Barn Bragging - House of Heaps
Discussion
Cars with a bit of patina are so much nicer. If you like something because it's old, why would you try and remove all the evidence of its being old in the name of restoring it? The imperfections are the whole point.
So says me anyway. But then I'm an armchair enthusiast these days, largely because I got fed up of old heaps with so much patina they would never start when you really needed them to;)
But your Fiat sounds like it's in the sweet spot of wearing its age gracefully whilst still being usable too.
My neighbour has just bought a 73 Alfa Giulia in similarly usable condition. Now I am jealous of both of you.
So says me anyway. But then I'm an armchair enthusiast these days, largely because I got fed up of old heaps with so much patina they would never start when you really needed them to;)
But your Fiat sounds like it's in the sweet spot of wearing its age gracefully whilst still being usable too.
My neighbour has just bought a 73 Alfa Giulia in similarly usable condition. Now I am jealous of both of you.
The Lancia has better paint than the Fiat but is patinated inside. Its seats in particular have suffered from age and sun-bleaching, and the plastic over the extensive instruments is terminally cloudy. Some bits of its cockpit, for example the toggle switches, look a bit more late 60s than the numerous knobs and buttons and sliders of the Fiat (here in its third and most 70s incarnation). It instruments are copious (nine dials including the clock), but are not as pretty as the Fiat's.
The Fiat has a superficially good but on closer inspection slightly rushed paint job. The interior is mostly patinated but in places would merit the word tired. The five lovely Veglia Borletti instruments have clear covers, but the clock that sits where I would rather have a voltmeter has a cloudy cover, so I assume that someone did the instruments but not the clock.
Fiat, it appears, trusted Marelli but did not trust Agip - so there is an oil pressure gauge but no voltmeter. Contrast Triumph, who took the view, to quote a witty member of this forum (apols, I have forgotten whom) that "Castrol is more reliable than Lucas", and so you got a voltmeter but no oil pressure gauge in yer 1870s non-TR sporty Triumph.
The Fiat has a superficially good but on closer inspection slightly rushed paint job. The interior is mostly patinated but in places would merit the word tired. The five lovely Veglia Borletti instruments have clear covers, but the clock that sits where I would rather have a voltmeter has a cloudy cover, so I assume that someone did the instruments but not the clock.
Fiat, it appears, trusted Marelli but did not trust Agip - so there is an oil pressure gauge but no voltmeter. Contrast Triumph, who took the view, to quote a witty member of this forum (apols, I have forgotten whom) that "Castrol is more reliable than Lucas", and so you got a voltmeter but no oil pressure gauge in yer 1870s non-TR sporty Triumph.
Edited by anonymous-user on Friday 3rd July 22:40
In Googling the instruments to get a better look at the rather attractive design, I see that the first hit on Google images has exactly the same translucency on the clock but not on the instruments. Maybe the "glass" is a different type of plastic in the clock?
https://www.oldtimer-shop.eu/parts/fiat-124-sport-...
Presumably it would improve with some plastic polish or even T-cut.
I'm also curious as to the dual scale on the oil pressure gauge. The imperial scale will be PSI, but what would the metric scale be? Tenths of a bar?
https://www.oldtimer-shop.eu/parts/fiat-124-sport-...
Presumably it would improve with some plastic polish or even T-cut.
I'm also curious as to the dual scale on the oil pressure gauge. The imperial scale will be PSI, but what would the metric scale be? Tenths of a bar?
Edited by 9xxNick on Friday 3rd July 18:27
BigMon said:
My lips have slightly receded in envy at your Moto Guzzi and Fiat.
It's funny. Someone can post a picture of a £250000 brand new supercar and I think it looks nice but, for some odd reason, I am much more envious of your fleet.
Cheers! I often think that if I was sensible I could have just one really good car instead of several slightly shonky ones, but I do not think that I could ever do that. I am far from minted, and so I play around in the sub 10K car and bike market. I would of course love a 125K Lamborghini Espada, or some such thing, but I realise that I would not be able to drive it in the way that I drive my old shonkers (ie, as cars).It's funny. Someone can post a picture of a £250000 brand new supercar and I think it looks nice but, for some odd reason, I am much more envious of your fleet.
I think that for me 1970s cars act as time machines, and take me back to the decade in which I went from eight to eighteen, and had a great time. I have just come indoors from sitting in the cabin of the parked up Fiat with its lights on, absorbing the 70s look, feel, and smell of the car. Last night I drove it along lanes with no evidence on them that this is 2020. Yup, time travel.
I add that I have realised that, although I have owned convertible cars and two seaters, and also sporty saloon cars, the cars that I really like are GT cars with two doors and four seats, and the bikes that I like are small to medium sized sporty bikes or sporty tourers.
Edited by anonymous-user on Friday 3rd July 22:38
Breadvan72 said:
BigMon said:
My lips have slightly receded in envy at your Moto Guzzi and Fiat.
It's funny. Someone can post a picture of a £250000 brand new supercar and I think it looks nice but, for some odd reason, I am much more envious of your fleet.
Cheers! I often think that if I was sensible I could have just one really good car instead of several slightly shonky ones, but I do not think that I could ever do that. I am far from minted, and so I play around in the sub 10K car and bike market. I would of course love a 125K Lamborghini Espada, or some such thing, but I realise that I would not be able to drive it in the way that I drive my old shonkers (ie, as cars).It's funny. Someone can post a picture of a £250000 brand new supercar and I think it looks nice but, for some odd reason, I am much more envious of your fleet.
I think that for me 1970s cars act as time machines, and take me back to the decade in which I went from eight to eighteen, and had a great time. I have just come indoors from sitting in the cabin of the parked up Fiat with its lights on, absorbing the 70s look, feel, and smell of the car. Last night I drove it along lanes with no evidence on them that this is 2020. Yup, time travel.
I add that I have realised that, although I have owned convertible cars and two seaters, and also sporty saloon cars, the cars that I really like are GT cars with two doors and four seats, and the bikes that I like are small to medium sized sporty bikes or sporty tourers.
Edited by Breadvan72 on Friday 3rd July 22:38
The 70s was a great time for car design. Yes, rust and questionable build quality, but also so much more real diversity of answers to the qustion, 'what is a car?'
There was a really wide mass market variety of approaches to design philosophy back then, whereas today's cars, for all their technical superiority, are basically variations on the same theme.
That is a good point.
The 70s were a great age of design in cars, bikes, aircraft, fashion, furniture, you name it, and also had fab music. I do not discount the severe political and economic upheavals of the decade, or the extent to which the 70s ramped up our efforts to trash the environment, but, still, great and glorious times in many ways, with lots of progress in technology and in social attitudes.
The Fiat now has its own thread -
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
The 70s were a great age of design in cars, bikes, aircraft, fashion, furniture, you name it, and also had fab music. I do not discount the severe political and economic upheavals of the decade, or the extent to which the 70s ramped up our efforts to trash the environment, but, still, great and glorious times in many ways, with lots of progress in technology and in social attitudes.
The Fiat now has its own thread -
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
Che bella macchina!
Talking of barns, the village garagiste says that he has a very early 1600 Capri that was greased up before being stored and now has the dust of years stuck to the grease.
He smokes about in either a blacked out Rangey, or a 1990 E30 325i SE that I had my eye on before the Fiat popped up. It looks to me like it could be well north of 10K. A dark green 1987 one of these was my first grown up car in 1989. E386 KOY, my yuppiemobile (I was 27).
Talking of barns, the village garagiste says that he has a very early 1600 Capri that was greased up before being stored and now has the dust of years stuck to the grease.
He smokes about in either a blacked out Rangey, or a 1990 E30 325i SE that I had my eye on before the Fiat popped up. It looks to me like it could be well north of 10K. A dark green 1987 one of these was my first grown up car in 1989. E386 KOY, my yuppiemobile (I was 27).
Yup. Great cars. Fast, smooth, reliable, comfortable, and also quite lairy in second gear on a wet roundabout. The six month old ex-demonstrator silver E36 325i that I traded my E30 for in 1992 was really quite boring in comparison. I never really liked that car, although I kept it until 1997 and it held its money. I bought a 1997 Fiat Coupe 20 Valve Turbo to replace it. Meanwhile during the 90s I had first a 1970 Triumph Vitesse Mk II, and then a 1977 Alfa Spider 2000 as the toys, and also bought my dad a mid 70s Sunbeam Rapier Fastback (he had done production engineering on that car while he was at Rootes Chrysler before he got headhunted by BL) which I got to borrow quite a lot.
I can't compete with that impeccable and eclectic line up;)
My most exotic motor was probably the Alfa Sud Sprint I had in the early 90s. I tried to love it because of the Sud legend but it had led a hard life and really just wanted to shuffle off to car heaven, which it duly did.
I also owned an MGA roadster restoration project which I bought as an insanely optimistic 15yr old for 500 quid. But as the realisation of what it was going to require in the way of time (which I sort of had) and money (which I did not) to sort out dawned, I came to my senses, shut the garage door and ignored it for 4 yrs. Then I sold it - the first and last time this would ever happen to me - for a hefty profit and spent the money on travelling like any sensible 20 yr olds would.
Other than that I have had various Morris Minors, MG Midgets and 2CVs. Also usual Golf GTIs etc. A Triumph Dolomite (1500 not Sprint sadly) and for for about 2 weeks before it blew a core plug and seized fatally, an XJ6 4.2 series 3.
Now the cars I like are all way too expensive for me so I am a reformed character. Living in SE London there is not much pleasure to be had from driving locally anyway, so I fiddle about with bicycles instead which are still simple and fairly cheap.
My uncle did his apprenticeship at Rootes, on the Imp. His job was to drive them until they broke, which happened quite a lot as you can imagine.
My most exotic motor was probably the Alfa Sud Sprint I had in the early 90s. I tried to love it because of the Sud legend but it had led a hard life and really just wanted to shuffle off to car heaven, which it duly did.
I also owned an MGA roadster restoration project which I bought as an insanely optimistic 15yr old for 500 quid. But as the realisation of what it was going to require in the way of time (which I sort of had) and money (which I did not) to sort out dawned, I came to my senses, shut the garage door and ignored it for 4 yrs. Then I sold it - the first and last time this would ever happen to me - for a hefty profit and spent the money on travelling like any sensible 20 yr olds would.
Other than that I have had various Morris Minors, MG Midgets and 2CVs. Also usual Golf GTIs etc. A Triumph Dolomite (1500 not Sprint sadly) and for for about 2 weeks before it blew a core plug and seized fatally, an XJ6 4.2 series 3.
Now the cars I like are all way too expensive for me so I am a reformed character. Living in SE London there is not much pleasure to be had from driving locally anyway, so I fiddle about with bicycles instead which are still simple and fairly cheap.
My uncle did his apprenticeship at Rootes, on the Imp. His job was to drive them until they broke, which happened quite a lot as you can imagine.
Breadvan72 said:
Che bella macchina!
Talking of barns, the village garagiste says that he has a very early 1600 Capri that was greased up before being stored and now has the dust of years stuck to the grease.
He smokes about in either a blacked out Rangey, or a 1990 E30 325i SE that I had my eye on before the Fiat popped up. It looks to me like it could be well north of 10K. A dark green 1987 one of these was my first grown up car in 1989. E386 KOY, my yuppiemobile (I was 27).
That E30 looks very sweet, the same colour as one I had back in the day albeit a 2 door sport. Comically oversteery in the wet but a great all round package and that engine!Talking of barns, the village garagiste says that he has a very early 1600 Capri that was greased up before being stored and now has the dust of years stuck to the grease.
He smokes about in either a blacked out Rangey, or a 1990 E30 325i SE that I had my eye on before the Fiat popped up. It looks to me like it could be well north of 10K. A dark green 1987 one of these was my first grown up car in 1989. E386 KOY, my yuppiemobile (I was 27).
cayman-black said:
Great barn Bread and i love the 124 sport as my Mum had one back in 1974 i thought it was a small Ferrari. I came across this a month or so ago at my local garage.
My mother has one in the 70s. It was a turquoise sort of colour. My main memory of it was placing all my airfix planes on the rear parcel shelf and then being terribly distressed because they had all melted. Have you got your new toy yet?
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