Here's what I've accomplished so far....

 
 
First off, I pulled the roof. One of the front support arms was actually broken, so I need to get a torch & weld it back together.   I also pulled those awful off-white mirrors & scrapped 'em. I'm going to keep the nice black one becasue it'll match. I've since pulled the roof from the frame & begun painting it. The support arms have been repainted a matte black color. 

On an related note, the brakes have actually gotten worse. 
The parking brake no longer engages at all, and you must park it on level ground or it will flee. 

I'l have to work on that. 

 
 
 
Secondly, I removed all the pinstriping & decals. It took a lot of scraping but I was able to get it all off after a few hours. I also pulled the mat back & made sure the floorboard was OK, which it was. I also removed the handrails, which have since been repainted a nice metallic silver. 

Bling bling, yo. 
 

Number of times a hacksaw has been used: 1
 

Incidentally, I think that bracket thingy on the front wheel is a towing bar. 

 
 
 
Another view of the cart. 

It took a few hours with the scraper to get that cat off. 

Just kidding - Inky approves. 

 
 
 
I pulled off the extra junk from the control panel. 
I removed the key switch since it had been overridden anyway. I've since hooked it up to a meter & discovered that it still works, and after a thorough cleaning I'll re-wire & reinstall it.  I also removed the non-functioning charger bracket (the vertical rectangle on the right) and some sort of weird hose poking through the bottom that you can't see from here. 
 

Number of times a crowbar has been used:  1

 
 
 
I got back inside it  & removed all the extra wiring.
It's just the motor & the batteries at this point. 

Alas, the existing horn was a casualty. 
I'll just have to get a bigger, louder one. 

The once the paint has been completed, 
I'll add a 4th 12v deep-cycle marine battery to run the electronics. 

Eventually I want to add an additional bank of batteries so that when you run out of power on the first set you simply switch over the the second.
It'll be like having an extra gas tank, but I'll need to scam an additional charger. 

I plan on adding  four forward-facing lights, 2 on the roof & two on the front. 
I want to add a stereo, too, mostly because there's a great place for one. 
I also need to install some rear lights, and perhaps a backup light as well. 

In a tribute to the Fiat, all lights will be directly controlled by toggle switches on a hand-crafted instrument panel. 

I'm also adding reflectors, but I don't have to wire those in. 
 

 
 
 
Finally, before I started painting the body I sanded & primed all the rusty spots I could find.

I think I got 'em all. 
 
 

 More to come. 

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