TN Barn Find

[TNfiat]

Hi everyone! I have a "barn find" with one catch - it was my barn. My 78 Fiat Spider has been in storage for approximately 20 years. Our daughter used it to finish up high school and all through college till she graduated and bought a new VW. My wife and I were living in a townhouse with limited parking so had it in storage in New Orleans then move it to our barn in TN where it resided till I recently retired. Now its time to get it running again. Wow! When I pulled it it out of its hiding place of 16 years, I discovered the squirrels and mice had taken over the engine bay, front seat, and trunk. Needless to say, I have a lot of work ahead. Here are some pics right out of the barn.





Looking forward to lots of help from this forum.

Norm Prima
Franklin, TN

[AriK]

Hello Norm, welcome to the site. It's nice to see these old timers come out and see the light of day. Bet you cant wait to get it started!

[TNfiat]

AriK: thanks for the nice note. Actually I just got it to start recently and idle after quite a bit of prepping. Now its on to fixing the pin hole in the fuel tank, brake system overhaul, and removing the smog equip which didn't work when we bought the car 30 yrs ago.

The fuel tank needed a good cleaning anyway and several coats of POR15
The front right brake pads had swollen to the point that the tire would not roll when dragged out of the barn with the tractor.
I have been wanting to dump the smog equip since the beginning but didn't have enough time nor info to get it done. Now I'm retired and seem to have even less time but I can somewhat prioritize easier.

Also, it still has the stock 4 to 1 exhaust manifold and smog outfitted carb which I would like to replace eventually.

Ciao,
norm

PS thought you were referring to me seeing the light of day at first

[AriK]

Norm,
I was referring to you about seeing the light of day, what else were you thinking???
Just kidding, it's your first post, no intention to raise eyebrows.
You seem to be on the right track, the Spider is not a difficult car to work on. There's plenty of friendly folks here for advice but the archives are a valuable asset covering most topics.
I'm sure your daughter enjoyed driving this car back in the day. It's a hip car if you can make them reliable.
There's a young lady from TN that whoops it up in her Fiat Spider and judging by the pictures of her posing with it you can tell she's in love.