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Punto (Mk1) Project R the Mk1 Cabrio Restoration project

1998 Rosso Red Mk1 Punto ELX Cabrio, that has been very neglected.
Overview Updates (14) Gallery Discussion

Introduction

Project page for my 1998 Punto Cabrio Restoration project. This car was aquired in October 2023, with no service history and in a pretty poor state, however they are becoming extremely rare now in the UK, just a dozen or so of the 1.2 16v models left on the road and about 30 or so cabrios in total.

Pictures are from the forsale add and ones the previous owner sent me before I got it.
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olNick said:
Might want to install some 30 Amp sockets if you are thinking of running a welder etc.
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Father inlaw is an electrician so we have talked about that already. A plan is already in place for such a thing. Ironically my father is a welder by trade (or was till he retired) so going to discuss with him some things I have planned, including potentially a custom stainless exhaust and his welder is a German made thing which would make mincemeat of a standard 13Amp socket so having a 30amp socket in the garage has been planned, on this round thought I just installed 4 13amp sockets down the wall and above my shelf for charging tools, batteries, the ultrasonic cleaner etc. nothing that uses loads of power.
 
olNick said:
Might want to install some 30 Amp sockets if you are thinking of running a welder etc.
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vexorg said:
There are known downsides, like dislodging dirt that then gets stuck somewhere more critical.
I find with engines and oil, if it's running without problems then leave well alone. A few changes with cheap oil will do.
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In this case I am going to flush it. Basically the car is going to be sat up for a period, the engine is coming a part. Basically anything I can clean out with a flush before I strip it down will be a bonus where as if I were to rely on oil changes and running the car regularly well that's just not going to happen. I have a daily driver this is a project.

Worst case scenario I will be manually by hand, cleaning out a lot of the crud that is inside this engine.

Just one quick observation, but the Gunk Engine cleaning spray.... Anyone else think it is just mainly diesel fuel... Honestly it just stinks of diesel or heating oil.
 
How big is the power cable going to the garage, that might limit the max current you can have.
Typically it's just a spur, so max 20A.
 
vexorg said:
How big is the power cable going to the garage, that might limit the max current you can have.
Typically it's just a spur, so max
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The Consumer unit is in the garage I can't remember what the rating of the breaker it is currently connected to, but initially there was only a single double socket connected via a radial circuit directly into the consumer unit. What i've done is replaced all the wiring right back to the consumer unit, for uprated 4mm cable and connected a much longer 4 double socket radial directly into the breaker at the consumer unit.

there is space in the box for at least another 3 breakers if needed. So if I want to put a 30A or some other circuits and connections in the garage or to the garden that would not be a problem. As some point it may be likely that I will run a car charging cable out to the front of the house and I plan to install some lighting around the front and rear gardens, so I have plenty of options at the moment without having to rewire the house.
 
AndyRKett said:
Just one quick observation, but the Gunk Engine cleaning spray.... Anyone else think it is just mainly diesel fuel... Honestly it just stinks of diesel or heating oil.
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I never got the results of GUNK by using only diesel as a cleaner. GUNK, or WURTH etc, IMHO, has stuff in it that dissolves crud buildup
 

Mk1 one restoration

So just to keep this as a history of the restoration process I need to add some updates here, so while I am delving back a bit in time this will just give me scope to look back and to make it easier for people to follow the updates without having to read through all the discussion.

I picked the car up from Stockport, drove it 240 miles home without incident. I had to stop and get wiper fluid, the car was seemingly lacking in power the whole journey initally struggling to get above 60mph but after about half an hour of driving it seemed to free up and could get up to motorway speeds. The top speed on the car should be a touch over 100mph so something isn't quite right. More investigation needed.

The general condition of the car is pretty poor. That said what attracted me to this car is the lack of rust. Or that is to say very little obvious rust for a mk1 punto. Some of them are swiss cheese these days after 25 years on the road despite the older puntos having pretty good rust protection.
KETT0346.JPGKETT0349.JPGKETT0345.JPG

The body work is free from any major dents, but the paint is terrible. The car will need repainting.
The wheels are wrong. Currently fitted to the car are some late model Punto wheels from around 2015/16, these are 4x100 fitment and the car does not have wobble bolts so they have to go. Fortunately I have already procured some original Punto GT wheels which came in a horrible black/grey colour so they need to be restored and painted silver to match the OEM wheels this car would have had as an option from new.
IMG_1690 (1)_89CF10B6.jpeg

The tires on these wheels are date stamped 2008 so they have not been on the road for quite some time, the tires will be taken off to help make refurbishment easier.

This is the 1.2 85hp 16 valve engine. It is the ELX model with all round electric windows and electric roof. it has a typically 90s/early 2000s stereo and the interior is pretty grotty. I have a plan to completely refurbish the interior including the carpet which appears to have been damaged behind the drivers seat in some sort of minor fire at some point. Which has also damaged the door card. No damage to the seat so these were either not in the car or have been replaced.

The Roof while not the original is still mainly waterproof but is in poor condition. Once all other work is done I think I will look at changing the roof.

So Engine, Body work, interior and roof, there isn't much of this car that doesn't need attention but so far at least the tin worm seems to have been resisted making it a good candidate for restoration.

Here is a little snap shot I found online for what I am aiming for.
IMG_1596_89D800FF.JPG
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How I came to own the car and why.

Weirdly I have wanted a Punto Cabriolet since about 2010, I remember seeing them selling very cheaply at the time on Gumtree and thinking it would be cool to have one.
If you've not noticed I have a bit of a thing for Convertible/cabrio cars, I don't know why I just love driving with the roof down in the summer and I love the complexity of a roof that disappears into the back. For me it always has to be a fabric roof with no roll over bar, and the Mk1 Punto was one of very few cars in the 90s when I was growing up that didn't have a hideous roll over hoop, such as the likes of the Escort or the Golf mk1 and mk3/3.5 cabrios.

Here is the story of how I came to get the car, many of you know I run my own youtube channel with quite a few subscribers now so this was not just a chance to relaunch/revamp the channel as it has sat unloved for about 2 - 3 years, but also a chance for me to get a car I had wanted for a long time.



I am also linking my new videos back to this thread on the forum so people can follow things and chip in with ideas and advice if they want.
Regarding the roof cover a lot of women can make bespoke clothes, covers and bags. Its better to choose the colour and material yourself from a few options. The cost for replacing that bag for the roof cover is maybe £50, cheaper if there's someone in the family with that capability. It just depends on how much you want an original bag, a new similar bag, or want to spend.

Would be nice to source some Fiat colours, badges or logos for the material.
 
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AnthonyH said:
It just depends on how much you want an original bag, a new similar bag, or want to spend.

Would be nice to source some Fiat colours, badges or logos for the material.
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It’s not a bag it’s a cover that goes over the roof when it’s folded down, it used to be a legal requirement in some countries to have one to prevent injury to passers by should they feel the need to jam their hand into the roof mechanism.
Also called a toneau cover.

The problem is not the cover itself but the clips and fasteners that attach it to the car, there are a couple of fairly standard poppers but other wise the rest are specific to the car.

Actually @Didge3 did you have a cover on yours ?
 

In search of the lost ponies

So with the car seeming down on power, I opted to start with the spark plugs, aside from being rather old and rusty, one of them was also broken which can’t help.

I’m begining to think there is not one specific reason for the low power and it’s likely to be a culmination of issues.

Whoever designed this needs to be shot

This last week I decided a nice quick job would be to sort out the very slow/week electric windows before the motors burn out. The car has one touch up and down but you have to keep pressing it as the motor frequently thinks the window has closed due to increased resistance.

So to get the window motor out you have to remove the door card and all the trims from inside, then you have to remove the weather seals from the top of the door which are clearly the original version that someone at Bertone has taken a Stanley knife to. The little front quarter lite glass it turns out holds the wing mirror on the car along with some others bits, there is a window runner that goes to the bottom of the door and it all has to come out to take the window motor out. I thought it would be wise to repaint the metal work of this piece while off the car, give it a coat of satin black but it turned out the can of black I had on the shelf and was maybe 15 years old, had gone bad and so I needed to wait for that to dry, sand it off and repaint it again, when putting it all back together one of the bolts sheered off, which I then had to drill out and retap.

Finally reassembling it all, and it seems a lot of bloody work for very little accomplished.

The frames/runners that support the glass all have adjustment screws to dial in the angle of the window to make sure it seals against the roof and door frame. So another couple of hours spent getting it all set up correctly.

Whoever designed this needs to be shot

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Didge3 said:
Mine were "glacier slow" too, I think when I had the door cards off I greased the mechanism and it improved fractionally but in the end I just dealt with them being slow
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After all of the above there is no discernable improvement in the window. I think the motor may be very tired or something. I am plotting if there is a way I can swap only the motor for something more powerful.

Having a look around Ebay the Mk2 Punto seems to use the same motor and winding mechanism with a difference to the design of the rest of the regulator, so maybe it is worth it to try scavenging the motors from a Mk2 and fitting them into the cabrio regulator.
 
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vexorg said:
I find window motors are overly expensive for what you get
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looking around while regulators vary a lot from car to car the actual motors often seem to boil down to either having 3 bolts or 4 bolts to attach them to the regulator. even some Mercedes parts look to be the same as Fiat and are branded a Bosch so the unit costs of these motors is probably no more than a couple of pounds to the manufacturer.

The Motors on mine are quite load and lacking any power after 25 years, so if I can get something much newer that just "fits" then that is a massive bonus as getting Cabrio window regulators with motors is not going to happen and if I did they would likely have the same problem.

This as an example https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/40424569...tiH+hlZBG4y3+EqE4vXB3rtSo=|tkp:Bk9SR9Det9O8Yw

apparently a motor from a 2015 Mercedes
s-l1600.jpg
C200 looks to have the same basic motor design as my 25 year old fiat it is just attached to different plastic
 
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