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Hi Everyone
I found it in the corner of an underground garage. It has been in heated dry storage for quite some time. There appeared to be very little (if any) rust. The car looks complete. I was told that the owner wants it gone.
So what is it? What is it worth?
I poked around a little but I did not want to appear to interested.
Sorry for the poor photos they were taken with my cell phone and it was a bit dark.
Ohya it is a mid engine.
Fiat 850 Spider, seen many good runners for 3-5k... projects range $800-1500, if you can get it for $500 or less the wheels themselves are worth that...
For some reason I think it has a couple spinning triangles. Not sure why, I just keep thinking NSU and rotary. I'm sure both are wrong though.
Fiat badge on the front should have helped. Raze is correct.
The Fiat 850 has a rear engine, doesn't it?
For a really good time, try to check the oil on a hot motor.
yeah, rear engine and air cooled.
850 or 903cc water cooled rear engine. That one looks pretty good. They rust like banshees. I haven't seen one in years that I would take for free. As Raze said the wheels are worth something. Fun little cars around town.
"Owner wants it gone"= free.
dean1484 wrote:There appeared to be very little (if any) rust.
That would make it a minor miracle. They came with rust from the factory.
But if true, a complete car would probably fetch a decent price. Certainly north of $1000, possibly significantly more. Again, assuming rust isn't an issue, mechanical issues are easy by comparison. Didn't folks jam big air cooled VW motors into these?
bludroptop wrote:dean1484 wrote:There appeared to be very little (if any) rust.
That would make it a minor miracle. They came with rust from the factory.
But if true, a complete car would probably fetch a decent price. Certainly north of $1000, possibly significantly more. Again, assuming rust isn't an issue, mechanical issues are easy by comparison. Didn't folks jam big air cooled VW motors into these?
Yep, you could jam an aircooled VW in them
Ive owned a couple, usually the x frame underneath rots out, not fun. That one looks very similar to my last one actually
I have to see. This could be a case of the owner thinking it is made of unobtanium or that it is ready for the crusher.
Rear engine, water cooled, featherweight and on a quiet night you can hear them sizzle as they slowly dissolve.
850's are fun. My brother had one, like an X 1/9 it was underpowered but handled great. It also blew head gaskets all the time. If you get it and you need to pull the head, make sure you remove the carburetor and get the head bolt hiding in the intake.
Has a cool looking exhaust.
All kinds of room for a swap. See what Dr Hess was talking about re: checking the oil? Only the Italians...
That looks to be about a 69 or 70.
Woody wrote:That looks to be about a 69 or 70.
Yep, the earlier model years (1967-only?) had full headlight covers until the Feds banished them; the same reason Alfa Spyders just didn't look as good they used to a couple years earlier.
The wheels on that barn-find look like transplants from a later-production X1/9.
And, yes, there was the real possiblity of head gasket problems. Some manufacturers never quite figured-out how to seal aluminum heads to cast iron blocks. My Dad learned that lesson with a late-50's Simca. When he was shopping roadsters in 1968 he saw that combo in the sex-on-wheels 850 and promptly bought a Sprite Mk IV.
I had a lime green one in high school back in '81. Got it for $100 with the head off! Imagine that! My dad had to help me put that one together, he was a very patient man. Didn't the engine turn counter-clockwise? Hey-if you can drag it home I will trade you for a '65 VW baja bug!
Eb4Prez wrote:I had a lime green one in high school back in '81. Got it for $100 with the head off! Imagine that! My dad had to help me put that one together, he was a very patient man. Didn't the engine turn counter-clockwise? Hey-if you can drag it home I will trade you for a '65 VW baja bug!
My other one was lime green, funky color. We hauled that one out of a guys driveway for free and we overpaid. But it was just a beater autocross project. The x frame was gone so we layed an old mattress on the garage floor and 3 of us rolled it on its side so we could weld in a new frame.
Yeah the engine turns opposite of a VW so I guess thats CCW. To do the VW swap you usually need to use the VW transaxle too, dunno if you can swap the fiat trans around like the VW one to run work in the opposite rotation or not.
I daily drive a fiat 850 sedan (the lightest of the 850 family) and love the little thing.
Mechanical/Tuneup parts are shockingly cheap and easy to find. Rockauto has most bits you would need to keep one going.
Suspension mods are cheap to free for the most part. Lowering them is laughably easy. As far as driving them goes they change directions like no car I have ever driven. The overall lightweight plus almost nothing on the front wheels means that the bulk of the avaliable grip up front is avaliable and waiting for cornering.
In reply to bludroptop: You said "They came with rust from the factory."Oh you mean just like all the jap crap that was made back in the 80's oh and don't for get the brit junk mad back then you know I'm sick and tired of every time Fiat is brought up someone has to talk abut how they rust so what every neglected car or truck will rust just the other day I saw a 2005 Ford F150 with rust holes in it I see GM car's with peeling paint all the time.what do drive? unless it's a DeLorean there are rusty ones out there
To be fair. When bertone installed the reinforcement X brace under the car they didnt bother to seal up the floor drains that went into them. Water gets in easily and has no way to get out. If you have ever looked underneath a rotten 850 spider you can see exactly what went wrong and why.
Fiat 850 spiders were subject to a very big recall back in the 70's for rust problems. The rest of the fiat lineup didn't rust any more or less than their european contemporaries but the 850...yeah they are historically bad about rust.
There was one that used to run autocross at San Diego. If you closed your eyes you'd hear what sounded like a very early F1 car going round the track at about 153 mph, then open your eyes and see it going about 45... Lot's of rpm and little power.
If you have the space, get it. Even if you don't want it, keep it from being crushed. If you can get it running again before you sell it, even better. 850s are getting hard to find, and that one looks pretty complete, even if the rust is worse than the pix show. If it can't be saved, it'll still be a pretty good parts car.
RCRX19 wrote:In reply to bludroptop: You said "They came with rust from the factory."Oh you mean just like all the jap crap that was made back in the 80's oh and don't for get the brit junk mad back then you know I'm sick and tired of every time Fiat is brought up someone has to talk abut how they rust so what every neglected car or truck will rust just the other day I saw a 2005 Ford F150 with rust holes in it I see GM car's with peeling paint all the time.what do drive? unless it's a DeLorean there are rusty ones out there
I've owned a Fiat or two in my time, and I meant it affectionately, but I'm old enough to remember these when they were new. Yes, all cars of that era were prone to rust - but believe it or not, some were worse than others and these little 850s were notorious.
P.S. A little more humility and a lot more punctuation will go a long way around here.
The plethora of absolute guesses and wrongness in this thread is amazing. 
It's indeed a Fiat 850 Spider, a 1973 model by the bumpers, which is the last year before it was replaced by the X1/9. The wheels are nothing special, they are just factory alloys off a X1/9 most likely. It's rear engined, not mid. They did bring rusting out to a new level, thanks to a British quality top fitment and rubber floor coverings that trapped water underneath for starters. Check carefully the floors, X member, rockers, trunk floor (particularly under the spare) and most important the front suspension mounting points. If it's solid in these areas, it's very much worth doinking around with. This year came with the largest engine offered, the 903cc. They don't accelerate very quickly, but will do highway speeds with no effort. Very few exist because they were disposable, did rust pretty easily, and Fiat did indeed buy thousands of them back (I have the recall packet from my local dealer). I really liked mine, but it was as (un)reliable as a LBC and nothing like my 124 Spiders.
Unlike many cars which supposedly "came with rust from the factory" these were infamous for often having visible rust bubbles on the showroom floor. So a solid one is really special.
I bought (and then subsequently sold) one of the few really solid ones I had seen. I should have kept it...
A buddy has a Paxton-blown Corvair engine in one... but now it's so far modified it's difficult to tell it began life as an 850...
Bill
Why hasn't anyone brought up the Challenge? Would make a pretty interesting one, I think.
Get some advice on swaps from ddavidv, or some modest power improvements. Oddball cars are always fun at the challenge.
I'd say GO FOR IT. Especially solid as it is. Fiat people are cool, too. 
Eric
