Hey guys, I've been on here for a while and haven't posted much. I am restoring a 78 Spider and decided to finally start a thread. I am young and this is my first serious project car.

The car had been on Craigslist for awhile at $900 when I decided to take a chance and look at it. The previous owner had saved it after it had sat in a field for 10 years with the top down. So far he had taken the bumpers off and cut out the passenger floor board to replace it. It ran very nicely and I knew that to most it would be a parts car so I decided to save it. After some haggling $600 took it home.





The passenger side fender is astonishingly hideous and will have to be replaced. Other than that the rust is only cosmetic. The strut towers are perfect if you can believe that!



So far, I've put a floorboard from IAP in on the passenger side and patched everything on the driver's side. The PO apparently didn't do any measuring before he cut so a little improvising had to be done. BTW, would the blue paint in the second photo the original color?





This is how it looks right now:





Is the crease in the hood fixable?



I know it looks like I've taken on more than I can handle and maybe I have but I either way I'm going to put this Italian Bella back on the road again.

Hey, WELCOME!! Boy are you in the right place.

Anything is possible. If nothing else you will learn so much on this one that the next one will be easy!!

Lots of guys on here willing to offer advice, help and even an occasional odd piece you can't find anywhere else.

Keep the pictures coming. You're off to a great start.

I know it looks like I've taken on more than I can handle and maybe I have but I either way I'm going to put this Italian Bella back on the road again.

Well, that's why they call it a project. You will have the satisfaction of knowing the exact condition of your car when it's done. Good luck with your restoration. We look forward to watching the progress.

Al

My first Spider looked about like that!
It was my daily driver for ~5 years.

I'm glad I re-read your post. I thought you actually paid $900 for that! If it runs well, then for $600 I think you are probably set. the nice thing about the condition that it's in is that you will literally have to go through the entire thing in your resto, so you'll have a great car when you are done!!!!

Thank you all for all of the kind words and encouragement!! I'm glad to know that there is such a great community willing to help!

vandor wrote:My first Spider looked about like that!
It was my daily driver for ~5 years.

My current daily driver looks about like that!

Hello & welcome to the best place on earth. Nice job so far

Good luck!

i live just down the road a bit in the Chattanooga area. keep your eyes open for other parts cars as will I, and maybe we can work out a shared purchase and both benefit form the parts and body pieces. or if you buy one, let me know and i will buy parts from you. or if i buy one, visa versa. you can never have enough spider parts! no matter what my wife says!

Welcome to the site. As a new driver myself, it's been a great ride.

Just so you know, your shifter sleeve is a helluva lot better than mine!

Welcome, If you thought you were crazy, just look at the car list in my signature. BTW check out the parts list section, I have a bunch.

Thank you all again!

Remember to take LOTS of pictures as you take it appart because even after a few days one part starts to look like another and the pictures will be invaluable. Make sure you buy a couple of good quality spot weld cutters as you will use them a lot duing the body work as almost all the body parts are spot welded together.

Yes, tag and bag everyting you take apart! I have been working on my 1980 for 2.8 years and it is almost done. It took a lot of extra time to sort out what screws go where, etc. Good luck with your project. Ditto on this being the best Fiat Spider forum in the world. These guys know everything!