Look Closer

"1971 Fiat spyder, has been in storage for 30 years, all original paint, interior, new roof, 6 speed transmission conversion, new exhaust, fresh engine rebuild, new brakes and lines, gas line, filters. Selling it for my grandfather which is the second owner. Cool little car, can drive it the way it is, or paint it and have interior cleaned up and have a extremly nice little car. Have new tail lights and rear bumpers, dont have time to put them on, they are in the truck 4000 OBO possible delivery can be arranged at buyers expense"

 

At first, this Fiat doesn't seem too bad, does it? All original paint, been in storage for 30 years...sounds like a dream!

Cool color, too.

...but what does "6 speed transmission conversion mean"? I have never, ever heard of another type of transmission fitting a Fiat Spider, other than odd conversions from 131's or even a Lada - but all those are 5 speed, and 'in the family', so to speak. a 6 speed conversion is either a god-awful hack job, or an outright lie.

Now, let's address the 'original paint' claim. Look at the engine bay picture. Above the passenger side shock mount. The paint doesn't match, and it looks to have overspray on the wires. Trying to hide rust coming through from the shock tower on the underside, I'll bet!

While we're in the engine bay...no heat shield for the battery compartment, and no charcoal canister. The engine seems to have a great deal of 1800-style smog equipment. Incomplete air cleaner tube to the exhaust side (didn't '71 only have a single tube snorkel?), there is no evidence of the engine bay lights, and the oil dipstick is available up by the top of the timing belt cover? Wrong, wrong, wrong, and WRONG!

Looks to me like the 'fresh engine rebuild' they claim in the ad is nothing more than an 1800 swapped for the original, and very desirable 1608 engine. Without receipts, we don't know if the engine was truly rebuilt, or did they just paint it & replace gaskets?

Looking at the dash picture, the fasten seatbelts light is incorrect for a '71. This is a later style, in '71 that should be a round yellow warning light when the key is left in the ignition.

Looking at the exterior pictures, all taken from a distance far away enough that you can't spot any dings or rust bubbles, a few things jump out at me. First - why are the rocker panels underneath the doors painted rustoleum rattle-can black? To me, this screams out the need to check for rust. Other notes, the correct front license plate holder is long gone, the hubcaps are not anything Fiat, and the passenger side tail light seems to be crunched. They claim that new ones are included with the sale, but as the '71/'72 style tail lights are more rare than hen's teeth, I'll guess they were never installed as they are the incorrect style tail lights.

Supposedly there is a new top, exhaust, brakes, and fuel lines. We don't know how extensive or nice any of these things are. For instance, is the new top vinyl or canvass? Professionally installed? Did the brake job include new calipers & rotors, or just pads? New flexible brake lines? New MC? Was the exhaust just a new rear section, or was it replaced all the way back from the downpipe? New fuel lines? Which ones? Just the rubber ones in the engine bay? What about the steel ones that sat for 30 years? What about the numerous original rubber hoses in the trunk that everyone forgets?

Oh, so many things to wonder about!

Now - perhaps this is a fairly solid car that someone has done a decent mechanical refresh in order to return it to service. I can respect that. However, the ad states that it's all original, and was stored for 30 years - and what we can see from these pictures paints a very different picture. It's too bad, it could be a really neat car, but $4,000 just seems WAY too much for a car with this many questions around it.