'75 Spider (midlife crisis or glutton for punishment?)

[stuartrubin]

Hello, people! I'm on my second week with my first Fiat (and first "toy" car). I got the bug for a little racer in high school when my friend had an old Spitfire. After driving the Spider last week (and seeing that my kids could actually fit in the back seat!) I was hooked.

There are lots of little problems (automatic choke, oil leak from dip-stick tube, brake noise, bake fluid leak) plus the interior is a wreck, but I'm really excited to dig in.

First project is to install rear seat belts and fix the front ones (one of which "exploded" into a million bits yesterday).

A few questions:
Any Fiat clubs in the Northeast Ohio (Cleveland) area?
Any good salvage (junk) yards in that area with Fiat parts?
I think I found a good mechanic, but I'd be happy to hear recommendations for a good shop in the area.

Thanks for indulging me with my noob questions which will surely be flooding this forum!

Stuart

[wizard124]

Your car looks pretty sweet! Welcome.

Lots of good info here. Our cars are pretty simple to work on. Wrenching on them is a big part of the fun and journey.

[btoran]

welcome. i have a 1975 as well and in adiditon to adding rear lap belts for the kiddies, i also also swapped the front lap belts for 3 point belts, which can be done if you get a newer upper back seat to allow the belts to pass thru (the retractors go behind the back seat). poke around on the site for past posts about the subject. seatbeltplanet.com sells belts for our spiders (although not cheaply). speak to them directly if you're interested in retractable seats for the front. we need special ones due to the orientation of the retractors and they have them.

[stuartrubin]

btoran, thanks for the tips on the seatbelts. I was not actually planning on replacing the front belts immediately, but the other day, when I plugged in the driver's belt, the receptacle exploded into a million pieces! I ended up ordering universal retractable lap belts for the front (which should just bolt in), as well as the two plain ones for the rear (which will require some drilling).

[btoran]

belts for the back may not require drilling as there should already be threaded holes there. remove the upper back seat to find them. if your kids will be in car seats or booster seats, make sure the back seat belts are long enough.

[pressonregardless]

Hope you have not drilled your body pan yet. As mentioned above, there are pre-drilled plates visible from underneath the car above the rear axle. If you poke around with a phillips screw driver, you should be able to poke through the soft coverings and clean out the threads that are factory installed! Best of luck!

[stuartrubin]

Thanks for the tips. After removing the two seat cushions, I DID locate the factory holes for the seatbelts! Unfortunately, the threads were either stripped or corroded, or otherwise not usable. I was able to easily bolt the belts in the inner holes using the existing holes and using bolts, washers, lock washer, and nuts. I DID have to drill into the wheel well for the outer holes since the bottom side of the factory outer holes were not accessible (but I don't know what's under the hole keeping me from getting to them).