Quote:
Originally Posted by wswartzwel
Great thread! makes me wish I still had my old Fiat. Was there a back story I missed? Was the car in storage? Did you find it and buy it back? just curious how you used to own it but now are restoring it. I didnt see that story in the thread.
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I originally bought this very car in April of 1984. It was my very first car and I was a senior in high-school when I got it. The frame under the car had a repair at the passenger side rear trailing arm so I bought a parts car and myself and an actual mechanic removed the frame from the parts car as it was solid and installed it under this car. In July of 1984 I sandblasted the donor frame myself on a hot summer Florida Saturday. I was 18 years old and worked at a place that serviced heavy equipment and my boss gave me the sand and the use of the equipment. I sandblasted the frame down to bare metal all nice and silver. I bought Rustoleum primer and gloss black paint and paid a mechanic a case of beer to paint the frame and an extra set of wheels for me. The body was put back on the frame and taken to a body shop where the rockers and rear valance were reworked also. We had the car totally taken apart at the time and I painted the engine block red and painted the valve cover and air filter housing black. When we got the body and frame back, we started the assembly process and had the car back on the road by the end of October 1984, I seem to remember my first drive was Halloween night.
The car was my daily driver from then until I sold the car in 1990/91. I moved out to the beach in the Sandestin area in 1987 and the salty air really started to take its toll on the car and I ended up parking the car in my dad's garage and bought another car to use as my daily driver. I ended up selling the car to a man in Tallahassee, Florida in 1990/91 and he sold the car about a week later and I thought that was it. There is a TR6 discussion thread in this forum and I was pretty active on there posting pictures and even posted the VIN from the car and a man from Lake Park, Georgia happened to see the thread and messaged me that he had my old Redcoat and that he had just listed it on Facebook Marketplace and wanted to talk with me about it. Well, I didn't see those messages until a week before Thanksgiving. I was able to connect with the man and although the car had sold, he helped me get in touch with the man who bought the car. So, now the car was in Thomasville, Georgia. After talking with the new owner, I was able to buy the car back and now I have it once again. She needs some work but she's mine again. The car has only been about 3 hours away from me all these years. It was purchased with a group of cars out of Monticello, Florida by the man from Lake Park, Georgia and had been in storage in Monticello since 1998. He only sold it because he didn't have time for another project and the car was sold to the man in Thomasville, Georgia, who then sold it to me. So, it has been quite the journey. I knew the car had rusty floors, that was one reason that I parked the car all those years ago. I got in the car one day and I felt my seat move a bit and when I looked at it, I saw the driver's floor was getting bad, so she went into dad's garage. Anyhoo, I hope this answered the backstory questions. I originally bought the car in Ft Walton Beach, Florida. We lived in Niceville, Florida at the time. I have always wondered how this car could've become so rusty in just a few years, I mean, it wasn't even 10 years old when I got it. Maybe it was a northern car and salty winter roads caused the rust? I have no idea. Anyway, she will be on the road again.
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