It was my first car and i never sold it

[TimpanogosSlim]

I bought my '77 124 spider when i was 18 or 19. I forget. I was a dumb kid with barely a job. It was the mid 90's.

I paid a grand for it. It ran, sort of, had terrible tires, pulled to the left when braking, and had a habit of busting upper ball joints iirc.

The ignition switch had been replaced with a generic and rewired by some bozo using about 13 lengths of all the same color of wire. Where the cigarette lighter socket goes.

It needed a lot of body work. The previous owner had basically slapped a lot of bondo over rusted rear fenders. It still needs plenty of body work.

There was always oil all over the engine compartment. I could never figure out where it was coming from.

So then the timing belt broke. Or rather it very rapidly grew a bald spot.

Eventually a friend had time to help me. Around that time i discovered Vick Auto Sport. Pulled the head and found everything a-ok. Replaced the head gasket and also a leaky valve cover gasket.

And in the process, we discovered that a previous owner did not so much believe in gaskets. In buying or cutting them anyway. He was a fan of red RTV.

Fixed leaky oil pan by actually using a gasket, for example. Went through a whole lot of stuff actually. I'm pretty sure we replaced the gasket on the gearbox pan too.

And then i pulled off the oil separator and associated breather hose, and found that the little right angle hose was rock hard and had a pinhole in the knee. And the separator's channels were completely full of sludge.

So whenever the engine was revved under power, it peed oil directly onto the timing belt, but it would never do this revving when stationary. Impossible to diagnose without surgery.

Along the way some other bad discoveries were made, and some mistakes were made, chiefly in the emissions control equipment. Eventually i ran out of money and my friend ran out of time.

Eventually i bought an econobox so i could just get around. And then i bought my first VW, and then my 2nd VW, and then my 3rd VW.

But now it's time to revive it.

[SunnySideUp]

Congrats on keeping your Spider all these years - that's quite an accomplishment. The folks on this forum can help you fix anything on your Spider.

Welcome aboard!

[SLOSpider]

welcome to Car Hoarders, I still have my high school car the 67 Mustang Fastback. Although it has appreciated a lot more in value than any of my Fiats. I cant afford mustangs anymore so fixing up old fiats is the fun for me.

[RRoller123]

Great story!

Welcome aboard! Here is a thread on how to post pictures to the forum:

http://www.fiatspider.com/f08/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=21014

[TimpanogosSlim]

Congrats on keeping your Spider all these years - that's quite an accomplishment. The folks on this forum can help you fix anything on your Spider.

Welcome aboard!

Yeah. I always had somewhere to stash it for free.

I had offers to buy it, or parts of it. Someone once offered me $400 for the tubular bumpers. Probably should have taken him up on it - they clearly aren't worth that much and the rubber bumper ends eventually rusted off.

I think a former neighbor stole a vacuum valve from it for his buddy who was restoring a lancia beta or something. I had a landlord almost beg me to get rid of it. That helped inspire me to buy my own damn house. Unfortunately i have plenty of parking space but no garage.

I have a lot of remodeling to do, but some day, 3 cars wide, at least 1.5 cars deep, and my land cruiser can rough it on the north driveway. GTI on the right, Spider on the left, and a lot of tools.

I recently got more involved in the VW-related forums, which got me into the local euro-car enthusiast forums, which inadvertently exposed me to the fact that it appears to be easier now to rebuild and restore one of these than at any time in the past.

I mean, i broke a major trailing arm early on. Before i got it to pass inspection actually. I searched all the wrecking yards and found one lousy trailing arm and it's got a big old dent in it.

In the late 90's / early 2000's there were vague rumors that someone, somewhere, had a jig, and could be talked into fabricating a new one for $diety knows how much.

Today? I'll just buy the full set of four trailing arms with bushings preinstalled from Vick or someone.

I recall being told on mirafiori that A-arm bushings were something that someone could put together for me, maybe, in neoprene. or delrin.

Today? I'll just buy new A-arms from Vick with everything already installed.

Seeing the parts that are easily available has sort of blown my mind.

And i found out that Utah passed a law where if i fill out the right forms and pay the fees for a personalized 'classic car' license plate, any car over 30 years old that is not a daily driver doesn't have to pass emissions OR safety.

I am looking forward to chucking out all the smog gear as soon as the weather dries out.

[vandor]

Great story!
I think all those parts were available back then too, they were just a lot harder to find!

Post pics please!! No matter what it looks like. It can't look any worse than my first Spider!

[TimpanogosSlim]

Great story!
I think all those parts were available back then too, they were just a lot harder to find!

Post pics please!! No matter what it looks like. It can't look any worse than my first Spider!

Oh, it could be uglier.

I don't have any pictures handy. maybe tomorrow.