Fiat 500 "Jolly" Ghia

[Carlo.d]

The fifties have been a golden period for Italian coachbuilders. The wealthy people and the celebrities were eager to show themselves onboard Gran Turismo cars and names such as Pininfarina and Bertone were more than happy to build and sell their gorgeous bodyworks.

One of these firms, Carrozzeria Ghia, built some very special cars on humble mechanics. These cars were nicknamed "Spiaggina", which you can freely translate as "small beach car".

The Spiaggina style was quite simple: Ghia cut some small cars, took away roof and doors, replaced the seats upholstery with wicker, more suitable if you wear a wet swimsuit.

One of the first Spiaggina was based on a Fiat Topolino Giardinetta.

Other popular ones were based on the Fiat 600 sedan and on the Fiat 600 Multipla, whose larger internal space permitted to allocate two bench seats.

These funny beach cars were popular at sea resorts. In places such as Ischia or Taormina they were used as hotel shuttle cars or were available for hire.

One of the last and the most popular of these cars was based on the Fiat 500. This small and inexpensive car was easily transformed into a cute luxury item. Called "Jolly", the funny car was very popular, even if the price was more then twice the price of the original Fiat 500. Many celebrities were seen onboard the Jolly: amongst others, Prince Rainier of Monaco with Grace Kelly and his family.

The Jolly was exported to the States, with some strange bigger lights needed to comply with your rules

But let's come back to scale models. Italeri is producing a nice 1/12 model of the Fiat 500. So I said to myself: I will cut the body and I will build my Spiaggina.

[Carlo.d]

Ok. This is the Italeri kit.

 

It was clear to me from the very beginning that there was a big challenge: the wicker seats. The seats have a strong visual impact, without some good seats it is absolutely useless to cut and destroy a nice kit. So first thing first. I said to myself: if a can do some nice seats, i will go on. Otherwise i'll do the Fiat 500 out of the box.

So i made a frame in brass rod and i made a first trial. I just took some wire and wrapped it around the frame. This is the result, shown together with the original seat.

 

It was immediately clear that this solution was too simplified and was lacking visual appeal.

So i tried a better procedure. I crossed the wires, in the same way of the original seats. I prepared just a small part of the seat.

In this case the wire was completely out of scale and the aspect was very poor. The sewing thread also was very furry, really ugly to see.

I went shopping for a better wire, but i faced the same furry aspect. I received a lot of suggestions: the member of a local forum suggestd many different solutions, such as welding wire, nylon fishing line, dental floss ( ! ). At the end, a clever friend told me to try the wire which is used by navy modelers for the intricate spider web of wires on sail ships. This was the right one, The appearance was less furry and the wire itself was easier to handle. I used wire by 0.75 mm for the vertical threads and 0.5 mm for the horizontal ones, crossed on the seats using a big sewing needle.

At the end this is the result. Far from perfect,  but this was my very best. It took six different trials for the driver's seat. Once learned the trick, the other seats were easier to make. As i said, far from perfect, but once you see them inside the car, they are very nice to look at.

                           

[stitchdup]

very nice work, looking forward to more

[Carlo.d]

Thanks stitchdutp !

 

After weeks of works with needle and wires, i decided to relax a little bit and to build the engine. The car will be shown with the hood closed, but never mind, better to build it.

This is a cute engine, parallel twin, aircooled, 500 cubic centimeters, equals to 30.5 cubic inches. Delivers 18 mighty horses and pushes the little car at the majestic speed of 95 kilometers per hour.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Carlo.d]

Now it was time to begin work on the body of the 500.

Firt of all i put some tape on the body in order to have a clear idea of where to cut.

 

     

For time being i decide to leave in place the grille above the engine hood, in order to keep in shape the body.

The doors too had to be cut. I believe that the coachbuilder had to insert some structure in order to mantain the strenght of the car: without the roof the structure have been weakened,

      

 

And here is the body badly cut, There is no turning back.

 

 

 

[Carlo.d]

Next steps.

I had to modify the  doors openings. The threshold have been raised and the front edge now is slightly bent back . To do so I used some slices of the original doors, glued, plastered with putty and carefully sanded.  In the pictures you can see the shape of the openings, before and after.

 

Another interesting step. The coachbuilder surrounded the body with some chromed bars. I am led to believe that these bars were necessary in order to strengthen the chassis. At the same time they had a strong visual appeal. I built the bars with plasticard tube.

With the same tube I built the front and rear bumpers, custom made by the coachbuilder.

[Carlo.d]

Next challenge, the wheels. The kit's tires are obviously black, whilst the Jolly sported white wall tires. 

First of all I planned to paint the tires, but I was dubious of my skill for masking properly the tires and get a nice well defined edge. So I used a safer procedure: I simply painted the walls with my faithful Uniposca white felt pen. Below you can see an intermediate step.

And this is the final result. I painted the rims with the body colour and I am happy with it.

 

[CabDriver]

Those tires look great…but that wicker seat is amazing!  Nice work!

[thebavarian]

That is nice project. Perfect built.

[Straightliner59]

On 5/22/2024 at 3:10 PM, Carlo.d said:

Ok. This is the Italeri kit.

 

It was clear to me from the very beginning that there was a big challenge: the wicker seats. The seats have a strong visual impact, without some good seats it is absolutely useless to cut and destroy a nice kit. So first thing first. I said to myself: if a can do some nice seats, i will go on. Otherwise i'll do the Fiat 500 out of the box.

So i made a frame in brass rod and i made a first trial. I just took some wire and wrapped it around the frame. This is the result, shown together with the original seat.

 

It was immediately clear that this solution was too simplified and was lacking visual appeal.

So i tried a better procedure. I crossed the wires, in the same way of the original seats. I prepared just a small part of the seat.

In this case the wire was completely out of scale and the aspect was very poor. The sewing thread also was very furry, really ugly to see.

I went shopping for a better wire, but i faced the same furry aspect. I received a lot of suggestions: the member of a local forum suggestd many different solutions, such as welding wire, nylon fishing line, dental floss ( ! ). At the end, a clever friend told me to try the wire which is used by navy modelers for the intricate spider web of wires on sail ships. This was the right one, The appearance was less furry and the wire itself was easier to handle. I used wire by 0.75 mm for the vertical threads and 0.5 mm for the horizontal ones, crossed on the seats using a big sewing needle.

At the end this is the result. Far from perfect,  but this was my very best. It took six different trials for the driver's seat. Once learned the trick, the other seats were easier to make. As i said, far from perfect, but once you see them inside the car, they are very nice to look at.

                            

I think those look fantastic! You're correct--those need to be, or at least mimic, wicker. Admirable work, sir!

[Carlo.d]

Thanks for your approval.

Here below I enclose a couple of pictures that I failed to post. This is the rear bench seat. You can see how I made the wicker seats. Some vertical wires (0.75 mm) were glued to the brass frame with CA glue. By trial and painful errors I learned that the vertical wires must be a odd number. If the number is even, the wires will cross in a wrong way and you are forced to undo your boring work and to restart from the beginning. Once the vertical wires are in position and well glued, you take a big sewing needle and the wire (in this case 0.5 mm) and begin to pass through the vertical wires. 

Just to relax myself I prepared a funny item: a lifesaver made out of Fimo clay.

 

[Carlo.d]

Many thanks to all of you for your support.

[Tom Geiger]

Super model, I'll be following this thread for sure!

I've always wanted to build a Jolly in 1:24 scale but those wicker seats stopped me!

[Carlo.d]

Tom Geiger, to build the wicker seats in 1/24 is an absolute nightmare, unless you have a grandma well experienced in embroidery. I believe that the only possible solution is to 3d print them.

[DJMar]

As someone who has a healthy love of all things Fiat, I'm super excited to see this build. Very, very cool. The work on the seats alone is a testament to your patience. Following this for sure.

[Carlo.d]

Here I made a first try to see if everything is in order and all parts match.

 

This is a further trial. I made a base of polystyrene engraved to reproduce a cobblestone road. I also parked a Vespa 150 GS near to the 500. The Vespa is a simple die-cast, but I improved it with a new coat of paint and some accessories. 

 

[Carlo.d]

Now let's paint the car. I had the possibility to choose any color, these cars were custom made and the buyer was able to decide is own color, as long as he paid the bill.

Mi choice was an original Fiat color, "rosso corallo" easily translated as coral red.

I have to admit that I don't use the aerograph. First of all, I am lazy and I hate the boring procedure for cleaning the device. Also my air compressor is down in the basement, too many stairs. So I normally use spray bottles. In this case I found the color bode through a Fiat 500 owners club and I got a spray bottle mixed for me by a local shop.

These are some pictures. We are at the last steps.

 

[espo]

All the makings of a great diorama. Get some beach attired 1/25th models as well. 

[Carlo.d]

On 5/31/2024 at 5:54 PM, espo said:

All the makings of a great diorama. Get some beach attired 1/25th models as well. 

Dear Espo, regretfully every time I try to produce some figures, I fail in a miserable way and the figures look like ugly monsters. Better to stick to cars.

[Carlo.d]

Well, my Spiaggina is completed. I just like to show her in a proper environment, at sea.

Here I enclose some pictures taken at Marina di Ravenna, the Place where I live.

 

 

 

[espo]

12 hours ago, Carlo.d said:

Dear Espo, regretfully every time I try to produce some figures, I fail in a miserable way and the figures look like ugly monsters. Better to stick to cars.

I bet I could even due worst. I was thinking about some of the casters out there that offer some really nice-looking figures, some painting required. 

[Carlo.d]

14 hours ago, espo said:

I bet I could even due worst. I was thinking about some of the casters out there that offer some really nice-looking figures, some painting required. 

"Some painting required". This is the step where I fail in a miserable way. Nevermind, better to do a fair wicker work than a monstrous lady in swimsuit.