Two Fiat Owner's Club

[spidernut]

I just entered the "Two Fiat Owner's Club"!

Tonight, I bought a 1980 EFI, 5 speed, 82,000 miles, new upholstery, new door panels, new carpet kit, new trailing arms, overhauled differential, new shocks, Iron Cross alloy wheels, new fan switch, custom wood dash uninstalled, new emblems unistalled, luggage rack, rust-free body with fully oxidized paint, free dent in driver's door but comes with replacement door, worst cracked dash I've ever seen, new console cover, new brakes, canvass-less convertible top (meaning no top), heater core partially installed partially uninstalled, consoles out, taillight missing (but in the trunk), and jacked up wiring for taillights but I get another harness from a donor car.

It looks pretty rough at first glance, but upon close inspection most of it is just grime. The body is really straight apart from the driver's door. Undercarriage looks great too. Motor fired up immediately and it ran smoothly even though it hadn't been started for a year.

Once I get it home...the work begins. I figure it will be about a month before I have it cleaned up, buffed out, parts installed, brake lines bled for safety, tuned up, fluids changed, ancient gas cleaned out, and smogged. My biggest concern is black widow spiders lurking in those dark places that you must reach but can't see. I hate black widows!

Pictures to come!!! Of the Spider, not the spiders.

[WarbirdAL]

congrats, but dont get cocky! there's the 3 car club next then the 4 and so on until you are considered the local parts store

[mdrburchette]

Who would ever want more than one Spider? Welcome to the dark side, John! Looking forward to your pics.

[TulsaSpider]

Shop vac those varmints!

[spidernut]

I don't plan on catching up to you Denise! How many do you have now?

[mdrburchette]

I've been thinning the herd lately, John. I'm down to what in my signature, plus the new 500 and 3 parts cars.

[aj81spider]

I just joined the two Fiat owners club last night as well. I added a 1974 to my fuel injected 1981 (making my username a little less appropriate!). It's a nice little car that's in great shape. If I stick to my new rule of only working on one car at a time it will also insure that I always have one to drive on nice days - like today. My 81 is waiting for some parts and not drivable, but the "new" 74 was enjoying the sunshine!

A.J.

[spidernut]

Gotta love it! As I was driving home after a pretty tough day, I was thinking of how much fun it would be to do nothing but tinker on my Fiats instead of going to work each day.

[kmac33]

John,
Congrats on the new Spider! These little suckers are addicitive aren't they Most of us just control the addiction a bit better than Denise does
Thanks to the bad influence of Craig, I too joined the 2 owner club last week with the purchase of our "soon to be" Lemons racer.
And congrats to A.J. for joining the 2 owner club with the addition to his collection of what is widely known as the "best" year Spider to own - the 74 .

[rocky]

John,

We really need to get together for a drive, then. Weather is drying up and it looks to be a beautiful spring. The foothills around you would be great. Talk to you soon.

Greg
'77 Spider

[spidernut]

Greg,

That'd be awesome! I'll have to get one of the cars ready for a long ride.

The '79 has a mystery oil leak that has become significant. I need to figure it out. I think it might be a head gasket, but I really can't find the source.

I'm spending the weekend trying to get the major stuff done on the '80. The prior owner was in the process of restoring it, but lost interest and didn't have the time any longer. I have a non-ops on it right now until I get all the work completed. I'm hoping to have it ready to roll within a month including the smog test. The biggest challenge will be figuring out some mystery wiring under hood. Thankfully I have the schematics.

Once I have one or the other car ready to go, let's see if any other Sacto Fiats would like to make a run through the Gold Country.

If you need any parts for your Spider, the guy I bought the car from has a '79 he's parting out. It's too bad he couldn't sell it whole. Two weekends working on it and it could be on the road.

[reinaldo]

I hope to see the picture of this one. From the way I see it, you will have to do a lot of work assembling your car parts.