Finished in third place for the 1980's decade
in the Texaco car of the decade contest. http://www.texacocarofthedecades.com/DecadeLanding.aspx?DecadeFrom=1980&DecadeTo=1989
I would just love to hear from Chip Foose and have him contact me in reference to my advertising / publicity idea. If you're out there Chip, refer to page #3, 5th
through 6th paragraph, where I talk about the Fuel Injection.
Then you could go to page #8. ;o)
Man, this @#$% gets expensive -- I can't take it anymore! ;o)
I've already sunk close to $25,000.00 into her.
Maybe this will give me some exposure for the show 'OVERHAULIN'! If anyone cares to help me out, please click HERE and send a comment to Chip Foose. With FIAT taking an interest in Chrysler, this may be GREAT publicity for all THREE companies. Thanks AGAIN!!!
This page shows pictures of how she looked the day I bought her.
WebSite Index is located at the bottom of this page.
Moving on, here is our story.
In early 2007, I got a bug up my butt to find a FIAT Spider. I used to own a 76 Spider years ago and I loved the car. So I started poking around ebay, my favorite site. After a lot of searching, I found "Montebello" and the bidding commenced. She is a 1981 FIAT Spider, 50th Anniversary Edition, #366 of 500, Fuel Injected, and equipped with power windows (a rare option). I won the auction and was now committed to a whopping $5,000.00.
Soon after the auction, I boarded a plane and flew to LAX. The car was located in LA County, in the city of Montebello. The gentleman I purchased the car from claimed in his ebay auction that a lot of money was invested in her and that she was in near MINT condition. A custom paint job coated her body, which happens to be Ferrari Rosso Corsa Red. However, upon closer inspection of the vehicle, she was in need of some major updates and TLC. In particular, her interior was shot and so beaten by the hot CA sun, worn, and upon closer inspection, much of the chassis and interior components would need to be restored or replaced. But as the responsible ebayer that I am, I followed through and bought her. I also figured that I could drive her around and we could get further acquainted, since I was going to be in CA for about four days. This mini vacation quickly turned into one big hair ball.
Day 1: I decided to name her after the city I bought her in; Montebello had a nice ring and sounds well...Italian. It also means 'Beautiful Hills' in the Italian language. ;o) I guess that could be construed in many different ways...however, I like to think of it relating to the beautiful lines of a FIAT Spider.
At first Montebello was very shy, like the typical submissive European woman. Everything worked on her as it should and I drove her around town being very careful not to scare her off or worse yet, piss her off. She drove fine that day but kept shaking me with the driver's seat. Boy did the right side recline more than the left. This is a very typical problem with these cars, in which the mechanisms for the passenger seats were very weak. This resulted in an angled reclining position that is very uncomfortable, which basically caused my back to get out of whack. Not to mention, her previous owner must have weighed close to 250lbs or more.
Day 2: This was a different story. Montebello decided that she would try to start pissing me off. Her radiator blew up since coolant all over the pavement at the hotel was evident. I quickly took her to the auto repair shop close to where we were staying, which was the Holiday Inn in Costa Mesa. I dropped her off and had her boiling temper taken care of. Cost of this job was around $250.00.
Day 3: Now she decided to get real loud and obnoxious with me. I quickly took her to the muffler shop (I really hate loud and obnoxious women...pun intended, this person knows EXACTLY who I'm talking about - lol) and had her entire exhaust removed and replaced with brand new pipes, from the header on back, including a nice chrome dual exhaust muffler. I paid the guy extra money to make sure he removed her cherry (A big time NO NO in CA) but he agreed knowing that I was from out of town and shipping the vehicle back to Michigan. We don't have emission laws in MI anymore. In case you didn't get that, her cherry was the catalytic converter. Get your mind out of the gutter. Man, did she purr at idle and roar like a Ferrari Roadster when I throttled her up. Cost of this job was around $500.00 with bribe.
Day 4: My last day in CA, I was on my way to LAX to meet the car transporter (Reliable Carriers, Inc.). By the way, they charged me $1,200.00 to transport her from CA to MI. I got the upper deck (nose bleed section) -- this is the best place to be. Anyway, the Oxygen Sensor blew out from the exhaust manifold. It was left hanging by its wire. As this situation unfolded, I was driving along and another FIAT Spider was driving in the opposite direction. The driver honked his Italian horn and waved. As soon as he passed me by, I'm sure he said to himself "WOW, that Spider sure sounds like @#$%!" Anyway, it was quite embarrassing driving around and sounding like a jalopy fresh out of the junk yard. This was a Saturday and I remember at that particular time, not one service garage was open. I did find a garage where a mechanic was working on his car, so I stopped and got his attention. I begged him to have a look at it, which he did and was able to temporarily fix it. Cost of this job was a $40.00 tip.
All in all, my experience in CA those four days was stressful to say the least. I didn't leave feedback for the seller on ebay yet and as you can imagine, was going to call him with my concerns when I got home. For what it's worth, the car did have extensive documentation including the original window sticker and a fresh Ferrari Rosso Corsa paint job. The car sold for around $11,600.00 back in 1981. Looking at the brighter side of things (as I always try to do), it did have the original owner's manual, towing guide, warranty information, lots of other literature, and a huge collection of spare parts, etc. Montebello has resided in CA her entire life, so this was another positive. NO RUST to deal with. With further research, I have concluded that I am the third registered owner. She has a clean CAR FAX and no body and/or frame damage. Based on the odometer, she has enjoyed a total of 123,000 miles motoring around the West Coast. Boy, I'm sure she has some stories. However, I knew once I met her that she would need a face lift, a lot more attention, and a lot of TLC. I'll treat this beauty like a queen, as I do my wife. I love you Elaine, with all my heart.
When I returned to Michigan, I phoned the previous owner within a day. I explained to him that his ebay ad was not very truthful and also informed him of the money I had to shell out for repairs while in CA. He did reimburse me, so as a result I did leave him positive feedback. But I knew that this car wasn't going to cut it looking the way she did. I did drive Montebello around for about 1 month once she arrived in Michigan, before I decided to start restoring her. Initially, my only intention was to redo her interior, but that quickly led to one thing after another. After it was all said and done, I got the car for about $4,250.00. Wait until you see how much I put in to her.
I will start documenting everything that has been done to her, page by page,
so check back often. Quite a bit of work has been done and I have a lot of pictures to sort through!
WebSite Index
Page 1: History of car. (21 pics)
Page 2: Her interior gets gutted. (10 pics)
Page 3: Engine mods, cross member, racing radiator, etc. (9 pics)
Page 4: Interior transformation. (16 pics)
Page 5: Installation of custom stereo system. (29 pics)
Page 6: Interior finished. (10 pics)
Page 7: Exterior of Montebello showing off her new sex appeal. (48 pics)
Page 8: Extensive list of modifications, future plans and of course...my wish list. (2 pics)
Page 9: This page is devoted to the fellow FIAT Spider Owner and will include suggestions, tips, tricks, and general comments.
