My 1979 Spider In Process

[mattyd7]

I wanted to post some pics of my car now that it is on the road and drivable, thanks to a lot of you on this forum. Between reading through old posts, and some help from new ones I wrote, I have been able to fix a ton of issues this car had in record time and for really cheap on my own. I got this car off a guy who bought it in 1985 with 85K miles on it, and sold it to me with 91K! He was just using it for short rides to the beach and out on weekend nights locally every year for 30 years. He had the body redone and painted a few years ago and then lost the ambition to finish restoring it. It came to me with ripped seats and doors, no carpet, cracket center console, no convertible top, etc.

As you can see, the interior was the original bright blue when I got it:





In between fixing a bunch of issues, replacing brakes, changing fluids, etc, I fit in some of the interior replacement while I was waiting on things in the mail. I was able to get some really cool seats of profdave on the forum. Neither of us are sure what vehicle these are from, but they fit the Fiat seat bolt pattern. If anyone knows, I'd be really interested.



Then I went ahead and replaced the carpet with a black set. My boot cover and rear seat were in fairly good condition except for the color, so I dyed them with VHT Satin Black vinyl dye and they came out amazing. They look brand new, and it was very easy to apply! If you have faded seats or panels, just do it. Prep work is important, I washed and cleaned everything, let it dry and painted in a clean environment. I did 2 very light coats, then a medium coat. I also dyed the rear interior quarter panels.





Looks a million times better now! I just need to do the door panels and center/upper console. I have replacement black door panels, but now that the car is drivable I am waiting for a rainy day to replace those, I know they take some time and patience to drill all the holes. I plan to dye the upper console, it is in good condition and already fits the radio it came with. I'm still trying to source an affordable center console in decent condition before I do that. I have a lead on a local source I am hoping will pay off.

I also put on the convertible top myself, which I had a post about. It was easier than expected and came out pretty good, I am happy with the results. These aren't the best show quality pics, but I snapped these while it was a nice day this past weekend.





Waiting on a great vanity plate I ordered, then I am going to try and take some really good photos of the car. And do a more elegant way to attach the front plate...

So I still need to do the doors and consoles on the interior. I got an 1800 intake manifold off lanciahf on here, planning to install that this winter with a 32/36 DFEV to get some more performance out of it! But who knows, if I come across a DFEV soon, I might have to go ahead and just do it before winter!

[dbr]

Nicely done! I like the black seats with the dark blue paint!

[mattyd7]

Yeah, at first I was thinking of doing tan, but it is harder to get everything to dye to match and to hide cosmetic issues with tan. Also I thought it might look pretty bad when it was at a point like this where some is tan, and some is still light blue. I looked around online and saw a lot of pics of newer Mustang convertibles in a similar dark blue with black top and interior and thought it looked pretty sharp so then I was sold on it.

[btoran]

nice progress. looks sharp. the seats look original to me.

[mattyd7]

Got sidetracked doing things that actually needed to be done for safety reasons...rear shocks were no good, and master cylinder sprung a leak after some spirited driving. Once I got all that taken care of, against everyone's pleas I went and did the carburetor upgrade to get away from that terrible '79 intake manifold and ADHA carb.

I decided to go with the 32/36 DFEV because the kit was cheaper than the 34ADF and I liked how much simpler it was with just electric choke, fuel in, and distributor vacuum. Got one of the Redline kits plus the throttle linkage adapter from Allison's. Special thanks to Tom Mason on here who helped me out with a lot of pics and advice from his swap to the DFEV.

There were a few points my nerves were getting rattled and I was wondering if it was worth it. Particularly when trying to get out the bolt against the timing belt cover. I found out that a lot of the vacuum tubes for the emissions equipment were toast, some were even broken I found out when I went to move them. Also, imagine my surprise when I found out the nuts holding the old carb down were all loose! Another surprise: my crankcase breather hose broke right off when I touched it to get access to one of the bolts. Yeesh. Replaced that and the vac line to the distributor and charcoal so everything is new. Threw out all the emissions equipment except the charcoal canister.

Rather than bend the throttle rod to accommodate the linkage on the DFEV, I opted to make my own out of M5-.80 SS threaded rod. I cut it to the length I needed and then put on the adapters to the end. Nice, clean look I think and its definitely stiff enough and since it's stainless it should resist rust for a while. Cost me $10 for 3-ft of it so I have a lot leftover if I ever need to make another. See it here:



I tried as much as I could and could not get the nut to loosen on the exhaust manifold so I ended up plugging the EGR pipe instead of removing it and plugging the hole. Next time it goes to a mechanic I might see if they can get it out and have it done right.

I clamped the dipstick to the alternator bracket. Seems like a perfect spot because the bend in the dipstick is right where it meets that bracket so you can actually make some "downward" force on the dipstick to hold it in place. I can't budge it, so I'm pleased with it for now. Would be nice to get a FI dipstick so its a little cleaner look, but I'm not going to rush to get one.

One thing I don't see mentioned a lot, when you swap the 1800 intake manifold in, it makes the engine compartment a lot more accessible! I can't believe how much easier it is to do work now! I can access the alternator and starter no problem. When I did the brown wire fix before, I wasted so much time accessing the starter lug. Now it is a non-issue! Performance increase aside, this alone is worth doing the swap!

Tuning the carb was no problem. I ended up with the mix screw out about 1 full turn which I think is OK. Idle screw is backed out almost all the way and I've got a nice 900 or so RPM idle. Need to tune the high idle tonight when the engine is actually cold so I can get that right.

Let me tell you, I had no idea how poorly my engine was running before! I'm guessing between the cracked vac lines and the carb not being tight against the manifold, there was a lot of extra air getting in the system and making it idle unevenly. Now it sounds like a new car! And holy hell does it run a lot faster! I thought people were exaggerating about the increase, but I can definitely notice it.

Should've cleaned off the fingerprints, but here is how it all looks now:



I am so happy with how this all went, it was worth the aggravation of taking off the old manifold. If you have a '79 or '80 with a carb, you need to do this change. You'll love the performance upgrade, and if you ever need to replace anything on the drivers side of the engine, like fuel pump, alternator, or starter, you'll be glad to have the 1800 intake there.

Next is to try and get the door panels and center console replaced before the October car show at Larz Anderson.

[rjkoop]

For the front license plate I used Home Depot plastic conduit brackets/clamps for $1.00.







Looks fine and you really have to get close to see them.

[Nanonevol]

looks good! Must be the 2L with the 1800 manifold that gives you access to the starter because its' a bitch on my 1800. Vanity plate going to be a surprise?

[mattyd7]

Rich, I really like how that looks with the conduit hangers! I like that they are plastic too, so shouldn't damage the chrome. I was going to use the brackets for the KC Lights on Jeeps, but they are quite expensive for what I would be using them for. That is a much cheaper way to do it! Next time I am at Home Depot I'll grab some and try it out, thanks for the idea.

[rjkoop]

Rich, I really like how that looks with the conduit hangers! I like that they are plastic too, so shouldn't damage the chrome. I was going to use the brackets for the KC Lights on Jeeps, but they are quite expensive for what I would be using them for. That is a much cheaper way to do it! Next time I am at Home Depot I'll grab some and try it out, thanks for the idea.

No problem. I found out about it on these forums from another user who did the same thing. I also put nuts/bolts on the bottom part of the holder as well and they just sit against the back of the license plate. Kind of stabilizes it.

I've done some bumpy roads and twisty corners and it hasn't moved.

[mattyd7]

Took the car to its first show under my ownership. I've done pretty much everything I wanted to cosmetically except the center console replacement. So the whole interior is black except for the blue console, which really doesn't look terrible color-wise, just the cracks around the heater controls. So I came up with a good idea for the show and put my original 1979 Fiat Spider owner's manual on display over the cracked area so no one would notice! Sadly I was the only classic Fiat at the show, it was dominated by 90s and 00s era Ferraris and Lamborghinis. The only real pre-1980 classics on display were some Alfas and a single early Ferrari and DeTomaso. So I won "Best Fiat" by proxy, my only competition being a bunch of various new 500s. It was a nice day though and fun to show off the car. I had a lot of people checking it out, taking their picture with it, etc which was cool.

[Bunnet]

First I have to congratulate you on the restoration job, I have purchase a similarly condition 79' spider and still in the process of restoring it. I like what you did with the interior specially, but curious as in what you do for the exhaust manifold. In my case mine is rusted and have to be replace totally, having the same year car and done massive restoration as you did, I wonder what would be good choice

[mattyd7]

Bought a set of the Volumex replica rims from Mark during his Valentine's Day sale, and a set of General G-Max AS03 tires to go with them. Totally thrilled with the look, and it really completes the car's exterior. No more rusty steel rims that hurt the exterior.

Didn't expect to be out driving the car this early in the year, but with the thermometer hitting the 70s last week I got everything moving and had it ready for the weekend. Put probably 5 hours behind the wheel on Saturday and Sunday, it was great. Unfortunately the scenery isn't so great because the trees still think it's winter, but took some photos anyways.

[braca23]

Nice pics!