The Spider Project
Got Wheels? We got roads!
The roads in the Black
Hills of South Dakota seem to be made for
motorcycles and sport cars. There's nothing better that
driving here with nothing but sky overhead. Which brings us to this
page which
has nothing to do with tourism. It is about our personal project car --
specifically the restoration of a 1976 Fiat Spider.
People who know their wheels, know "FIAT" (especially
when applied to the Spider), does not mean "Fix It Again Tony."
These cars
which were made from the late 60s to the early 80s are fast, sporty and
reliable. A huge number are still on the road.
We bought ours at an auction and paid way too 
much money for it.
Everybody does. It was almost entirely stock, right down to the paint
and upholstery and had "only" 71,000 actual miles on it. The
car
commanded a premium price because it has almost no rust. The
glass and trim were original, except for the outside mirrors, the radio
and the hub caps.
It
had been well maintained by previous owners.
That said,
the
car was not completely without problems. What 30-year-old car isn't?
The most obvious problems were a clunk in the
drive train and a slight
pull to the right during hard breaking. Also the original
paint
was showing it's age and the interior upholstery and carpeting was all
but shot. The convertible top needed replacing too. The
previous
owner seemed to have a thing for electrical tape and used it
extensively for repairs.
The first order of business was to send
the car to a local mechanic who
has three of his own Spiders and one TR4.
The good news was that the car turned out to be mechanically sound.
A check of the motor revealed no problems and no
structural
rust was found. Indeed, the only rust was in the left
front
wheel well. The body was also in good, but not mint shape.
There
were a few chips, a ding near the right rear wheel and a paint failure
on the trunk lid.
The clunking drive train
problem was due to
a
failed rubber connecting gasket (a $22 part). But the break
pads
were
worn and the right front caliper needed rebuilding.
We also
discovered a problem with the left front ball joint so we decided to
put in a who new set. We weren't sure about 
the how much mileage was on
the timing belt so we replaced that just to be safe. A
tune up, oil and antifreeze change and some new filters topped off the
mechanical work. Not great, but it could have been much
worse. .
Now for the rest of the story:
Once we were satisfied that
our classic car was safe and
mechanically fit, we faced a dilema: Did we try to keep it all stock
or go for some upgrades. This is the part where the
purists
cringe. Especially when the car is mostly stock.
For
better or worse, most Spiders have been altered from stock. Here's the
reason: A stock 1976 Spider with an 1800 cc engine, performs
about on par with a modern Mazda Miata. The engine
develops about 100 horsepower (most of which goes to
the
wheels). A modern car, on the other hand, may have higher
horsepower, but for various reasons not as much reaches the
wheels. The nut here is that there are
modifications that vastly improve a stock Spider -- even
on a
limited budget. Hence, it's no surprise that some owners do
it.
There are other factors, of course. Paint gets old
and
owners choose new, non-stock colors. Most original radios have long
since met the crusher. And finaly dings and rust take their toll.
Thus it is safe to say, few truely stock spiders
are left.
Our Spider is not
pristine. Although all the body
panels and glass is 
original,
the radio, hub caps, outside mirros, the
radiator fan and a several other mechanical components are not. Also,
since the factory red color had long since faded to something like
orange, a new paint job had to be put on the list. So to
return
the car to 100 percent original stock would be very expensive.
The radio alone, if you could find one, would be two or three
times the price of a new sound system. (On eBay, some jerk wanted $1000
for something that may not have even been a Spider original radio.)
And the story is the same for
most
stock parts.
So, where to put the limited budget?
New paint? New
upholstery? New trunk liner? New radio? Etc. Etc.
By the way, there's no big dent in the
right-rear
fender. What you see in this picture is a reflection in the fender of
the car behind it which is having some other body work
done. This story is still unfolding. For
more
information go to the next page:
"To-Do List"
Or, for something completely different.
Visit the Roosevelt Inn home
page. The
Roosevelt Inn You can see what we do for a living.