A few years ago I fell in love with a 1978 Fiat 124 Spider that changed my life and made me appreciate little Italian cars with Pedigree that are rolling works of art. After several more Fiats and Alfa Romeos I was itching for something different. Something that was affordable yet not made in huge numbers.
I found this little Fiat in the parts section of the Philadelphia Inquirer and bought her for a couple hundred dollars.
She needed full restoration at that time and did not run, but there was NO RUST on the body and everything seemed intact, with only a few things seemingly missing.
As it turned out, when I got to open the trunk at home, nothing was missing; in fact there were spares for everything.
After I counted my lucky stars I started the restoration by taking her apart.
The first thing that came off was the valve cover , and to my disbelief; there lay a brand new 17 year old valve job.
After a carb rebuild and some miscelanious work the little car started right up and purred like a kitten.
In the following pages I'm going to illustrate the process of restoring this gorgeous litle car that I can't stop thinking about. The little Fiat has a name. She shall be known as "8Fittie" the spider. |
