i just bought a 1979 Fiat Spider

[steve8462]

good morning. i live just outside of chattanooga, tn in ringgold,GA, i just drove 4 hours yesterday to southern GA to buy my spider. i was hoping that it would have less rust than it did, but i was able to talk the guy down from $2600.00 to $850.00. i will include some pictures as soon as i figure out how to do it. this is the first time i have joined a blog site! i look forward to discussing all things fiat. " i have saved another Spider from death" !

[vandor]

Welcome!
You talked him down to $850, or $1850? If it's $850, then you have some great negotiating skills!!

[124JOE]

i use photobucket to house some pics for sharing
hello by the way

[dmwhiteoak]

Hello and welcome to the forum. Did you drive your spider home ? If it made a 4 hour trip on its own then you done pretty darn well. There are many good people here that can guide you through your rust repairs. If it needs to be done , it has already been done here .

[steve8462]

i trailered it home. it had more rust than i had hoped for. found out it was originally tited in ohio. the spot that worries me the most is on the drivers side around where the lower hinge bolts go in for the door. the first problem i am encountering is "whats the deal with the rims!" 4-98mm? this is proof that drug abuse is a wordwide problem! LOL i started to look for new tires due to the fact that she wobbles noticeably on the old tires. belts hav de-laminated and such!

[RRoller123]

Change the timing belt as soon as you can. Having it break is a nasty. high risk/cost event!

[steve8462]

i plan on doing the timing belt first thing. the car has 165/sr/13 tires on it. they are have very skinny profile on them. height is good but i wish they were wider. any suggestions?

[bobplyler]

the car has 165/sr/13 tires on it.

That's stock size

[steve8462]

nobody seems to stock tires in that size or even close. the guy at costco looked at he tire i rolled in and said "looks like you need a need trailer tire! is there a good place to buy tires for these cars? i would really like to keep the height i have but add a little width to them. thank you for being so cool and not snooty italian car owners.

[redcars]

We are not snooty Italian owners because be are Fiat owners! You must be thinking of other makes.

[4uall]

sadly the make isn't the issue it's the person. So far everyone I have met since owning a Fiat is really down to earth and extremely willing to help. Says a lot about the car if these are the people that it attracts.

[RRoller123]

Sumitomo and Kumho each make 185/70-13 tires.

[steve8462]

it seems that everybody on this site is friendly and very helpful. do you guys have any bone yard spotters? i live close to Chattanooga, tn and there are a couple of bone yards that seem to have tons of relics. so i'm going to go on an expedition to see if there are any old fiats laying around and i will report my findings.

[steve8462]

i need somebody that has dealt with door post rot. my drivers door lower hinge looks like the area surrounding where the hinge actually bolts to the body is rotted. it looks like somebody previously tack welded spots around the area to try to rig it. is this a huge under taking? how do i access that area other than with a periscope? LOL i can barely get my fingers in the area

[steve8462]

i think this is going to be an interesting journey. the headlight switch is currently being used to turn the aftermarket fuel pump on so the engine will stay running. so i wont be driving it at night till i figure this one out!