My free Fiat Spider is coming

[jimmycakes401]

My wife's Aunt offered me a 1986 Spider at Easter time. Looks a lot like the one on the header of this page. I have not received it yet, but I hope to get it to the house soon and see what kind of shape it is in. I'm told the body and frame are in GREAT shape. Mice got in, so I think I'll need to do some fixing up on the interior. It also has a new gas tank. I'm pretty excited. Great to be here. Hopefully I will get it running smooth and it will be a fun side car.

[azygoustoyou]

I bet your thrilled. There's nothing like getting a new toy.

[jimmycakes401]

Very excited. Especially since my wife ran out and bought me a 12 drawer craftsman tool chest to organize the garage better. VERY excited.

[Fiatmonkey]

Jimmy, thats awesome!

One question... They never made the 1986 cars those became the 1985.5 cars with the rack and pinion steering and bigger brakes. Is that what your getting? If so WOW you are one LUCKY PUP! 85.5 cars are very rare as 1/2 way through production the stopped to move onto the Cadillac Allente project. Man I hope it's a 85.5, as it is always great to hear of another surviver.

Keep us all posted of everything and get some pics as soon as you can.

You have made me a VERY EXCITED MONKEY TODAY!

[jimmycakes401]

I was also very excited about getting a late model. Figured a lot of the bugs would be worked out. Turns out I am getting a 1981. According to the manual. I had a chance to go down and assess the project at their house. I need to get my friends flat bed down there to get it first. I also have to find some junk yard tires to put on it to wheel it up onto the ramp. I don't want to drag it on it's rims.

He has an extra engine, rear end, new patch panels for rocker, new headlights, all the build books and various other parts for me as well. The interior is already out. LOL

Here are some shots.





http://desmond.yfrog.com/Himg736/scaled ... &ysize=640[/img]

[perthling]

Yep, looks just like the one on the top of the page...

[jimmycakes401]

LOL!!!!

Is there a thread that has suggestions on the order in which you restore your heap?

The funny thing is that her uncle sent me a picture of it when it didn't look like that. I was thinking "WOW! It doesn't need much work!" Then I went to see it yesterday.

It's okay though. I've always wanted to restore something from the ground up. I think it's cool he's got so many spare parts. I can trade, sell or use them which is a big plus.

[jimmycakes401]

He also gave me some books:

Essential Fiat 124 Spider & Coupe
Clymer Fiat Series & 2000 Spider Shop Manual
Fiat 131 & Bravia Workshop Manual (not sure I need this one)
How to tune and modify Bosch Fuel Injection (is that what this car has?)

Time to call the junk yard and see if they have some tires so I can pull this sucker up on to the flat bed. Whew!

[Exit98]

Good luck Jimmy.

It has been said here many times before...

The most expensive spiders are the free ones.

Good luck and keep up all in the loop.

[Razooli]

Congrats on the Spider. Check out all the wonderful threads in the Restoration Projects area. LOTS of great ideas and inspiration there from people who know how to do things right.

[jimmycakes401]

Oh boy. Lol. I'Ll be okay. Where is agood spot to look at engine kits? I figure, I've got two. Why not rebuild one.

[perthling]

I remember when I bought mine. It came across from another (Australian) state on a truck and I collected it from the deopt. I remember driving in to the yard, and seeing a Spider there, and thinking 'how about that, someone else is also importing a Spider but theirs is a heap of %^*!' . Then I realised my mistake...

But once I looked past the sun-bleached paint job and the fact that most of the exterior trim was cluttering the interior, I realised that I had a sound project.

That was 14 years ago. Since then it's driven me from Melbourne to Sydney and back, helped me woo my wife, and been a hell of a lot of fun for not much money.

[jimmycakes401]

Awesome. My Uncle has already started this project. Widdling rust here and there, buying parts, getting extra used parts. Should be a good project if I can just get it to my house.

Thanks for the story! I like the description. LOL