Rusty But Trusty

For a fairly rare and rust-prone car, there are quite a few Fiat 850 spiders in decent shape available on the American west coast right now. The idea of a lightweight, tiny little open top car is appealing, and if you want one that begs you to go faster, you’ll want to pick the Fiat 850 over some of the British competition. One could also argue they’re a cost-effective alternative to the Honda S600/S800, though their soundtrack won’t be quite as exciting. For our first four-wheeled alternative to a Vespa (well, outside of a Vespacar), let’s check out this 1968 Fiat 850 Spider for sale for $2500 in Eau Claire, WI.

So you’re thinking, the lead-in on this article said “in decent shape”, what gives? Context is useful here, as 850 Spiders tended to rust at the leading edge of the hood, and of course other places. This car seems to have older Wisconsin plates, so the fact it still exists suggests it was a fair-weather car, or perhaps from a less rusty state. There’s a conspicuous lack of lower-body photos, but the seller offers to provide more. Fortunately, the car is said to run, but is missing seats and seems to need plenty of help inside. The front bumper is also a little bent up. But the real hook with this car is the covered headlights. Much ado is made of the fact they’re common to the Lamborghini Miura, so don’t break them, but they do look much prettier than the later upright versions. With any luck, a pair of seats will have you in full swing on the debug process. If you’re feeling risk-averse, on condition or on the lights, maybe it’s worth a look at this 1970 Fiat 850 Spider for sale for $3500 in Costa Mesa, CA.

Yellow is a great color on these little cars, and hopefully makes you a bit more noticeable on the road. This car may actually have a little bubbling on the leading edge of the frunk lid, but things look pretty good otherwise. It’s said to have a top frame, which implies there’s no top, and that explains the condition of the interior – it seems to have collected some of the recent rains in California. There’s a crack in the steering wheel, a couple cracks in the dash, and the seats are split, but it’s complete, so hopefully elbow grease will get you partway there.

Seeing that moisture in the floors should make you want to crawl under this car, or pull up the floor mats. The car seems to be in good company, sitting next to a 500 Jolly and a 600, so hopefully the seller is knowledgeable, though perhaps he’s so knowledgeable he’s seen what’s under the mats and decided not to get into it. If you don’t want to get into it either, and you have two extra Bennies, how about this 1970 Fiat 850 Spider for sale for $3700 with a parts car in Santa Ana, CA?

Faded red is actually nice for being less flashy than glossy red, and this car’s status as daily driver for the last two years inspires confidence. It’s shown fitted with what is probably an aftermarket Parrish Plastics hardtop, but also comes with what seems to be a factory hardtop. The factory steel wheels are cool, but adding some period aftermarket wheels truly transforms the look into something exotic. The car is said to hit 90mph and not to burn oil, and the tall seller claims to have plenty of room, though that still depends on your torso-to-leg length ratio.

Underhood shots do a lot to inspire confidence on this one too, with fresh-looking distributor cap, plug wires, belt, and alternator. For what it’s worth, it’s shown sharing space with a Ferrari Testarossa, so hopefully the owner is sympathetic to Italian car maintenance needs. The car is said to have a couple of dents, seen on a passenger door shot, but the parts car’s door (and hood, for that matter) seem to be in good shape. Unless you’re hooked on the early smooth-nose car, this one seems the best deal of all – which color would you pick?

Tags: 850, Feature, Fiat, italian, spider, sports car

This entry was posted on February 16, 2016 at 6:23 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.