Colorado/Wyoming members?

[SeldomSeen]

I sold my red '69 124 Spider a year and a half ago to a former forum member in West Palm Beach, FL and promptly replaced it with a dark blue 2018 124 Spider. Does that count? I've only seen two others on the road since then. After having owned four vintage 124s, it feels strange not having one anymore. Our excellent local Fiat guy, Tom Dotter passed away recently... very sad indeed.

There is a cars and coffee in Longmont on the second Saturday of the month. We sometimes go to that but alternate between the Fiat, Deb's Mini, the MGB and Alfa. I'm in the foothills just West of Lyons.

[81SPIDERMATT]

Cool!
Still nothing from Wyo owners so far, and I seem to have lost track of 81SPIDERMATT,...
Not many Spider owners in northern Colorado and Wyoming,...
Todd.

still here.... spider needs some work... clutch and cable... front cam seals are leaking...and 2 holes holding on my exhaust manifold are stripped ... still driving her though ...thinking that i may pull the engine and add some bolt on goodies ... does beek still do heads i wonder .... sorry i ahve been off the internet for a while. ..... Matt

[wetminkey]

Ha! Good to see your post, Matt!

[JerryH]

Hey guys. I used to be a regular on this forum, but lately I haven’t been very active. I live west of Erie Co. I have 3 Fiat spiders: 2 non-running ‘72s and a recently decommissioned ‘76. I was driving the 76 pretty regularly for around 7 years—but recently I started on a front end overhaul and noticed my shock towers are pretty rusty. Not to the point of being unsafe, but enough that I figure it’s time to work on the ‘72s. I checked the towers on the 72s and they look good; both cars appear to be fairly rust-free. I think I’ll eventually get them both running (I plan to swap the 1.8L engine from the ‘76 into one of them). I plan to repaint them—slowly gathering the tools and know-how to do the requisite body work.

If there’s ever a plan to meetup, please include me! I’m a Colorado native and CSU alum.

-Jerry

[wetminkey]

Good to see your post, JerryH! I graduated CSU in '88, and am 'native' to Colorado as of 1970, when I was 14,...
I try to stay active on this forum,...looking forward to your posts.
Todd.

[jon8christine]

I don't get here too often, but decided to 'upgrade' my 76 spider instead of buying a boxster, so have been researching more lately. I'm on the other side of Wyoming in Green River

[mikewof]

I'm in Golden. My little 1975 Spider has been in Colorado since it was imported here in 1975.

[mikewof]

I went into my local O'Reilley's to get some stuff for the stable. I ask the counter guy, "Got an oil filter for a 1975 Fiat Spider?"

Only other customer in the place pops his head around the corner "My son and I just picked up a 1979 Fiat Spider! What are the chances?"

Unreal, the kismet these little Spiders bring. Hopefully he and his son will show up here sooner or later. They have a gorgeous little blue 2000 with tan top and upholstery in perfect condition. Gorgeous little Spider, they live up in the mountains.

[wetminkey]

Yo! mikewof!
I believe that my '79 Spider was originally delivered to Denver,...I have a pay-stub from a Denver Safeway worker, dated 9/26/1987, that I found in-between the console and seat. I've owned it since 2000. The vehicle is obviously "low-miles" (I do not depend on odometers), due to the lack of any rust, original factory parts, and outward appearance of parts,...It has survived well, due to our Colorado climate.
Sure would be nice to know further, but I doubt that even Ralf (member), or Fiat, could provide THAT kind of info, anymore.

[mikewof]

Yo! mikewof!
I believe that my '79 Spider was originally delivered to Denver,...I have a pay-stub from a Denver Safeway worker, dated 9/26/1987, that I found in-between the console and seat. I've owned it since 2000. The vehicle is obviously "low-miles" (I do not depend on odometers), due to the lack of any rust, original factory parts, and outward appearance of parts,...It has survived well, due to our Colorado climate.
Sure would be nice to know further, but I doubt that even Ralf (member), or Fiat, could provide THAT kind of info, anymore.

If it came into Denver, it was through Gran Prix Imports on Broadway, they used to sell an good number of those 124s back in the day ... so many of them, it surprise me they aren't more common now. Lakewood had Roger Mauro in West Colfax (who survived long after Gran Prix gave up the ghost) and there was Buckingham Motors near the old Buckingham Plaza on Havana, they sold a good number of them.

I'm not sure if it was all the sunshine we had, or the disposable income of the day, but the 124s were astonishingly common back then. I remember waiting at a stoplight on Hampden, near the old Cinderella City, and by pure chance, five of the front several cars were all Spiders in various year and configurations.

I often wonder where these once common cars all went -- the Pontiac Fieros, the X1-9s, the MGs that were as common as milk, the TR7s that seemed to be everywhere on the Front Range too. Did they rust away? Get crushed? Are they in assorted garages in Mexico and South America? The remarkable thing to me is that now, it's only the 124 that has really held up in Style. The British cars look like vintage cars, many of the other Italian cars look delicate and really too rare to touch. But the 124s have such balance and lack of design doo-dads of the era, that they still seem fresh when they happen to show up ... an Italian fashion model, who popped out of a time machine.

[wetminkey]

Gad, Mike! I recall the names of all of these dealerships! I remember driving my '53 Studebaker around Denver, going between construction jobs ('72 -'73),...and the cars on the road (although I was more interested in the 'muscle-cars', at the time).
And my '68 Mustang coupe was sold from Sill-Terhar Ford in December 1967.
Anyway,...I grabbed up as many of the old cars/trucks/tractors as I could afford/get my hands on,...and I own them now - my collection. I wish that I could have grabbed up a lot more! Damn!
My Spider is one of the 'newer' vehicles in my collection (42 years old), but I've got it nearly finished now, and hope to drive it for many years. It 's getting an MSD 6A ignition addition, right now. Hope to finish painting it in the next couple of months,...
You'll not see ANY vehicles of note up here in northern Colorado,...just new pickups and SUVs.
Long distance between all of us Colorado Spider owners, but it would be fun to organize a meet someday,...somewhere.
Have a good eve, Todd.

[mikewof]

'53 Studebaker ... lovely car, I remember someone up in Golden near the old Heritage Square had several of those. My dad had a Studebaker President, I don't remember the year, but it was his favorite car. It had the "hill holder" and the electric overdrive. My old man often said it was about twenty years ahead technologically of the cars of the era.

I'm thinking of putting some kind of electronic ignition under the rotor cap in my Spider, it's not so easy to find points and rotors these days.

The 60s and early 70s Mustangs are kind of the opposite of the Spiders, they are still around, it seems they had a lot of perceived value through the 80s and 90s that kept them from being junked. An electrician friend of mine near Greeley bought as many regular Mustangs and Shelbys as he could jam into his barn, probably has enough to build a solid ten of them. But the Spiders seem to trigger an odd kind of curiosity when people see them ... they tend to recognize them from the old days, they seem familiar to them, but they can often not place the make.

[wetminkey]

Studebakers' body design for those cars (like the Commander, Champion, Golden Hawk, etc,...) was based on European sport car styles, and you can see it in the car bodies. Mine had the "Hill Holder" (magnificent, simple device - especially driving with a clutch in downtown in Denver!) and a three-spd on-the-column with a manual OD. 233 V8 (optional oil filter!). Mohair headliner, Naugahyde seats,...
"Muscle cars" had a huge popularity - but I just like burnin' rubber,...mine are quite fun to drive!
BUT, the Fiat Spider is a SPORTS CAR - a different type of vehicle entirely. And that's what I like about the car,...small and light - built to be nimble and quick - but without tire-burning horsepower,...
Even my RX-7 is not truly a sports car - too big, I guess. It's sure fun, though!
Gosh, even my old tractors are fun to drive/put to work. I just enjoy old machinery, and making it run properly.
E-ignition for your Spider should not be too difficult,...the usual venders have the e-parts, and I would guess that it wouldn't be too difficult to obtain a heatsink for the e-module (and coil mounting) through the forums. And Pertronix makes an easy e-ignition conversion, too.
I agree, though,...the only points I run are in the John Deeres - no conversions for '56 and '42 machinery,...
In fact, I have a brand new MSD 6A, on my workbench right now, to install in my Spider for better fuel burn!
Best of luck with yours'!

[SpiderGuy]

Keith here in Colorado Springs

I've been working on a 1981 Spider and it is running now.
I have named it "Traviata" which in Italian means "the One who goes Astray"
Moved down here from Denver in 1967 when Academy Blvd was just a dirt road that ended at Palmer Park Blvd.

James at our local AutoWerks shop was great help, he fixed the tricky electrical injection system. Lots more things to clean up and fix, but it is a fun and challenging project and real fun to drive. Fellow forum member Walt WFBT2 also here in the Springs has helped me out and has been a great guy lending me spare parts and advice.

I have a 78 MGB that is in excellent condition. I have a 1943 WW2 GPW Jeep that I restored every single nut, bolt, Engine, Trans and Body to like new (Assembly Line Specs.) condition, very fun to drive and it gets lots of thumbs up and smiles. It can start with a hand crank stored under the back seat, (most people have never seen that done).
I raced in the SCCA and NASA clubs for about 12 years in Time Trials and Auto Cross and Drag Strip events at High Plains Raceway, PPIR, Pueblo, LaJunta, Bandimere, and lots of parking lot Auto-Cross events knocking over countless orange cones.

I've had more cars than I can remember over the years but here are a few pictures of some of them. The last 2 pictures are before and after shots of a 1954 Ford F-100 that was the first frame off restoration I started in 1977 when I was 21 yrs old. I built and installed a Chevy 283 and Turbo 400 trans in it. Did all the work myself, Paint Body, Upholstery, Wiring (all Red wires) We don't need no Stinking Color Coded Wires

[wizard124]

It has been over. Year since I last logged on!

Trailering my 80 FI spider to my new home in Sheridan this week. I've had the car PNO for almost a year as I was tired of CA smog checks.

In July, I ran into another 124 owner. There is at least 2 Spiders in a town of 28000!

Warren