New to Fiat, not cars

[fred2ka4]

First off let me start with hello!

While I am new to this forum, I am a car enthusiast to the bone! I do not have a specific brand I am loyal to as I like all well done cars whether they are modded, restored factory original, or creative one off hybrids as long as they are done right! I currently own and daily drive a 2000 Audi A4 Quattro which has been modded to a clean street machine, in my opinion of course ...... ...... but you may be asking what brings me to this forum? Well a co-worker of mine who knows I'm into cars asked if I knew anyone that wanted to buy a little project car, so I asked what the car was and she responded, "it's a 1971 Fiat Spider with a hard top" so I went to go see the car and I am now the proud owner of a Fiat Spider. I plan on fully restoring the car to it's former glory with a few tricks up my sleeve but enough with the talk, lets get onto the car. Hope you enjoy and I look forward to meeting enthusiasts and making new friends who enjoy cars as much as I do.

The car runs but it needs a new carburetor and intake as the one on the car is not the correct one but a little research on the forum boards has steered me in the direction of Allison's Automotive which will see a lot of my business in a little while Once I get the car properly running, I will know where to start from.

Fred


The current Audi:



And the 71 Fiat:

[kmead]

Congrats and welcome to the forum and to Fiat ownership.

Great intro and pics we always like to have those

Looks like a nice project, though its not pretty, it is all there. You will find that most parts are pretty easy to come by. There are a small number of dedicated vendors who can assist you with most things.

From the looks of your A4 it will be interesting to see what you end up doing with your Fiat.

[azruss]

welcome to the spider zoo. I bought one new in 1970 and drove it as a daily driver til 1993 and 295k miles. car left me stranded just twice. once was a bad ignition module in a transplanted 2L. dont remember the other. First thing to do is a safety check. these cars have rust issues. take a look at the front spring/shock housing and the square beam that runs along the top. check for excessive rust and fatigue cracks in the beam. also check the lower front frames for cracks around the anti-sway bar brackets and the engine cross-member. while you are under there, check the condition of the brake lines. If those are in good shape, the rest is down hill.
These cars arent fast by modern standards, but well balanced, nice handling cars. Parts are easy to come by and are inexpensive. Good bang for the buck in the resto department. Have fun!

[fred2ka4]

Thanks for the warm welcome fellas and I do plan on having fun with this one. I got the car for $400 so I could not pass it up but I do plan on completely tearing the car down to make sure and repair all issues before I start the build. My youngest son (16) is going to help me as we are making this a father son project as he wants to become a mechanic so we will do all of the work ourselves which includes tearing the car down to just the frame. I am not trying to make a street rod but i would like to get some new life into this project and I was kicking around the idea of putting in an SR20DET motor from Japan which is a 2.0l turbo charged rear wheel drive motor for those that do not know. I will keep the car a four cylinder but I just want a newer engine, but we"ll see how that plays out. Right now my first issue is safety and getting the current motor running smoothly with a new carb and intake.

- Fred

[kmac33]

Fred,
Welcome to the forum. Looks like you found a great project car!

[azruss]

do your homework before you do an modern engine. current tranny and diffy are only good to 150 hp.

[fiatfreak]

Looks like you live in a dry part of the Country, so hopefully you don;t have any rust issues to contend with.