183 SNUGGLY CONTOURS, ANTIQUE YELLOW AND REGULAR RECTANGLES...

We visited Colour Create yesterday and met Barry and Kevin. I rambled on about the trip born from a stupid idea, fuelled by alcohol and fed by a 'you only live once' attitude. They initially looked at us like we were daft, I reckon they are right to be honest!

I showed them images of what we would like. I explained my reservations about sticking a magnet over the contours of the car. They had a sample of the automotive-grade magnetic sticker, which was thinner than I expected, giving me hope that it would mould to the car's body lines.

My hopes were raised massively when they put the sticker up against the car, and it snuggled into the contours perfectly. That was a massive weight off my mind. The weight was back with vengeance minutes later when the guys tried to fit the sticker to the bonnet where it meets the front light, only to conclude it probably wasn't possible.

The issue is that part of the body works curves down towards the front wheel, narrows inward and curves down towards the bumper all at the same time. No matter how they manhandled it, there was a bubble at the front - perfect to act as an air scoop, meaning we would be on the side of an Autobahn picking it up trim every time we picked up some speed - not ideal.

This is something we need to work on. There is a solution, even if it means printing and cutting little slivers of sticker to fill in the gaps. A faff, but a fix nonetheless.

What struck me is that the magnetic sticker is arctic white, whereas our Abarth is 'sort-of-cream-white-that-has-been-exposed-to-the-elements-for-13-years-white'.

For the sponsor sticker on the side, we might need to print off white in the negative space so it blends in - that wasn't on my list of things to worry about!

On a similar note, they confirmed they cannot print metallic, so Carl's colour scheme might be more 'antique yellow' than 'sparkling gold' if he gets it printed there. But again, it might fit the shonky theme if the gold JPS is actually a deep yellow colour. To be fair, if it is printed out, nothing is stopping us from cutting out the negative space and going to town with a gold rattle can...that is a shout!

We discussed R&Rs design, and the guys confirmed that if they just want big, colourful, square/rectangular panels, then it shouldn't be an issue at all; they do these regularly.

I broached the ugly subject of cost, and they confirmed they couldn't even hazard a guess at this time. There are too many variables right now; they need to get a template for a Fiat 500, digitally transfer a design to it, work out how much magnetic material it will require, and then there's cutting, test-fitting, etc.

I asked if they could give a rough price as soon as possible. If it is going to cost thousands, we can't justify it, so we won't waste any more of their time. Looking at the work involved in our car, I can't see it being cheap, so we might need to abandon the idea altogether or come up with a simpler design to produce. Let's see what the guys come up with.

I'm confident something can be done, but the way their brows furrowed as we presented the magnetic sheets to the car makes me think it might not be what we went in asking for. That weight is back on my mind...