A Tale of Two Fiats
Posted: Sun Oct 16, 2011 11:53 am
My dad (Glasair180) and I are restoring Fiat Spiders simultaneously. This is our restoration thread. First, the backstory.
A year ago, at sixteen years old, I was looking for my first car. My first desire was a Mk I Golf GTI. I found exactly one for sale in the state of Florida, and naturally it was plagued by rust in the hugely-expensive-to-fix windshield frame. I tried early Rabbits and Golfs, but it wouldn't have been the GTI, and I wanted the GTI. I next decided that a Volvo 240 Wagon would be a good, cheap, and reliable car to drive until I go to college, but naturally every seller seems to think that the 240 Wagon is worth huge amounts more than the 740 Wagon or the 240 Sedan. That idea fell through as well.
And then, at Christmas time in my mother's house in Virginia, I came across a Craigslist add for a blue 1975 Fiat Spider. I called my dad. I called the seller. The car sounded great; he said he just had it completely restored with a brand new, "professional" metallic-blue paint job. I told my dad to go and buy it, but I never heard back from him. The ad on Craigslist disappeared. I lost hope in the little blue Fiat. So I started looking for other ones, but came up with no real hits.
I flew home. I walked through the terminal, out toward the passenger pickup area. And a little blue Fiat pulled up to take me home (Fiat 1). My dad and I thoroughly cleaned the car, put a new top on it, replaced the non-functioning voltage regulator, and some other little things. Oh, and we found rust. Lots of it.
My dad quickly decided he wanted a Spider as well, so we searched out another for him, eventually finding a brown '77 (Fiat 2). In our search for parts for the two of them, we ended up purchasing an almost rust-free body (Fiat 3), three engines, three transmissions, a set of Abarth Chromodoras, and a plethora of all the other Fiat parts you could want.
Now, we are in the midst of an engine/transmission move, from Fiat 2 into Fiat 3, which will be my dad's car. After that we will move the engine/transmission from Fiat 1 to Fiat 2 which will be my car, as Fiat 1 has a lot of rust in the pans and the shock towers.
Photos next.
Austin
A year ago, at sixteen years old, I was looking for my first car. My first desire was a Mk I Golf GTI. I found exactly one for sale in the state of Florida, and naturally it was plagued by rust in the hugely-expensive-to-fix windshield frame. I tried early Rabbits and Golfs, but it wouldn't have been the GTI, and I wanted the GTI. I next decided that a Volvo 240 Wagon would be a good, cheap, and reliable car to drive until I go to college, but naturally every seller seems to think that the 240 Wagon is worth huge amounts more than the 740 Wagon or the 240 Sedan. That idea fell through as well.
And then, at Christmas time in my mother's house in Virginia, I came across a Craigslist add for a blue 1975 Fiat Spider. I called my dad. I called the seller. The car sounded great; he said he just had it completely restored with a brand new, "professional" metallic-blue paint job. I told my dad to go and buy it, but I never heard back from him. The ad on Craigslist disappeared. I lost hope in the little blue Fiat. So I started looking for other ones, but came up with no real hits.
I flew home. I walked through the terminal, out toward the passenger pickup area. And a little blue Fiat pulled up to take me home (Fiat 1). My dad and I thoroughly cleaned the car, put a new top on it, replaced the non-functioning voltage regulator, and some other little things. Oh, and we found rust. Lots of it.
My dad quickly decided he wanted a Spider as well, so we searched out another for him, eventually finding a brown '77 (Fiat 2). In our search for parts for the two of them, we ended up purchasing an almost rust-free body (Fiat 3), three engines, three transmissions, a set of Abarth Chromodoras, and a plethora of all the other Fiat parts you could want.
Now, we are in the midst of an engine/transmission move, from Fiat 2 into Fiat 3, which will be my dad's car. After that we will move the engine/transmission from Fiat 1 to Fiat 2 which will be my car, as Fiat 1 has a lot of rust in the pans and the shock towers.
Photos next.
Austin
