So a couple years ago I pulled the trigger and got myself a 72 red spider from a second owner who had the car since the early 80s.
The car was in a decent shape when I got it but I had to look for its hidden secrets. And so far this is what I uncovered and what I have fixed:
Interior:
- Removed the seats and carpet and checked the floor for rust, Good news: found a couple small pinholes in the back of the passenger side and surface rust on the front of passenger side. Brought everything to bare metal and POR15 the whole inside surface. Covered surface with sound dampening material and new carpet kit.
- Removed central console with Radio console and fixed cracked and broken parts with Epoxy and sprayed it with bedliner coating. I believe that it came up good. Still need to do the same to dashboard
- Found the source of surface rust on the passenger side, a leaking heater control valve. So I replaced with a part from our sponsor.
- Also I put new seatbelts
Electrical:
- Brown wire fix
- New Radio wiring with amp in the trunk (sorry for the purist but I need my music with phone handsfree feature when driving
)- New battery
- Speedometer (not working, need to investigate have a replacement that I got from pick'n pull but it could be just the cable).
- Wiper motors not working (hear buzzing sound when on so need to check)
Engine bay
- new radiator from our sponsor installed
- Engine mounts were shot, replaced both of them
- replaced Exhaust manifold gasket and repainted it
- Mechanical fuel pump stoped working, replaced with a new one but still not drawing fuel to carbs. (puzzled by it and still debating about installing an electrical fuel pump)
- Oil leaks visible need to clean the engine and start taking notes of probably a long list of gaskets to be replaced
. But I need to get the car back running first as soon as I fix the fuel pump issue.Braking system
Replaced all four calipers front ones were replaced with the 128 ones. (I rebuilt the back ones and unfortunately broke both bleeders at the last step so had to buy new ones, next time I will start with the bleeders first. Wasted time and money but still worth it, I learned how to rebuild them and figured out in the process how the e-brake mechanism works and the order of the spring disks that engage the braking don't ask me how many times i assembled them in the wrong direction
). Transmission:
When I drove the car home the car was shifting fine but the car was shaking between first gear and 2nd gear. So since I had no idea when the PO changed the transmission fluid, I drained it and put a fresh one (no metal shaving came down so I suppose that is good news). When I get it driving I will find out if the shaking issue was addressed or if I have to investigate even more).
So this is in summary what I have been doing with my new Fiat Spider, and hopefully I will be on the road pretty soon. On the road is definitely where it should be, so i can start giving my kids their Fiat memories too. Looking forward to your assistance and knowledge. And feel free to ask if there is any area that I already covered that I can eventually share whatever modest experience i have so far. Also I joined my local Fiat club in Sacramento after meeting the club president at a pick'n pull, we were getting parts from the same car. A great guy, very passionate and a great moment of Fiat story sharing.