Fiat Spider restoration in Pakistan
Posted: Sat Nov 11, 2017 2:52 am
Hullo. Although I am several months into the restoration of my spider CS1 I thought might as set up a restoration story here. Some flashes of it have been given in the alfabb forum where I have put up the story of my ongoing Alfa GTV6 restoration.
Anyhow to start off have been car crazy ever since I was knee high to a grasshopper. Started driving at the age of 17 though ... my dad would not let me near the drivers seat until I was of age ( although 18 is the driving age in Pakistan)...learnt driving on a Ford Consul Classic 315... the one with the raked forward rear window... bald rear tyres and learnt to slide the car in it.
Anyhow Pakistan went thorugh a dark period and almost all European cars disappeared off the market... or was europe going through the dark period in the 70s as apart from Mercedes all european manufacturers basically left.... no more sales.. VW disappeared in 1973 and Ford who used to assemble, Fiat wwho used to sell relatively good numbers as well as the British just gave up. The vacuum was filled by the Japanese in the thousands and then the hundreds of thousands. Mercedes though continued on their merry way with the trickle of saloons being sold to the well off.
A few people returning form Europe/USA though continued to bring their cars as personal baggage imports. Over the years most of the Europeans were used up and melted for scrap. A few hundred VW beetles survive as well as handful of others which are now classics
My first memory of a Fiat is the brochure for an 1100D that my father brought in 1965 that was rejected for the Ford Consul Classic .. the second is a 124ST .... i remember the exhaust sound
Anyhow to start off have been car crazy ever since I was knee high to a grasshopper. Started driving at the age of 17 though ... my dad would not let me near the drivers seat until I was of age ( although 18 is the driving age in Pakistan)...learnt driving on a Ford Consul Classic 315... the one with the raked forward rear window... bald rear tyres and learnt to slide the car in it.
Anyhow Pakistan went thorugh a dark period and almost all European cars disappeared off the market... or was europe going through the dark period in the 70s as apart from Mercedes all european manufacturers basically left.... no more sales.. VW disappeared in 1973 and Ford who used to assemble, Fiat wwho used to sell relatively good numbers as well as the British just gave up. The vacuum was filled by the Japanese in the thousands and then the hundreds of thousands. Mercedes though continued on their merry way with the trickle of saloons being sold to the well off.
A few people returning form Europe/USA though continued to bring their cars as personal baggage imports. Over the years most of the Europeans were used up and melted for scrap. A few hundred VW beetles survive as well as handful of others which are now classics
My first memory of a Fiat is the brochure for an 1100D that my father brought in 1965 that was rejected for the Ford Consul Classic .. the second is a 124ST .... i remember the exhaust sound
