A 1971 Fiat 500F, affectionately known as Freddie, that was forgotten about for decades is set to go up for auction.
Freddie will go under the hammer in the Charterhouse auction of classic and vintage cars on Thursday, June 8, for an estimated £10,000 to £12,000.
Whilst there are many classic Fiat 500s about, most do not have the pedigree of Freddie who has had just two owners and covered 21,669 miles from new.
Rochard Bromell of Charterhouse said: “At 52 years old Freddie is looking particularly fine.
“However, this is due to the love, care and attention to detail the owner lavished on his restoration as many Fiats from the 1970’s were eaten by the tin worm, which is another saying for rust.”
The Fiat 500 was originally registered new in 1971 by a New Forest Fiat dealership to a lady in Ringwood who would end up keeping Freddie for 10 years before selling him back to his original dealership.
The Fiat dealer put Freddie into the back of a store where he eventually was forgotten about, with old cardboard boxes and other rubbish being piled on top of him over the decades.
Then in 2015, he was discovered by the garage owner.
At this point, the garage were no longer Fiat dealers although continued to look after client Fiats, and a nut and bolt restoration was undertaken to put Freddie back on the road.
The restoration took six years and included a bare metal respray in his original colour of blue Turchese.
Charterhouse is currently now accepting further entries for this specialist sale being held at Haynes International Motor Museum.
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