Fiat Goes to the Paint Shop

Andy Update by Andy Reid to the Fiat 124 Spider project car
Jul 26, 2010

Driver's side wheel arch rust.

Passenger’s-side fender behind wheel.

Passenger's-side rocker rust. We are replacing it.

Who paints over pinstripes anyway?

We did this ourselves.

The passenger’s side was going perfectly until....

We were a bit on the fence about how to address the Fiat’s paint issues.

First, the Fiat is pretty inexpensive, and painting a car correctly is never cheap. When we bought it we noticed quite a few paint issues and a little bit of rust. We were going to just touch up the car, but the more we looked at it the more flaws we saw.

The final straw happened when we decided to remove the pinstripes from the sides of the car. First, the pinstripes were placed over the old ones, which had been painted over instead of being removed. Second, when we removed them we took off some more paint.

So we have decided to paint the exterior. The interior paint is original and more than presentable, so we’ll leave that alone.

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Comments
Ovide
Ovide None
8/2/10 2:06 a.m.

I have a 1974 fiat 124 Sport Spider . Love your articles, and is helping me with decisions on what to do with mine. I have been dream of this car for a long time, and when one was offered to me almost mint condition for a small price, I asked the wife and my two sons (age 8 and 11) what they thought. Well.. they loved for me to get the car under one condition once I have it, I had to lose 55 lb before I could drive it (I even had to sign a contract with them and posted it up on the fridge). From Feb. to late may I lost 55 lb (and feel healthier for it) and enjoy going with the family on long drive on the New Brunswick coast line. Together with the boys help, we cleaned up the car and won awards in local cars shows, and was also a favorite at Then Atlantic Nationals. (Here in Moncton, NB Canada holds the Biggest car show in Canada, close to 1800 cars attended. here is the web site http://www.atlanticnationals.com/) Will need a new Top Wondering if you will show how to place one?

Thank You

Ovide Theriault

Ovide
Ovide None
8/2/10 2:13 a.m.

Sorry for all the spelling errors. I wrote it quite quickly, and being French Acadian, my anglais sometimes gets chewed up. LOL

Ovide

Andy Reid
Andy Reid HalfDork
8/6/10 9:46 a.m.

Your English is better than my French Acadian would be. :)

Actually I will look for a top replacement tutorial for you. It is not that hard to do the biggest issue being getting the side windows adjusted properly on their cables. The top on mine was thankfully very nice so we did not have to replace it and we were able to loosen it when painting the car and not totally remove it.

stylngle2003
stylngle2003 New Reader
11/18/10 10:33 p.m.

How is the Fiat's paint job progressing? Believe me, I know rust can end up taking forever to deal with. Can't wait to see her sittin' pretty with a fresh coat(s) of paint!

Keep up the good work. I've loved 124s since my Grandfather had a brown one in the early 90s.

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