If you need, go to the Japanese article

Cinquecentos in general have various door mirrors simply because side mirrors were (allegedly) not required around the time Cinques came out in Italy in the 1950s. So, they put on whatever available or their favorite stuff, today. However, it seems that most of their efforts have failed and the mirrors seen on the Cinques look neither functional nor aesthetical.

The former owner’s choice was even worse: black, bullet-shaped and too small– ugly and dangerous. I had replaced them with chrome-plated ones, and looked OK but still too small.

I thought it’s a good idea to install a pair of “present” Fiat 500’s door mirrors and tried, but in vain… They were too large (despite that the present one is relatively small compared with other ordinary cars).

Finally, after weeks of search throughout the web, I came across the door mirrors for the early Mazda Miata, whose rounded shape fits that of the Cinque, and bought a pair on the web auction. The original color was rather dull, so I painted them in red!

The angle of the door surface where the mirror was attached was too close to vertical. I had to make a wedge-shaped spacer to correct the angle of the mirror.  The spacer’s surface must be curved so as to fit the door’s curvature. The old Miata’s mirrors are not motorized and small enough to fit the micro Cinque, and their oval shapes go so well with round shape of my car.

Here they are:

It was a good fine day today, so that I slipped in my Fiat 500 to get to the mountain house.

Just about reaching the mountain pass, it started to snow. I was worried about the tires, which were not for snowed or frozen road.

When I arrived, it looked the weather had recovered, but soon the situation started to get even worse. Then I decided to do stuff only for a few hours or so to be able to get back home before sunset.

I was sort of hurry to work, and made a major bummer– stepped on an old nail, which pierced the shoe sole and stuck in the thenar of my left foot so deep. It’s swollen and still aching even now…

Oh, well… I quit the day’s work much earlier, for it seemed a bad idea to continue in the miserable now with an aching foot. I thought I could have got more injury; the work of the day was mainly with a circular saw, which is very dangerous.

On the way back, the thermometer at the pass indicated “-1″(degree, Celsius= below freezing point).  There wasn’t much snow and the road surface wasn’t frozen yet, but if I went there after dark… uhhh… I don’t even wanna think…

My cute little Italiana, Fiat Cinquecento, is now hospitalized.

Although I had been working on her, repairing the wiring & harness, checking and monkeying the electrical stuff, like the windshield wiper, and so on, I finally came across the major bummer– the rotten body with panels that were rusted thorough here and there… uhhh, all over, more appropriately.

I might have been able to fix those metal-work stuff, but it would take a lot of arm’s grease and I cannot afford the time, since I am commuting to a house– far out in mountains– which I am fixing all by myself. I can’t drive the Fiat while I am doing the house, anyway. So, I decided to bring her over to the professionals of a local motor garage.

Waiting for my love to return home, I am daydreaming of modifying her with a pair of door mirrors which are originally for the new Fiat 500. These new mirrors may be a little too large, but I don’t mind. I photoshopped a photo of her so as to see how she would be looking like with the unusual rear-view mirrors.

Well, they surely seem too big and they make the Cinquecento appear like a doggy– but with them, cute isn’t she?

チンクのワイパーが異常に遅い。一往復に１０秒以上かかる。このままでは車検を通らないんじゃないか。

というわけでバラしてみた。ただでさえ燃料タンクの後ろに隠れて見えにくいワイパーモーター、前にデフロスターにブロアモーターを増設したのでボルト一本外すにもとんでもなくメンドクサい。

なんとか取り出したら断線が一本。外すときに切れたのかどうかはわからないけど、それ以外にもリード線のビニール被覆が経年劣化してボリボリと折れる。。。外した状態でテストしようとしたらいきなりショートしてフューズが飛んじゃった。リード線の劣化を見てしまったのでこのまま断線を直して使うのはあきらめて、別の部品を調達することに。

花背の家の修理に行くついでに、そのまだずっと奥の山中に放置されている赤いFiat５００の所有者に許可を得て、めぼしい部品をいただく。死体から臓器 移植するみたいで赤いチンクちゃんには申し訳ないような、、、でも、そのまま朽ち果てるよりは、部分だとしても生き続けるんだからまだましじゃないか と、、、。（本当は人間の臓器移植について、同じようなことを言う人に対しては疑念というか抵抗を禁じ得ないのだけど）

２年ほど前に、山奥の友人に僕のチンクチェントを見せびらかしに行ったら、同じ型の車が廃墟の中に置かれていると言われた。友人の家から歩いてすぐのところ。足場丸太と番線だけで組み上げられた見事な倉庫。長年放置されていて中の車どころか、巨大な倉庫そのものが崩落しつつある。実際、腐朽の進んだ丸太の下部が折れて座屈し、赤チンクの後部に被さっている。何かが落ちてきても怪我しないようにヘルメットを被って作業したが、丸太がなだれ落ちてきたらひとたまりもない。こわごわ、へっぴり腰での作業だった。

で、肝心のワイパーモーターは、先日、別の部品を貰いに行ったときに燃料タンクを外しておいたのであっというまに取り外せた。ついでに、配線の一部とス イッチ、ヘッドランプ球、それに三角窓などもいただいてきた。赤チンクちゃんのボディーはもうサビが回りきっていて、手の施しようもない状態だけど、各部 品はそこそこ程度が良い。大切に使わせて頂きます～。

その後、花背別所に戻り、家の修繕。ドアノブとロックの修理と板壁にカビのシミや子供の落書きがあり、ランダムサンダーで削り落とし。サンダーは重い。壁一面で腕がアガっちゃった。

日が暮れて帰り道、別所の村はずれの気温は－２度になっていた。