Welcome Mr. Cutter... I see you sparked a lot of confusion...
If you wouldn't mine posting your VIN we could determine for sure what year your car is. I'm quite familiar with '79's and the Carbed model like yours ran into 1980 as well.
I found this chart and hopefully its accurate.
As for the reverse-rotation of the Tach... as Larry said, they were installed on the later '79 models as the geniuses at Fiat finally got in the car and drove it with the new dash and steering wheel and found they couldn't SEE the needle at the HIGH end.
Someone had the NEAT idea to run it backwards thinking we really don't need to know what's happening way down low... You will find a lot of "engineering features" like this as you get into the car... but I love it. All cars have a nuance somewhere.. these just have a collection not usually found on others!
Looks like ya got a great PROJECT there as it appears well preserved but ya can't believe the rubber, oil, gas and other materials would hold up. Lots of cleaning to do as well as hydraulics.
BUT... we are here to help and spend your money WISELY and we just do it for the love of these machines.
The Dash tells us also you should have an A/C equipped car and for wither a '79 or '80 they are really rare... especially in the states that could really use it. For a driver, you'll wanna try and get this one to work as its a real plus.
Hey... I better quit as I have run on (again). Congrats on your ride... its a good start!