'02 Spider 2.0TS

[ALXege 75]

The end of summer caught me gathering info on how to fit a 16vt engine from a Fiat Coupe into my GTV TS. I found a complete donor car with no papers for a very good price and was one step away from buying it. I was involved in a very constructive discussion with VooMan here on the forum and was hunting for NineOneSix on Facebook  But no more than 10 days later I was announcing the budget was spent on something different.

 

Well, here's on what it was spent: a '02 Spider with another 2l Twin Spark engine 

The car was in a pretty bad shape, exterior was all scratched and faded and had few minor damages all around, right window and electric hood failed to operate, ABS light was on and so on. But it was in the limited Edizione Elegante trim with dual color seats and lots of minor details, while the engine was running very smooth despite it's high millage. All in all, looked like a great restoration project (not that I needed another one though )

 

I soon started by changing the cambelt and everything related (including the camshaft variator) and all the fluids (tried to make sure the engine is safe). There are still plenty of stuff to be fixed on the mechanical side: the ABS still doesn't work (probably the pump), there is a strange noise coming from accessories (either the AC compressor or the alternator), AC is not working (have to investigate wether the compressor is broken, a pipe is leaking or there simply is no refrigerant inside), the temperature fails reaching 90 while on motorway (broken thermostat) but is raising above 90 on mountain roads (probably an aged radiator) etc.

 

I then moved my attention towards the exterior since I was literally ashamed of driving it like that. The car entered for a full respray, I decided against the OEM black which I find a bit dull for a Spider and went for a blue tinted Carbon Black instead. During the process, the car was completely dismantled, a perfect occasion to unstuck the right window (which still works intermittently) and the automatic roof (which now works like a charm).

 

The car was ready just in time for a late October run on one of our famous mountain roads, Transalpina. It was so glorious that my good old friend from Alfattitude asked me to write a few words and post my photos on his website, you can find the article here: http://alfattitude.com/above-the-clouds/

 

Then I had a nice trip to the seaside, where I left the car in a garage during the winter. Plenty of work to be done next year!

Speaking of which, happy New Year!

 

[blackbini 100]

Beautiful Pictures!

[elm11g 5]

so nice...

 

now I want a spider!

[Filip 124]

Nice job! And nice license plate

[Tuulster 0]

That first picture is absolutely briljant 

[bazil_03 2]

Great pictures!I have read the article in alfattitude