Fiat 500 "Jolly" Ghia

[Carlo]

I faced first the most difficult item: the wicker seats. One of the most peculiar and cute features of the car, useful when you wear a wet swuimsuit. I was unsure and didn't know of i was able to recreate such complicated seats. I was adamant that the seats, being one of the most important acessories, had to be spot on.
From a theorical point of view, the build was simplex: a frame made out of brass wire, then some sewing thread suitably coiled around the frame.
The first try looked quite nice, but some fellows pointed out that It was too simple. I cut too many corners

[Carlo]

I understood that a proper wicker had to be made with wires properly intertwined, so the wires were laid in horizontal and vertical way. After various trials, one kind of thread was rejected as too thick and out of scale, another one too furry and unpleasant to look at. The finale choice was the thread used by boat modelers, in 0.75 mm and 0.50 mm thickness.
At the end, the first seat was made and remade six times. The last one was satisfying , and i decided to proceed with the body.

[Carlo]

The Italeri kit Is for a normal Fiat 500 with saloon body. I made some search and measurements from various web pictures, i marked the body with tape, then i started with the saw. There Is no turning back now.

For unknown reasons, my pictures are coming out rotated by 90 degrees. Someone will kindly suggest how to redress the problem ?

[Roger Zimmermann]

Interesting small car; don't remember if some came in Switzerland, maybe in Ascona or Locarno, but I doubt...
Your interpretation for the seats is interesting and is in line with the character from the original seats!

[Carlo]

I faced another problema. These small cars were equipped with white wall tires, whereas the tires of the kit are normal tires.
The obvious solution was to mask the tires and spray some White. Regretfully i was unable to make a good round masking , so i was forced to use a white Uniposca felt pen and i painted the walls free hand. I was rather nervous, but the result was Better than expected. And with some clear coat It improved.

[Carlo]

Work in progress . Body in primer .

[Carlo]

My little car have some interesting features. One of the most striking are the chromed bars around the body. I do believe that the coachbuilder needed to strenghten the body of the car. If you take out the roof, the body will flex too much. So the bars had a mechanical purpose and at the sane time a strong visual appeal. I realized the bars with 3 mm plasticard rods.

[Carlo]

The 500 received some Coral Red Paint.

[Carlo]

Here we are. The work Is completed. My 500 Is shown together with a Vespa 150 GS. By the way, the Vespa Is a simple die cast that i improved with Better Paint, luggage racks and some details.

[MODEL A MODEL]

Congratulations! You have definitely shown the character of the car! Very nice.

[Bugatti Fan]

A very nice conversion.
It takes a lot of courage and confidence to hack into an expensive kit and convert it.

[Nortley]

I see one of those miniature travel trailers in that cut off roof piece.

[Carlo]

Thanks for your approvato.
Like to end showing some pictures of my model in già Natural environment, the tourist Port of Marina di Ravenna.
Best regards to everybody.