My new 72 Fiat Spider...

Well after looking for the better part of a year, and passing on an 850 which proved to be too much of a wreck and unsafe to dolly I was close to giving in when my wanted add on CL landed me an email from a father/son 72 Fiat Spider project who had bought and thought it was previously amateur restored 6 years ago. The transmission popped 4 years ago and it sat in their garage until last year when they put a reman in from IAP (got the paperwork $$$!). By this time though the son was in college, father didn't have the time to deal with it and wanted it gone, same sad story. I checked the engine it's a 125BC000 ~ 1608 with some sort of Weber, don't know yet as I'm still learning a lot about the mechanicals on this thing, feel free to chime in if you recognize it. The chrome bumpers were removed and the fascia filled and smoothed before the restoration respray (original color), but I have all the bumpers and they're really nice (no rust) for 38 year old's and the chrome is still good. I'm planning on putting them back on sometime down the road. Believe it or not I got this at a VERY challenge price so I may just drive it down as is for giggles (after I rewire it and sort the miss but it runs and drives!). Anyway, time for some pics, will have more in Reader's Ride section:

Anyone know what type of wheels these are? They are at least 2 piece as those little black rivets are indeed real fasteners.

As I dig into the car, I'm finding it's more original (good upkeep / garaged) and less restoration at least the body, the dash is custom and the header is an alfa romeo (or so I was told), there is some rust in corners but minimal, but the underside has been under body coated at some point in life and the pans are fantastic. The only parts that need help are the bottoms of the door. I've only found about 4 spots of bondo and it was to fill dents, two of which were on the hood, no real rust repair.

wow very nice

I'd almost be tempted to leave the bumpers off, it looks so good without them imho, especially if it had the chrome/black painted bumpers that all the pictures of North America-spec 124 Sport Spiders have. if it were the Euro-spec bumpers that would be a different story, though

Nice score. Looks great.

I am SO jealous. I miss my 68 sport spider.

I thought that the 1608 got the little humps in the hood. I know that my 69 with the 1438 didn't. I think I remember reading somewhere that the deck height increased with the 1608 and thus hood tapped the cam covers.

Rubber bumpers and Abarth rally flares.

Damn those early smooth hoods look so very much better than the later bumpy variety.

I am really starting to think that a 124 spider will be my next daily driver. I wonder if an Alfa V6 will fit under an early hood?

That looks fantastic!

Looks nice. Congrats.

Nice buy! I love the sound these engines make.

Header doesn't look like a standard Alfa item, btw.

The flat hood is correct. The taller engine came with the 1592 version in 1973. The 1608 and 1438 use the same block (type 124/125). The later block is a type 132.

I personally don't dig them without any bumpers. To me it looks like something is missing.

Though they may be two piece those wheels are nothing special. I want to say they are made by Appliance but I'm likely wrong. 4x98 doesn't give you much in the way of choices. If I were you I'd have the hubs re-drilled for 4x100, then the world is your oyster for wheels.

Impossible to say from the photo but the carb looks like a stock one. It may be a larger 34mm one. They are stamped on the edge of the base what exactly they are. The air cleaner does a nice job of cleaning up the engine bay and making more induction noise but that's about it. If it's got the foam element I'd get rid of it and use a paper or K&N replacement as I've had the foam disintegrate over time. Make sure the crankcase breather hose is properly installed, has no kinks and is NOT a piece of heater hose. You need the original type rigid hose that won't collapse. If that hose pinches shut the engine will vomit all the oil out of the sump. BTDT.

Two things I'd change if I did another one right off the bat: ditch the skinny plastic rimmed steering wheel and buy a pair of seats that are actually comfortable. While I kind of like the lack of a center console I don't dig the crap hanging down that's visible. And why on earth did they completely delete the glove box? Not trying to dis' your car, just pointing out some things you may want to consider altering.

Looks pretty solid which is most of the battle with these. Hopefully they kept their hands off the wiring harness. Remember, any time something doesn't work the rule is it's always a bad ground!

Thanks David, I was hoping for some input, I found the engine, wiring, and carb manuals by Brad Artigue and already started pouring over them, going to order the FSM too just for xreference, the harness for the most part is stock, though the rats nest they created under the dash is well um, interesting. I'm redoing the whole thing with modern electronics and new wires, I've seen what an electrical fire looks like on an 80s European car cough::Merkur::cough and don't plan on having it happen again.

As for the dash, yeah I'm not a big fan, between that and no center console and no visors will all have to be corrected.

One question, I have the original boot cover but I don't know where the hooks inside the car go, It has the retaining clips on the rear, the button snaps near the door jambs, but for the life of me the inner hooks don't seem to hook onto anything.

Oh, also, this car doesn't have the little 'back seat' which the later cars I know had, is this normal? I can't tell all what's original and what's not but there's basically a leather wrapped speaker box back there (80s speakers).

One more thing, haha, I know I should be posting over on a fiat forum but I've been waiting a week for my account to be activated, I have an emblem with an aluminum backing and the emblem goes through the aluminum backing plate with 2 small posts that look like that had some sort of c-clip on them (tiny ones). I think this may be a trunk emblem but I'm not sure.

Nice!

Damn! Very nice! Big thumbs up

Found out tonight it's a 32/36 DFEV Weber with an intake that has 125BC040, dunno what all that means, but I'm reading something about it being a better carb, also having electric choke actuated by pressing pedal to the floor which would explain why it fired right up holding the pedal down, dang these things are confusing

Damn dude, that's a sweet looking little car. I'm jealous.

Mine was bumperless, and I liked the look myself.

The wheels are nothing special. I think they were sold by every auto store with their own name stuck on them. None the less, they look kinda neat on the car.

As I recall, that's a 4 speed transmission. And as I recall, the 5 speed will bolt up. A worthwhile upgrade.

Looks very good underneath, and very pretty topside.

Fox is wrong...all 124 spiders had 5 speeds. First year or so of the coupe was 4 speed with the 5 optional. The sedans/wagons all had 4 speeds.

I cringe every time someone says they are going to rewire one of these. The factory wiring is perfectly fine provided you keep the connectors clean. Most problems are caused by PO's who "improve" things.

The Haynes manual is perfectly adequate for that vintage car. The only factory manual currently available is the Spider 2000 version, and that car is notably changed from what you have. I wouldn't spend the money on it.

The boot should have two big plastic hooks that reside in the pockets at the outer ends. These clip onto studs on the top frame when it's lowered. The plastic hooks often go missing because they aren't attached to the boot with much of anything. The little hooks on straps should go into holes in the side trim plastic pieces that would be kind of where your hip/leg would be if it were actually possible for you to sit in the rear seat, which of course isn't possible if you were born with legs. The rear seat was only deleted after 1982 but again, I'd get rid of it if I did another car because it's completely useless. Pininfarina made the last ones with a nice hinged storage compartment back there covered with carpet. Fat chance finding the parts though.

The emblems that should be on the car (the round ones) would be the better enamel version with two threaded posts on the backside and itsy bitsy (4mm?) nuts. The later ones are cheap junk aluminum that are painted and will fade, they had larger posts that pressed into plastic bushings. The holes in the hood/trunk were larger to accommodate the bushings. The enamel ones were highly prized for a long time but I think they make them again and the price isn't bad. With the honeycomb grille, the front emblem actually went there. It has a large aluminum trim piece to hold it and the studs were noticeably longer to go through the grille. That version you may have to find used. The enamel center holds up really well, and I just painted the wreath part gold to make it pretty. Should be the same 70-73 methinks.

Oh yeah, a picture may help...here's the front emblem deal affixed to my car:

ddavidv,

Well as far as the wiring goes one of the barrel fuses at some point in its life didn't 'pop' correctly and melted the LHS of the fuse block, which makes me nervous considering how much fun we had with an 80s German wiring harness that decided to burn and almost go up in smoke. I'm not new to re-wiring a harness, after the mishap we redid our XR4s from scratch along with the MegaSquirt and it all works great now, the only thing we have to watch out for are those old 80s relays. On top of that is the custom dash fascia and gauge relocation which required them to splice in odd bits of wires, some are covered with electrical tape, some aren't, same goes for the aftermarket CD player and speakers in the little box (neatly done) where the back seat used to be, it's already been removed but I have the rear inner trim panels and they're in perfect shape, dunno if I'll bother putting them back there.

One question about the battery, I want to relocate it to the trunk because the spot under the hood is less than 2" from the header touching the battery, there's no heat shielding, no tie down, and frankly it's scary. Besides putting in a plastic battery box or getting a small sealed battery with a hold down how are the later model trunk battery hold downs installed?

As for the boot cover clips, that's what I figured looking at where/how it could attach to anything, what you described was exactly where I was holding it and like "where's the anchor point?". No big deal I guess, the rear top bow isn't 'attached' to the top anymore (why did the PO reuse old fabric to attach it?), I don't know, but it's disintegrated, I'll have to figure something out there since the rest of the top is quite serviceable (I doubt it'll ever see rain anyway).

I'll stick with Artigue's work then since is is year specific and very complete (the electrical diagrams that is).

VERY NICE SPIDER BTW! Thank you for basically showing me what this one would look like with it's bumpers back on, it looks great, I am definitely putting them back on after seeing that.

ddavidv wrote: I cringe every time someone says they are going to rewire one of these. The factory wiring is perfectly fine provided you keep the connectors clean. Most problems are caused by PO's who "improve" things.

I would normally agree with this, but recent work on my similar vintage Alfa, which probably has the same wiring supplier, had a LOT of brittle lines- both the wire and the insulation. To the point where in a few hotter areas (say the reverse switch wiring that runs next to the exhaust), the insulation had broken off (yes broken) and was causing a short. And when I tried to disconnect the pins right near it, they would not come apart.

If you do rewire- do yourself a favor, and spend the money on a very high quality remanufacture. it will lay right in w/o any issues. Way better than many headaches from cutting and splicing a few bad areas.

Do it all, or deal with what you have.

Eric

I had a red '74 when it was new, and once you learned to set the points with a matchbook cover by the side of the road, you were good to go!

It may be different now, but at the time, that car was basically a licence to get laid..

alfadriver wrote: Do it all, or deal with what you have. Eric

I was planning on running all new wires, no splice jobs, all new connectors, I like weatherpack...

In reply to Raze:

Depending on how you do it, you might be able to get new connectors for free. Moldex will send you engineering samples. I got 100 male and female blade connectors for free- so I could wire my racecar (I used the original plastic connectors).

Wire will not be free- but some of it can...

The battery...if you move it to the trunk, you have to vent it. Plus, it sucks up the nice luggage space. I preferred mine in the engine bay. There is supposed to be a metal shield that also acts as the battery hold-down that completely covers the engine side of the battery. You need to find one of those. Uses two J bolts and some knurled nuts to hold it in. If you can find one of the original parts books they have great photos of all the bits of the car. There are two: one for mechanical parts and a thinner one for body (carozzeria).