Greetings from the great plains of Nebraska! Earlier this week, I picked up a 1975 Fiat 124 Spider. I’m excited to start my Italian motoring adventure!
I’m going to preface this by mentioning that I don’t have a ton of experience. At the beginning of this year, I started my first ‘adult’ job out of college, and finally have the resources to pursue this hobby! I was originally looking for an MGB, but then on a whim, I decided to check out this Fiat on craigslist. After driving it, I immediately fell in love with the look and feel of ther car, and had to have it.
The car starts (sometimes) runs, stops (eventually) but has very little rust (was told it was a California car) and as a bonus, it came with a white hard top, and extra set of wheels and tires!
My first goal is to get the car running more reliably. Right now, it seems to cold start pretty easily, but once it warms up, it will often stall out, and then won’t start again. I’m trying to identify, and learn more about the carburetor to see if adjusting it would help, but I want to make sure I know what I’m doing first! (will definitely be posting in the appropriate technical sections of the site as well)
The next step will be figuring out the gauges. When I test drive the car, everything except for the clock seemed to work, but now they're all dead, except for the tachometer, which just seems to move really slowly.
I have a small amount of mechanical automotive experience, I’ve done stuff like brake jobs, suspension work, and some general electrical, and other tune-up procedures, but I’ve never rebuilt an engine or carburetor, or done more complicated mechanical procedures. I know it will probably be a steep learning curve to begin with, but I am definitely willing to learn. Unrelated, but I do have some experience building and repairing computers, so if anyone needs PC help, or wants to swap PC advice for Fiat advice, let me know!
I’m ready to absorb as much knowledge as I can from the Fiat community!
Here are some pictures I took yesterday:
