‘The day after I finished it, we drove it to Italy!’
1964 Fiat 500 D Andrew Halley, Oakehampton
You’ve had dozens of Minis, so what’s with the Fiat?
'I was just six years old when I started helping my dad to restore cars. My own first car was a 1962 Mini MKI – for which I paid £7 – and I went on to flip between Minis and Morris Minors. But as a kid in 1973, I’d discovered a parked-up 500 in Iver Heath – I’d never seen anything like it and fell in love, pledging that I would own one some day! That dream came true a few years ago, when I bought a 500 D my daughter had spotted on ebay.'
Was it a good example?
'Goodness, no! It was rotten from the roof down and the dash was barely there, as it had sat without a windscreen in a garden in Aylesbury since 1993. But it was one of only 60 right-hand drive D-series 500 models so it just had to be saved. I started work on it in September 2016, aiming to have it ready for me and my wife Beverley to drive to Italy in July 2017, for the 500’s 60th birthday celebrations in Italy.'
So, no pressure then…
'She made the ferry booking before I’d even started the restoration! I stripped the car down in November and ordered £3500 worth of new panels that arrived in January 2017, when I finally took the angle grinder to it. I did the passenger side in February, the driver’s side in March, with the front and back done by April. May saw the paint application and then, after assembly, I had a month to drive it around a bit.'
It all went to plan, did it?
'Of course not. All was fine and dandy until I went to deal with my newlypurchased wiring loom. You can only buy left-hand drive wiring looms, so I got a Stanley knife, cut open the loom and did my own, following a diagram supplied by the Fiat 500 Club. My wife had to apologise to the neighbours for the filthy language coming from our shed.'
And once that was done?
'I had to completely replace all the trailing arms, rebuild the suspension and then get some special bushes because 500 D parts are more scarce compared to the earlier cars. When the shell came back, I had to fit the suicide doors – not only £700 apiece, but also notoriously tricky to fit! Everything else went together nicely, thank goodness.'
Job done!
'Indeed! Having got the car Mot’d in the morning, we had a party on a Saturday night to celebrate the completion. Then, next morning at 5am, we set off for Italy. Within three days we were in the Alps. A day later, we arrived south of Turin for the birthday celebration, where 2500 other 500 models greeted us. It was worth all the effort and, thankfully, the neighbours have forgiven me for all the bad language!'