72 Came Home Today

[everdyl]

Well, 20+ years after owning my first Fiat in college (an X 1/9), I brought home a 72 Spider today. Drove her 100 miles to get her home, and she ran reasonably well. A little oil pooled on top of the engine and more rust than I initially thought, but she is home safe in my garage and awaiting some TLC from me.

I'm sure I'll need lots of advice as I go along. I must admit, when my wife pointed out the ground through a rusty crack in the passenger wheel well, I was a bit taken aback, but I am hoping that there might be a way to at least slow the nature's appetite for my car.

[dmwhiteoak]

Hello and welcome. Good luck with your new ride.

[vandor]

Looks great!
Don't feel too bad,there is no such thing as a Spider without floor rust! They usually rust toward the very front where it curves up toward the firewall, and toward the rear of the seatmounts.

[everdyl]

Thank you for the welcome! I want to do a rolling restoration, although with winter approaching, I may put her on the shelf and get some serious work done. I have noticed that cutting out rusted metal and welding in new is a pretty common skill acquired by many Fiat owners. I admittedly don't know much about welding, but I would really like to learn. My question is, where do I start?

[RRoller123]

The car looks great! Welcome aboard!

[steve8462]

go on you tube and look at welding videos and see if it is something that you can get the hang of. the toughest part is patience because you will be repairing a thin gauge metal. that takes a little practice. but you can practice on scrap pieces until you feel comfortable

[vandor]

If there is a community college near you they may offer welding classes. You may even be able to practive on your own car

[Fi8spider]

What a sweet looking Spider.
Enjoy and welcome back.



Oh - and happy 40th,,,to the car that is .

[2ndwind]

Welcome,
I second the community college idea. Locally we have a series of state funded technical schools. They have Carpentry, HVAC, medical assistant, and WELDING. I took a 2 week night class for $475. All the metal and welding rods and wire you can burn up!
I have a small mig welder but needed supervised experience, and lots of it. We did lots of Mig, Tig, Heliarc, and a little gas welding. The teacher was a retired welder. He had been welding for 55 yrs.

Steve

[idocdan]

Good for you! How far from McHenry are you. I can hook you up with an experienced welder (did my '72 floor) moonlighting out of his garage. If you're in the Windy, Giovanni is top rated mechanic, but right here in McHenry, Ernesto Baggio (B&B auto) works on Italian cars old and new (drives Maserati, but has had Fiats in the past). He will let you buy parts where you can find them and install for you. Great service, good folks.