Interesting week

bpimm

Brian Pimm
The week started out by being given 2 124 spiders one is a 1976 the other I don't know yet, I found out about them on a local fiat board, the story went something like this, they were purchased to be restored by a father and daughter, the daughter was very ambitious and tore hers down almost completely including sanding most of the paint off. The other one had the doors and interior removed and that's where it stopped. I think he said they have been sitting there for 9 years. I decided to go take a look at them so another forum member and I took a road trip last Saturday and brought the one that wasn't totally disassembled home. We loaded the car with all the miscellaneous parts we could find, Tied the doors, hard top and hood on with ratchet straps, they don't know what happened to all the removed hardware, overall it was a fun road trip.

Here are a couple pics of it still on the trailer.
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The hard top goes to the local fiat group member that brokered the deal so I need to get it inside so I can deliver the top to him, I have room in a shipping container for it, I put in the container this last fall but didn't get the rock in before the monsoons hit so it's pretty steep and mud, Then it snows, cool now I have 6" of snow on everything but the weather gives me hope, it's supposed to get cold for a few days so I'm thinking frozen mud should be like rock right? so after waiting for the cold spell which wasn't nearly as cold as they said it would be I walked down to the mud to see if it was hard and it was stiff but not hard. I needed to get the car down there so I chained up the truck and backed down the hill and drove out a few times it didn't feel great but I hooked up the trailer and went for it.
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I got the car in the can and the truck came out without much complaining I'll probably need to regrade it before I put rock down when it dries out this summer.
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1 Miata, 1 X1/9, 1 Spider and a dirt bike a full container all is well.

That was yesterday, last night we got another foot of snow and a maple tree gave up on me, it hit the house and dropped right where the spider was sitting on the trailer.
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fortunately a log house is very stout, if it was a conventional framed structure I think it would have torn up the roof a bunch more. From the looks of it I just need to replace some trim on the metal roof.

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You can see the trim is kinda mangled.

I'm really happy I decided to go ahead and try to get it in the container otherwise it would be sitting right under that tree. As it is we only lost a couple tables and a few chairs and it remains to be seen if the roof has more damage than it looks like from the ground.

I'm ready for the weekend...
 
"stiff but not hard"....the forum is going to have a field day with that.
Free Fiats are cool but end up being the most expensive Fiats. How come you didn't grab the all-apart spider too?

By the way, your ownership of a Miata and Fiats allows you free membership into my Fiata club...we have two members locally.
 
"stiff but not hard"....the forum is going to have a field day with that.
I must have been tired when I wrote that... should have seen that. LOL

Free Fiats are cool but end up being the most expensive Fiats. How come you didn't grab the all-apart spider too?

I will go back and get the other one in the summer, even chained up I don't think the truck could get close enough to load it, muddy side hill, it was hard to walk on, and it's not a roller so I have to build a skid to get the front end on the trailer. It has a lot of surface rust but I didn't see much if any structural rust on it. It will most likely be spares for the other one.

By the way, your ownership of a Miata and Fiats allows you free membership into my Fiata club...we have two members locally.
Sounds good, drives to the meetings could be a bitch though.
 
That's OK Brian, when posted on Miata.net about which rear end lube everyone was using, about 10 of the 12 posts were more of a proctology content.

I wish I had property I could stash a shipping container on....our 1/4 acre lots would have my HOA out with torches and pitchforks. Your travails show you were highly motivated.

I would send you the DCfiata club newsletter but we don't have one. The two of us just meet at a cheap Mexican restaurant and make fun of all the people we know.
 
Had you not moved the trailer, it might have made the second car (the disassembled, sanded one) the more viable of the two, despite the fully stripped current condition.
Hope the roof's not too bad!
Just wet here on the valley floor, freezing overnight. (for others, he's only about 25 miles away)
 
I got this present from the sky last year:

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It is the top 20 feet or so of a 150 foot tall redwood across the street from me. Fortunately, a Mediterranean spruce near the house slowed it down enough (it took out half that tree) that branches large enough to do major damage stopped inches from the house. The smaller branches took out all the electric, cable, phone, internet on the way down. It sailed right over the building that my X was in. Had it landed there, it would have taken out the building and the car. I estimate it weighed at least 1,000 lbs (think phone pole with branches), and it picked up some pretty good velocity on the way down.
 
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That's OK Brian, when posted on Miata.net about which rear end lube everyone was using, about 10 of the 12 posts were more of a proctology content.

Yea the Miata forums seem to run that way... Wonder what it means..

I wish I had property I could stash a shipping container on....our 1/4 acre lots would have my HOA out with torches and pitchforks. Your travails show you were highly motivated.

I have 6 acres and no HOA but when you get over 100" of rain a year you need covered storage for anything you want to keep nice.

I would send you the DCfiata club newsletter but we don't have one. The two of us just meet at a cheap Mexican restaurant and make fun of all the people we know.

We do that on occasion as well...
 
Had you not moved the trailer, it might have made the second car (the disassembled, sanded one) the more viable of the two, despite the fully stripped current condition.
Hope the roof's not too bad!
Just wet here on the valley floor, freezing overnight. (for others, he's only about 25 miles away)

And 1200' higher.

We might have to make another road trip this summer to get the other car and the rest of the misc Fiat stuff.
 
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