Brilliant! I just laughed out loud when Charlie suggested swapping the plug leads and it fired up straight away 😂 Charlie’s going to live on that moment for ages!! This is RUclips gold 😂
I'm glad motoring has evolved past the 500, sure it's one of the most charming cars of all time (even though I'd still pick the Mini as the GOAT), but cars from the 1950's are deadly in any kind of crash. More recent cars offer a better compromise between weight and safety: my daily's a 2003 Yaris TS, it's a very light and enjoyable car to drive, and yet I won't die if I hit anything bigger than a shrubbery
@@lptomtomone of the reasons, not the only of course, that they are deadly in a crash is because everything else is so big. Conservation of momentum is a b….
First off, the Fiat 500 is just a simple, cute and quaint car. Wish we could go back to those days, but, alas... Second, seeing the old photos of you and then Charlie standing beside you; wow, almost carbon copies. Good on you and your family sharing this passion of automobiles. Supercars are cool, and I watch and appreciate those videos, but these videos are where it's at. This is everyday motoring, or was, and I miss it dearly.
More of you two working together please, I thoroughly enjoyed this. I lost my Dad 20 years ago and miss him terribly and videos like this make me sad that he isn't here but make me smile for what I lost as well. And seeing a wonderful father son relationship is great to see.
Many of us are probably in a similar position, we were so fortunate to have family cars that our dads understood and pass on the knowledge. A different game with today's vehicles 😢
The pure joy when it came alive again❤ A true petrolhead doesn't always need a gazillion horse powers and high speed. Have a wonderful Christmas everybody. It's before 9 AM in Sweden and I already got a great present, thanks Harry and Charlie!
I remember “helping” my dad to get his cars running when I was 15. So funny you mixed the leads up! Well done Charlie for helping your old dad get her running….
This was just wonderful. It reminds me of my youth long ago and calls from my father ‘will you please put the engine back in the lawnmower,’ Eventually they bought me an old morris engine to keep me quiet!
Had a similar experience at about the same age: my dad and his mate were (still are) avid motorcyclists and were doing maintenance on their bikes in the driveway after cleaning them off with the power washer. Anyway, they couldn't get his mate's bike to start no matter what they did, really baffling a pair of professional engineers, until having brought the tea out I asked if it would work if they took the plug out of the exhaust they'd put in to stop water ingress during the power wash. Fired right up!
Young Harry IS Borat! As an art student, a school friend and I cycled from Geneva in a bid to cross the Alps to catch the Tour de France on L’Alpe d’Huez in 1984. We reached the Mont Blanc tunnel and signs prohibiting cyclists from passing through. We attempted to hitch with our bikes for several hours. Lorries, campers and pick ups whizzed past. With hopes fading a father, grandfather and grandson stopped in a Fiat 500. With no common language they realised our plight, and issued instructions for the two of us, I’m foot two, to climb into the back seat, whereupon they rolled back the sunroof, handed us our panniers, then stacked the bikes on the roof which we all held onto and set off through the tunnel. Unforgettable
Brilliant. Talk about saving the best until last, what a year ending video. Who would have thought it'd be so important to have the rotor arm actually inside the distributor cap, rather than just sat alongside the engine 😄 The pure joy on your faces when it fired up (with proper soot as a bonus). A proper father/son moment that'll be with you for years to come - well done.
The joy that Harry brings with his enthusiasm is always so genuine and refreshing to see, a truer Petrol head never existed. Keep em coming because I always look forward to them on a Sunday
7am Christmas Eve Harry’s garage. Great stuff! Happy Christmas Harry and family. Thanks for all the entertainment in 2023. Looking forwards to more in 2024!
It’s not the plug leads that are the wrong way round it’s the distributor cap put on 180 ° out. Really easily done as the cap can be fitted either way. Learnt from previous experience with my 1970 500.
That would explain it, thank you. I was sure the plug leads were the right way round but hadn’t thought about the distributor cap not having an indent to lock it one position. Live and learn; made for a good video!
Best Harry's Garage video ever! Thank your team for all their efforts this year, On The Farm and in The Garage. Your work is appreciated. All the very best for 2024
In the 80’s I used to abuse my 68’ 500 on the daily commute into London on the A40 Western Avenue. It never failed me even when I hear things rattling lose and actually saw bits falling off on the road behind me. I never did find out what was missing. Got nothing but love for this car (one of Gordon Murrays top cars too, talk about a seal of approval)
This reminds me of the time I used to split engines with my Dad in the garage…..it was the one bond my dad and I had that we could both get involved with. He was a trained mechanic but never continued on so used to do the odd thing for family and friends but we were always tinkering on things, culminating in splitting a Lancia Gamma flat 4 engine a few hours after it basically blew itself to bits less than 300 yards away from our house towing a caravan just about to set out on a family holiday. That car was glorious but the engine was “problematic”. My Dad was determined we would be going on holiday and we drove around in my Mum’s car to various places trying to source parts because Lancia was in the process of pulling out of Britain 🤣🤣 Nigh on impossible but we did it! And we managed to go on holiday after spending a fortune and a few days in the garage. This all just brought all those memories back. Which is nice.
Harry is like a archivist!. The most organized person I have ever seen. "We last used the car December 2018.." Up Pops a picture of the car complete with Christmas Tree, December 2018! 😂. "I assembled the engine on a kitchen table.." Up pops a picture! Love it.
Many many years ago three girls broke down in the lakes and knocked on the door to use the phone to ring home. I asked what the car was?… “mini”…I’ve had two cooper S back then 997/1074! …”hold my beer!” .. they were on their way within minutes with a piece of tin foil to get them home😊! Following day there is a box of chocolates at my door👍🏻! Merry Christmas to you and yours guys… always a good watch… Thankyou!
So much sweeter to watch this mechanical simplicity of an Italian cultural icon than any road tests of over weight, touch screen, new car with no personality or culture heritage
My father bought fiat 600, in the 1970, his first car. According to my dad. The car took more water consumption than petrol. Eventually he got so fed up that he asked my grandfather to please take this car, gave him the gas money to drive it to 800 miles from Lahore, Pakistan to Karachi Pakistan. And kindly push it in the Arabian sea. This will be a huge favor to humanity. My grandfather drove it all the way and kept driving it for a few years. Dad bought it back, and we still have the car in our collection among other strange looking cars. ❤❤ 🇵🇰🇵🇰
As a kid I was helping my dad with his Fiat 126p (same engine) back in the day and as a reward I was allowed to drive it around a parking lot. It was a hoot.
I was waiting and waiting for the phrase "You Plonker" to be said but was disappointed. Mixing up leads is something we have all done at one time, nothing wrong with that. What a fun little car and good to see father and son together.
Palpable joy! Memories of getting the bonnet up or crawling around underneath on something that didn't need to be plugged in to a computer: and a reference to 'a trained chimp' I thought that that was just something only my mate's dad used to say. Glorious and wonderful.
Who needs Morecambe and Wise when we have Harry & Son!! It takes me back to many years with my Dad working on old cars that needed a rebuild every month! Thank you so much for all the films throughout the year and especially the Farming ones which has brought a new World to many a petrol head! Have a wonderful Christmas and Good Luck with everything for next year!😃😃😃😃😃
It's always the thing you don't expect that trips you up.😀 You say to yourself "It can't be that" until you try it out of desperation, and then miraculously it works.😅
Thank you, Harry and Son, a totally different video, but the sound of the fiat engine firing brought a big smile to my face. So pleased that it's running, please don't be tempted to add power just enjoy the simple car for simple pleasures like driving into Clear air Zones!
It’s these more simple videos that I really enjoy. Back to basics and always check the basics first. We are very lucky to have all this great content and Harry seems to get enormous pleasure from these older cars from a simpler time. My favourite video of the year was Harry taking the Lancia back to his old home on the Wirral and then a trip out to North Wales. It was clearly a special trip for him.
You can tell the plugs have been switched as it turns over much more high pitched than when the plugs are correctly connected. Merry Christmas - Charlie should get the credit for this one. And he wasn’t allowed to start it at the end!
Brings back so many memories of fixing my 1974 Mini with my mate on a Sunday.. new cap a rotor arm,points and a set of leads a tenner at the Motorist Discount store........
I am sure we would all love to "join you on some better roads", but we won't hold our breath for the "squirt up the hill". Glad to see your joy when it ran and the family interaction is always a delight.
Had a 1959 500 suicide doors in Gallardo yellow restored from scratch in SrI Lanka. Loved it! Unfortunately continued to over heat & kept dying! FIAT!! “ Fix it again Tony!” 🤪😢🙏🏽
a true home mechanic - spend a few hrs checking everything, only to find out you've plugged in the spark-plug leads the wrong way round - if only I thought of that first
One of the best & most wholesome videos I’ve seen on Harry's channel. I’m not one to comment on RUclips, but I did love this video. Reminds us that certain cars have history & memories attached and become sentimental & like a member of the family. My wife has always wanted one, so I’m considering restoring one & doing an EV conversion for daily use/ease of use for her.
Having lost my father earlier this and seeing this video brought back some great memories when my father and I worked on my mothers Fiat Uno manny years ago. Thanks, Harry and Charlie! ❤
What a wonderful video. I sat watching it all the way through with a smile on my face. For me, this wasn't a car video, this was about a father and son spending time together. Thank you Harry and Charlie.
What I love about this channel is we were just recently taken for a drive in the holy grail 288 GTO and now we talk Fiat 500, each with the same gusto. Harry doesn't play favourites and everyone's welcome. Anyone happen to notice Harry not acknowledge to fact he caused this whole cluster? I'm sure Charley will be more than happy to remind him...repeatedly.
Brings back memories...A lady friend had one and offered myself a 3 friends a lift .. Amazing how we all fitted into such a small space...Three in the back...
Right- so both Harry and Rattarossa both stick plug leads on apparently at random! Meanwhile, Iain T. and I will soon be taking. professional approach to nailing why my 125cc Morini won't kick off...❤
Same engine as my Fiat 126p I used to drive as teenager 20 plus years ago. We did all engin rebuild with my dad bc on it. Great video, thank you for bringing back some memories.
Thanks for uploading this simple video of a car from better times. In the mid-1960s my dad was Chief Mate on an auxiliary tracking vessel that worked up and down the west coast of the U.S. Ship would track missiles and other tests out to sea, and then pull into a local port every week or so and the Captain would have his little red (pink?) Fiat 500 craned over onto the pier and he'd putt-putt off into town. My dad would organize the hoisting and such, in addition to every other thing that the ship (U.S.N.S Sampan Hitch iirc) needed to get ready for another run. I was a little kid then and thought that the Fiat was tiny and funny as hell.
This reminds me of my dad. He had a car and I helped him. Thank you for sharing this to help us know how great this is to be a dad and car and son. I know that’s what I think of when remembering my dad and his car, so thanks for Charlie and also for harry and also for car to help remember how great my dad was and all the times we worked together on car. This is remembered for us through card and harry. And so nice to have Charlie and car to help us think of dads and sons and cars to remember.
Me and my wife swapped the engine and transmission in our Fiat 500 in our driveway a couple of years ago. It took us about an hour and half all together and that was me explaining everything to my wife because she had never worked on a car before. It’s a royal pain to keep going but it’s still me favorite car.
What a joyous little video! Absolute fun, you should make more of these, Harry! Reminds me of my dad and grandad helping me to work on my old Mercedes, I am only 21, so I still have the privilege of having both of them around to help me out sometimes, and working on cars, with all the ups and downs, the frustration and then the gratification when something just works is the best bonding in my opinion!
In addition to checking the points and rotor, I would also take a close look inside the distributor cap (or replace it) as well as the plug wires. I always liked the matchbook cover trick for gapping the points. Boy, this brings back memories from 50-odd years ago.
I love all of your videos. I do believe that you are the most balanced car vlogger online these days, but this might be my very favorite video that you've ever shown. There's so much heart here and it's a perfect fit for time with family and nostalgia. Well done Harry.
Just gone through this process with my lawnmower 😉. Turned out to be stale petrol which took a few goes to flush through with new fuel. Easy Start certainly helped. Its one of life's joys and simple pleasures when you resuscitate a dead engine and even nicer to share it with your son. I did this with my dad and sometimes with my son but not any more sadly.
I always saw that car languishing in the background of the garage from the time I started watching this channel about three years ago. Glad to see it taking the spotlight at last and that you actually managed to get it running again.
Harry! My wife has told me to stop screaming! I knew it was the wires!!! I am almost seventy years old.....as is she.....coming up on her 39th(?) twenty nineth birthday.... She has seen me mess up wires many times when we were kids. What a fun video!!!!!! Thanks, Marcia and George
I will always remember seeing a Fiat 500 parked outside a house at the top of a steep hill that had across the engine hatch "I think I can... Maybe not". Thanks for the memory Harry. Merry Christmas to you, yours and all the fans of your channel.
That's why back in the 80s every Fiat 126 (same-ish motor) in Poland had a feather duster with a long stick on the rear window shelf. You used the stick to push the starter in the engine bay. The starter line would freeze in the winter or just break over time, so "remote" start was SOP.
Brilliant! Lovely to see one running. I bought one new, my first car, in Jan 73. Drove it to the Côte d’Azur on a camping holiday, and learned to heal and toe and double declutch in it (crash box). Good training. You had to watch out when you revved it hard in second as the vibration frequency seemed to pop the dipstick out of its seat which resulted in the engine compartment getting covered with oil and clouds of smoke left behind. You could recline the front passengers seat fully back, open the sun roof and drive along with your feet sticking out through the roof. Filled it to the brim back then for £1.00!! Great car. Thanks again Harry.
I bought myself a Fiat 500 after seing your review of the 500 Some years ago. Best decision of my life;) in my experience it is always the condensator that is causing issues. Nice video!
We had the full set (still do) of the Cookery Course, visible on the kitchen bookshelf at 01.16. My new wife dutifully bought a copy every month in the early seventies. This was when garlic and red peppers etc were thought thoroughly exotic.
Harry I was sitting with William and played the sound to him of you trying to start your 500 and he guessed exactly what car it was ! The Sound is so distinctive ! Cheers David
Brilliant! I just laughed out loud when Charlie suggested swapping the plug leads and it fired up straight away 😂 Charlie’s going to live on that moment for ages!! This is RUclips gold 😂
Well done Charlie!
Haha yes, Charlie is now clearly the most sane of the two.
Yeah that was worth a good chuckle. There but for the grace of god go the rest of us
Haha, well done Charlie!
That and reminding dad to put the rotor arm back in ...
Growing up with a father like Harry must've been wonderful
Dad, are the plug leads mixed up? Don't be silly, son 🤔
No probably a nightmare off screen 😊
…right until the “HOLD THE TORCH STILL” conversation..!!
Harry: “I’m putting it on”
Charlie: “Without the rotor arm?”
Harry: “Eugh”
@@Marko_Horvat +1 😕
Nice to see a HG review on a fun car without trillions of hp to move over 2 tonnes of bulk.
This is what motoring is about, more please Harry.
I'm glad motoring has evolved past the 500, sure it's one of the most charming cars of all time (even though I'd still pick the Mini as the GOAT), but cars from the 1950's are deadly in any kind of crash. More recent cars offer a better compromise between weight and safety: my daily's a 2003 Yaris TS, it's a very light and enjoyable car to drive, and yet I won't die if I hit anything bigger than a shrubbery
@@lptomtomone of the reasons, not the only of course, that they are deadly in a crash is because everything else is so big. Conservation of momentum is a b….
Nice Aga as well Harry 👍😉
11:49 a cheeky OTSOT for the Smith and Sniff.
Here to find exactly this! 😂
First off, the Fiat 500 is just a simple, cute and quaint car. Wish we could go back to those days, but, alas... Second, seeing the old photos of you and then Charlie standing beside you; wow, almost carbon copies. Good on you and your family sharing this passion of automobiles. Supercars are cool, and I watch and appreciate those videos, but these videos are where it's at. This is everyday motoring, or was, and I miss it dearly.
Exactly right.
More of you two working together please, I thoroughly enjoyed this. I lost my Dad 20 years ago and miss him terribly and videos like this make me sad that he isn't here but make me smile for what I lost as well. And seeing a wonderful father son relationship is great to see.
Same here.I still rember my dad teaching me how to change a set of points on my first car a cortina mk4 with the hallowed pinto engine.
Many of us are probably in a similar position, we were so fortunate to have family cars that our dads understood and pass on the knowledge. A different game with today's vehicles 😢
This so reminds me of me and my son, the blind leading the blind. Love it. More like this please Harry
By including the old photos, and some backstory, this video really sprung to life, just like the little Fiat twin did.
Happy holidays, everyone !
The pure joy when it came alive again❤
A true petrolhead doesn't always need a gazillion horse powers and high speed.
Have a wonderful Christmas everybody. It's before 9 AM in Sweden and I already got a great present, thanks Harry and Charlie!
What a great comment !! You don't need 1 million HP to have fun on the road ! It is the driving experience that matters the most !!
I didn’t know I needed to see Harry wrenching on his own cars! Continue these style of videos!!
I remember “helping” my dad to get his cars running when I was 15. So funny you mixed the leads up! Well done Charlie for helping your old dad get her running….
This was just wonderful. It reminds me of my youth long ago and calls from my father ‘will you please put the engine back in the lawnmower,’ Eventually they bought me an old morris engine to keep me quiet!
Had a similar experience at about the same age: my dad and his mate were (still are) avid motorcyclists and were doing maintenance on their bikes in the driveway after cleaning them off with the power washer. Anyway, they couldn't get his mate's bike to start no matter what they did, really baffling a pair of professional engineers, until having brought the tea out I asked if it would work if they took the plug out of the exhaust they'd put in to stop water ingress during the power wash.
Fired right up!
Young Harry IS Borat! As an art student, a school friend and I cycled from Geneva in a bid to cross the Alps to catch the Tour de France on L’Alpe d’Huez in 1984. We reached the Mont Blanc tunnel and signs prohibiting cyclists from passing through. We attempted to hitch with our bikes for several hours. Lorries, campers and pick ups whizzed past. With hopes fading a father, grandfather and grandson stopped in a Fiat 500. With no common language they realised our plight, and issued instructions for the two of us, I’m foot two, to climb into the back seat, whereupon they rolled back the sunroof, handed us our panniers, then stacked the bikes on the roof which we all held onto and set off through the tunnel. Unforgettable
Brilliant. Talk about saving the best until last, what a year ending video. Who would have thought it'd be so important to have the rotor arm actually inside the distributor cap, rather than just sat alongside the engine 😄 The pure joy on your faces when it fired up (with proper soot as a bonus). A proper father/son moment that'll be with you for years to come - well done.
The joy that Harry brings with his enthusiasm is always so genuine and refreshing to see, a truer Petrol head never existed. Keep em coming because I always look forward to them on a Sunday
7am Christmas Eve Harry’s garage. Great stuff! Happy Christmas Harry and family. Thanks for all the entertainment in 2023. Looking forwards to more in 2024!
It’s not the plug leads that are the wrong way round it’s the distributor cap put on 180 ° out. Really easily done as the cap can be fitted either way. Learnt from previous experience with my 1970 500.
That would explain it, thank you. I was sure the plug leads were the right way round but hadn’t thought about the distributor cap not having an indent to lock it one position. Live and learn; made for a good video!
Totally right !! So easy to put the cap the wrong position, much harder to mix the 2 plug wires !! LOL!!! Great comment !!
My cap only fits one way as it has a locating lug
@@johnrose7491 regardless of a lug you can still put the cap the wrong way round.
Best Harry's Garage video ever! Thank your team for all their efforts this year, On The Farm and in The Garage. Your work is appreciated. All the very best for 2024
Lovely OTSOT at 11.48!! 😂
Merry Christmas and Happy New year to all the Metcalfe family.
0:25 quintessential Fiat 500 Christmas picture.... 🥰
In the 80’s I used to abuse my 68’ 500 on the daily commute into London on the A40 Western Avenue. It never failed me even when I hear things rattling lose and actually saw bits falling off on the road behind me. I never did find out what was missing. Got nothing but love for this car (one of Gordon Murrays top cars too, talk about a seal of approval)
This reminds me of the time I used to split engines with my Dad in the garage…..it was the one bond my dad and I had that we could both get involved with. He was a trained mechanic but never continued on so used to do the odd thing for family and friends but we were always tinkering on things, culminating in splitting a Lancia Gamma flat 4 engine a few hours after it basically blew itself to bits less than 300 yards away from our house towing a caravan just about to set out on a family holiday. That car was glorious but the engine was “problematic”. My Dad was determined we would be going on holiday and we drove around in my Mum’s car to various places trying to source parts because Lancia was in the process of pulling out of Britain 🤣🤣 Nigh on impossible but we did it! And we managed to go on holiday after spending a fortune and a few days in the garage. This all just brought all those memories back. Which is nice.
Harry is like a archivist!. The most organized person I have ever seen. "We last used the car December 2018.." Up Pops a picture of the car complete with Christmas Tree, December 2018! 😂. "I assembled the engine on a kitchen table.." Up pops a picture! Love it.
Many many years ago three girls broke down in the lakes and knocked on the door to use the phone to ring home. I asked what the car was?… “mini”…I’ve had two cooper S back then 997/1074! …”hold my beer!” .. they were on their way within minutes with a piece of tin foil to get them home😊! Following day there is a box of chocolates at my door👍🏻!
Merry Christmas to you and yours guys… always a good watch… Thankyou!
So much sweeter to watch this mechanical simplicity of an Italian cultural icon than any road tests of over weight, touch screen, new car with no personality or culture heritage
Cinquecento makes me smile every time. Happy Christmas, Harry!
Fabulously heart warming end to 2023. Thank you for making Sunday evenings (and 1 Sunday morning!) such an automotive delight.
As a technician who worked in a Fiat dealership in the 1970's that was a great bit of entertainment for Christmas eve. Merry Christmas.
What a gem of a car,good to see Father and Son together.Have a great Christmas Harry and a prosperous New Year.
My father bought fiat 600, in the 1970, his first car. According to my dad. The car took more water consumption than petrol. Eventually he got so fed up that he asked my grandfather to please take this car, gave him the gas money to drive it to 800 miles from Lahore, Pakistan to Karachi Pakistan. And kindly push it in the Arabian sea. This will be a huge favor to humanity.
My grandfather drove it all the way and kept driving it for a few years.
Dad bought it back, and we still have the car in our collection among other strange looking cars. ❤❤ 🇵🇰🇵🇰
As a kid I was helping my dad with his Fiat 126p (same engine) back in the day and as a reward I was allowed to drive it around a parking lot. It was a hoot.
I was waiting and waiting for the phrase "You Plonker" to be said but was disappointed. Mixing up leads is something we have all done at one time, nothing wrong with that. What a fun little car and good to see father and son together.
Palpable joy! Memories of getting the bonnet up or crawling around underneath on something that didn't need to be plugged in to a computer: and a reference to 'a trained chimp' I thought that that was just something only my mate's dad used to say. Glorious and wonderful.
Who needs Morecambe and Wise when we have Harry & Son!! It takes me back to many years with my Dad working on old cars that needed a rebuild every month! Thank you so much for all the films throughout the year and especially the Farming ones which has brought a new World to many a petrol head! Have a wonderful Christmas and Good Luck with everything for next year!😃😃😃😃😃
Great video! Please more of these
We couldn't get a more British celebration than that 😂
Love you guys ❤
Harry relaxes so much more around his son, I understand that and it's a beautiful gift in life
Two of the coolest guys on the planet
Charlie is such a cool character very very good on camera
It's always the thing you don't expect that trips you up.😀
You say to yourself "It can't be that" until you try it out of desperation, and then miraculously it works.😅
Thank you, Harry and Son, a totally different video, but the sound of the fiat engine firing brought a big smile to my face. So pleased that it's running, please don't be tempted to add power just enjoy the simple car for simple pleasures like driving into Clear air Zones!
It’s these more simple videos that I really enjoy. Back to basics and always check the basics first. We are very lucky to have all this great content and Harry seems to get enormous pleasure from these older cars from a simpler time. My favourite video of the year was Harry taking the Lancia back to his old home on the Wirral and then a trip out to North Wales. It was clearly a special trip for him.
You can tell the plugs have been switched as it turns over much more high pitched than when the plugs are correctly connected.
Merry Christmas - Charlie should get the credit for this one. And he wasn’t allowed to start it at the end!
Brings back so many memories of fixing my 1974 Mini with my mate on a Sunday.. new cap a rotor arm,points and a set of leads a tenner at the Motorist Discount store........
SUCCESS! Well done to Charlie for solving that! Happy Christmas to you all
some great tips on trouble shooting here Harry! Great to see Charlie again too. He's as much a gentleman as his pop - what a great kid!
What a lovely son and what a great relationship you two have. 😊🙏💕🌎
I am sure we would all love to "join you on some better roads", but we won't hold our breath for the "squirt up the hill". Glad to see your joy when it ran and the family interaction is always a delight.
It is 0700 not 1700....😂. Thank you for all the great 2023 content Harry & the Metcalfe team!
Surely you aren't complaining? 😂
Loved it! You two (plus Mrs M on camera, of course) as good as a Morecambe and Wise Christmas Special!! Happy Christmas to you all!!
Had a 1959 500 suicide doors in Gallardo yellow restored from scratch in SrI Lanka. Loved it! Unfortunately continued to over heat & kept dying! FIAT!! “ Fix it again Tony!” 🤪😢🙏🏽
a true home mechanic - spend a few hrs checking everything, only to find out you've plugged in the spark-plug leads the wrong way round - if only I thought of that first
Harry's celebration when it started 😂 sublime 🎉😊
What a lovely little sound. Amazing how 2 little cylinders can sound so good 😊
One of the best & most wholesome videos I’ve seen on Harry's channel. I’m not one to comment on RUclips, but I did love this video. Reminds us that certain cars have history & memories attached and become sentimental & like a member of the family. My wife has always wanted one, so I’m considering restoring one & doing an EV conversion for daily use/ease of use for her.
Having lost my father earlier this and seeing this video brought back some great memories when my father and I worked on my mothers Fiat Uno manny years ago. Thanks, Harry and Charlie! ❤
Soon as I heard that backfire I was shouting at my phone..'Swap the leads around!' 😁
As a serial 500 owner this is the best H’sG video to wake up to on Christmas Eve👍 Thank you, Harry for all the fabulous content throughout 2023.
Cool, Harry sporting the Jason King moustache. Merry Christmas!
What a wonderful video. I sat watching it all the way through with a smile on my face. For me, this wasn't a car video, this was about a father and son spending time together. Thank you Harry and Charlie.
What I love about this channel is we were just recently taken for a drive in the holy grail 288 GTO and now we talk Fiat 500, each with the same gusto. Harry doesn't play favourites and everyone's welcome.
Anyone happen to notice Harry not acknowledge to fact he caused this whole cluster? I'm sure Charley will be more than happy to remind him...repeatedly.
Metcalfe & Sons, Fiat 500 specialists! Fantastic video chaps
Brings back memories...A lady friend had one and offered myself a 3 friends a lift .. Amazing how we all fitted into such a small space...Three in the back...
That's a proper car, so much character, happy christmas to you all.
Awesome video! Even dropped an OTSOT for us Smith&Sniff listeners 😂
OK we need a three way race to the pub between Harris and Frankel with their 2CV's and Harry with his Fiat 500.
Right- so both Harry and Rattarossa both stick plug leads on apparently at random! Meanwhile, Iain T. and I will soon be taking. professional approach to nailing why my 125cc Morini won't kick off...❤
Same engine as my Fiat 126p I used to drive as teenager 20 plus years ago. We did all engin rebuild with my dad bc on it. Great video, thank you for bringing back some memories.
Thanks for uploading this simple video of a car from better times. In the mid-1960s my dad was Chief Mate on an auxiliary tracking vessel that worked up and down the west coast of the U.S. Ship would track missiles and other tests out to sea, and then pull into a local port every week or so and the Captain would have his little red (pink?) Fiat 500 craned over onto the pier and he'd putt-putt off into town. My dad would organize the hoisting and such, in addition to every other thing that the ship (U.S.N.S Sampan Hitch iirc) needed to get ready for another run. I was a little kid then and thought that the Fiat was tiny and funny as hell.
Great fun film from famille Metcalfe, thank you.
@1:17 - I can't help but be reminded of Borat with the hair and crazed expression!
What a Christmas treat! You 2 are great on the camera together! Thank you!
This reminds me of my dad. He had a car and I helped him. Thank you for sharing this to help us know how great this is to be a dad and car and son. I know that’s what I think of when remembering my dad and his car, so thanks for Charlie and also for harry and also for car to help remember how great my dad was and all the times we worked together on car. This is remembered for us through card and harry. And so nice to have Charlie and car to help us think of dads and sons and cars to remember.
More spannering please Harry! And plug lead swapping? Been there..
I just bought the sister car at auction today at Mecum Kissimmee, FL. I am so happy!
Best bit of christmas entertainment in years. Thanks for all the hard work Harry 👍
Me and my wife swapped the engine and transmission in our Fiat 500 in our driveway a couple of years ago. It took us about an hour and half all together and that was me explaining everything to my wife because she had never worked on a car before. It’s a royal pain to keep going but it’s still me favorite car.
Ah, brilliant, I’m sure everyone was willing for the little 500 to start, well done Charlie. Thanks for a super year of content, thanks guys 👍👍👍👍🙏
What a joyous little video! Absolute fun, you should make more of these, Harry! Reminds me of my dad and grandad helping me to work on my old Mercedes, I am only 21, so I still have the privilege of having both of them around to help me out sometimes, and working on cars, with all the ups and downs, the frustration and then the gratification when something just works is the best bonding in my opinion!
In addition to checking the points and rotor, I would also take a close look inside the distributor cap (or replace it) as well as the plug wires. I always liked the matchbook cover trick for gapping the points. Boy, this brings back memories from 50-odd years ago.
Wonderful video.
‘On that side of things…’ - 11:48 @SmithandSniff
So glad to see this video! Fellow 500 owner here, and I love it to bits.
That was one of my favourite HG videos ever. Brilliant.
I love all of your videos. I do believe that you are the most balanced car vlogger online these days, but this might be my very favorite video that you've ever shown. There's so much heart here and it's a perfect fit for time with family and nostalgia. Well done Harry.
Fantastic video. So much fun!! Merry Christmas and thank you 😊
Just gone through this process with my lawnmower 😉. Turned out to be stale petrol which took a few goes to flush through with new fuel. Easy Start certainly helped. Its one of life's joys and simple pleasures when you resuscitate a dead engine and even nicer to share it with your son. I did this with my dad and sometimes with my son but not any more sadly.
I always saw that car languishing in the background of the garage from the time I started watching this channel about three years ago. Glad to see it taking the spotlight at last and that you actually managed to get it running again.
Harry!
My wife has told me to stop screaming!
I knew it was the wires!!!
I am almost seventy years old.....as is she.....coming up on her 39th(?) twenty nineth birthday....
She has seen me mess up wires many times when we were kids.
What a fun video!!!!!!
Thanks,
Marcia and George
I will always remember seeing a Fiat 500 parked outside a house at the top of a steep hill that had across the engine hatch "I think I can... Maybe not". Thanks for the memory Harry. Merry Christmas to you, yours and all the fans of your channel.
That's why back in the 80s every Fiat 126 (same-ish motor) in Poland had a feather duster with a long stick on the rear window shelf. You used the stick to push the starter in the engine bay. The starter line would freeze in the winter or just break over time, so "remote" start was SOP.
Brilliant! Lovely to see one running. I bought one new, my first car, in Jan 73. Drove it to the Côte d’Azur on a camping holiday, and learned to heal and toe and double declutch in it (crash box). Good training. You had to watch out when you revved it hard in second as the vibration frequency seemed to pop the dipstick out of its seat which resulted in the engine compartment getting covered with oil and clouds of smoke left behind. You could recline the front passengers seat fully back, open the sun roof and drive along with your feet sticking out through the roof. Filled it to the brim back then for £1.00!! Great car. Thanks again Harry.
From the start I was shouting "check the plug leads" at the screen;one of the first things you do guys!!!!!!
Enjoyed that. #OTSOT at 11:47 😀
In the kitchen in his overalls with a shirt and tie underneath! Pure Harry!
More father-son content! its great
I bought myself a Fiat 500 after seing your review of the 500 Some years ago. Best decision of my life;) in my experience it is always the condensator that is causing issues. Nice video!
Hard to describe how much joy this video brings! Please never change Harry!
I didn´t know that Borat was car mechanic before hes journalistic career... Thanks for entertaining videos and specially for starting EVO.
1:19 "Much Excite"........waaawe whawhaa.
loved this Harry, we have had a couple of the newer Abarths and always looking for an older one.
One of the most desirable cars in Harry’s garage!
This is a a treat. A new video at 09:00 South Africa time, love it.
We had the full set (still do) of the Cookery Course, visible on the kitchen bookshelf at 01.16. My new wife dutifully bought a copy every month in the early seventies. This was when garlic and red peppers etc were thought thoroughly exotic.
Harry I was sitting with William and played the sound to him of you trying to start your 500 and he guessed exactly what car it was ! The Sound is so distinctive !
Cheers David
If there was ever an opportunity for a Harry’s Garage and the barn find fleece mash up this was it😅