New from Hershey PA

[HersheyPAGreg]

Hello everyone, my name is Greg. I'm looking to buy a Spider in the next few months and would appreciate some buying advice from the members. I had an 80 Spider back in mid-eighties but after repeated problems with the fuel injection (among other problems) I sold it. For this reason I'm probably looking for a non-fuel injected 80 or 79 Spider without major rust issues.

Any advice on where to look for a Spider and what I can expect to pay would be appreciated.

Thanks!

[Foster48x]

Check out Craigslist in your area. Looks like there are allot available at all price ranges in your area.

Welcome to the board.
Rick

[baltobernie]

Why not stop by in Hershey next Saturday, and talk with owners from the area? You'll get a lot more info in person.
http://www.fiatspider.com/f08/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=9670

Everybody on this forum has opinions "early" vs."late" model Spiders. There's no easy answer as to which is best for your application, which needs to be disclosed before any advice can be given. Daily driver? Top-down fair-weather only? Something in between? Self-maintained? Concours, #2, driver, beater? Risk tolerance? Emissions/safety inspections in your state? Historic or regular registration? Collector or regular insurance? BUDGET? And the list goes on.

Start here, and bring your questions and camera to Carlisle!
http://www.hemmings.com/hsx/stories/200 ... uide1.html
http://www.mirafiori.com/faq/content/buyspid.html

[HersheyPAGreg]

Check out Craigslist in your area. Looks like there are allot available at all price ranges in your area.

Welcome to the board.
Rick

Thanks. I've been looking on eBay, I'll check Craigslist too.

[HersheyPAGreg]

Why not stop by in Hershey next Saturday, and talk with owners from the area? You'll get a lot more info in person.
http://www.fiatspider.com/f08/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=9670

Everybody on this forum has opinions "early" vs."late" model Spiders. There's no easy answer as to which is best for your application, which needs to be disclosed before any advice can be given. Daily driver? Top-down fair-weather only? Something in between? Self-maintained? Concours, #2, driver, beater? Risk tolerance? Emissions/safety inspections in your state? Historic or regular registration? Collector or regular insurance? BUDGET? And the list goes on.

Start here, and bring your questions and camera to Carlisle!
http://www.hemmings.com/hsx/stories/200 ... uide1.html
http://www.mirafiori.com/faq/content/buyspid.html

Thanks for the advice, I plan to be at the Carlisle show on the 22nd.

You bring up a lot of good points about what I'm looking for, including a few I hadn't thought of.
Daily driver? No, it would just be for fun.
Top down, fair weather? Probably.
Self maintained? Limited to replacing parts, no engine rebuilds or things like that.
Historic registration/collector insurance? These were things I hadn't thought of and will need to look into.
Budget? $5,000 - $7,000. I'd assume I could get something decent for that amount, although the price of these cars keeps going up.

Thanks again for your reply, I hadn't seen the hemmings story before and it was good reading.

[baltobernie]

Thanks again for your reply....

You're welcome; don't know if I'll be at the show, but there'll be plenty of owners from the Baltimore/Washington area, FLU Delaware Valley, and NJ.

These cars are so seductive, you really need a "profile" before starting, because the first one you see will steal your heart! Good luck with your search. While you're investigating insurance, etc., you could ask for parts catalogs from our usual sources, to give you an idea of what things cost. Get a repair manual or two from eBay. (Each publisher is better in some areas than others).Your budget sounds adequate for the type of car you're looking for. Don't discount importing one from the less rust-prone areas of the country. $1000 in transcontinental shipping could save you triple that amount in rust repairs alone. With Spider.com members all over, you can count on a knowledgeable owner to assist in pre-purchase inspection.

[HersheyPAGreg]

Thanks Baltobernie. I still have two repair manuals from when I had my Spider, and picking up parts catalogs is a good idea. Getting a rust free car from the South or West is good advice and it would be great if a Spider.com member could take a first look for me before I travel all the way to Arizona or California.

Thanks again for all the good advice, let me know if you will be coming to Carlisle. If not, I'll try to talk with some of the folks from Philly and DC.

[rlux4]

Welcome to the forum Greg. It is a good idea to look over here for a car. I got mine here in SoCal for a very good price and she doesn't have a spot of rust on her. There are plenty of members out here who would be more than happy to check out a potential buy for you. Let us know if we're needed.
Ron

[courtenay]

Too bad about your non fi requirement. Mark Allison has a great looking 1980 listed in the Cars for Sale section, and there is another interesting '81 in California as well. Ron is right, the western cars seem to have way fewer rust problems than the central - eastern cars. No road salt. Desert cars (Nevada, Arizona) should be pretty good too, although baseed on SpiderJim's experience with a Vegas car, anything rubber has probably dried out.
Anyway - good luck with the search - and do consider a summer road trip!

[baltobernie]

Perhaps a well-prepped FI engine would require a lot less maintenance and fiddling than a smogged carb one. I think anything newer than 1974 in PA is going to require the presence of smog equipment. Maybe Historic tags circumvent this; I don't know. You could always gut the stuff to give the illusion of a functioning air pump, etc., but that would take some creativity, and no garage would dare work on the car.

[HersheyPAGreg]

Ron, a rust free California car sounds great. I have about 5 more payments on my everyday car, after that I'll start Fiat shopping in earnest. Thanks for the offer of help in finding my car.

Courtenay, I haven't ruled out a fuel injected car despite the problems I had with my Spider. One of the reasons I joined was to seek out advice from members like you on this issue. Maybe my fuel injection problem would have been an easy fix for the right mechanic, I just never found the right mechanic in the Allentown PA area in the mid eighties and I couldn't fix it myself. Thanks, a road trip out west or down south sounds like a great idea!

Bernie, here in PA vehicles registered as antique or classic aren't subject to emissions testing, but I'd probably just go with a regular registration. By PA law a car with antique/classic registration can only be driven one day a week. After not having a Fiat for over 20 years, I'll be driving the next one a lot! I still remember how much fun it was to drive. When it started that is!

[Exit98]

Greg,

FWIW New Jersey historic plates say you can only use the car on Sunday or when driving to a club event or show, or something like that. Anyway, it seems everybody in NJ just drives around on their historic plates whenever they want and no one seems to care. As a matter of fact I know that there is a certain NJ Fiat member that regularly commutes to work in his Fiats and he happens to be a "Constable of the Peace" if you know what I mean.

Go to a local show and ask some of the owners who's cars sport historic tags. I'll bet they drive them quite regularly.

Also, I think you'll need historic tags to get collector car insurance. You'll want that too, it usually less than $200 per year, and they will guarentee you an agreed upon price for the car should a total loss occur.

Good luck, and take your time. Don't buy the first one you see. It took me 8 months and I finally found mine in Los Angeles. It was worth the wait.

[HersheyPAGreg]

Thanks Doug, I had a hunch most people ignored the one day a week rule. I didn't know collector car insurance was so inexpensive. I'll check with my Nationwide agent and maybe look into Grundy too.

Would you mind telling me more about your experience in finding your car in LA? Feel free to email me if you prefer. How did you find your car? eBay? How did you know it was worth going all the way to California to look at it, and how did you get it back to NJ? I'd love to hear that you started it up, put the top down and drove it all the way back to New Jersey.

Thanks for the advice Doug.

[rmalicki]

Looks like i'm late to the party again. I bought my 1979 with very little rust (just the back fenders with a bit) and she had a few problems (needed all new front end $400, plugs $12, top $300, and other not needed but could be done). She ran great tho and i drove her home about 120 miles without an issue. I got the price down from $2500 which was just dropped from $3000 to just $2000. I have now put $4000 and another $1000...but thats redoing all the floors, interior, body and paint, wheels and tires, coil, plugs, syn royal purple oil, timing belt, front suspension, breaks, HID conversion head lights (amazing), new black top and a few other things. So not bad really.

[Exit98]

Thanks Doug, I had a hunch most people ignored the one day a week rule. I didn't know collector car insurance was so inexpensive. I'll check with my Nationwide agent and maybe look into Grundy too.

Would you mind telling me more about your experience in finding your car in LA? Feel free to email me if you prefer. How did you find your car? eBay? How did you know it was worth going all the way to California to look at it, and how did you get it back to NJ? I'd love to hear that you started it up, put the top down and drove it all the way back to New Jersey.

Thanks for the advice Doug.

Hi Greg,

My insurance is with Haggarty, $170 a year and a $10,000 stated value. Some restrictions but nothing I can't deal with.

As far as how I found my LA Fiat here's the link to my post explaining it.

http://www.fiatspider.com/f08/viewtopic ... 277#p71277

My wife thought I'd fly out and drive it home but I'm not that crazy. I had it shipped, about $825 on an open car carrier, and it worked out fine.

Buying a 30+ year old Italian sports car 3000 miles away sight unseen is not something I'd recommend. It worked out fine for me, but obviously I was more lucky than smart. During my conversations with the seller we definitely connected and I had a strong intuition that he was being completely truthful about the car, and it turns out he was. Never the less, what I learned during my long search is that pictures always look way better that the real thing, and that all sellers describe the condition of their car in the most positive way possible.

Finally, unless you are a body man in my opinion it is all about rust. Everything mechanical on these cars can be fixed. Rust is murder. You know about Fiat rusty shock towers right? If not, look around this site.

Good Luck, have fun.