Hello from Chattanooga!

[ChrisWright]

Hello all,

I'm a new member from Chattanooga, TN. I bought my 1978 Fiat 124 Spider about a year ago, and I (and my wife, who seems to want to switch cars on warm sunny days) love it. Part of the reason I purchased it was to learn how to work on cars. To date, that has consisted primarily of standard maintenance items (ex. oil changes, replace bad distributor cap/rotor, replace spark plugs, etc).

Recently, my car died. It ended up raining later that day and the interior of the car got wet. I had it towed back to my garage and immediately took out the mats, etc to let it dry quickly. Then I turned to the engine. It's definitely an electrical issue, but I haven't been able to fully diagnose it yet. As I looked at my car, sitting in the garage, mats and seats out and unable to move...oddly, I became energized. I want to start working on my car in all the ways I had intended to when I bought it a year ago.

Step 1 will obviously be to get it running again, but then I want to turn to other items, including remediating the beginning of light undercarriage rusting, cleaning the engine bay and carb, fixing the front wishbones (which are worn down into a slight camber that just kills the tires I put on it), etc.

I'm excited for the challenge, but as this is my first attempt at any of this, I know I'm going to need some help. Thank you all in advance for your contributions to the threads on this site. I'm a stickler for doing things the right way, and without a forum like this, I don't know how I'd ever be able to.

I look forward to engaging with many of you soon.
Chris Wright

[bobplyler]

Mine passed through Chattanooga many times from 79 to 81 when I was living in Manchester.

I also took my private pilot written exam there.

[nelsonj]

Welcome Chris! There lot's of very smart and experience people here. I hope you post questions if you have trouble figuring out what to do to get your car running.

Once you get your car back on the road, any chance you could do me a favor? It would make my day if you could you take a drive out to the Moon Pie factory and post a picture of your your car out in front. Fiat's and Moon Pies are two of my favorite things to work on!

Peace.

[ChrisWright]

Once you get your car back on the road, any chance you could do me a favor? It would make my day if you could you take a drive out to the Moon Pie factory and post a picture of your your car out in front. Fiat's and Moon Pies are two of my favorite things to work on!

Peace.

Ha. An unexpected but highly appreciable request. You got it! Once I get her going, I'll drive over to Moon Pie and take a pic for you.
Chris