2025 will be the year!
I am Mees (the picture shows my son), 45 years and crazy about anything with an engine that is old and has wheels under it. I enjoy fixing up and tinkering with my Fiat 500R in my spare time. Even though the Fiat is a small car, there are already a lot of hours in the restoration. Partly because I like to do it all right but also because I have no experience restoring cars! I can tinker with cars a bit and can weld, but a complete restoration from start to finish with sheet metal etc. was quite a challenge all in all. I hope to finish the restoration next year and then enjoy the 500R with my family!
2001
Somewhere at the end of 2001, I was able to take over a Fiat 500R to be restored from an acquaintance. It still had a few months of MOT but the bodywork was in very bad shape and could no longer pass the MOT. I ended up replacing all the sheet metal on the underside, front and all the inner and outer wings myself. The engine and gearbox were not so easy to restore. Now it has a 650cc engine with electronic ignition and a synchronized gearbox. The big advantage of this Fiat 500 is the relatively simple technology, but also that actually all parts are still available/exchangeable. As a result, I was actually able to do everything myself, sometimes with help from third parties for e.g. the engine block and painting.
23 Years later…
After a day with the family, we thought we could dismantle the Fiat. That was done in a sigh (without having taken 1 photo unfortunately). All the repairing, sanding and puttying and rebuilding has been going on for about 23 years now, in the evenings sometimes and holidays but also years when almost nothing happened. Fortunately, I now get occasional assistance from my son and daughter and support from my wife and so it is becoming a real family project. I hope to get that smile (early next year) when, after all these years, I can drive with the idea that I have managed to pull it off nicely after all!
Advice and high quality parts
I buy all the parts at Fiat van der Laan, not only because of the good price/quality ratio and fast delivery, but mainly because Patrick is always there for you with advice and TOP materials! And don’t forget the hospitality when you visit his shop, something I would definitely recommend to anyone just to look around and see what he has in stock.
