Fiat 124 Spider

Hi Guys, Been thinking about getting a Fiat 124 spider for some time now. What should I be looking for in respect to normal areas of rust along with mechanical problems that are known? Is there any specific year or engine size which has an advantage over another (obviously the more powerful the better)? Oh yer is there a dedicated club for the 124?

Thank you in advance.

CF

Reply to
Chuckie Finzter
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They're great cars - 1600cc engines supposedly offer the best balance between performance and being a little free-revving thing. I had a 2lt with fuel injection - less revvy, but a bagful of extra torque.

No real weaknesses - the Lampredi engine is bulletproof, but gearboxes can give problems.

If you can afford it, buy the latest, cleanest Spider Volumex you can find. (2lt supercharged)

Reply to
SteveH

Well they really do rust like a pig and some parts (mainly panels and anything for the A series) are tricky. Otherwise they're a piece of cake to work on.

Footwells disappear, but are easy to fix.

Sills disappear and are a major piece of work (3 layers) that _must_ be done right. Inner webs from an MGB sill fit (they're very similar) and outer sills from a four door saloon can be persuaded without massive work.

If you fit a rollcage, make sure the pickups are connected to the rear suspension mounts. Ideally they're actually connected, but that makes the rear seat unusable. If the cage is attached to the floorpan, check there's really some floorpan involved....

Wheelarch lips rust from the inside owing to mud build up and are hard-going to fix, owing to their visibility. When they're sorted, fit a good inner plastic mud shield.

Bonet lips, bootlid lower edges, door lower edges and anything that _thinks_ it might want to be a water trap won;t be there any more.

Windscreens are glued in (they're not, but they might as well be) and it's unheard of to get one out intact. Rust in the scuttle or pillars is a _right_ bastard!

You really want gas for some of the welding. Much of the actual welding (esp. sills) is an edge rather than a butt (dead easy on gas) and you'll need gas for shaping some of the curves you are going to find yourself making.

Brake calipers rust the bleed nipples solid. Use the ice cube trick to free them, bleed them regularly to keep them free, and put some copperslip on the threads. If they're dead, you can drill them oversize and bush for decent sized nipples. Handbrake calipers will break your fingers if you're careless with the Belleville springs!

Brake disks are pissy little things that won't stop the car twice in a row. Fit Tar-ox or Brembo disks and pads (stock calipers). See about air ducting too.

A clutch swap is a pig, as you either have to pull engine+box together with a very tall hoist (not a crane) and a hair-raising angle of tilt, or you have to drop the box in situ by undoing the top two bolts that you can't get to. The quick hack for this is to haul it all out once, then make a couple of little access hatches in the floorpan tunnel to get at them from above next time.

Fit a decent clutch! They will eat the weak.

Front suspension falls apart as it's a bunch of rubber bushes in everything. They're cheap and dead easy to swap. Playing with spare wishbones to set up with decent coilover shocks can be rewarding too.

Back end lasts forever, which means you don't notice the bushes have failed and it's not really working as well as it ought. Again it's mucky, but easy.

Around a track on good rubber, there's still little heavier than an Elise that handles as well as a 124 in good trim -- except of course a

124 A series (different rear end).

Electrics are dead simple and really don't cause a problem, unless the connectors are sitting in the damp. Petrol pumps are a bit feeble though, just stick a Facet on if it gives you grief.

No, _not_ the more powerful the better. Few engines demonstrate that so well as the Fiat twink. Some of the "on paper" better engines are nothing like so much fun to drive.

You ned to rev the bollocks off them all though. It's an Italian car, unlike my V6 Alfas (which I've always suspected were secretly Belgian)

Fiat Twin Cam Register still around ?

Engines in favoured order would be:

16 valve Late model 2000 with decent compression ratio (probably not from a 124) 2000 volumex 1800 1608 (hens teeth) Earlier 2000 Lumpy 2000 low-compression from some other Fiat barge 1592 1438 (unicorn's teeeth)

You'll be wanting the Guy Croft Fiat twin cam book for sure. Mixing a

2000 crank and 1800 pistons is a cheap laugh. Are Avanti Rizzutti in Street still going?

You can't fit much in the way of carburation under the bonnet, owing to the low bonnet on the spider and the A series coupe. A RHD is easier than a LHD, as the brake servo isn't in the way, but there's still not much room. Bulges do happen, or you can wind with expensive, rare and hard to tune downdraught Webers rather than the common-as-muck DCOEs. These days you're probably looking at injection though.

Cams might want changing and tweaking with (easy). Cambelt certainly will !

Some engines swaps go all impractical on you because the distributor wants to be in a funny place. They did move around a lot, and not everything fits.

Oil cooler !

Look at sump baffles or even welded wing extensions if you're thinking of making a habit of track days.

Spare gearboxes aren't too hard to acquire and they're only "can give problems" because nothing else _ever_ does.

I think I've only ever killed 3 of these engines (124, Argenta and Montecarlo - alll 2litres, funny that), two by sheer hooliganism and I've scrapped a _lot_ of bodyshells.

I'd agree, if you can find a volumex that isn't hammered. If you find a Lancia HPE vx that isn't hammered, get that instead! Get both, swap the engines 8-)

Reply to
Andy Dingley

Cheers for the info Andy.

Regards

CF

Reply to
Chuckie Finzter

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