Regarding Fine Italian Automobile Treasures, Martin Seacrest said:
And just for the record, in a scant 3 years of ownership, as a then
pauperish
20-something, I had to:
Rebuild the engine
Replace the head gasket, 12 months later
Replace the: water pump, alternator, starter (twice), front calipers,
and
transmission. On a 4 year-old car.
Sure learned something about "cars," though. FIAT: F**king Italian
Attempt at
Transportation.
- --
Martin Secrest
GT6, TR6
Well I bought a 74 Fiat 128 Spyder new, notwithstanding my own
impoverished state at 23 years old. In 18 months and about 24K miles ,
it underwent 3 tranny rebuilds ( including the one following which the
shifter came off while I was power shifting thru a wicked curve and
ended up in some guys front yard, ) a replaced carb, a head gasket, an
exhaust system, the right rear bumper ( chrome fell off in the shape of
a hand), a bad tire and rim, replaced the convertible top and the
rockers rusted through on both sides ( actually they had surface rust on
delivery, but so did all the other ones on the lot). Oh, and the entire
rear axle and diff were replaced after it was discovered the entire unit
was bent and the diff was consuming itself. I remember how the fine
technical staff fixed the top leak at the windshield by spreading goop
on the top of the windshield frame and just closing up the top,
declaring it leakproofed.. The others stuff I forget. Other than that,
it ran pretty good.... Sold it for 1/2 new price and I figured I hosed
the buyer- I even recall watching him drive that yellow disaster away
and praying I would never hear from him again.. Had to work off the debt
shortfall to my Dad. The sad part is I really started out looking at
TR6's but got my head turned by the more "modern" Fiat.
Keith Ehrlich
74 TR6 ( after all those years)
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