It started with the carpet, then the refurbishing the floor, then the center console and new radio, and then it all got put on hold pending repainting. Removed everything I could and the car is now with the painter. Soon I will tell my wife how much the estimate increased once the painter really got into the car. Was really surprised how many vintage cars are being painted at this place. Excited to finally get this done and by Easter I will have a Speed Yellow Fiat!



Check out the Mr. Fiat supplied new rear middle and lower valance. Best $230 I've spent. Soon you will see why.


Lower valance - with 10 pounds of bondo.


Another 10 pounds in the middle. The trunk lid was similar. Thanks to Captain John I have a nice, fresh trunk lid. My car is going to be so light and fast without all this bondo ballast!


The beginning of the makeover.

Gonna look great!

I agree! The few Spiders I have seen it ''Fly Yellow'' have looked awesome.The color really seems to fit the car.I am looking forward to pics of the finished product

ga.spyder wrote:I agree! The few Spiders I have seen it ''Fly Yellow'' have lokked awesome.The color really seems to fit the car.I am looking forward to pics of the finished product

DONT FORGET ORANGE ONES

You're right...orange looks really good too

I struggled for weeks on repainting the original orange from '71, or going with yellow. I have always ALWAYS wanted a yellow convertible sports car, and so I went with that. My theory is one can never have a bad day driving to work in a yellow sports car. I also thought my car will never make it back to original, so I declined on orange but it was oh so close.

If I were crazy enough to go through this again, I would love an orange BMW 2002, or an early orange spider.

My brother re-painted his MG Midget from blue to yellow, about 35 years ago, with black racing stripes. It was pretty cool, and I still have the memories of riding around as a teenager with him in it.

That BMW(Inca?) orange looks awesome on the 2002s.The few Spiders I have seen in yellow are really eye popping.If I was to repaint mine in another color...Fly Yellow!!

left us hanging...............

Oops. Back from the shop after some delays, attributed entirely to bad communications between me and Maaco. We had been talking about bodywork in and around the trunk and I said none needed inside, the mangled trunk floor would be covered by carpet. Maaco heard that as no paint needed, and took more time to repaint. I neglected to mention I would be repositioning the driver's mirror rearward on the door (view was blocked by wing window frame), and the two extra holes (five total) from PO work needed to be filled as well - door had to be patched and painted a second time. Picked the car up and was very impressed how smooth 40 years of wrinkles and dings and dents came out. The tail panels replaced were very well done and no doubt I would have wasted money repainting the bondo'd ones above. Love the color (brighter than the photo indicates) and pleased with the quality of the body work. That said, surprised with the lack of consistency on some hard to reach places. One of two door jambs with some red showing. Underside of hood with much red in a seam. Since the trunk was off, the brackets dropped out of sight under the rear cowl and were not painted. Two dings that clearly happened after painting and were touched up and not properly prepared. And last, since I had removed the front cowl and it was painted on a saw horse and returned to the cockpit for me to reinstall later (always my plan), neither I nor Maaco realized the cowl does not cover all the area that I had POR-15'd, and so some very visible red showing. Gonna be a problem as the POR-15 has to be removed and the fenders sprayed again. Maaco guy is very customer oriented and assures me it will all be made right, and he will even fix chips I create when I put it back together. I'm pretty sure it will be made right to my eye, but for almost $5000, much of it bodywork, I would have expected a little more attention to detail. We will see when it's all back together, and I show up (hopefully) at Carlisle in two weeks. The looks on the DCFiats crew will tell me whether I've been had (although they are all gentlemen and will suggest if I like it it was worth it!). Thanks for asking!

I love the color.I am sure you will get th details worked out.Congrats!
Craig

Nice. Post up some more pics when you get a chance. I want to change my blue to yellow or silver.

5,000 holly cow, wish you guys were closer too me.

Hearing your paint issues sounds alot like mine. Maybe we can go to the same therapy group.

Hey, I like that color.....not sure why.