Rusty But Trusty

Well, since thorough market research has shown oddball Fiats are popular with the readership here, here’s a feature of a Fiat 128 3P. You could call this the successor to the 850 Coupe, although this car should be infinitely more practical with its front-engine, rear hatch layout. It’s also got some funky features, including 3 vertical taillights (kind of like on a Mustang, but with curved sides), and a grill that might be a copy of an Aston Martin DBS from the sixties. You’d think this car (and its successor, the 128 SL) would have competed quite effectively with early hatches like the VW Rabbit, while adding a touch of sport. But once again, it seems Fiat’s reputation saved the day, making these cars an exclusive choice for future collectors.

By exclusive, of course, I mean cars which your ordinary, sane person would not choose to run. But since you’re already here, I’ll assume you fall into the other group. My experience with these is limited to a test drive of a mechanic’s 128 wagon. A standout feature on that car was its near-lack of brakes, something I had to discover for myself on the test drive. Outside of that, it was a fairly entertaining, if dinky-feeling car to drive. Wrapping a Scirocco-Junior style body around it should make for a pretty sporting, economical ride. Check it out – beggars can’t be choosers since these are rare as hen’s teeth, but this is a pretty solid looking unit for sale by someone who seems to have a thing for old 128s, at $1250 in Riverside, CA. The seller will throw in a 5-speed Yugo transmission if he sells for asking.

At this price, there’s no need to spoil potential buyers with pictures of the entire car. You do get to see enough to tell that it has at least surface rust, and the seller says it needs a fuel pump. Once you’ve done the fuel pump, you’ll want to replace the fuel lines, filters, brake lines, pads, maybe rebuild the hydraulics, replace the timing belt, and possibly shampoo the carpet and clean the interior.

Sarcasm aside, this really does look like a good example, if you’ve got a bit of spare time. The dash seems to have no cracks (what??), and while the rest of the interior might need some attention from Jesus (Hey-zoos, not Geebus!) in East Oakland, it shouldn’t be too complex to tidy it up. If you take it out of state, you could also throw a bigger carb on it…. for you Californians, a matching Yugo engine would be the ticket. I’m sure Chris Obert or one of our other local Fiat nuts would have a suggestion.

Here you can see a bit of rust on the leading edge of the hood – with any luck, it’s just surface. No word on whether the paint is shiny… that would go a long way to having a presentable car. It comes with an original manual & tool kit, and has a rare set of 100+ magnesium wheels. These would be nice to see on the pictures – if they’re some kind of rare Italian wheel, that would be another great selling point.

And here’s a shot of what is purportedly some of the most serious rust. If that’s all, and you’ve been dreaming of a 128 3P (doesn’t everybody?), you should jump on this one. And let me know how it goes if you do!

Tags: 128, 3p, Feature, Fiat, italian, under $2000

This entry was posted on July 3, 2010 at 5:44 pm and is filed under Feature. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.