New Member First Time Fiat Owner

[watcher]

Hi all

Been lurking for a few months. Always wanted a spider. Been seriously looking for my first spider for about 9 months. Finally bought it last weekend .1981. I used the information from this site on what to look for. The list made it really easy to make decisions, say no to nice looking cars that were really just junk underneath. I'll be the third owner. 68k miles. It is an automatic The guy that I bought it from has a rebuilt 5 speed that is for sale too. I plan on using this as a touring car for weekend runs and an automatic sure is convenient. I'll probably buy the 5 speed just to have it as an option. As part of my purchase I am making the previous owner put a new heater core in, fix misc lights, smog equipment. He has the records from since the car was new. All of the recommended items to do from this site have been done. Timing belt, hoses, brakes etc. I'll post pics when it gets out of the shop.

Thanks for all the posts really helped me out.

[kmead]

Congrats on the new purchase and welcome to the club! Hopefully you are a bit handy and willing to churn through the ills any 30+ year old car you will have a great time with it.

A manual transmission does transform the car but if its a cruiser the automatic will suffice.

There is another member just finishing a changeover from an automatic so maybe you should connect up with him to get any pointers. There is an '81 automatic down the street from me that needs plenty of work I have considered for just such a changeover.

Glad to have you, no more lurking.

[mdrburchette]

Congrats on your new ride! Where are you located? If you've been lurking, then you know we like pics.

[watcher]

thanks for the welcome. I've been cleaning out the
garage getting ready to bring the car home. My wife is
sorting the metrics from the standards. We've had a couple
of vettes but now it's all metric in the roll around. It's been
a few years since we had a weekend cruiser so the garage got
pretty thrashed.

We are in Santa Cruz, across the street from the ocean. So next
up is really weather tightening the garage. Didn't worry too
much with a vette. But all the rust we saw while looking has gotten
us worried about the salt air.

It sounds like from the posts that there are a number of Fiat owners
in this area. Look forward to meeting some of them. Hope they have
an active club up here.

Thanks again for the support you people give to all the spider owners.

[watcher]

Here it is, just came home. Also got a van full of parts. Rebuild 5 speed, engine, body parts, engine parts. All nicely organized in boxes that are labeled.





Sorry the pics are so big. Trying to figure out the photobucket edit thingy

[radgator1]

Car looks great, congrats!!

I can't wait until I get mine home. Right now it's waiting to be looked over at a famous local Fiat Shop in SoCal. It's been there since Friday so hoping they will get to it soon, hint, hint....cough...cough..(mark)....cough....cough

[Nancy1340]

RED!! My fav.

Congratulations.

[watcher]

Thanks for the compliments.

The photos look better than it is. But it's in pretty decent shape. My wife got the carpet set in, fixed the front grill, missing screws connectors, my daughter( 13 years old) got the fan and fan shroud off last night. Wire brushed, sanded clean and sprayed it with the rust prep stuff. Also cleaned up the fan motor fan blades etc. She is having a hard time waiting the 24 hrs for the prep to be ready to paint. I've been inspecting every nook and cranny.

I guess from here on I am going to post in the restoration area. It's really not a restoration. More of a clean and maintenance-ation. Looking and reading about all the work and ingenuity of other car owners on this site is pretty humbling.

Anyways, we are going to do some cruising this weekend as a reward for all the elbow grease.

[Nancy1340]

I think it's wonderful that your 13 year old DAUGHTER is working on it. I'm betting she has that in mind for her 16th birthday gift.

[watcher]

You are absolutely right. Made sure I knew it too! She really
wants me to put the 5 speed in. That way everyone will know she
can really drive.

In the meantime it's great to have someone else to do some
polishing and cleaning. I've even got her to think it's fun. She
finished the fan shroud yesterday. Today we redid the console.
Her job was cleaning and buffing the chrome bits and pieces.
Painted the change cup with some vinyl paint & the ash tray
with flat black. My wife did the unwireing and rewire. She's getting
pretty handy at the electrical.