Italian cars are our soft spot and a few years ago we came across a little blue Fiat 600E. It looked sound from the pictures, but looking sound never means a great deal with mass produced Turin manufactured cars from 1967. Anyway, we took a look.
The dealer who'd bought it at auction thought, a "sympathetic restoration" would be the way to go. After an inspection it was clear it required new floors, as well as inner and outer sills. The A posts needed the Last Post and there were the usual paint scabs and panel dinks. The engine did run and the interior wasn't too shabby.
Those big eye Fanalona headlights looked doleful up like a rescue dog at a pound and a deal was struck, the transport arranged.
A relatively straight forward restoration got underway. There is a good supply of repair panels available, albeit needing to be fettled, and these were welded in and a rust free body achieved. The engine stripped and rebored with new pistons fitted. A few difficult to source parts were found in far flung places .
We decided to kept to the same colour for the re-painting as we liked the blue.
Never satisfied, we like to have a project to run on to, so the classified sales once again came under scrutiny. We spotted another Fiat, based again on the 600 series with body styling by Vignale. Quite a scarce car, especially on this side of the road.
Sitting around a pool, still with its winter covers on, the vendor explained he'd purchased the Vignale at auction some years earlier but was unable to get started due to more pressing projects. He took great interest in our little 600E and asked how long it had been in my care and where I had found it. He took some time to think and excused himself and said he'd be right back. On returning, he produced a Brightwell's catalogue showing both cars up for auction on the same day.
Somehow the universe had somehow conspired to make us buy two cars, from two separate vendors, hundreds of miles apart, who'd bought them at the same auction on the same day years previously.
Of course we bought it home. Although fate had something more to add when the car transporter broke down, leaving us plenty of opportunity to gaze at the sky through its rotten floors.
In the workshop we have whiteboards with tasks to complete on each car. For instance, the 600E would need a windscreen water bottle, the rear brakes adjusting etc. On the Vignale 750 we just opted for EVERYTHING.
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