- TBH I had an impression that this is the longer body
Details didn’t fit any 125 variation that I remember, but this is Fiat, so… who knows, I thought 
124S is similar to the 125p in a “fever dream” way. In general, yes, but barely any detail is the same I think (aside from the handles, those are).
And yes, 125p used round headlights.
Yes, the 124 and 125 are very different cars in many ways, it’s a bit like the Rekord E and Senator A I think, you see that they are related but when you start to compare them, body, interior, mechanics, there are more differences than similarities, and interestingly enough, I think that 124S (not regular 124, because of the door handles) and 125 front doors may be the same. Just like being more or less the only body panel a Senator A shares with a Rekord E.
A small detail, but I really want to get rid of this crease in the roof, since it feels like a remainder from the jet age, with wing inspired roofs, which makes the car look more dated, the 124 was modern when it came out much because of its clean lines and lack of ornamentation. (Ignore that the car is silver, I just did some temporary look how it will turn out with a shiny paintjob on it.
Curved patches aren’t easy and there was much trial and error until I managed to get some that covered most of the crease area that I had negataped away. As you can see, I stacked multiple ones to get them to cover up properly, probably the wrong way to do it but the first thing I found out to get the result I wanted. Then I closed the remaining gaps around it with regular patches.
Rear side window frames corrected and rain gutters added.
Well, at least we got a little closer to a 124 with the new greenhouse (which I think is what makes the Simca body having such a heavy Simca identity, the greenhouse is really typical on the 1100 with rather small windows etc.)
Then there is a recess in the hood, nothing strange there.
Other than that it has to be negataped to fit the air intakes for the heater.
3Ding in some vents and it looks somewhat convincing.
Then creating a panel gap for the hood, not perfect but will maybe add depth to the final car.
Very simple turn signals. What might be of interest is that by 1967 they were still allowed to be white (like they most often are on the early Fiat 124) in many countries, so amber is not necessarily the only colour of choice when designing a 60s car. In the 70s, white lenses became less common, and reappeared around the mid-late 80s, now with coloured bulbs. (Remember that there are always exceptions to the rule, but speaking in general…)
This bumper fixture got a great use once again
And the almost cute little bumper horns were added.
It is hard to find pictures of 124s having mirrors at all, since I want them I added something simple, looking like proper 60s aftermarket.
This is not supposed to be a 124 Special, like mentioned earlier, so traditional pushbutton handles there is…
Can’t forget the little side marker that is about as cute as the bumper horns.
Phew, some really close updates now but…I am tired after lots of work on this now and will take a little break, see you soon!
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Well, with all the side molding going on, opening up the door gaps again was necessary.
Not much trim on the sides, but at least it has this little strip at the C-pillar, and one on the sill.
As I said, adding seams adds depth even if they are barely visible in the end.
A similar recess on the trunk as on the hood.
And one for the panel surrounding the taillights.
This fixture felt close enough for the actual taillights (which I moved higher up later on)
The wraparound rear window bugged me so I fixed that too, a rather chunky C-pillar was the tradeoff, but at least one that is easier to live with.
So, single axis cutout patches for removing the trim (or else it would poke out where the trim previously had been)
And regular cutout patches to cover up the window area.
Added the little trim piece inside the taillights.
There are some pressings in the pan under the rear bumper, barely visible on the real car so I felt that this replicated them close enough.
Adding this too, and a cutout for the exhaust.
Some detailing later I start to feel quite finished, and well, this one had a little less left unaltered of the original body than the earlier ones.
Unfortunately it was harder to pull of some decent looking change of the too rounded tail, but…
I hope it looks at least somewhat like a 124 with some paint on it.
IMO the 124 looks best in darker colours so I did choose this dark blue that seems to have been available on the early cars. For some reason, I think it kind of removes some of the “not so 124” styling traits on the finished product.
So, with all this work, I am still not sure that it looks any better than my replica from four years ago…
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The annoying thing with the Fiat 124 is that finding interior reference pictures is easy. If you’re looking for Sport coupé or Spider ones - which of course ate totally different. However, this one gives kind of a good overview I guess. Lada 2101 is probably to be found, but I am not sure how much that changed in the transformation there.
At least the basic shape of the dash and gauge cluster is fairly simple so I think using those two fixtures will do.
And this fixture will replicate the pattern on top of the dash.
For the instruments, I used this fixture but removed everything but the dials. Also, why is the speedo pinned at 120?
For getting a cover glass over the instruments, I simply duplicated this fixture and set the plastic part to transparent, and the outer one to a glass material.
A somewhat similar steering wheel actually exists in this case too.
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A bit problematic is the fact that the dashboard seems to be black at the top and has a kind of aluminium finish at the bottom. My solution was to recolour the dash to aluminium and put a plastic parcel shelf fixture on top of it.
A bumper bar fixture serving as the bottom of the dash.
Other than that, rather straightforward dashboard. Some controls to the left, a weird and probably semi-awkward placement of the radio, then heater controls and ash tray (which is a fuel door fixture set to 3D)
This is an era where controls were starting to move to steering wheel stalks, and the Fiat has 2. In some pictures I see one more to the right, I don’t know why but presuming that it is for some newer/more luxurious model, I skip that one out. Also, the Fiat has its ignition lock to the left.
The Fiat pedals seems to be a bit offset to the right, so that’s how I place them.
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Oh they definitely are, annoyingly so, that was typical for old Fiats and all the derived cars (Polonez, Lada, Zastava…). As for the stalks, IIRC the ones on the left were indicators and low/high beam switch, while on the right was the wiper stalk - however, I have that thought in the back of my mind that wipers could also be controlled by a classic (multi-position) switch - maybe that’s thw case for early models, or sth like that?
Seating position like the Saab 96 then (and equally annoying I guess)
Also, there seems to be a wiper symbol on the third switch on the reference pic, so you’re probably right.
Will hardly be visible even in Beam, but the devil is in the details.
Relatively simple but functional seats with what I guess is leatherette upholstery, and headrests weren’t a thing yet.
So. This has to do.
Long gearsticks were still a thing in 1967…
More modern was the place of the handbrake between the seats, so no hocus pocus here.
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Sounds wrong to say “my father had the longest in town”…
But the lever of the Kadett B was definitely…long.
There were really no similar doorcards so I started out with a smooth base.
This piping and some chrome trim and they somewhat resemble the 124 ones. The rest of the interior has only been some minor detailing, and boring stuff like ceiling and pillars that already has been shown enough in earlier builds, so…
A perfect replica? No. But I guess it is somewhat recognizable as a Fiat 124 anyway.
Now, time for the NSU Ro80, and I guess the way to do that car is to try to convert the BMW coupé body into a 4 door…or does anyone have a better idea?
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Are you planning on doing a lot of 3D work to get the body closer? Or would it be easier to try and get the basic NSU details on the BMW body?
To put it this way:
I have studied the design a little bit, and it really shows how skilled Claus Luthe was (despite maybe being mostly “famous” for the tragedy later in his life, which is a totally different story). Beautiful? Ugly? THAT is up to each and everyone to decide, but it is a very advanced design where you find new things to admire all the time.
(Instead, I think he was a little bit weak on the smaller K70 that was released under the VW name after the takeover. On the other hand, he also designed the original VW Polo/Audi 50, which I think is one of the best looking superminis ever, and the BMW E28, which is one of the best looking sedans ever, so it is a designer I really look up to).
Is that easy to replicate with Automation fixtures on what is a totally different body? No, it is not, it is downright impossible to reach 100% here, and the outlook seemed dark to start with.
But after some fiddling (that you will see in the next update), I must say that it looks surprisingly easy to actually reach 90%! I guess that the answer is in the Corvair article I posted in one of the Fiat 124 updates, if the Fiat 124 has some features distantly descendant from the Corvair (inherited from the indeed very much more closely inspired predecessor, the Fiat Juventus), NSU owed much to it in its design language, and so did the 60s BMW models, so much of the basic design is much closer than it first seems like.
My main concern will be to fix the rear part of the roof (the coupé has the right shape of the roof, but the c-pillar and rear window arrangement is totally wrong), and of course converting the coupé into a 4 door sedan. By doing that, you will be able to look at it already at an early stage and say “that’s an Ro80” and not just “that’s a generic 60s sedan on the BMW body”, already before I have started cluttering it down with NSU looking fixtures.
…they may look like two totally different cars, but look at only the silhouette and they really aren’t…
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The first thing I wanted to do was to change the car from a coupé to a sedan. Now, since there has been some trial and error on this body I haven’t done screen captures until now, so you will see the work done on a car that isn’t growing step by step into its intended shape, but I hope that it is equally understandable anyway. Anyway, a decal patch closes the door gap of the 2 door…
And new ones being made with this fixture. One unusual thing is that the NSU door does not extend over the rear wheel arch, but has this straight shutline.
Unfortunately, this will lead to doors looking a bit short on the replica, since it is not possible to totally do away with the RWD proportions of the BMW body. The distance between A-pillar and rear wheel is a bit too short, especially considering that the closest of the BMW bodies size-wise has a wheelbase that is a bit shorter than the Ro80 too.
Combining those two fixtures to get some of the “soap dish” look. Probably should be reduced a bit in depth but I will look into that later.
Recesses behind the door handles are vents with the mesh texture changed to the car’s primary colour.
New pillars were of course needed.
Then, the reshaping of the rear greenhouse area. The original C-pillar removed by using patches with translucent colour.
Chrome decal patches made for a new C-pillar.
And new window trim on top of that.
The Ro80 seems to have some small vents on the pillar too, so I added them when I still was at it…
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This is gonna be a hard one, i can tell. It looks really cool though.
One thing though, would you consider posting your .car files? Some of these are really cool and it would be nice to take a closer look.
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Yes, that was my plan, I just haven’t bothered to do it just yet.
At least the Rover, Austin and Renault are available as beam mods as we speak, so you can always download them to enjoy in the meantime.
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Would you be fine with them being used as background traffic in pictures?
Totally fine.
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Now I have put up the car files and also links for Beam.
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