Not model aviation but still a fine hobby

[Bob Zambelli]

I disassembled this car around 13 years ago so that I could repaint it. 

Since I decided to retire and move to South Carolina, I figured that I could either transport it in pieces  or finish it and drive it to my new home. 
I chose the latter.

There was no rust at all and I did every bit of the work myself, including the convertible top and interior.

Except for two years, it's been with me since 1977 (it’s a 1974) and it is one of the most fun-to-drive and reliable cars I’ve ever owned.
I've recently discovered that the color is somewhat rare - very few made and hardly any remaining.

Anyone else familiar with the FIAT marque?

Bob Z.

[Michael Brooks]

I remember wanting one of those in Red way back when. Was a bit more than I could afford so I settled for a Fiat 128. It was FWD and lots of fun to drive. The 128 shared the engine and transaxle with the X1/9 as I recall, which was fine with me. Had to sell it and buy a bigger car when my son was born. My wife was glad to see it go because she hated the color, a not too great lime green. I still have a short block for the 1290 cc engine someplace.

[Bill Little]

I disassembled this car around 13 years ago so that I could repaint it. 

Since I decided to retire and move to South Carolina, I figured that I could either transport it in pieces  or finish it and drive it to my new home. 
I chose the latter.

There was no rust at all and I did every bit of the work myself, including the convertible top and interior.

Except for two years, it's been with me since 1977 (it’s a 1974) and it is one of the most fun-to-drive and reliable cars I’ve ever owned.
I've recently discovered that the color is somewhat rare - very few made and hardly any remaining.

Anyone else familiar with the FIAT marque?

Bob Z.

Great job on the car, Bob.

Now, when are you going to be in South Carolina??  ??  You're not there yet, are you?

[Bob Zambelli]

Hi, Bill - not yet but very close.

My official retirement date is September 30.

The house is complete and the hangar is finished except for the covering on the doors.

I plan to have a fun-fly in the spring. There is plenty of room for circles - around 70. But I'll just pick out the best terrain and set up three or four. RC and park flyers welcome too.

From I-95, SC exit 115, 1.8 miles N/E on 130 and there you are.
Anyone with their own aircraft can fly in and tie down in my front yard. Identifier is SC41.

There is a very nice recreational facility/picnic pavilion on the plantation which we are free to use. We'll pass the hat and send someone off to the local market for the basic food groups - hot dogs and beer.

Bob Z.

[Bill Little]

Hi, Bill - not yet but very close.

My official retirement date is September 30.

The house is complete and the hangar is finished except for the covering on the doors.

I plan to have a fun-fly in the spring. There is plenty of room for circles - around 70. But I'll just pick out the best terrain and set up three or four. RC and park flyers welcome too.

From I-95, SC exit 115, 1.8 miles N/E on 130 and there you are.
Anyone with their own aircraft can fly in and tie down in my front yard. Identifier is SC41.

There is a very nice recreational facility/picnic pavilion on the plantation which we are free to use. We'll pass the hat and send someone off to the local market for the basic food groups - hot dogs and beer.

Bob Z.

Well, Bob, it all sounds great!   I-95 is not that hard to get on from here.
Looking forward to the Spring!
Bill <><

[Bill Adair]

Bob,

My son-in-law had an early Fiat 1/9, but had to replace it when our third granddaughter arrived (their first born). Gave him many years of good service, and was a great looking little car.

Years ago, a friend let me use his nearly new Fiat 128 Spider for a full month, while he was on leave from the AF. Fell in love with the handling of that car, but it was too small for my family.

Unfortunately, it started falling apart about a year later, and he dumped it shortly after. He was always bragging about cruising at over a hundred and ten on long trips, so it was no surprise to me that it didn't hold up.

Bill

[Bob Zambelli]

Thanks to all for the kind words about my "Blue Baby".

What really surprised my about the little car is its ruggedness. In over 135,000 miles, it still has the original clutch, alternator, starter, universals and and brake calipers. I have replaced the shocks with Konis for performance and the supension bushings because after 34 years, things had deteriorated a bit.

The wheels are aftermarket and look much better than the original steel wheels.

The cars has always been driven hard but never abused - also, NEVER seen salt.

Bob Z.

[Bill Little]

I never did have a Fiat.  I had to pay for all my own stuff, AND fix it all myself, so a CHEAP price, and gas milage, where the key, oftentimes to what my car was.  I started off with a TR-3A w/4-A engine/tranny.  Had to do a total engine rebuild and extensive body work.  Good thing is, the basic parts were cheap, and the labor was free!  No one wanted a "foreign car" around here!  I had the pleasure of meeting "Chuck" who had worked for Bristish-Leyland as a mechanic on Paddy Hopkirk's cars, so he got me some "good" parts for my "3", through his contacts.  It was SCCA legal when I got through with it,  D/MP!!

Afterwards I had an A-H 3000, MGB, Sprite, and a TR-4.  I have a late '70 240-Z right now.  Overall, I had faster cars along the way (big block American!), but those "furrin' cars" were a total ball to drive!

[Michael Brooks]

My 128 certainly didn't cost much when I bought it. It was used with something like 30K miles and a burned valve and a spare short block. Paid $750 for it. A friend of mine and I did the valve job which ended up taking 6 weeks because we thought the head was bad. Most of the 6 wks was spent waiting on a new head to be sent from Italy because no one had one (This was the early 80's and Fiat was on it's way out of the American market so no one stocked anything). After lots of frustration, turned out I had the wrong thermostat gasket. Was certainly a learning experience. The car was lots of fun to drive and I did hate to see it go.

[Bill Little]

I bought my TR-3 in 1966 for $150.  I ended up with less than $300 in it and that was a totally rebuilt engine, new top, recovering the side curtains, and putting in a roll bar and tonneau cover!  All the labor was my own, though.  It was ready to run when I got my license at 16!

[Phil Coopy]

Had a TR 3 when I was in the Navy during the early sixties, but when I retired in  '94 I just had to go back to the 50's.

Phil

[Mike Scholtes]

Hi Bob:

I had a Fiat 500 station wagon ("giardinetta" - - "garden car") while living in Tuscany in 1974-1975. 2-cylinder air cooled laydown rear engine, like half a VW engine. About 25 horsepower but utterly reliable. This was the standard Italian farmer's car, like the 2CV in France. Lots of makers had 500cc cars to beat the taxes and highway tolls on bigger cars. I think I could put the CinqueCento into the back of the M-B SUV I drive now!

Friend in high school had a Fiat like yours, until he nailed a tree on a curvy road in the hills south of San Francisco. "At least it went down fighting," he said.

And thanks for sticking up for me on "Volare" which does indeed mean "flying" or "to fly" (no intransitives in Italian) and which I happen to think is a spiffy name for a model. Typical of Mortimore to wait until I was in England to stab me in the back on my model name choice. I will get him for this.

[SteveMoon]

Nice looking PininFarina Fiat Bob. I'm doing some work on my '79 Alfetta track
car right now. It developed a hairline crack in the head, so I've taken it off,
had it aluminum welded and will be putting it back together soon with a new
head gasket. While I'm at it, I'm rebuilding the Weber 40 carbs. Man, those
things have a lot of parts in them!  Later, Steve

[Bill Little]

Had a TR 3 when I was in the Navy during the early sixties, but when I retired in  '94 I just had to go back to the 50's.

Phil

Hey, Phil!

That's sweet.  Metal body?  Looks like a nice Flatty you got, too, Strombergs?.

My experience with all that was the "Sportsmans and Modifieds" at the Fairground's dirt track.  Ours was a '39 Dodge flathead 6 coupe, though! LOL!!!!!!  Got to see Curtis Turner, Buck Baker, Fireball Roberts, Lee Petty, Cotton Owens, Banjo Matthews, Ralph Earnhardt, Dink Widenhouse,.....................

[Phil Coopy]

Bill,
     It has a steel body and glass fenders....I have the three steel fenders but at his point I am just too lazy to pound them out.  The flatty is a '51 Merc, balanced, hardened valve seats, chevy valves, adjustable lifters, Max 1 grind cam, Offy heads, popup grant pistons, Edelbrock 3/2 intake w/3 HOlly 94's, full flow oil filter, Flat-O-Matic and Ford C-4 trans.  Runs good...gonna put it on Ebay next week.

Phil

[Bill Little]

Bill,
     It has a steel body and glass fenders....I have the three steel fenders but at his point I am just too lazy to pound them out.  The flatty is a '51 Merc, balanced, hardened valve seats, chevy valves, adjustable lifters, Max 1 grind cam, Offy heads, popup grant pistons, Edelbrock 3/2 intake w/3 HOlly 94's, full flow oil filter, Flat-O-Matic and Ford C-4 trans.  Runs good...gonna put it on Ebay next week.

Phil

Oh, Man........ straight out of the '50s!  You must have a new project in the wings if you're gonna sell it.  ??  It looks, and sounds, like one I would love to have.

[Bob Disharoon]

I had a 128 sedan...it was a horrible car....F.I .A.T....fix it again, tony !!!

[Bob Zambelli]

Although I've never owned or driven a FWD FIAT, I've heard all sorts of nightmares about them.

The FIAT 127 was supposedly awful. The 128 was described as a 127 + 1 more mistake.

The Yugo was, I believe, a 128.

It's kind of a shame to see such terrible marks against an automotive legend. FIAT was once a world leader, even making aircraft engines. The Macchi aircraft, which still hold all sorts of speed records, were FIAT powered.

Enzo Ferrari, a name you may have heard of, got his start testing and racing FIATs.

FIAT built the engines for the famous Ferrari Dino, as well as the early 308s.
There is a modern FIAT that carries the Ferrari V-8.
Does anyone know what FIAT stands for?

Bob Z.

ps - memory just kicked in - when I was working for Agusta Helicopter, my rental car was a modern FIAT.
A truly fantastic car, as good a driver as any BMW or other high performance sedan. And, believe me, I've driven some of the best.

[Manuel Cortes]

God job.
My father ran lots of rallies with a SEAT (Spanish maker with FIAT licence) 124. Even he put a BMW 2002 engine in a SEAT 124 frame to increase the performance!!!!!! Seems mad at todays minds, but sure was exciting.......

Regards,
Manuel Cortes.

Bob, I have lots of issues of your FIAT "age" If I find the article of your car, consider it yours, ORIGINAL; OF COURSE, LIKE YOUR CAR!!!!!!!!

Congratulations.

[PatRobinson]

Bob,
My first car was a Fiat 600 in a ugly lime green. The 600 was so small it is  one of the few cars that can make a BMC "Mini" look big by comparison.

My dad paid $75.00 for it. It got over 50 miles per gallon and because of a seal leak it got about 10 miles to a quart of oil. My friends kidded me about my sewing machine engine but they always wanted to take my economical
Fiat when we went out cruising at night.

I paid for my next car which was a MGA, which I loved ,but I had alot of fun in my Fiat so I still rememer in that silly little car fondly.

                                                              Pat Robinson

[Michael Floerchinger]

What I gave up CLPA for the first time around, I had the bug, drove stock cars along side Schrader and Wallace at Lake Hill Speedway in Valley Park, Across the Merrimac from Buder Park outside St. Louis. Then marriage and back to CLPA fro a sort while and then got the car bug again. I had all different makes and models but the coolest car was a 61 Buick Skylark, I bought it 2nd hand from an old guy (My age now!) looked like new! I played around with the 215 V8 that was in the thing, It came stock from the factory with 185 horse aluminum mill but I wanted more. I ripped out the engine, trans, 2 piece driveshaft with carrier bearing and its dinky little rear end and proceeded to put in all Chevrolet running gear. I had a 327 that I had Kirn Engineering machine ( They were building Rusty’s engine at the time) and I blueprinted it in my basement. I made sure the “Lark” retained its stock look and took it out and played with it. It was so light that the thing scared me into putting a 6 point roll cage in it. It was the coolest car I had owned and one of the fastest, even compared to my big blocks. I sold the thing after having it for 15 years to pay for college classes. But then, I got back into CLPA!!! Unfortunately I am out again, we purchased some land south of St. Louis and I am down there every weekend building a house; the ultimate model. AND, there is a spot that is pretty lever where I could put in a few circles………………

Mike