Starting a restoration thread where to collect as much photos as possible and of course, share my experience with all of you! I'm already grateful for all the good tips I'm receiving from the forum members in the latest days, so I hope I'll be able to help someone at some point!
As I've already said in my presentation post, the car is a black 124 Spider AS with the small 1.4 liters engine and a 5 speed manual gearbox. Overall conditions are pretty good for a car that has been stuck in a garage for 15 years but of course it needs a lot of maintenance before rolling on the roads. I've already experienced the bad conditions of the brakes (and/or wheel bearings) by pushing the car in the middle of the garage and it has been soooooo hard to take it there! It was like pushing a huge 1 ton rock, trust me! On Monday I should get a hydraulic jack from a friend and finally put the car on the jack stands, so I'll be able to check a lot of stuff and work properly on the car.
My plans are not so ambitious (for now! ), I just want to put the car back on the road, give a proper clean to it and then make some modifications on the outside and to the engine. For sure I'll make it bumper-less, it's so cool without the heavy chrome bumpers! But I have to study a way to put a new light for the rear license plate somewhere because as you'll see in the following photos, the lights are now incorporated in the rear bumper...
In the future (a far away future probably! ahah!) I would like to take off the soft top and put the Abarth hard top instead, install a roll bar, new Fusina-style seats (OMP makes some really beautiful and pretty cheap replicas) a new steering wheel (you'll see from the pictures that mine has a crack in the middle of the Fiat logo) and some Vitaloni Sebring mirrors. Of course upgrading the suspensions, ARBs and some more little chassis upgrades. For the wheels I'm planning to change the original Cromodora ones with a set of 3 pieces Oscam wheels. They're almost unknown even here in Italy, but they came off from a 131 Abarth Gr.4 model, just with smaller outer lip (I'll replace them with wider ones to take the wheels to 15x7/7.5 size). I've sand blasted them last summer and they just need to be painted. Super happy with these wheels because I got them for a really low price (the seller was not a fan of 3 piece wheels, while I'm a super enthusiast instead! ). I could buy a new engine if I would sell these wheels, but I just LOVE them, so they'll go on the 124!
An engine swap would be great to have a bit more of power (1.8 engine is the best of course), but for now I don't have the time, the money and the knowledge to do it, so I'll stick with my 1.4 and start to have some fun with it.
Ok, now let's stop with the words and let's start with the pictures!
As of now the little 124 looks like this (Yes, I know, it's really dirt... be kind please! Ahah!):












The Oscam wheels!


Well, this is it for me now. I've already bought some new parts like the radiator hoses, a new oil filter and a new inside door handle for the driver side and still have to buy the new fluids (suggestions here about which one to buy are really appreciated) to replace the old ones that are in really disgusting conditions as you can imagine...
Kind regards gents, I hope you like my little beauty and I hope you're not already bored to hear me... ahah!

Riccardo

It a nice first series car that you have there.
There are not so many in such a good shape.
Good luck for all your work.

Thanks westy! I have to say that I really like the clean lines of the AS and that luckily is not in too bad conditions for a 43 years old lady.
Thank you also for the good luck, I think I'll need a little bit of that very soon! Ahah!

Riccardo

Are the tail light housings unique to the early cars? they look very cool. Beautiful car, enjoy the process and the ride!

George

I do not want to tell you what to do or not to do, but I feel it's a pity to modify a rare old AS spider to a copy.
Abarth 124 were made out of CS1 cars.
You will need to change the hood too.
Just my opinion.
Have fun anyway.

georgeramos wrote:Are the tail light housings unique to the early cars? they look very cool. Beautiful car, enjoy the process and the ride!

George

Thank you George!
Tail light housings are original parts, but I don't know if they were installed only on AS models.

westy64 wrote:I do not want to tell you what to do or not to do, but I feel it's a pity to modify a rare old AS spider to a copy.
Abarth 124 were made out of CS1 cars.
You will need to change the hood too.
Just my opinion.
Have fun anyway.

Westy, don't worry, I don't want to make a copy of the Abarth model! I just want to make a cool sporty car! The only thing I would really like to do are installing the hard top (just because I'm not a huge fan of the soft top, especially living in a city like Milan where drunk people use to cut/ruin/soil the soft top of the cars), change that single ugly side mirror (look at it... it's really ugly), replace the cracked steering wheel and remove the bumpers. All the rest is just a "wish list", but all those things are not needed of course. I love the seats I have now, they looks really good and I love so much the smell of the old leather!
I don't want to change the hood because I like the original one I have now and I don't want to add any fog lights on the front. Basically I just want to make the car looking a bit better, but for now my plans are just to put the lady back on the road and start to have some fun with it!

Riccardo

for coolant use paraflu, same as for new fiats, and for oil - selenia 15w40 (don't remember what colour, not the gold one for sure)

about the wheels

if you switch to 15" instead of 13" you need to use low profile tyres and that will make ride very hard. if i were you i'd stick with 13 and use 185/60/13 tyres.

Those tail lights are from 1967-69 only

djape1977 wrote:for coolant use paraflu, same as for new fiats, and for oil - selenia 15w40 (don't remember what colour, not the gold one for sure)

about the wheels

if you switch to 15" instead of 13" you need to use low profile tyres and that will make ride very hard. if i were you i'd stick with 13 and use 185/60/13 tyres.

Thanks for info about the liquids!
About the wheels, you think it will impossible to fit 195/50/15 tires in the arches of the 124? I'm planning to upgrade the suspensions and so even lower the car a little bit, because now it's really high and the suspensions are really too much soft! I'm not too much bothered about the ride, I use to go around in very stiff cars, so that won't be a problem.
Please don't flame me, but I won't keep the car 100% original, because I like to have "my own car", make it beautiful and different from the others, like that brilliant red 124 in the top banner of the forum for example (the front end looks amazing) or westy's "prunette", and I like to have a good handling on my cars. I don't care too much about the power, but the car needs to handle well to enjoy the beautiful twisty roads we have here!

Riccardo

should be able to fit 195/55x15s okay.

before you start wasting your time and money, find someone with a running 124 and take it for a test drive.
car doesn't need to be hard and uncomfortable in order to be very stable.
just adding 2cm spacers to original wheels and soft compound modern tyres 2cm wider than originals, 185 instead of 165, will make the car handle much better than 90% of modern cars. in fact it will hold the road so good that you'll shit your pants much before the car reaches limit of grip.

azruss wrote:should be able to fit 195/55x15s okay.

Thanks for the info azruss!

djape1977 wrote:before you start wasting your time and money, find someone with a running 124 and take it for a test drive.
car doesn't need to be hard and uncomfortable in order to be very stable.
just adding 2cm spacers to original wheels and soft compound modern tyres 2cm wider than originals, 185 instead of 165, will make the car handle much better than 90% of modern cars. in fact it will hold the road so good that you'll shit your pants much before the car reaches limit of grip.

For sure I'll test my car as it is now before buying anything new, but I've been into a light modified 124 Volumex and that sort of ride was very impressive for a classic car. Of course it also had 60+hp more than my 124, but it was very stable and not too much stiff compared to other classic cars I've been into and when I push up and down my 124 it seems like a boat to me! Ahah! The ride comfort is not all about a soft setup, I find it rather annoying, especially on a twisty road!
However let's start by putting my old lady back on the road, then I'll see what to do with her!

Riccardo

you have a great project car..............I'm jealous.........

rontron2012 wrote:you have a great project car..............I'm jealous.........

Cheers man!
I'm jealous of your mechanical and restoration skills tho! Ahahah!

Riccardo

better buy a set of new shocks. two way gas shocks preferably. Kayaba makes them and they're not expensive at all

just look for KYB Excel-G