Latest update with Sophia...

I went and checked out Sophia at the paint shop today, wow! She is looking good, I always loved red-heads! I had her re-sprayed in her original red and they are prepping for the bed-liner to go into the fender and floor-board area. I wish I could have seen how the flares looked under all of that masking. The shop told me that they spent about 240 hours on this car prepping the body and striping everything. That is more than the car is worth so I guess I am stuck with her for a while. But hey, Sophia is like any high maintenance woman, right?

I plan to pick her up this weekend and start the re-assembly process, anyone want to help?

Refer to previous post for background... http://classicmotorsports.net/forum/classic-cars/59-fiat-600-progress/2998/page1/ Brett

Very nice!!

The progress and results look first class in the pictures. I'm sure you will be very happy with the results.

I have to respectfully say that if the shop told you it took them 240 hours to get to that point - something is way out of wack. That amounts to telling you that it took an experienced body man, working full time for six weeks on that car only.

Disassemble the car, to a bare shell - 2 days at most. Strip the body by hand to bare metal - 4 days at most. Clean/prep metal and put it in epoxy prime 2 days at most. Perform all necessary metal patching - 3 days at most (the car wasn't that bad) Perform all necessary finish body work - 5 days at most. (the car wasn't that bad) Mask, and prep for paint - 1 day at most Panel paint, paint jams, and paint the body - 2 days at most.

If a capable and experienced body man couldn't do that car in 160 hours, taking his sweet time - his boss should have a talk with him. While the shop may be able to take six to 12 calender weeks to get the job done, they couldn't afford to pay a body man 240 hours for that work. If they did, you'd have about $16,000.00 in it. I'm hoping you don't have much more than $8K to $9K in it when you take it home.

Don't worry, this estimate was for several guys working on it over the period of a few weeks. This work has all been done at a professional discount rate and I did not end up paying the labor for this. Still not cheap. Remember, I had custom flares installed on this car (doesn't show in photos with masking). The flares were designed to look stock and subtle, something that enhanced the vintage lines on the car, not just bulges on the fenders. This is where most of the time was spent. They took the body of the car and twisted it so that the doors would line up better and adjusted all of the seams and panels for better fit. the market for this paint job would have been about $13k but I don't have anything close to that in it. you couldn't buy a good riding lawn-mower for what I have in this paint job due o my "discount". the shop and I have worked together for years and we help each other out with our skill sets.

Actually I would love to help if I was closer. I don't much about cost and time of a restoration but it sure looks good to me. Congrats and keep us posted please.

What about the Abarth? Is this going to be the 'donor body'?

I decided not to go the clone route. I am simply going to do a vintage looking 600 with my personal mods that are period correct.

Looks great. May I ask why the floor isn't painted?

Nov. 28, 2008 9:16 a.m. Jerry From LA Reader Looks great. May I ask why the floor isn't painted?

blow dust around ?

Well, I finally brought Sophia home today. We decided to go ahead and wet sand and buff the paint. Everything looks great. The color is very close to the original shade of orange-red, very 50s looking. I picked up the material for the interior today as well. I am going with a black with off-white color scheme on the seats.

I still have a few parts that I need to locate. Anyone have any headlight trim rings? Now the fun begins with the reassembly, wish me luck. I will report back from time to time.

As for the floor, I plan to paint it black and then cover it in dynomat material. Brett