1971 Spider Restoration Puzzle .

[18Fiatsandcounting]

Do I need the doors? Has anyone joy-ridden one of these as just a shell?

My sense is that the vast majority of structural stiffness in these cars comes from the underbody, namely the outer rocker sections and the drivetrain tunnel. I'm sure the doors add something, but I don't see much evidence of the doors flexing or moving in their latches as the car goes around corners, bumps, etc.

I did drive one of these cars as a shell many moons ago, but it was in poor condition overall and barely ran, and I doubt I got over 25 mph.

You should be fine driving up and down your cul-de-sac. Within reason of course!

-Bryan

[davebdave]

You should be fine driving up and down your cul-de-sac. Within reason of course!

-Bryan

Thanks, Bryan.

Restraint is not my strong suit but I'll go ahead and drive it as is. Next step is to find a paint and body shop.

Dave

[davebdave]

Hi All, I’m thinking about deleting the heater. This will be a summer top down driver. The only thing that holds me back a little is the defrost. How well does it work with those two center vents? Would anyone miss their defroster if it wasn’t there? I sealed up the heater in our air cooled Fiat 500 due to a fear of Carbon Monoxide and haven’t missed it but that isn’t really a viable traveling car. I can foresee long drives in the 124.

Thanks, Dave

[18Fiatsandcounting]

How well does it work with those two center vents?

Dave, the heater and defroster work surprisingly well for a two seater convertible of that era, better than many other cars. I used to live in Virginia, and I found the defroster to be useful in the summer, but not for the reasons you might think. It was mainly useful on humid summer days when it was late in the evening, and condensation would form on the inside of the windshield. The defroster was helpful in clearing this.

The heater also saved my butt on several occasions when it was a super hot day and there was something amiss with the cooling system, and with the heater turned on with the fan, that provided a little extra cooling to make it home. Granted, driving with the heater on when it's 100 degrees outside was not fun, but that's what the side window vents are for!

-Bryan

[davebdave]

Thanks Bryan, I was hoping to simply things by ditching the heat but you’ve convinced me to install the thing. Speaking of simple, I put the front sway bar on. I figured it should have been an easy job. OMG! The inner bushings for the 1971 are not available so apparently you use the outers for the inners. This might be possible with a 20ton press and forty zip ties to compress and hold the bushings in the mounts. I ended up using my bench grinder to shape the rubber bushings. I don’t know if the sway bar will be as effective without all of that clamping force on the bushes but I’m not racing the thing. Then I got to worrying about the danger of a blown hose and steam burns so I put the hood on. Now I need to turn my attention to cleaning the garage work space which is out of control. I hope to test drive it soon.

Dave

46B42463-BFBB-4034-87BB-E72EEE7D7810 by Dave W, on Flickr

8ED2A178-297F-4198-9C4F-BEF8A24BF3DD by Dave W, on Flickr

4EEB4E21-06D9-4491-A897-27EC2631AB47 by Dave W, on Flickr

2052589B-5367-439A-B20B-1B9CB1127986 by Dave W, on Flickr

235BD5E5-6664-4E2A-9869-5D9F61E2700B by Dave W, on Flickr

[davebdave]

Hi Everyone,
We drove the Fiat!

We invited Luca's wife and some mutual friends for the first drive. The car drove amazingly well, much better than our other 1971 which is temperamental when cold.

Luca's rebuilt engine is smooth and responsive and sounded amazing after sitting on an engine stand for 12 years. It was a fun and emotional day for all of us.

Now I'm going to look for a body and paint shop.

Thanks to everyone who helped me put this car back together, I could not have done it without this Forum!

P.S. If you haven't followed this thread my friend Luca had disassembled this 1971 spider for a full rotisserie restoration but sadly passed away from Cancer. Over the last two years I have slowly put the car back together, even buying another running 1971 as an example car.

Dave

1376CF8C-2B9A-46B6-8D1C-586F87032FC3 by Dave W, on Flickr

[18Fiatsandcounting]

We drove the Fiat!

That's great news, Dave, good work!

I will say that picture looks like someone (you?) is about to lift the rear of the car off the ground by hand. To check the rear suspension or the like. Impressive body strength if that's the case!

-Bryan