850 Spider Restoration Complete

allansieben

X1/9 Time
This is my first time posting about this particular project, but I picked up this 1971 850 Spider from Naramata, British Columbia a year and a half ago with a very interesting provenance.
It was an estate sale short of two years ago when someone had posted it on Bringatrailer.com where I first saw it. Long story short, It was purchased new in the South Okanagan where it spent its entire life, never really driven outside the city limits of Penticton. Driven in summer only and garaged in the winters, this car has had only two owners with its original faded red paint. Forty two years and 29000 miles later, my friend Bernie and I drove it 4 hours on the Hope / Princeton Highway through Manning Park and made it home to Abbotsford without so much as a hiccup!

It was a work in progress from the get go and I finally bit the bullet and stripped it right down (including removal of the engine) and had 360 Fabrication in Abbotsford complete the body and paint work. Because of the aridness of the South Okanagan, this little Fiat had zero rust on her and only required some dent removal, prep and paint. The paint was so badly faded that it was "right through" and polishing did nothing to restore it.
The original paint was stripped down to bare metal and the transformation was well on its way.
My good friend Bernie Hamm from Bent Wrenches Autoservice helped me with the project and carried out the engine and engine bay detail. Bernie spent about 30 hours on tear down, refreshing parts, cleaning off 42 years of grime and many other tasks that aided in the car you see now before you. Thanks Bernie!

I will post a quick time lapse of pictures to give an idea of the progression of this very pain staking completed restoration...

Click on photos to enlarge: BEFORE
















...................................... AFTER






























I know...I'm bigger than the car!











Couldn't resist a selfie with Rosie!









In the end...This project was a lot of fun! Thanks to 360 Fabrication, Bernie Hamm (The Doctor), Mr.Fiat, Chris Obert and Jeanette Martin for making this all possible!
Bring on the next project!


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Wow that is a fine piece of work!

It looks beautiful, you were lucky to find such a clean base to begin with and a very very nice job making it right.

We now have two fabulous 850 restorations on the forum.

You look to be a very happy man indeed, as you should.

Karl
 
WOW... just wow...

I had a '72 850 Spider and only in my dreams did it ever look that good. Obviously a ton of work but it's paid off, it looks really good. Nice and clean. Even a cool color, not too common. Congratulations and nice job (well done!). :thumbsup:
 
That is beautiful Allan

Wonderful job on the restoration. It looks brand new. Enjoy it.
 
Just beautiful

You did an especially nice job on the rubber mats, they look brand new. Like the red, as said above a fairly rare color for the car.
 
Thank you for all your kind words...

The key to a proper restoration is determination. I was the 'general contractor' with a vision. This car is what I mentally envisioned and I had no idea that the paint (#120) was indeed rare!? But it is the original colour of this particular Fiat.
To get the paint right you must virtually remove everything from the car. I even had the windshield removed. Then have the old paint must be stripped off either by media blasting or a chemical treatment. Forget masking trim and door seals...remove them!

All the parts were carefully detailed by media blasting painted surfaces, priming and final paint application. (steel wool works wonders on chrome and anodized surfaces)
It was a group collaboration with enthusiastic talented hands working on Rosie.

Thanks again for your comments!

Allan
 
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Like other have said...

allansieben,

....NICE WORK !

I see you made some changes from stock....but improvements for sure.

lezesig
'72 850 Sp
 
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