77 Restore begins

[hallgreghall]

After looking around for a few weeks I finally took the plunge and bought a 77 Spider! I had a 79 about 20 years ago so I think I remember all the fun issues like dim headlights, crazy wiring and just a little rust. Now I have 3 boys to help.


We got her home (yes she is a she) don't know her name yet but I am sure the boys will help with that. The first order of business and first repair made was a small repair, the regluing of the Fiat emblem to the gear shift.

Wish us luck in finding inexpensive (not budget busting) performance parts. From the look at the lists of vendors active here this should not be an issue. I plan on taking more pics and keeping you all posted on the progress. More importantly I am planing on asking a lot of questions in an attempt to keep from breaking everything including my bank account.

[mdrburchette]

Welcome to the forum. She looks like she can be made into a good, reliable car. What part of the world are you from?

[srwilson]

Good job on the shifter knob!!! Welcome!!!

[hallgreghall]

I am in Oklahoma City.

[hallgreghall]

So today we removed on of the homemade rocker panels that someone had put on. .
As I suspected they were put on for a reason.
It looks like we are going to be doing a little patch work.

[vandor]

I lived in Oklahoma for about 10 years. A lot of mostly rust free Spiders there

Do you know that the outer rocker panel unbolts? New replacement are not expensive, and you may even be able to find decent used ones.

[divace73]

those aluminium rocker covers seem to be a dealer fitted option, I have them on my 1980.

[RRoller123]

My 80 has them too, they were dealer installed with pop rivets, which can be drilled out.

[hallgreghall]

I am suprised to hear they were a dealer option. Mine have small screws in random spots holding them on. I have already priced replacement panels and I agree that is the way to go rather than trying to patch swiss cheese.

[RRoller123]

I stand somewhat corrected. I just looked at mine again and there is a mix of small screws and pop rivets. I guess as the screws fell out or were otherwise lost over the years the POs replaced them with pop rivets (?)

[vandor]

> mix of small screws and pop rivets

All great places for rust to start

[RRoller123]

none on mine after 33 years....

[hallgreghall]

So the boys came up with a name for the car, Bella Zita, it means beautiful little girl in Italian. I did a little more tear down tonight and she is far from beautiful.

[vandor]

Be sure to lube the heater's air inlet door's pivot while you are there.

[hallgreghall]

My son Kaleb and I performed a compression test today and all 4 cylinders were 120-122 so I think we are ok for now. We removed the radiator and timing belt cover so we could check the belt. It looks OK but I think I will change it anyway. The timing belt cover had warped a little and several spots had been rubbed by the belts so it will have to be replaced too. It has been a long time since I have worked on a car because I "wanted to" and not "had to". I had forgotten how much I enjoy getting my hands dirty.