1979 Spider 2000 abarth style

[Exit98]

Eejii,

By the way, the picture of the sticker on the car you posted some time ago?



My screen name, Exit 98, refers to the exit number of the Garden State Parkway by my home. The GSP is the major North/South highway running along the coast of New Jersey bringing the hoards from the New York City metropolitan area to our many beach resorts and towns.

So it seems your Spider spent part of its life here.

Small world.

[Eejii]

Small world indeed. It is nice to learn the history of my car. My Spider had also a sticker of Cleveland AAA, so I believe it has spend it's previous life somewhere in the east coast. Here is the German import document when it was imported from USA to Germany in 1991. Does anyone recognize the address? Where could it be located?



Under the carpets I also found a token which had a text Malibu Castle and Showboat. Where were those used? Arcade machines?

[DieselSpider]

California based arcade chain with a mini-grand prix racetrack from what I understand.

Couldn't really read the address. If you have a 5 digit number near the end of the address which appears to be truncated that would be the ZipCode and would tell you the neighborhood.

Zip Codes that start with 2 are in Washington DC, Maryland and Virginia in the lower numbers however I do not recall if there is a break-off in the upper numbers to other parts of the country. Even the first two or three digits can get you pretty close. I have the full database at work as this is something I write analytical software against.

[Eejii]

Last weekend I got my Spider in traffic again. Before that I took off the carpets and found some rust:



Looks bad, but only small holes at the passengers side. Looks like I did the job just in time. I cleaned everything from rust and dirt and my neighbor did the welding.

I also installed an emergency switch behind the passenger seat:


It's good to have one. You know the old Italian electrics. I don't want to burn the whole thing...

Finally I got my car out for test drive. First everything was working fine. The suspension is much better than the old cut springs. Now I can drive over the bumps with no problems. Handling is also much better. The old suspension was way too hard.

Then few problem came up. After the test drive I noticed that there is oil leaking from the oil pan gasket. When I was looking under the car I happened to notice that there is a weird crack in the cross member paint. I decided to clean it off and see what is under the thick layer of paint. And yes, there was also a crack in the cross member...


Probably the old too hard suspension has caused this. I was lucky that I noticed this now and not when driving 100kph... Now the cross member is welded and should be safe again.

Now I should get the oil leak fixed. I wonder how difficult is it remove the Argenta pan while the engine is still in place... It has even less space around it than the original pan. I wouldn't like to take the engine off when the driving season is finally here. Other alternative would be some temporary fix and do the big job next winter. Any ideas for temporary fix? Some gasket glue?

[AriK]

Hi Eijii,
What did you do to weld that cross member? Was it done while still installed on the car?

[Eejii]

Hi Eijii,
What did you do to weld that cross member? Was it done while still installed on the car?

Yes, it was welded when the cross member was in the car. It is well accessible from the front. If the cross member would have been removed, I would have replaced the oil pan gasket with no problem...

It was cleaned first and welded by a professional. I can take a photo of the welded cross member later.

[AriK]

Yes, I'd be interested to see a photo of that, thanks.

[Eejii]

Here's the welding: There was actually a smaller crack in the driver's side too, which was welded too.

[AriK]

Its a relief to see that you caught it quickly and it was a simplified process. Anytime i've seen such a repair the member had to be dropped and patches shaped and welded across. Hopefully by catching it early you've prevented that procedure.
I was cringing last month when i was inspecting the member for the first time, degreasing and scraping off and degreasing again decades of crud while lying on my back, while thinking of my next move in the event i find something. Finally the member got a passing mark, but i instead uncovered some evil on the frame rail.