My 1978 Spider progressive restoration

[Frankd1]

So I took the plunge and bought my first Spider 3 weeks ago...a 1978 twin carb!

Overall I'm happy with my purchase, I've wanted one of these for a long time and now finally have one. While I'm mechanically inclined and do most of my own auto work on my other 2 cars, I'm a little nervous...not because of the mechanical work on this car, on the contrary I love to tinker and I think this will be a great car for that. I'm nervous as to what I'm going to find hiding in all of the nooks and cranny's as I start digging into the car...

I guess thats the chance you take when you buy an almost 40 year old car and you don't know its entire history...I do know that I'm the fourth owner of the car. This from the used vehicle information package that you get in Ontario. I don't know if the car was ever hit or in an accident. I don't think that shows on the uvip..anyway, I have it now and its time to jump in with both feet.

The engine seems to run well, the tranny seems to shift well and the car seems to drive well (it has a bit of pull to the right when braking). Because of this I am going to treat this as a rolling restoration. I will clean and fix issues while the car is drivable until I'm ready to take it off the road and strip it down for a full prep, paint and restoration where needed.

I plan to keep the car so I think it deserves this treatment, plus I'd like to have it all documented with photos and videos of the process.

The positives:

-it looks pretty good, I get lots of nice comments while driving it. However, I can see the paint blemishes and flaws - more on that in a bit
-the interior is excellent. New seat cushions with new vinyl front and back. New carpets, door panels are good, arm rests, kick panels, dash, middle and centre console are all good. Wood trim shows age.
-all of the rubber seals for the doors, trunk, hood, glass etc are all excellent
-all metal trim is good. a bit of buffing and polishing should clean it right up
-stayfast canvas top is mint
-top frame is good, some minor surface rust in 2 spots that will come off with super fine steel wool and oil
-engine bay is clean and engine is really clean with no leaks
-transmission is clean with a minor leak that I need to fix
-all mechanicals for steering and suspension seem good


The negatives:

-the paint has some blemishes and dry areas. I think this aspect of the car was rushed..
-there are a few paint bubbles on one of the wheel arches and a paint crack on another arch - probably body fill underneath
-some rust on the inside of the rear arches that needs to be cleaned up for now
-looking in the trunk in the dog leg area I can see and feel some flaking on the top of the inner fender - the outside half of the inner fender (outside of that seam)
-a couple of small holes in the floor pan - drivers side
-inside of my front shock towers there is corrosion. I don't know if its gone through or not but I'm afraid these may need to be replaced

Here is a previous thread on my front towers:
http://www.fiatspider.com/f15/viewtopic ... 30&t=32014

I will use this thread as a means to ask questions and gain as much knowledge as possible on this journey while postings pics and videos of my progress.
I will also use the forum search extensively as well as other online resources and paper resources (manuals, books, pdfs etc). Please feel free to share your thoughts, suggestions and advice!
Obviously if its questions related to a specific subject such as engine, electrical etc I can post in those respective areas of the forum..

Here are some photos before anything takes place:





this one is dusty:

[joelittel]

Your car looks fantastic. Very sharp.

How do you like those side mirrors? Do they feel sturdy and solid when connected to the car? Could an accidental bump from someone walking past knock a mirror loose or worse? Can you see enough of what's coming up behind you to say that those mirrors are more useful than cosmetic? A few years ago I made a poor choice when replacing my mirrors so lately I've been looking at some just like yours.

Also, the corners on your top don't look right to me. I'm no expert on when they changed the tops but your car may be sporting a top from an earlier model year.

[vandor]

Nice Spider! That top bow is correct for '78, they changed them in '79.

[Frankd1]

Thanks guys!

I find the mirrors functional when using them to clear a turn or lane change...they seem very sturdy mounted to the door. There are two adjustment points, one at the base (ball and socket type) and one at the back of the mirror. Both adjustment points are still nice and tight.

Right, 79 was when the corners of the top and bow changed shape - I couldn't remember. You'll notice the bottom two photos show that side flap out of place, it does in fact hang correctly it just got caught up in the frame slightly as I was closing it the roof. I realized when the roof wouldn't latch properly and had to open it to flip the flaps back out.

The original paint code is 449 - dark blue which is what this paint is with metallic added to it. The paint has a plum tone to it depending how the sun hits it.
I will stick with the same color when I have the car repainted.

More pics to follow...

[bradartigue]

Nice Spider! That top bow is correct for '78, they changed them in '79.

I thought if you had the 79 doors (which his car does; made after April 78) you also had the 79 top?

Then again I contradict my belief that FIAT wasn't so orderly...!

[Frankd1]

HI Brad,

I'm pretty sure the date code on my car is 05/78 (i'll double check), maybe this car was one of the first runs of the new door handles but Fiat hadn't caught up to the roof change yet?

Here's something I noticed as well:

The ID tag in the engine bay shows 132A1.040.6, the owners manual shows the same and so does the stamp on the engine block above the oil filter.



So, the engine appears to be the cars original block however, all of the reference materials I have looked through show the engine codes as 132A1.040.5,
but not 6 as the last number. Just curious about that....

Another stamp on the side of the block above the starter shows:
4381917
131AB.40/7 FIAT


What does that number mean? Part number?

[Frankd1]

Did a little more digging and I started to pull the carpet from the drivers side. The factory underpad with the plastic coating falls apart near the footwell area and seems to get more solid and intact as I get further back towards the seat. I'm going to pull the seats and the rest of the carpet to see whats there.
So far, I found a hole in the drivers footwell - below the clutch pedal and to the left, it goes through to the wheel well. I also found another a little further back:

Driver side footwell:



Wheel well side:


Small hole further back:


I'm going to continue to scrape and peel away all of that coating on the floorpan and get rid of that underpad. It looks like surface rust on the actual floorpan that I can wire wheel and grind away.

Question:

Does anyone know if there is any asbestos in this stuff Fiat put down on the floor? The wool like underpad, the coating etc?

[SoFlaFiat]

What a great looking car!! Nice find!!

[Odoyle]

Looks like the 3rd owner was an enthusiast, lucky for you! He converted the US spec signal markers to the small european-style ones, a big plus in my opinion. Also the engine block looks exceptionally clean, good chance it's been rebuilt. Looks like you purchased a very nice spider, looking forward to more!

[Frankd1]

Thanks for the nice comments guys!

I do like the Euro spec lights as well as the smooth rear fenders, it's a nice clean look.

Right about the engine! The whole engine bay and engine itself are very very clean. No oil leaks from the engine so I would think at the very least it was resealed..

I wish I didn't have some of the corrosion issues inside of the front shock towers and floor plans but it looks like that's par for the course.

I will be working on cleaning up the floors and welding in a few patches..

Any ideas on what the sound deadening material that Fiat used is made of?

I want to make sure there is no asbestos before I start removing it. I will be wearing a respirator anyway though for the dust with a shop vac running. I will also mist some water to help keep the dust down.

More photos to come!

[Frankd1]

Now that the car is put away for the winter I started pulling things apart.

I pulled the wiper cowling to have a look underneath and aside from a bit of dirt it looks pretty good.

Before pics:





I used simple green to wipe everything down followed by a damp cloth. After pics:





The vent door opened. I'd like to remove it to clean inside and replace the foam seal:


How do you remove this door?

Anything else I should be checking for specifically in this cowl area? I am going to replace the washer fluid hose as the one that is there seems a little on the hard side with a some kinks in a few spots...


Here are some pics of the underside of the cowling itself. There is some minor surface rust around the areas of the screw holes that I will clean up and treat and seal after I give the whole area a general cleaning:






The rubber gaskets still seem pretty soft so I will just clean those up and use them again.
Is there any type of adhesive that should be used on these gaskets to hold in place on the bottom of the cowl?

[djape1977]

no azbestos - peel away

[calvinconrad]

great looking spider! what size are your tires?

[RRoller123]

That is an absolutely beautiful car, nice find!

[Frankd1]

Thanks! The tires are Kumho 205/50 15's

Working on the car slowed down a bit with my work schedule and the Christmas holidays but I made some progress recently..

I started to polish some of the steel trim and overall I'm happy with the results. I started with the windshield wiper arms and I think they turned out well. I'm going to keep working at it to see if I can completely remove all of the oxidation. From there I will continue with the rest of the trim work. I used a metal polish that I picked up at Canadian Tire, its Autosol brand. I initially applied it with super fine steel wool (#0000) and then used a cloth for the subsequent application..

Here are some before photos of one of the wiper arms where you can see some of the oxidation and minor pitting:

After pics:


Remember the rubber gaskets that go under the wiper cowl? They cleaned up pretty nice with some simple green: