Just bought My Fiat on Sunday the 18th!!

[LunaticTaskbar]

Hi All,

My name is Ian. AKA lunatic taskbar.

I just bought my 1974 Fiat 124 Spider sport on the 18th. It had apparently only been driven about 500miles a year. So the drive home was about 300... About 10 minutes from home the water pump went. The drive up until them was great.

The new Pump arrived this morning and its being installed almost as I type.

It has a MPH speedometer, but I have already ordered a GPS speedo from Andytach which should arrive any day.

Apart from a few niggles I really love the car, I saw it advertised on the Saturday evening and bought it on the Sunday Morning.

I am so eager to get back in it to drive it again.

The niggles are I really hate the location of the aerial, I don't know yet if this is the normal place but the angle it comes out at simply bothers me.

The glass covering the clock looks like it has glaucoma. Thats not a biggie. All other dials seem fine.

There is one switch I am unsure about, its in the center console, grey rocker switch. but when I get it back I will post pictures and hopefully someone can help inform me of its intended use.

I will need a little cosmetic help as time goes on.

But apart from the car not actually making it home I am loving it.

Hope to learn and help all I can on here.

Ian

[aj81spider]

Welcome! Fiats are the most fun to drive of any car I've owned.

The clock glass is plastic and can be easily (?) replaced. Do a search on the forum and you will find people who have done it with everything from the replacement plastic sold by the standard vendors to an old cassette case.

The gray switch is the fan switch for the heater/defroster.

[LunaticTaskbar]

Awesome AJ81spider. Thank you so much for your input.

I am eagerly hoping the car will be dropped back today. Can then start to play with it.

I will look into replacing the clock glass for sure. I wonder why it was only that glass that was affected?

Ian

[RRoller123]

The clock "glass" is actually a plastic, unlike the other instruments, and clouds over the years. Palo Alto Speedometer is a great resource for instrument renovation if you need it.

Welcome aboard! You will find plenty of knowledgeable and friendly people here.

Here is a thread on how to post pictures to the forum:

http://www.fiatspider.com/f08/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=21014

And here is a great picture-posting thread edited by SLOSpider:

http://www.fiatspider.com/f08/viewtopic ... 12&t=23084


Pete

[kmac33]

Welcome to the famiglia Ian. You were lucky enough to procure, by far, the best year Fiat Spider to own .
Any question you could possibly have about your Spider can be found here.
Post some pictures when you can...we all love pictures!

[azruss]

the clock face is plastic because it requires a hole for setting the clock. I have polished mine out with headlight plastic polish and have made it presentable. I think Auto Ricambi sells the faces. They are a pain to replace because it requires carefully spreading the crimp on the ring and then re-crimping. i've never been able to do this without damaging the ring paint.

[LunaticTaskbar]

Thanks so much for the replys.

an update:

My mechanic changed the seat-belts today, and put the long screw threw the side wall instead of the floor and it touched something that caused a horrendous noise, thankfully a quick fix. Then we noticed a noise at about 4000rpm this seems to be after he changed the water pump. He is currently investigating.

I will need to get a photo bucket account so I can up load photos.

[LunaticTaskbar]

Just going to try the links





My youngest with the 124


Must have to resize the images as they seem cut off.

[pluktv]

That's a nice looking Fiat. Whereabouts in Nova Scotia are you?

[Ptoneill]

welcome!!!!!

Nice looking car, did it come with the kid or was he an aftermarket? You will definitely find a lot of great advice and ideas from the senior members.

[LunaticTaskbar]

Hi. I am just outside Parrsboro. About an hour north or Truro.

The Kid certainly did not come with the car.
That's my youngest.

[Ptoneill]

Cool, he will definitely have a fun car to learn how to drive in!! Plus all the father son time working together on it.

[LunaticTaskbar]

Cool, he will definitely have a fun car to learn how to drive in!! Plus all the father son time working together on it.

Driving back you couldnt wipe the smile off of either of our faces. He loves the car as much as I do.

[LunaticTaskbar]

For those of you interested, the Spider passed its Nova Scotia MVI today. All are very happy.

It is now also sporting its new roof.

Today was a good day.

Ian