Hey there!

[Ploeppe]

Well, I thought I did this, but evidently I didn't. So, hello there! I bought another Spyder! A 1971 smooth hood with the original 1608, and aside from the battery box area, there's NO rust. Man o man, I'm so glad there's this forum-no car deserves a forum more than the Fiat 124 Spyder-well, the Fiat 124 in ALL its forms, really. I've had Fiats almost continuously since '79-my first being a '69 124 Sport Coupe.Still my favorite, if someone held my feet to the fire, but the 124 Spyder is without question one of the most beautiful cars ever built. There's not even any room to argue about it. These cars got the worst reputation-totally undeserved-because the importer, Roosevelt Motors, didn't take care of business. Developed by one of Fiat's companies (NSU), the 124 was one of the first engines in America to use the now-ubiquitous toothed belt camshaft drive system. And the early 124's were an "interference" engine, so if the belt broke, pistons and valves had a totally unharmonious meeting. It would have been a simple task to stress the importance of the recommended 20,000 mile replace3ment, and Roosevelt could have further obviated the problem by convincing Fiat to notch the pistons more aggressively so there wouldn't ever have been the dreaded collision. But no, that didn't happen. So Fiat became the brunt of the jokes-"Fix It Again, Tony", et cetera. Well, in a sense it's a blessing, I guess. If they had gotten the press they really deserved, they'd be unaffordable.

I'm sorry. I just get going on these cars. I really love them. And hello to you all!

[RRoller123]

Welcome aboard! You will find plenty of knowledgeable and friendly people here.

Here is a thread on how to post pictures directly to the forum:

http://www.fiatspider.com/f15/viewtopic ... 13&t=32169

And here is another picture-posting thread:

http://www.fiatspider.com/f15/viewtopic ... 12&t=23084

This short instruction covers how to resize pictures so that they don’t get cut off at the right side:

http://www.fiatspider.com/f15/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=30441

And here is a link to a map of Spider owner’s locations. Many forum members have listed their locations.

https://www.zeemaps.com/map?group=191825


Pete