My teenage son did a masterful job of convincing my wife that maybe he and I should restore a classic car as a way for him to learn some mechanical skills (they don't teach those in school anymore) and she fell for it hook, line and sinker because anything that involves family bonding is A OK in her book. Good job son, let's find a roadster! Relatively cheap, easy to work on, good parts supply and support, and hard to get into to too much trouble with as a teenage driver due to their top down, limited use nature. I initially thought of the British cars since my parents once had a TR250 until I came along, and then we looked at the the pre Z car Datsun Fairladys, but eventually we stumbled onto the Fiat Spider. Huh - a roadster with classic Italian styling, a twin cam engine, 5 speeds trans and 4 wheel discs? Why would I buy anything else?
We found a 1979 edition locally with almost no rust, decent paint and interior, and in running condition. We want to focus on mechanics and there's a fairly long list of things to repair / upgrade but I suppose I'll save those details for later posts as we delve into them. On the short list is taking the enormous slop out of the steering, getting the electric windows working and replacing the terrible stock intake manifold. A previous owner already replaced the carburetor with what looks like a 32/36 DFEV and stripped off most of the emissions crap (I'm in WA state so don't have to worry about that stuff in a car this old). Check out those mags!
