 90339
Hell yeah someone else with the yellow caps 🔥🔥
 
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