I've received a free 1980 Fiat 124 spider 2000 (40k miles) from a family member. It hasn't ran in 15 years. (I know Fiat has never been great). I want to fix it up and use it as a twice a week car. Should I.....
1. Fix it up and go?
2. Turbocharge it so I can actually get up to speed?
3. Engine swap it for something younger and more reliable?
4. Burn it down to ashes?
All options welcome. Thank you!
I would fix it and keep it stock. Maybe some light souping up. These cars are designed to be slow. You could enjoy them for cruising.
I would fix it up a bit, but I wouldn't go whole hog and completely restore it. It's not worth it. I drove my '79 Pontiac every few days back and forth to work, until I had a medical emergency and I temporarily lost movement in my left arm. I had hard time getting everything in order, but parts are readily available and cheap. I'm also pretty mechanically inclined. I found an alternator at O'Reilly in my small town. That's quite a different story with an old Fiat. Parts are not readily available, and the classic acronym, Fix It Again Tony comes to mind. An every once in a while car is fine, every few days, absolutely not.
Turbocharging it will just wear it out faster. Fiat is already known for poor quality automatic transmissions. Don't hasten its demise. I have a 3-speed in my '79 Pontiac, they're just slow cars.
I would either fix it up or engine swap. I wouldn’t turbo charge unless it was with an engine swap. I don’t think those engines can handle much.
For a swap, my preference would be a Honda K-series engine if it fits. I’ve seen folks fit those K-series engines in the back of a Porsche, so if there is a will there is a way.
I know LS swaps are popular too. I’m just not as familiar with LS engines as I am with Honda engines.
You would probably need to swap out the transmission too.
Perhaps do the math, it might be cheaper in the long run to do an engine swap, rather than try to get an old Fiat engine going again.
They are really fun cars, more civilized in a lot of ways than the British roadsters sold during the same time period. They're light cars, when in good condition the twin-cam engine loves to rev and makes enough power to move it along. A friend has a Fiat 124 Spyder and it's a ball to drive. They're pretty easy to work on and parts are readily available.
It's going to take a lot of work to get a car going again after sitting 15 years. Every major system will need to be gone through and dealt with. There are youtube videos that go into the details.
Check carefully for RUST. Those cars are very prone to serious structural rust.
