square steel tubes on frame (used for the jack?)

[Boris61]

My 84 spider has a piece of square steel tubing welded to the frame near each of the wheel wells. From the side it looks like a little open box hanging down and it is the same color as the car. Three questions: 1) Do all spiders have these or maybe just the later Pininfarina models? (I don't recall it on my '78) 2) Are they for the jack or jackstands, or something else? 3) When I paint the car what is your opinion of repainting the original red (like the car on the banner above) on these and the part of the body below the rocker panels with black to match the under carriage? I was thinking they wouldn't be as obvious this way. The guy painting it thinks it will look beter, but I don't want to make any changes from the original without a good reason. And if anyone has already done this or has pictures of the outcome please share. Thanks!

[vandor]

They were only on the Pinins, the original jack uses them, it has a rod that slides in there.

[AriK]

The square tubing is not on my 79. Do yourself a favor and paint your fiat in its original state Rossa Red without the blacked out bottom. It may end up looking like an aftermarket rubberguard job. The job done on mine highlights the lower end of the car by chroming the entire moulding under the doors as opposed to painting it the color of the car. I think it's a nice touch.

http://s1299.beta.photobucket.com/user/ ... 2516292297

[BEEK]

arik, nice air brush job on the air cleaner cover... i love it

[Boris61]

Thanks for the replies guys. I like your chrome panels, but I wasn't referring to painting the whole panel black. Just the part that is below the finished portion where the metal is welded. That part is red now as are the jack holes. We thought that painting this area black along with the little boxes would make them less obvious.

[AriK]

I agree. Those parts should be the same color as the wheel wells, black, otherwise it would never look clean.

[socaltino]

Does your jack look like this?
http://images.auctionworks.com/hi/67/67 ... 993-OE.jpg
I had a 1979 131 that had the same square tubes. My jack looked like the one in the link above. It has a cool set up, and worked really well.

[wikkid]

I think they are so deep in shadow, tucked under the lower panel that is already angling in under the car, that it makes little difference. Clickable thumbnail view: