The Restoration of a Vintage Fiat 124 Spider Part V

Since I have already written about the removal of the dashboard and the preparation and products used for the wiring harness components are you ready to tackle the interior restoration of your Fiat 124 Spider?

This area of the Fiat can also be a fright when you consider that it can lead to hidden problems that can rear their ugly head later. The Fiat 124 Spider is a convertible and with that said during the car history, or any other vintage model that has a drop-top for that matter may have been exposed to rain and or other elements that Mother Nature subjected them to.

If you were not afforded the luxury of getting the automobile up in the air, via a hoist or maintain the dexterity of being able physically to get under the car for inspection before purchasing as to see what the under-carriage would reveal itself to you, the carpet and padding removal in your vintage Fiat will.

Floor pans can be an area that will reveal extreme rust and corrosion, if your Fiat was indeed exposed to moisture. This could be a new chapter in the book of restoration projects or the end of the chapter for that matter. If the floor pans did in fact reveal rust-through or allot of surface corrosion that will lead to problematic rust-through later and have to in fact replace them this portion of your project will turn into just a day under the proverbial mechanics shade tree.

As I also mentioned in a previous article about key inspection locations, the floor pans can be eradicated from the vehicle via a cutting torch and replaced with new ones from a place like International Auto Parts, costing you $226 a piece.

My Fiat's floor pans were discovered to be solid as a rock with only minor surface rust. In fact much of the short over-shoots of paint that the interior received in the production of my Fiat was still present and where the paint was not present the adhesion product they used for the carpet padding was. Some may not be so lucky but this will only actually result in a little more time spent in preparing the floor pans surface.

HEADS-UP: When removing the seats for this interior restoration project for the removal of the carpet and pad be aware that the four bolts that secure each of the seats go to "captive nuts" within the two rails that your seats sit atop and when reinstalling the seats practice extra caution when doing so because if you strip one of these captive nuts you are going to end with a very time consuming and labor intensive extra project. They do not call them "Captive Nuts" for nothing.

Using common sense, which will be your best guild in your Fiat 124 Spiders restoration project along with the recommendation I made about the proper use of your time, money and ambition. Time and money are both precious commodities but using common sense in combination of your time, money, -- and -- ambition will serve as beacons of your outcome.

My destined fate for Sophia (my Fiat) was to be that of a "daily driver" when were not getting slammed with the 200 average inches of snow fall we receive here in Marquette Michigan. I wanted my Fiat's restoration done correctly, yet cost effectively. A full-body restoration by a professional can cost you around 20 thousand dollars.

If you are floor pans are discovered in the same condition as mine this process will be relatively easy. Even in worse case scenarios where rust-through holes are present you could rectify this by simply patching-up the holes with sheet-metal, but that would be like putting a band-aid on skin cancer. Rust is the cancer of automobiles and the Automobile Association of America (AAA), department of statistics say, "More cars are destroyed by rust than by accidents".

I recommended the 3M products in regards to wiring repair and I also recommend 3M products they make such as, grinding wheels and abrasive rust removal pads as well. Sometimes spending a little more money as opposed to saving money will benefit you and your project in the long run. You get what you pay for and grinding wheels and abrasive rust removal/paint pads made by 3M will last. With less expensive pads you may be going through -- allot -- of them, costing you more money. I still have most of my 3M grinding wheels and pads for future household projects.

Place your 3M grinding pad onto your electric drill or any air powered tool of equally useful value and apply it to any rust on the Fiat's interior right down to the sheet metal so that it leaves a shiny silver surface. You may just apply the abrasive pads to the areas in question, that are covered with rust or the entire surface of both driver and passenger floor pans. You came this far so you should simply do the entire surface of the sheet metal in the Fiat's interior. It simply makes for good common sense.

Here's where you can save more money and achieve better results when applying a rust inhibitor product for protection. The people at Master Series make fine products, however the widely used product that is typically used on sheet metal is just a step above the viscosity of water and personally I did not think that this product would serve me best regardless of what would be placed over it and here that would be the carpet and padding.

The product I used can be found at most auto-parts stores and that is a product used for the covering and protection of a trucks bed-liner called brush-on bed liner. There are many brands of brush-on bed-liner products out there and cannot recall the name of the product I used and I recommend simply by asking for it by its intended purpose. This brush-on product is thick,not to mention messy and will ruin any clothing that it may come in contact with. I also strongly suggest you wear a respirator or at least some type of protective mask for the application of this product. These products have fumes which are very toxic. I conducted this part of the process in the open air of my driveway and I was still over-taken by the fumes that cock-pit held within itself even with the drop-top down.

If you have even painted anything you can apply this product with great results but consider as I mention above that this brush-on bed liner product has a thick consistency and will take more effort to spread it evenly. I started with the hard-to-reach spots near the fire-wall and worked my way out towards the rear of the Fiat's interior, ending at the trunk.

Cover the entire interior area of the floor pans and maybe up the sides in the rear seating area. Clearly any area of exposed sheet metal will benefit from this brush-on bed-liner product. It will add an extra barrier contributing as an insulation factor and added sound deadening properties.

Once completely covered, allow the product to cure for at least two days. I found that after this amount of time it was indeed still tacky and I could leave a finger impression into it but I left the product on the floor pans and not my fingers.

Now that your bed-liner and or any other rust inhibitor product used has cured within the interior of your Fiat 124 Spider you are now ready for insulation. This process can also save you more money. The product that is most commonly used for the "right job" is a product called Dynamat. Dynamat offers a litany of Dynamat products and the leaders in the field of restorations that offer automotive sound deadening and insulation products. However they come at a price; a piece of Dynamat that would cover an area of 4.0 square feet is $43 a sheet, which is very expensive. It would take at least 4-5 sheets of this to complete this project with allot of cutting and piecing, for the Dynamat is rigid and not very forgiving. You can let your ambition, money and time be your compass once again.

What I used for money saving sake was a product I purchased from Lowe's. Its a product that is typically used for the insulation of homes and looks like silver foil bubble-wrap. It costs about $20 for a 15 inch wide by 25 foot roll which I used two rolls for my Fiat's interior leaving me with a good portion left-over that could be used on a future household project.

This product is not nearly as thick as Dynamat, however if it is highly recommended for it's use in homes it would obviously serve very well in a seasonally driven automobile. It is a very forgiving product because it is very pliable and it can be bent to contour to some of the curves within the Fiat's cock-pit and spare you the cut, piece and patch routine that you would be conducting using Dynamat.

You will need to use an adhesive product to keep your foil-wrap insulation in place and here I used a spray-on adhesive, Once again I employed the use of a 3M product that worked really well, but it was expensive. You can finish off this project by simply taping the seams using duct-tape as I did or an aluminum finishing tape all which can be found at any home improvement store.

If you unfortunately had to buy two new floor pans your out five-hundred bucks, not including labor if one would have to employ a professional welder. If you have prevailed as well as I did, with only surface rust and took some cost-cutting measures as I by using Avant-garde' products, this portion of the project will only cost you around one-hundred and 50 dollars. If you went out and purchased all the "right products" it will cost you around 3-4 hundred dollars. Once again, let your time, money, ambition and allot of common sense be your compass.

Sources:
IAP
3M
Automobile Association of America (AAA) Department of Statistics
Master Series
Dynamat
Lowe's