# The BEST Fiat Strada Abarth in the WORLD, a paint correction detail by Envy Valeting



## Envy Car Care (Aug 17, 2006)

Envy Valeting are delighted to bring you this paint correction detail and in depth project.
I 1st got told that I'd be detailing this car over 2 years ago. Why so long ago?
Have a look at this on Facebook and you'll know why!

Finally the time was upon us to do it, and so the car would be ready for AutoItalia at Brooklands this weekend.

So, a paint correction detail, and a thorough clean all round everywhere else!

The victim before:


Wheels were cleaned with Wolfs De-ironizer, and Envy Brushes. Door shuts and nooks and crannies were filled with G101. Followed by a nice drop of Bubbly Jubbly SSF.



Once snow foamed, the car was delicately cleaned with TBM and dried off. By now the sun (yes, the sun) was up and showed me what I feared!







The car was moved indoors where I removed Waxoyl traces, they clayed with Dodo Juice Gentle Grey clay) and measured the paint thickness over the whole car. Areas at risk were taped up, prior to machine polishing.

Now a quick look at the defects! Lots of swirls, buffer trails and the odd hologramme. RDS too but I thought I could hit them with Megs 205 or Menzerna Final finish.



Sadly I was wrong, and it was time to bring out the tried and tested Scholl S3 Gold with the Yellow Megs pad, and follow up each set with Menzerna Final finish on a black Megs pad of course wiping between sets with Eraser (love that smell!)
This gave a lovely crisp, true hologramme and buffer trail free finish.





I'm especially proud of this shot of the roof (some of you may have seen this one on Facebook



So each panel was hit with the S3 Gold then refined and moved on to the next.

The delicate rubber rear spoiled was removed so I could polish the whole area safely and thoroughly.



A quick peek at whats under the bonnet, sadly I cannot take any credit for this apart from buffing and waxing the bulkheads etc!



Once all the dusty polishing was done, the car was de-dusted and I gave her a coat of the lovely Swissvax Scuderia and left this on whilst I got on with the interior which was very satisfying (but grim in some places!)





Lots of fine detail and getting into all the crooks and nannies, inc the word PUSH on the seatbelts which took a bit of work!





So, the glass was cleaned with an alcohol based cleaner, plastics dressed with Wolfs Chemicals Trim Coat. Tyres with AS High style. Exhaust polished with Autosol.

Finally the wax was buffed off, and after over 1.5 days the car was ready to face the world. 
Without a doubt, at this point in time there is NO Fiat Strada Abarth in better condition than this one.

Ladies and Gents, I give you the Fiat Strada 130TC Abarth.













How about a bit of direct sunlight?!





















Well, thats the end of the pics for this beauty. I hope you've all enjoyed it, and I doubt we'll see another on DW.

Thanks for looking

Tim


----------



## mr.t (Oct 1, 2010)

Stunning!

What mileage has she got?


----------



## Derekh929 (Aug 28, 2011)

Tim very very rare motor and very nice mirror finish loving the colour scheme in that unit


----------



## alesoft73 (Aug 27, 2012)

Fantastic car! Nice job


----------



## Envy Car Care (Aug 17, 2006)

mr.t said:


> Stunning!
> 
> What mileage has she got?


Have a feeling it was approx 58k but if you look at the restoration page on FB a lot of work has gone into making her what she is today!


----------



## sprocketser (Aug 4, 2012)

What a blast in there mate ! Better than a repaint !


----------



## TopSport+ (Jul 22, 2012)

perfect!


----------



## james_death (Aug 9, 2010)

Stunning Work and enjoyable read fantastic sleeper of a motor...:thumb:


----------



## Ultra (Feb 25, 2006)

A very rare sight indeed.


----------



## stangalang (Nov 27, 2009)

Flawless


----------



## Steampunk (Aug 11, 2011)

Gotta love wetsanded paint... Awesome work! :thumb:

Steampunk


----------



## Goodfella36 (Jul 21, 2009)

Great Work Tim car looks stunning. I bet you got through some cotton wool buds by the looks :thumb:


----------



## Envy Car Care (Aug 17, 2006)

Goodfella36 said:


> Great Work Tim car looks stunning. I bet you got through some cotton wool buds by the looks :thumb:


Half a BIG tub Lee yes!


----------



## AaronGTi (Nov 2, 2010)

Lovely finish :thumb:


----------



## O`Neil (Aug 13, 2007)

Superb Tim :thumb: That paintwork look so


----------



## Old-scool- m3 (Nov 29, 2010)

What a truly stunning car you have detailed. The car looks flawless and you've done a fantastic job on it. 

I prefer to see cars like this than looking at at super cars etc, they are far more interesting in my opinion.


----------



## Scrim-1- (Oct 8, 2008)

Love this, stunning job.


----------



## id_doug (Apr 6, 2011)

Nice work on a classic little car :thumb:


----------



## -Kev- (Oct 30, 2007)

awesome as per Tim


----------



## Luis (Sep 10, 2012)

Stunning Work


----------



## unique detail (Jan 26, 2012)

Superb finish Tim some awesome reflection shots mate,lovely work:thumb:


----------



## danwel (Feb 18, 2007)

Finish looks truly awesome


----------



## The_Bouncer (Nov 24, 2010)

Awesome work Tim :thumb:

Used to see these cars a lot in London mid 80's - they were the car to have.

Now as far as I'm aware, there is something like 65 left running in the UK.

My neighbor has one of these in his garage, was amazed one day when I heard him start it up, really nice throaty sound - his is more of an ongoing project at the moment.

That is in real nice condition.

great stuff


----------



## gleaming (Aug 14, 2007)

Great job :thumb:
Thanks for making me feel old :lol:


----------



## gb270 (Aug 22, 2008)

Very nice indeed


----------



## GreenyR (Oct 26, 2011)

Stunning reflections on the bonnet! Fantastic work!


----------



## JBirchy (Oct 9, 2010)

Stunning that Tim, really nice to see a rare Italian hatch too! Looks tremendous!


----------



## SteveTDCi (Feb 8, 2006)

The shots of the bonnet look flawless, i guess it helps that it looks like a completely flat panel, but very nice work


----------



## V5Ade (Jul 2, 2006)

Spectacular work, and an awesome car! This thread made my day


----------



## Envy Car Care (Aug 17, 2006)

The_Bouncer said:


> Awesome work Tim :thumb:
> 
> Used to see these cars a lot in London mid 80's - they were the car to have.
> 
> ...





gleaming said:


> Great job :thumb:
> Thanks for making me feel old :lol:


Happy memories for me here too, as my Dad had one as a company car when I was at (Primary) School!


----------



## percymon (Jun 27, 2007)

Superb job - another great result with Scholl compund

And those seats are truly awesome - why can't you get those these days


----------



## Jas16 (Jan 9, 2013)

stunning...super work, well worth the end result


----------



## Matty_L (Nov 19, 2006)

Absolutely stunning, great to see a rare beasty get a proper treatment!


----------



## Detailing JunKy (May 2, 2013)

absolutely stunning what an awesome finish thumbs up mate


----------



## Auto Detox (Dec 22, 2007)

Excellent job Tim on a very cool & rare little car :thumb:


----------



## D.Taylor R26 (Feb 5, 2012)

amazing, flawless finish. S3 doing an amazing job there. 

thanks for posting


----------



## NornIron (May 12, 2007)

:argie:


----------



## EastUpperGooner (May 31, 2009)

Brilliant as always Tim, love a good Fiat restoration.


----------



## Kerr (Mar 27, 2012)

Looks excellent. Top work.

Can't be many of them left.


----------



## Kiashuma (May 4, 2011)

Looks amazing, remember Strada's when I was young going to school.

Always looked more modern, remember trying to make one out of Lego. Always tried to build one car a week!

My model looked sh**e lol


----------



## gally (May 25, 2008)

Those old Blacks just absorb everything around them. Stunning work.


----------



## gibbo555 (May 3, 2011)

Top work, the paintwork is like glass!


----------



## stonejedi (Feb 2, 2008)

Good work,Strada Abarth's really bring back good times for me.SJ.


----------



## Envy Car Care (Aug 17, 2006)

Thanks for all the comments guys. This car is also special for me as its a happy childhood memory and a treat to detail one, a bit like my love of Lancia Deltas!


----------



## Joe the Plumber (Sep 4, 2012)

Remarkable and inspiring work.

I didn't think there were any Stradas left ('Designed by computer, built by robots... and driven by Italians', as far as I remember from 'Not The Nine O'Clock News'!)

But it seems there are a few:

http://www.howmanyleft.co.uk/?utf8=✓&q=Fiat+Strada

I'm sure 'Fiat Strada' is Italian for 'made from rust', so that is indeed a rare car.


----------



## Envy Car Care (Aug 17, 2006)

^LOL, yes we had shed loads of hessian bags with that printed on the front (minus the rust bit!)


----------



## B&B Autostyle (Apr 4, 2010)

Proper hot hatch. Lovely motor with great charisma. 
Tp machine work to boot. Cheers for the share. :thumb:


----------



## tonyy (Jul 26, 2008)

Amazing:thumb:


----------



## Black Magic Detail (Aug 17, 2010)

great work Tim looks fantastic now love the sun shots


----------



## Soul Hudson (Jul 5, 2011)

Stunning work, the paint work looks so crisp and deep.


----------



## xonxon (Nov 3, 2011)

You stand to be corrected. I have a friend who has one, he bought from an old guy. Long story short he's a deliveryman and once saw this car in the sister island of Gozo (I live down in Malta), he followed him and asked him to sell it, the old man replied "not in a million years", some five years of pestering later, the old guy gave in, and sold the car. No one has ever sat in the rear seat, which is still covered in factory plastic and so are the door shuts.

IIRC the car has less than 30k miles 

There is a better strada than that one mate, sorry 

If I manage to obtain pics of it (never seen it myself - my brother has) I'll chuck em 



Envy Valeting said:


> Without a doubt, at this point in time there is NO Fiat Strada Abarth in better condition than this one.


Thumbs up for the job on this one


----------



## Jody 4444 (Mar 12, 2009)

Stunning work as always mate and those reflection shots are amazing :thumb:


----------



## fizzle86 (Apr 1, 2010)

woooooooooowww!!!!!!!!! great job stunning car!


----------



## Steve Saunders (Aug 24, 2006)

Ridiculously cool car and an amazing detail. Nice work mate!


----------



## Tuddie (Aug 14, 2010)

I want this car so badly!!


----------



## Simz (Jun 7, 2013)

Mate of mine hsd an E reg red one, Fantastic car!! We went out one Saturday morning in it then parked it up and jumped in another mates Opel Manta GTE but when we returned the Abarth had gone never to be seen again....He just sat there and said.....It's gone.


----------



## Tuddie (Aug 14, 2010)

Simz said:


> Mate of mine hsd an E reg red one, Fantastic car!! We went out one Saturday morning in it then parked it up and jumped in another mates Opel Manta GTE but when we returned the Abarth had gone never to be seen again....He just sat there and said.....It's gone.


Your joking mate?? I do hope so or that's awful news.


----------



## Simz (Jun 7, 2013)

No it's all true mate happened back in the 90s but still hurts him like it was yesterday


----------



## Tuddie (Aug 14, 2010)

Sad story that. Last time I was in one was around then, can still remember it to this day, awesome car and what a noise!!


----------



## 20vKarlos (Aug 8, 2009)

Very nice paintwork there!


----------



## 123quackers (Jan 29, 2009)

Been a while since I saw one of these beautiful cars, had a couple in the day along with a 131 & 132 super mirror's 
Fantastic :argie:
Thanks for posting this :thumb:


----------



## Envy Car Care (Aug 17, 2006)

123quackers said:


> Been a while since I saw one of these beautiful cars, had a couple in the day along with a 131 & 132 super mirror's
> Fantastic :argie:
> Thanks for posting this :thumb:


What a coincidence! We had a 131 supermifiori too when I was at school


----------



## enc (Jan 25, 2006)

_*Without a doubt, at this point in time there is NO Fiat Strada Abarth in better condition than this one.
*_

I'll agree with you there ! 
truly stunning :thumb:


----------

