Thinking about an 850 Coupe

[ecohen2]

I was emailing this guy named "Marty".

1970 Fiat 850 for sale by owner - Pacifica, CA - craigslist

1970 Fiat 850 sports coupe, 4 speed, nice paint and interior, runs great, fun to drive puts a smile on your face every time, recent engine rebuild, pre smog so no need to have it checked, currently...

sfbay.craigslist.org

I have no way of verifying the car, I sent him a list of questions and this is what he wrote:

" the reason i bought this car is because it was rust free it was in primer and i didnt see any sign of accident damage and there is almost no rust some in the bottom of the battery box - if you let me know where you saw bubbles I can send you a close up, also I didn't find the cross member you were talking about - the 2 underside photos show the underneath - can you direct me to that cross bracing. If you are local you are more than welcome to come and see it yourself"

 

[twincam69]

Well…the fact that it’s on Craigslist instead of Facebook is a plus. It looks really nice but that seems like a premium for an 850 Coupe but I may (likely) be living in the past.

 

[ecohen2]

@twincam69 If you are able to check it out in person, it is probably worth while. I just didn't have the time to do it before I found something else that I really wanted..

 

[Frank L. Di Gioia]

Ed and I were discussing this coupe and an interesting question was raised. The spiders were notorious for the frame X member rusting terminally. The under body shots of this coupe didn't show the X member, was it not on the coupe?

Coupe and sedan didn't have or need the X as far as I know. One less item to rust out is the positive way to look at it. OTAS went one further using the sedan platform and cutting out most of the floor to lower the seats, They made up for the lack of rigidity by looking great!