Rusty But Trusty

Well, in case $500 is not a low enough price for a fun project, the crack team of research interns here at RustyButTrusty HQ has found an even cheaper, rarer, and possibly more interesting car. In its brief stay here, from 1975-1981, Fiat’s 131/Brava was an affordable alternative to a BMW or Alfa Romeo sedan, perhaps picking up from where the original Datsun 510 and Fiat’s own 124 left off. As mentioned before here, rear-wheel drive, a twincam four, and a 5-speed are a fairly irresistible combination. You can find this 1977 Fiat 131S Mirafiori for sale for $200 in Reno, NV.

The car was purchased at an estate sale last year for a planned restoration, and the seller has found he has no time to do so. Needless to say, the engine doesn’t run, and the brakes are said to need fluid, and that’s probably just the beginning. It does look quite solid, with the only visible penetrating rust under the windshield. There’s probably more, but with any luck, the thing is fairly solid.

Things look pretty complete under the hood, and if you’re lucky, the seller will throw in some dessicated mice, shredded upholstery, and spider webs. To that point, you’ll definitely want to wear a mask and gloves while working on the car, but those Fiat twincams are pretty solid engines, and as such, should be revivable. Parts are still readily available, thanks to the ubiquity of the spider in these parts. Just make sure you have the exhaust system disconnected for the first start up so you can hear that wonderful engine sing.

It’s surprisingly straight from this angle too. At this price, and with the assumption that the interior is fried nice and crispy, perhaps the best use for this car is as a LeMons race car. Strip the interior, get the drivetrain back in shape, and you already have a good platform. Modifications are well-known, even documented in the Guy Croft book, so perhaps you can squeeze an extra two miles an hour out of her. Racing color schemes are well-known, too, and you could hack together some Abarth-style fender flares and grill with big-and-little headlights. In fact, that sounds like a lot of fun – who wants to join the RustyButTrusty Racing Team?

Tags: 131, 24 hours of lemons, Feature, Fiat, italian, sedan, under $2000

This entry was posted on April 21, 2014 at 2:14 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.