Wish me luck...!

[Holshot]

Well after selling my last Spider with a heavy heart, only to follow my dream of living in Italy at least once in my lifetime I'm on my way to pick up my next unicorn, lol... I found one of my dream Spiders' after months of searching over the weekend and IT'S A TURBO! I couldn't be more happy and hope it's just as nice as it looks in person. It's a two owner car from Wilmington, NC where it's lived all its life it a garage and appears to be free of rust and rot. The one thing is she doesn't run now usually that would be a deal breaker and I wouldn't even bother with it but after owning 3 Spiders' and being a certifiable Turbo junky owning many Supras', 3000GT VR-4s', RX-7s' and EVO's ect... But the one I've always wanted was a Turbo Fiat Spider.

Now after speaking with the owners on and off all day and getting a feel for the type of people they might be I decided to take a chance and pull the trigger. We came to an agreement and "shook" on it so to speak and I'm headed there late this evening. I just got back from uHaul with a pick up and trailer and now I'm just playing the waiting game before I get on the road. I plan on leaving here around midnight which will put me in NC around 8:00am. According to the owner he used it very sparingly on sunny days to go golfing and one day coming home the car just died on him. He says it was towed back to his house and put on jack stands and it's been there ever since, 5 years. Again, another thing that would have scared me off being that it's been sitting for so many years. He says that he diagnosed it as a fuel pump on the basis that he and a friend sprayed starter fluid and could get it to start. He said to himself that "one" day I'll get to it and never did and which brings us to now. The wife wants the space back for her new car so the Fiat has to go.

I just hope that it in fact is just that... I'm taking a big gamble and hope that it pays off. Now I'm pretty mechanically inclined and did 95% of all the work on all my cars but I wasn't aware that you could do the whole starting fluid thing on a non carb. car. He swears he did it with the help of his friend who was "good" with cars and he just never got around to fixing it. So naturally I'll be pulling the fuel tank and draining/cleaning it out, along with coolant/radiator, oil ect... I might as well swap the timing belt and water pump as well just to be safe. The car has 75,000 miles on it and supposedly had the belt changed out at 60,000 miles but that was many, many years ago he said so that always scares with these motors. I lost a '89 Alfa Milano motor that way years ago because there were only a 15,000 miles on a belt that was replaced 5/6 years earlier. My other concern is the turbo... Maybe if any turbo guys here on the forum that may be reading this can chime in on any precautions or ideas on what to do first. Sitting for so long I'm afraid to try starting it and wiping out the bearings. I remember there was a Turbo guru here on the forums but I can't seem to remember his name/screen name so if anyone knows and wants to chime in I would be greatly appreciated!

Now as I'm writing this a weather report just flashed up saying there's a winter snow storm headed for this way starting right as I'm supposed to get out of town... So now I'll really need some well wishes that I make back in one piece with the Fiat in tow. Hopefully it won't be as bad as what we got this weekend. It figures, I was hoping this was going to go smooth and this is not reassuring me or setting my nerves at ease one bit. Well, I better get going now but I just thought I would kill some time and share with the community of a new member to the family. I found this forum shortly before selling my 3rd and last car and then moved to Italy so I haven't had to much interaction here on the forum but that will all change I'm sure as I want to be move active in local gatherings and meet ups and share the passion I have for these great cars with other like minded folks.

Thanks for listening guys and say a little prayer for me tonight before heading off to bed, lol... I'll include a few pics of my old baby as I like to show off the fruits of my labor and what you'll expect to see after I'm done with the next project! The '82 I'm about to go pick up is white on blue, not my favorite color combo, but is all original down to the decals which is rare to find. Assuming I make it back in one piece I'll post up some before pics of the new project to show what she looks like now and in a few months hopefully in time for the spring/summer she'll be ready for a new photo shoot

Kind Regards,
Giuseppe

[Holshot]

[courtenay]

Good luck, Giusseppe - and most importantly - have a safe trip!!

[RRoller123]

Nice find!

[vandor]

Giuseppe,

The looks like a beautiful Spider, but it looks like a '83-85 Pininfarina Spider. The 'factory' Turbo Spiders were made in '81 and were Fiat, not Pinin. Or is this an aftermarket turbo installation? Shots of the engine compartment would be great!
bye,

[Holshot]

Thanks everyone for the well wishes! I better clear something up... In my last paragraph of the story, I say that I'm including pics of my OLD car, the one I let go after moving to Italy and yes was a '84. Trust me if I could get my old car back I would in a heart beat. When I sold her she had just turned 30,000 miles and was perfect! Now the car that I'm leaving for in two hours is a white on blue '82 Turbo no where near as nice as what's posted above. I'll post some pics of the new "project" as soon as I make it back! Again, I just wanted to post up some eye candy and a project that I completed a few years back to show you what to expect with my next project! The same kind of quality build with extreme attention to detail and a great performer!

Thanks again guys and let just hope the weather holds out for me...

Giuseppe

[Europa]

Csaba, that I believe is an '83. Funny, I bookmarked this very same car couple of years ago for reference. I very recently posted one of the pics of this car on FaceBook to show the Rota's on a Spider. Here's my pin of the Spider.

http://www.pinterest.com/abeyjoseph/fiat-spider/

[Holshot]

Yup Europa! That's my old car... I was actually one of the first guys with Rotas on a Spider many years ago. I came in touch with the brand years ago when I was involved in a car customizing shop and saw them at the Sema show in Vegas and somehow saw an application for fiat which blew my mind. Then I went searching for an importer and found someone in California before Mark picked up the line a few years later. I was so nervous with the offsets and they seemed aggressive but I couldn't have been more pleased with the outcome. They are, in my opinion, the perfect fit and made the car so much more enjoyable. The handling and dynamics were improved, of course most of that was from the tires but the fact they are a little wider and push the wheels out a little further to have more of a wide track stance which helps some as well.

[Europa]

I remember your post on this forum. Bought the same Rota's from Mark. I just finished a complete rebuild of the front suspension and steering on my Spider. Rota's will be going on the car over the holidays.

Your car is absolutely gorgeous!

Yup Europa! That's my old car... I was actually one of the first guys with Rotas on a Spider many years ago. I came in touch with the brand years ago when I was involved in a car customizing shop and saw them at the Sema show in Vegas and somehow saw an application for fiat which blew my mind. Then I went searching for an importer and found someone in California before Mark picked up the line a few years later. I was so nervous with the offsets and they seemed aggressive but I couldn't have been more pleased with the outcome. They are, in my opinion, the perfect fit and made the car so much more enjoyable. The handling and dynamics were improved, of course most of that was from the tires but the fact they are a little wider and push the wheels out a little further to have more of a wide track stance which helps some as well.

[bradartigue]

At the very least I'd think it has more serious problems than a bad fuel pump, they quite literally take 15 minutes to change out. I doubt anyone would put a car up on stands that just had a pump problem (but I've seen two parked for decades because the ignition switch is bad, so what do I know). And yes they will run, briefly, and very lean, on starter fluid.

The timing belt you'll need to change if there is any question of age.

The motor itself, they're quite durable. When you change the timing belt you'll have to rotate the motor a few times by hand anyway, so just do it a few more times. If it rotates without resistance then you're likely OK. I'd change the belt, oil, the oil filter, the plugs, the fuel pump (if it is indeed bad), and see if she fires up.

One of my cars, a non-FIAT, was parked for 15 years because the owner had "adjusted" the K-Jet air mass meter to a point that the car would run cold but not hot. A mechanic by his own telling he couldn't figure out that a simple turn in the other direction would make the car actually run cold and hot. Made it a $500 car instead of a $5000 car. Owners are weird creatures.

[Exit98]

Hotshot,

You're off on an adventure. A lot of the fun is in the journey.

I'm betting you'll have that baby up and running in no time. Looking forward to the next chapter.

[Holshot]

Well I made it back! And in one piece... Weather was a nightmare and after the 8 hour drive I was just happy to get there and find the Spider was as nice as the pictures they sent me. The couple couldn't have been more nice and sweet and were grateful that the car was going to a true enthusiast who would get her road worthy again and enjoy it.

Getting the car off the jack stands was a challenge because he had it so high up and just a small simple scissor jack so I had to use bricks and circle the car a few times to get her down. Only to find the wheels were stuck, great... So up she goes corner by corner, the fronts only took a nice tap with a dead blow hammer but when I got to the rear it was another story. The right rear caliper that has the emergency brake cable attached did not want to give, I tried everything. In the end I unbolted the caliper and it was spinning freely. But in order to get the rim back and not interfere possibly I had to cut the rubber brake line as I didn't bring any tools with me and he didn't have many either. So now she had no brakes which was fun when it came to getting her off the trailer...

I am very happy that the car was as clean as they advertised and the undercarriage was clean as well. My only gripe is that the interior is rough, at least for my standards. All in all that really doesn't worry all that much as i mentioned in my early post I'm not in love with the color combo. I really don't like the blue interior so this is just an excuse to now swap it out with a complete new black interior. Now the white exterior, I'm still on the fence on when the time comes for a re-spray to keep it the original white or whether to do a color change. I've never been fond of color swapped cars and passed up on cars that were the "right" color but then found out it was another originally. I know that it devalues the car and may not be a wise choice to change it, any thoughts on the matter feel free to chime in...

I'll link a few pics that I have from yesterday but once I get it cleaned up a little bit I'll take a few more but for the time being here she is in all her glory! This is the couple in frot of their house right before I headed off...

[Europa]

Congrats Giuseppe. Glad you and the car made it home safely.

[Exit98]

Put the color out of your mind for now. There'll be time for that later. Whites not my favorite either but it might grow on you. Don't worry about a color change as far as value goes. These aren't Ferrari's. Problem with the color change is to do it right you've got to pull everything off if you want to do the jams and the trunk and the engine compartment.

For now get it up and running. That's the fun part. The cosmetics will come along.

Looks great by the way.

Good luck.

[TX82FIAT]

Keep it white. Easy to care for and looks great white. Don't let the red car thing get in your head. Had a rosso red 83' love my white 82