This 1962 Fiat 1200 cabriolet has been sitting for ten years, after coming to the seller from a twenty-year owner. Long ownership history often benefits classic cars, aiding the preservation of records, receipts, manuals, provenance, and the hardware itself. But in this case, the swap of one owner for another has been the epitome of “out of the frying pan into the fire”. The car was parked due to an “engine gasket issue” and after partial disassembly of said engine, this Fiat has remained in stasis since. It’s advertised here on craigslist for $6000, and the buyer can retrieve it from Stevenson, Washington. Curvette found this one for us – thanks!
The first 1200 was introduced in 1957; buyers could choose a saloon (Granluce) or a spyder. The model was continually updated until 1966, when the 124 was launched. Pininfarina’s involvement began in 1959, when it redesigned the spyder. Despite this example’s derelict appearance, these cabriolets are elegant little cars. About 55 hp comes from a 1221 cc in-line four-cylinder; the gearbox is a four-speed manual. Fiat quickly realized that performance was somewhat slack; a contract with OSCA produced the 1500, fitted with a twin-cam, Weber’d engine worth about 80 hp. These OSCA variants are rare and much more expensive than the 1200, however. As previously noted, this car is not in running order, having been subjected to partial disassembly no doubt aimed at fixing the “gasket”.
The cabin is a bad news/good news story. On the one hand, the old tan interior has been removed, and the driver’s side footwell is rusted through. On the other hand, the seller includes a mostly complete red interior, from the carpets to the seats, all spanky new. I don’t see the door cards, several switches are missing, and there’s no mention of the top. Trim bits are housed in the trunk, and photos indicate that the car’s exterior stainless spears are included.
Both the front and rear bumpers are bent – if new ones cannot be found, someone will need a wide wallet to pay to fix these. But the light lenses are intact, the panels look straight, the glass is good. The car comes with Cromodora turbine-type wheels as well as stock rims with Pirelli tires (no date code supplied). Most 1200 production was concentrated in the saloon body style; sources suggest only 20,000 Pininfarina cabriolets were made – and that may be a high estimate. Nice examples sell in the $25k area, leaving little headroom to complete the work this Fiat requires.
This must be grungy import day.
Looks workable to me. Fairly solid and complete. Rare and with great Pininfarina looks. Two nice bumpers would do wonders.
Wide wallet.
I’m gonna try and remember that one
Disassembled the interior, top, and exterior trim to fix a engine gasket but looks like they left the engine intact?? Sounds like the took the long road to that gasket LOL
Cool unusual car but I would guess parts are tough to come by I loved my little 73 spider and 80 x 1/9 but those are much more common
Good starting point.
I had one of these with a 1600 cc OSCA engine. Dual webers, four-wheel disc brakes and 15 inch wheels. It put out a honest 100hp. It was never imported, so not a single word on English on the car. 1600-S, identifiable by the functional offset scope on the hood.
Nicely written article Michelle! It’s the first time as far as i can remember to see written the word “stasis” in English! It’s an ancient Greek word still sometimes used in modern Greek that means stoppage. (Greeks say “bus stasis” to indicate where the bus regularly stops to take passengers). Impressive knowledge from u!
Wow, appreciate the compliment. Parts of my vocabulary stuck around from when I was (briefly) a pre-med student, so for me, “stasis” related to equilibrium, where things in an experiment quit changing. This car is kind of a physics/chemistry experiment on wheels but I have a feeling it’s actually changing slowly and in a bad way.
Ha! When i saw it, i guessed in my mind that you have some kind of higher education knowledge or attended University at least for some time. For my part while attending a Polytechnic as a civil engineer (my first choice was a mechanical engineer but civ.eng. was more popular) i was keeping a column in the best at the time in Greece auto magazine Auto Express (a subsidiary of the French Auto Express). My Editor in Chief was complimenting that my articles needed no correction, were published as is.
Even when new, back in the day these were considered less than gutless. This is a product of the Italian tax system that increased the levy along with displacement. This hampered Italian exports for most of the last 75 years as the only way to get any performance was to increase costs and in other countries more power could be had for a lot less. These were not only gutless, but they didn’t handle particularly well and there was really no redeeming social value. You could put in a more modern motor and that would help that half of the equation, but there are far better candidates for an engine swap that would be a lot faster and better handling for about the same or less money. And yes the OSCA powered version was a huge improvement, but those are rare as hen’s teeth. Hard pass on this one for multiple reasons.
EV conversion, maybe!
Damn! Where’s that thumbs down button.
All I can say is good luck with this
one. Since Italy has no factories,
everything over there has to be made by hand. You’ll be hard pressed to find the mechanical stuff you’ll need to complete it. I
recall a friend of mine having a 128 4-door sedan and claiming that he was on a 10 year wait list
jus to get parts for the engine!
That’s why Midwest banks wouldn’t finance them. They’re
just too unreliable and too dangerous for American roads.
Best thing to do here would be to get an engine and tranny from a
Lada. These engines were bulletproof, but you’ll have to get one through Canada as the US
does not trade with Russia. There may be some members of
our government might treat you as an enemy of the state for doing the above. Best thing to do
here would be to pass or as mentioned earlier, turn it into an EV.
A lot of spare parts of Fiats can be had from Lada bc the machine tools are early version of Fiats cheaply bought or exchanged for iron by Russia when Fiat moved to more modern shapes and tools. Of course now Russia is kaput bc of Putin’s war.