Well, actually, his name is Moez, not Tony, and he's still fixing "it". "It", of course, being the little Fiat 850 spider that came home a couple of months ago. Tom and I had been fiddling around with it, trying to get the darn thing to run better than it was - there seemed to be a roughness to the idle, and even when we did get it to smooth out and idle correctly, it had no power when we drove it around the block.
My diagnosis was that at a minimum, something was wonky with the carburetor, most likely a bad float, and that it needed a rebuild. Combine that with some of the other issues (no lights on the driver's side; turn signals didn't work;), I decided to have a real mechanic look at it. Only problem was, where do you find someone who's got the knowledge, time, and experience to fix a 46 year old car? First stop, get a hold of the guy who's President of the local chapter of the Fiat Club of America and see who he might know. Turns out there are two 'recommended' mechanics, one in Woodside, and one in Port Washington.
Decided to check the one in Port out, so I rode up and met Moez and Ike, the owners. Turns out that Moez had lived in Great Britain for about 20 years, and for most of that time, had been working primarily on Fiats - especially 850's! Had a nice chat with them both, and decided to give them the job.
Called my buddy Eddie, who's got a nice Ram pickup truck, and asked him if he'd give me a tow. Rented a Uhaul trailer, and on a nice clear Friday morning, we rolled the little car up on the trailer and dragged it to Port Euro repair shop.
And there it sat. And sat. And sat. No call from them for a couple of weeks, so when I got the thing registered and got the license plates, I decided to take a ride up there. Spoke with Ike, who said they'd had the car running, and there was an issue with the carburetor, as I had guessed, but that they couldn't get it right, and would need to do a little more work. Gave them some contact information for parts, chatted a bit more and left. Ike promised Moez would call me the next day.
And then, the call, featuring the four words you never, ever want to hear from a mechanic: "water in the oil". Arrrrrghhh! NNNOOOOOOO! Water in the oil, never a good thing. Means one of several things is wrong, none of them minor. Could be a blown head gasket; a cracked head; a cracked block. All of them somewhat labor intensive. Moez said he'd need to pull the head to confirm, but he suspected a blown head gasket. He gave me a price to fix the problem, and rebuild the carb, and it was reasonable, so I gave him the go ahead to pull the thing apart. Although he'd given me a good price for replacing the head gasket, I feared that once he pulled the head, he'd find other problems.
That was a few weeks ago, so today I drove up to visit the car, and drop off a new window crank I'd picked up for the passenger door. Had a nice conversation with both Ike and Moez, and to my surprise, I was told the repair was all done - and it was only the head gasket! Of course, this thing being a Fiat, there are other issues. The carb has been rebuilt, but it's still in need of some tweaking, but the engine runs like a top now. The clutch master cylinder had a crack, and was leaking fluid, but Moez repaired it using epoxy (nobody stocks a clutch cylinder for a 46 year old car). He's got the lights fixed, but is waiting for a new turn signal switch to fix the signals. And, as I suspected, the tires are shot and will not pass NY Inspection. They're dry rotted and cracked, which is dangerously unsafe.
Still the good news is that the car should be completely done and ready to be picked up some time next week. The little piece of junk is coming home! And before any snow (I hope)!
So, in the next couple of weeks, be prepared to see a post reviewing what it's really like to go back in time to the early 70's, when I was running all over L.I. in my 850. Should be a trip, however it turns out!
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