Brand New to Fiats and just saying hi

[ngrybrd]

Hello all,
I'm Tom in Southern NH. I just got myself a spider for an incredible price. "if you can weed whack your way to it and drag it out of there you can have it" so i couldnt pass it up, he was just going to junk it. i guess ill give a little info on the car, try to post a few pictures and i definitely have a ton of questions to ask if i cant find my answers perusing the search function.
from my research, its a 1982 2000 spider turbo. i dont know much about the turbo as i can't seem to find any good information online anywhere. just that a few had them put on in new jersey when they got off the boat from italy. can anyone give me more information on these turbo cars? its not even listed as an option when i tried to find the value on nadaguides. anyone know what one of these is worth versus a regular spider 2000? all i can find thats different on this car versus other spiders ive looked at online is it has stickers in the door jam and on the cowl saying it was modified by legend industries, different wheels, and the turbo and turbo output plenum (i guess youd call it) are there in place of the usual air intake hose to the air flow sensor and air box ( so obviously it must have a different exhaust manifold too. how much did it cost new vs how much did a regular spider cost new?

its been sitting for 20 years. odometer reads 36K, the top is completely rotted to nothing and the top frame and mechanism is rusty but can be cleaned up. its bronze in color but its definitely been painted, given over spray and where its peeling of and where ive kissed it with a grinder theres a blue deeper down, but all the hard to paint parts(firewall inside trunk etc) are bronze, so maybe its the original color just been changed a few times. its a 5 speed with a tan leather interior thats actually in decent shape. its got a bit of rust here and there on it but nothing i can't handle or would make the project come to a stop. needs new rockers but the structure under the rockers looks almost perfect. any other spots can be handled with a grinder and some small pieces welded in place. also has one small hole under the back seat. all in all, body wise its better then my usual projects so im not worried about that. i plan to just pick one piece a night, do what i can to clean it up. eventually ill have it all pretty again.

so far ive power washed and vacuumed it out, threw a battery in and hotwired it just to see that things can still move. (he lost the keys years ago so ill need a new ignition switch and door and trunk locks ) and they can, with a quick shot of ether at the air box the engine will idle a bit and will run on the ether, so i know the ignition and everything is still functioning but without the ether it stops so i know its not getting any fuel. thats my main project to tackle i think to get it running. i found a good write up of tuning the l-jetronic fuel injection systems so im going to go through step by step. my main plan first, is to do a full "tune up" at least as far as i can with out it running. ill change the timing belt, oil, plugs wires, cap and rotor, change all hoses, cleaning all the electrical grounds, then ill try to make if run. this would be where i get into cleaning and testing the fuel system piece by piece. anyone have a good recommendation as to what to use to clean the fuel parts? the gas tank reeks of varnish so i know thats going to be the biggest thing i have to fight with. i figure ill start at the tank and move forward.

here's a few pics for your entertainment:

[SunnySideUp]

You've found the best place for Fiat Spiders - bar none! Quite the find you have. I'll venture a guess that the turbo is toast and that it will be the hardest part of the restoration. Keep us posted on how it goes and ask questions! There are a few turbo owners here on the forum that can help you down the path.

Welcome aboard!

[aj81spider]

Welcome! I'm not far from you in Northern Mass.

Good luck with the restoration, although I will warn you (as I'm going through one myself) the saying that there is no more expensive Fiat than a free one kind of holds true!

I think I might have a PDF of a turbo manual - PM me your email if you are interested and I'll see if I can find it. The turbo was an aftermarket addition in the US and not part of Fiat's standard package.

[RRoller123]

Welcome aboard! That is a great find for the price!

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

[ngrybrd]

thanks for the welcome guys,

AJ, i see your sig says you're in chelmsford, i actually work in dracut but live in Pelham. so id said "not far from you" is an understatement. i have to update my profile. i fully expect a bit of expense to it, but if i can make it a fun toy for as little as possible thats my goal. in terms of free fiats are the most expensive, i dont think it was free because he knew what it would take to fix it, i think it was free because he had no interest in it and the neighbors were complaining about having too many junk cars in the yard (even though we dont have any ordinances about it, he'd rather make peace not war) so with a little luck, it wont be as bad, but of course im dreaming, i wont know for sure till i really dig deep.

for a little back story, basically, my main toy car is a 76 trans am, im trading my body guy a 67 mustang and alot of man hours helping him out as payment for a show quality restoration, short of paint. part of the man hours is helping him deal with the neighbor by cleaning up the yard and helping him get rid of stuff. he has a local junk yard take away stuff for $50 a pop. so since they were going to be trash, i saved him $100 and saved the fiat and a fiero kit car that were on the list. ive always been a muscle car guy but the fiat caught my eye, its just such a cool little car. but being used to carbs and v8s, this little guy is pretty damn intimidating.

sunnyside, as for the turbo, im worried about that too, not only because i know older turbos (on any car) are delicate and were never maintained properly, compared to modern turbos, but since i know very little about fiats with turbos, and cant find any info, i fear that finding a good one will be a big problem. and finding a modern turbo that will fit without a ton of effort would be just as hard. plus im not familiar with power adders, so i plan to pull off the turbo for now, to make the system as a whole more easy for me to understand. ill remove it before any exhaust tries to spin it for risk of damaging anything. maybe i can take it apart and clean it, and and make sure its nice and solid before i put it back on the car. if i just run a stock air intake hose from the air flow sensor to the throttle body, would it work fine while i do everything else to the motor to get it running? then just reinstall the turbo later, if i can get it working? obviously, id have to make up a temporary flange/pipe to get the exhaust to the back of the car, but im not too worried about that. unless i can find a used exhaust manifold for a stock 2000 and use that temporarily.

i read one little snippet about how legend just threw on the turbo but didnt make the engine turbo ready? so they only had 6 psi and werent that reliable? are there any turbo gurus out there that can give advice on how to build up the engine to handle the turbo a little better. what goods a turbo if its not gaining you the power they are capable of?


also another quick question, more humorous though, how the heck do you guys work on these cars with that tiny amount of space? my trans am has a 455 in it, its a massive motor its literally almost 4 times the volume of the engine in the fiat, and i feel like i could sit cross legged under the hood to work on it compared to the fiat!!! im afraid if i drop a bolt it will forever sit where it rests because i wont be able to get my hand down in there to fish it out.
see, on the trans am, you can see all the way around it, if i dropped a bolt in here i could literally stick my head down in to look for it!

[ngrybrd]

Hi RRoller, thanks are my picture snot showing up? i did it based on the link you mentioned as i had researched it first. i can see them on on computer. i think i have to resize them though? they are oddly cut short ill see what i can do and edit my posts


edit: thats better i think? can you guys see the pics in a normal, un-clipped size?

[RRoller123]

Pics are fine, that is a standard greeting that I give to everyone, and sometimes I just get lazy and don't edit it.

[ngrybrd]

ok , gotcha, at least it made me realize my pics were getting cut off. heres a pic of the day i dragged it out of the weeds only took 4 hours of bushwhacking to get to it.




aj thank you so much for those manuals thats going to be alot of help!! im starting to understand this car a bit now and am feeling a little more comfortable with it. a few more nights of reading till 1 am and i should be golden....

[Ptoneill]

i am very impressed, the car looks in very good restorable condition. You may want to pull the carpet out and see if you have any floor rot, there are plenty of aftermarket carpet sets availible. As for the turbo it really should not be to hideious to get it refreshed as long as you have all the pieces and it has not had an impeller failure, there are shops that specialize in rebuilding these.

Good Luck and keep the pictures of the progress going, everyone likes pictures.

[ngrybrd]

thank you, ya i pulled it out when i power washed it, the only real rot is under the back seat on the drivers side closer to the console. about a half fist sized hole, other than that its pretty solid. frame and structure wise is good. definitly need new rockers and there just a few holes here and there are i can fix pretty easily. other than that its a great find considering he was just going to junk it. it wouldve been worth it even if it was in worse condition