General 1975/79 124 Spider

[akacappy]

Hello,

New to the Fiat site. Just purchased my first vintage/classic car. Looking to have a nice project ahead of me for a weekend driver in the back roads of Marin/Sonoma county! Paid 3k plus $700 shipping to my door. Looking to give it a 5 foot paint job and an engine bay clean up. Totally excited for this! 75’frame with a 79’ 2.0 engine.

 

[124BC1]

You bought this car to drive and now you're going to give it a respray?

The body/paint looks quite good to my eyes.
If this was my car, I'd maybe get a couple of rattle cans made up in the correct colour, (there should be a paint code for the original color on the I.D. plate on the front firewall under the hood) blow in any scratches, touch in any paint chips, lightly compound the car then wax it - good to go.

I'd certainly check out under the hood/engine bay - I can see someone has been in there messing with things, not surprising given the engine was changed.
Various wires/cables could do with tidying up, re-position things to prevent chafing (I see the main engine breather hose from the cylinder block to the air cleaner has been chafing on one of the brake fluid reservoir to master cylinder hoses), obtaining and installing the correct coolant expansion tank on the firewall - the replacement is too low to work correctly? Replace any missing bits e.g fender reflector/running lights if you wish.
The rear exhaust silencer/muffler tailpipe looks like it needs to be realigned to clear the bodywork.

As regards maintenance, these engines need the timing belt replaced every iirc 4 years/36,000 miles approx. I'd check/change this belt if I was unsure of the maintenance history as failure of this belt can bend the valves. A general service, especially a check on the brakes and then drive it.....

Then just fix what falls off

P.S. I like the artistic depiction of the Italian Flag on the front fender, very nicely done

 

[Twink80]

Hello,

New to the Fiat site. Just purchased my first vintage/classic car. Looking to have a nice project ahead of me for a weekend driver in the back roads of Marin/Sonoma county! Paid 3k plus $700 shipping to my door. Looking to give it a 5 foot paint job and an engine bay clean up. Totally excited for this! 75’frame with a 79’ 2.0 engine.View attachment 473727View attachment 473728View attachment 473729View attachment 473730View attachment 473731View attachment 473732

Some interesting features on the engine, I havent seen an inlet cam cover lije yours any idea what feature lies beneath? Also not seen an exhaust manifold like yours with a flanged port. Interesting !
Plenty to discover and enjoy with old cars.

 

[124BC1]

Some interesting features on the engine, I havent seen an inlet cam cover lije yours any idea what feature lies beneath?

I'm only guessing, but I reckon there's an inlet cam underneath and possibly some dirty engine oil.

 

[124BC1]

Some interesting features on the engine, I havent seen an inlet cam cover lije yours any idea what feature lies beneath? Also not seen an exhaust manifold like yours with a flanged port. Interesting !
Plenty to discover and enjoy with old cars.

I suspect that the projections on that inlet cam cover are for mounting some of the emissions (SMOG) equipment used on some U.S. vehicles.

There were some threads back in May? '25 by @stevenk9958 about trying to refit the emissions equipment that had been removed by a previous owner in order to pass a SMOG inspection he was apparently required to do in California. I and some others tried to help the guy as much as we could by searching the i/net, uploading info from shop manuals etc. While doing so I found there were at least 4 different exhaust manifolds used on the 124 Spiders over the years - 2 of these had 4 bolt mounting for the ex. front pipe and 2 had the flanged exhaust pipe connection. If you look at the top of the Op's ex. manifold you can see the mounting plate for the EGR system which has been blanked by inserting a threaded plug (iirc, it's a 16mm thread and is available from some of the U.S. 124 Spider parts suppliers, along with blanking plugs for the cylinder head etc. to be used when removing the emissions equipment).

 

[124BC1]

@akacappy
While writing the above post #5, this thought occurred to me:-
Do you have to pass any type of SMOG (Exhaust emissions) test where you're located in order to use your new car?
It looks to me like the original Smog equipment seems to have been removed from your car?

Back in May? '25 another member @stevenk9958 (iirc, he's somewhere in Cali. also) was told by his local SMOG station that he would have to re-install the original smog equipment in order to use his recently purchased car. I don't know if he succeeded in re-installing all the smog gear and pass the inspection. If you're interested, you can read the thread here:-

Can You Help Me Identify These Parts | FIAT 124 Spider (Classic)

These three parts were included with the purchase of my 1978 Fiat 124 Spider 1800. I don't know what they are or where they go in my engine. Can you help identify them and their location? Thanks in advance.

www.fiatforum.com

Hopefully you won't have this problem.

 

[akacappy]

So in California, 75’ and older do not need smog inspection. I also asked DMV about the 79’ engine it has and I’m still good…it’s the chassis year they look at. That said my plan is to clean up and remove any item/part that is not required.
Probably the Vick header and tail pipe setup. Also I haven’t seen this Webber carb before.

 

[Twink80]

I'm only guessing, but I reckon there's an inlet cam underneath and possibly some dirty engine oil.

This is the feature I mentioned. Probably part of some anti Smog system?

 

[akacappy]

Ok I see now that what your talking about. I’m probably going to pull all of the wires too and start fresh.

 

[124BC1]

So in California, 75’ and older do not need smog inspection. I also asked DMV about the 79’ engine it has and I’m still good…it’s the chassis year they look at. That said my plan is to clean up and remove any item/part that is not required.
Probably the Vick header and tail pipe setup. Also I haven’t seen this Webber carb before.

That's great. The thread I referenced concerned a '78 model car.

Weber carbs have a number stamped into the bottom mounting flange - this number indicates the choke size and type and sometimes has a suffix /xx which indicates any changes from the stock carb e.g. in jetting or linkages used.