My Fiat Spider was once in 'THE' Whitehouse

[GOPAPA]

[quote="Jim DeShon"]I would like to know where [besides Italy] my 77' Spider came from. I found it on a used car lot in Victorville California in 1985. It has been with me every since. It was a 49 state [non-California] car, so I know it was from out of the area. They built these for a while until they all became the same, I think when they brought out the 2000 engine. I figure one of the airmen from the airbase that used to be here probably brought it to California. ...J.D.[/quotE

jIM ,,You most likely know this already ,,but,, if you have any paper work with the car when you bought it ,,then you might find from the place of work that was done to it with some info,, or the best thing would be the registration before you changed it to your name. I got lucky with one of my Chevy Trucks and when I was putting new cranks in the doors and new glass I found a Insurance magnetic advertisment button and it had the name of the company and the small town in southern California and so I did some investigating and found where my truck came from.. Start with the Car lot ..Good Luck ! LD

[Jim DeShon]

No such luck Papa...No paperwork and as many years as I have had the car [23+], the dealer is no more. No matter, I am more of the car's history at this point. I finally parked it when the drivetrain gave out. It has been tucked away in my shop for years now. Every time I would get the urge to restore it, someone would give me something new to do [jobs mostly out of town]. I'm retiring now and it is first on the list. I took the hardtop off for the first time in years and fixed the soft top. The motor is coming out first thing to be set aside while I work on the chassis. Needs complete brake & fuel system redone and some minor suspension fixs. We'll see how it progresses next summer. ...J.D.

[Spiddy]

Hello Papa. When our kids were ankle snappers, the family name for spider (multi legged variety) was Spiddy. And it stuck.

Why the interest in Peugeots? I really wouldn't know if the Stuttgart dealership flogged them or not. Sorry.

I think I am the only idiot in Spain with a Spider. Certainly no one yet has been able to identify it correctly over here.

[GOPAPA]

Hello Papa. When our kids were ankle snappers, the family name for spider (multi legged variety) was Spiddy. And it stuck.

Why the interest in Peugeots? I really wouldn't know if the Stuttgart dealership flogged them or not. Sorry.

I think I am the only ""LUCKY GUY"" in Spain with a Spider. Certainly no one yet has been able to identify it correctly over here.

Spiddy ,, I looked up "Autohaus Niederberger " and found a connection of sorts with his name and Peugeots ,,so thats how I got into this jam.. LOL Say ! For being a Spaniard you write pretty good English ,,but I think you put the wrong adjective in above and I changed it for you if you don't mind.. Idiot you are not.. Just funnin with ya ,, LD

[Spiddy]

Papa, thanks for the compliment for my English being so good. It may have something to do with the fact that my Mother was English......come to think of it, so was my Father.......and untill I moved here 7 years ago, so was I

Just don't ask me anything in Spanish - that would be embarrassing ....and it would proove I really am an idiot.

Y'all take good care now, y'ear! Have a nice day there Papa. (see, my American's pretty good too)

[Gunsmith]

Funny thing about Fiat's and divorce, many of us had one of each in the begining and after the divorce went right and started a new relationship with another Fiat. They are usually not worth fighting over in a divorce, as soon as each parties lawyer rights a letter concerning the car the legal fees are equal or more than the cost of most Fiat's.

[Darsella1]

Mine is a late Pininfarina so it was purchased new in Italy. I have all of the original paperwork and importation documents, which is part of why I liked this car. I am the 2nd recorded owner. They custom ordered it when they were living in Italy and the imported it privately in 1989 with 41K miles. It was then in NH, and moved to Miami, FL. I purchased it last year and had it shipped to the west coast (where you all remember pictures of the rust disaster). My little car has been driven all over the place.

It does have the original windshield so it's interesting that it has the California emissions stickers on it. But the car did not come with a cat converter- they had to add it before they imported it (I have the receipt!)

[Tony]

My car was bought new on the 5th July 1985 from Autohaus Niederberger in Stuttgart, West Germany (as it was then) by Herr Stuber. And that's who I bought it from 5 months ago. WHO'S A LUCKY BOY, THEN

I am so jealous. Not only is it a Pinin, its an 85, AND second owner! Please just lie to me and say its not an 85.5...

[johndemar]

Bought the car new on July 27, 1976 from Amadio Motors in Jeannette, PA. I have the window sticker framed and hanging in the garage. Being a recent graduate I had to drive it full time for the first two winters, and the road salt of western Pennsylvania began to work it's magic almost immediately. For the last 25 years it's lived in the desert of Arizona and has recovered nicely from it's bout with basal cell carcinoma.

[124spiderman]

I would love to know where mine came from. US for sure. Most of our spiders are US imports, others were European sourced. All privately imported and converted to right hand drive using 124 Coupe steering box & idler arm. The dash is symmetrical so we just swapped the glovebox lid and instrument cluster around. The wiring is a bit fiddly, because we tend to disregard all of the US safety warning bells and lights (seat belts, ignition key etc) so quite few have dead/loose wiring dangling under the dash here and there. You can forget about factory originality, as none here are. Some, like mine for instance don't have gloveboxes, only the glovebox lid and most are permanently closed. (I'm in the process of rectifying this). Also forget about following the factory wiring diagram if you ever have to as that tends to get modified as well along the conversion. A lot of work is needed. It is a painstaking and laborous project to say the least but well worth it in the end if its done right.
Then recently the Australian Federal Government stated that all cars imported into Oz that are over 30 years of age don't need to be converted to RHD. So now I see lots of LHD 'stangs, Chargers, Camaro's, Porsches & the odd Merc pagoda roof Benz...but no LHD Spiders though.
Hmmm.
If you want to see what some of your ex-pat Spiders living down under log onto:
http://www.carsales.com.au or http://www.carpoint.com.au
When you consider initial purchase price, freight and transportation charges from US and all labour charges for the conversion plus all the legal paperwork for importation and taxes, and exclusivity, you'll understand the asking prices.

I would love to start a 124 Spider register down under. I would guess that there are about a 1000 or so 124 spiders here in Australia? My guess is as good as any. I wonder how many survive in the US?

[sjmst]

Bought mine new. Still have the owner of the original dealerhip work on it sometimes.

[adrians]

Nick ( 124spiderman )

Just noticed a Spider sold here at Auction in July

http://www.shannons.com.au/pages/auctio ... 9CJ9G85FFE

[WYSpider]

Mine was purchased at Roger Mauro Imports in Lakewood, Colorado. (Check out the phone number on the business card.)

The Mauro brothers are long gone. But this summer I had an alignment done on my Fiat by a shop in Lakewood who's owner, Hank, was good friends with Johnny Mauro and his brothers.

[sptcoupe]

We are the second owners of both our '72 coupe and '81 spider.

The coupe was purchased in SFO on May 4th, 1972, and never left the city (I have the original bill of sale and window sticker). It was the PO's daily driver until he became ill and was not able to drive, in May of1986. It sat covered but unmoved until we bought it in August of 1987, with 108K on the clock. It had nerver been wrecked and all the bright work on it today are the original pieces, as is the headliner, dash and interior components (all restored/recovered, except the headliner and dash) We put it back on the road in May of 1988.

The spider was purchased in LA (Van Nuys) on June 6th (D-Day), 1981, and lived its whole life in SoCal. We bought it in APril, 2001, with 117K on the clock. The hood had been damaged in a collison with a deer, and the PO had just completed a 95% disassembly restoration on the car when he had to move overseas and sold it to us. The PO and I actually still correspond via email from time-to-time, as he has made me promise to sell it back to him if we ever decide to get rid of it (no chance of that)

[spiderron81]

I wish that mechanic was still there, I live in Whitehouse Station, NJ with an 81 Spider.