82 automatic trans Spider

[Chihua33]

Hello all,

I've been reading through a lot of the threads on here about the 82 spiders, and i've seen quite a few people say "best year made" or something along those lines.

Can anyone tell me why they say this? I have a 82 that I can buy for $400 and it would need work.
I'm just wondering if this is a good purchase or if I should keep looking for a manual trans. like I want?

Thanks for any help.
Joe

[124JOE]

yes i would buy it
at least for my own parts car IF its that bad

[Divers]

Joe,

I would buy it, but not keep it. Instead I would ship it to the Orlando, Florida area.....just sayin

[CajunMike]

$400? That seems really low for any car even a spider. Heck used golf carts are more than that. You sure it just needs a little work?

At $400 the auto could make a nice daily driver. Not as fun as a standard but easily worked on by any competent transmission place.

[aj81spider]

I looked at the pictures of the car in the "New Members" section. Whether you should buy it depends on how good you are with cars and/or how much you want to spend restoring it. Is this a hobby restoration purchase or do you want a car to drive? There's a ton of surface rust on the car and it needs a paint job badly. If everything else is perfect mechanically and structurally then you are going to spend a couple of thousand on that. With that much surface rust on the top of the body I'd look very carefully at the underneath to make sure things like the shock towers aren't rusted. I'd also be concerned that the mechanicals might be in similar condition to the body (i.e. bad!).

If you're buying it as a hobby to restore and the underside looks OK then maybe I'd think about it. If you want a car to drive then you can get one in good shape for less than $5000, and one that needs manageable amounts of work for less than $3000. If the body shots are representative of the rest of the condition of the car you could get to $5000 invested very quickly.

It's been written here before that the most expensive Spider is a free one. I suspect a $400 one isn't far behind.

If you don't buy it - keep looking (and get a manual transmission IMHO). I have two and they are the most fun cars I've ever owned.

[Chihua33]

Thanks everyone!
I haven't had the chance to really crawl around the car and inspect it yet.
I do however have connections (my grandfather) who is a wonderful body man/painter so work like that would be cheap if not free with my help.

$400 is the price because it is coming from my best friends father in law...the inside is in great condition, seats aren't torn or cracked. I'm hoping to get the car pulled out from the lean-to soon so I can get a better look at its overall condition

[Chihua33]

and on a side note:

The pictures make it look a lot worse then it is....A lot of what you see in those pictures is build up pollen from massive pine trees, and bird crap from the rafters above!

[spidernut]

The fender near the front edge of the hood looks really bad. Since you have somewhat free access to bodywork, you'll need to follow the advice that the others gave you...look it over closely before buying. A rust bucket is never easy nor is it cheap to fix.

I don't see any advantage of the 82 over the 81. Look to see if the wiring has been tampered with. If you don't know how to read schematics, it can be a bear to get everything working again. Also check all the connectors on the EFI components. They have a tendency to get old and crack. There are no replacements made.

Regarding the automatic, I have one with an auto and it is fine if you just want to drive the car for fun and not performance. It's nice NOT to have to shift. Also, my auto has been flawlessly reliable, but it isn't much of a sports car. The performance is significantly compromised. However, I love being able to place my hand on my wife's leg as we drive even in town with the auto tranny. On the flipside, the stick shift is fun but my hand was usually was on the shift lever instead of her leg.

After owning both, I prefer the auto in town and the stick shift when on the open road or going through turns. The fuel mileage is much better with the stick as well. So, I have one of each now.

[rlux4]

"82 is the best year Spider" has been a running gag for a few years now, started by yours truly. Back then the question was asked by someone looking to buy a Spider "What's the best year to buy?" Everyone of course replied that the best year was whichever year they had. I responded by saying that it was pretty obvious that 82 was the best year, simply by the fact that that was the year that FIAT said "That's it, we can't make it any better" and they stopped production. Pininfarina made them for another 3-1/2 years, but 82 was the last year FIAT made them. I said this tongue in cheek, and it was taken that way. And now, several years later it still crops up every once in a while. There are a lot of 82 owners on the forum.
Ron
(Charter member of the "82 Is The Best Year Spider Made" club

[2ndwind]

Here's my take. Before I bought my first spider, I had the opportunity to buy an '82 without title for $500. Because I was new to Fiats, I tried to dicker with the guy and lost it. I should have bought it for a parts car, whether I could get it running or not. There were plenty of valuable parts like taillights, interior parts, engine parts, etc.

My research led me to believe the best spiders were a '71-72 or '81-82. The later ones because of their fuel injected 2.0 L engines. So that would also include a fuel-injected 1980 (late 1980). Besides, most of the parts for this $400 '82 will fit most of the other cars. The automatic transmission is a bulletproof Chevette tranny. I recently sold my AT '82 spider. It was pretty fun but not as fun as the 5 spd.

[Chihua33]

I'm sure I will end up buying just for that, try and get it into good running order. He said that one relay he knows for sure has to be replaced but other then that when he put it away it ran great.

Right now my vehicle is a lifted 06' GMC sierra that gets 13 mpg on a good day so anything will help! be quite the change going from my big truck, to a tiny car but overall I think it would be a blast.

The more and more I read up and learn about these cars it seems like something that i would truly be interested in.
I'm hoping tomorrow I can get the car pulled out of storage and see what she looks like better.

If it's been sitting for awhile, seeing as its a FI would it be a bad idea to try and fire it up and see if I can get it running? or should I go through the engine as best as I can first before I even try that?

[124JOE]

get that old gas OUT
check the oil


also look under hood for the neiborhood cat
that happened to my girlfriend
man she was freekedout and so was the CAT.joe

[Chihua33]

ha good deal. Never seen any cats over there....just chickens!

[124JOE]

baulk

[2ndwind]

Besides draining the gas and putting in new gas, most suggest you crank the engine over by hand once to be sure not to break anything if the starter were to crank against a stuck engine. Many suggest putting a dab of ATF down through the spark plug hole, wait a day or two, crank a bit by hand, then fire it up. It will smoke for a bit to burn off the ATF. Unless you have a timing belt less than seven years old or 30,000 miles, it would be best to change it too.