Fiat 850 Spider rusting in the weeds

Kamil Kaluski

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John, a.k.a. mac350, writes:

Every day I ride past this abandoned junk yard in NW Arkansas and watch as this old Fiat 850 turns back into the elements. It puzzles me why such a neat little car would wind up in this relatively remote location off the beaten path. Old Fiats are very rare in this neck of the woods. I haven’t seen a running old Fiat since I moved here 7 years ago. This one has 60K on the clock and still has the glass, instruments and even the filler cap. The hub caps are still on the steelies. In fact the body isn’t all that bad. I need to find out who owns the property and make them an offer for some souvenirs.

While we stopped doing the V.I.S.I.T. series where you, hoons, send us the stuff that you see in traffic due to lack of participation, occasionally a good V.I.S.I.T. sighting still pops up in the tips email. This is one of those times; rare car, interesting car, patina (boatload of it in this case), randomly seen in public.

Hit the jump for more pictures.

  fiat2

How did it get there? Did someone just forget about it? Those are things that will always bother me.

fiat3

Once upon a time someone loved this car. fiat5

fiat6

fiat8

I need to move to a place where rust does not exist.

fiat9

Artsy!

About

Kamil Kaluski

Kamil Kaluski

East Coast Editor. Races crappy cars and has an unhealthy obsession with Eastern Bloc cars. Current fleet: 4Runner, Integra, Regal, Lada

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14 responses to “Fiat 850 Spider rusting in the weeds”

  1. Peter Tanshanomi Avatar
    Peter Tanshanomi

    <img src="http://www.weruletheinternet.com/wp-content/uploads/images/2011/august/sad_dog.jpg&quot; width="500">

    Reply
    1. Irishzombieman☆ Avatar
      Irishzombieman☆

      <img src="http://goo.gl/2iBxU"&gt;

      Reply
      1. ˏ♂ˊ mzs zsm msz esq Avatar
        ˏ♂ˊ mzs zsm msz esq

        <img src="http://gabrielreevesmedia.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/marvin.jpg"&gt; For a moment, I thought it was almost Friday, now I am more depressed, sigh.

        Reply
        1. Irishzombieman☆ Avatar
          Irishzombieman☆

          <img src="http://cdn.cutestpaw.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/l-Im-a-sad-bird.jpg&quot; width="350/">

          Reply
          1. Alff Avatar
            Alff

            Nobody does sad face like English Bully…
            <img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Poa_WdVy_2E/T7uy5leJZ0I/AAAAAAAAFM4/Yi_21m-i5cU/s640/bulldog-puppies-17.jpg"&gt;

    2. Pidgeonsplatz Avatar
      Pidgeonsplatz

      If you find this depressing, don't go to this site when firearms are nearby… http://www.carsinbarns.com/

      Reply
  2. P161911 Avatar
    P161911

    A Fiat 850 Spider is the only car I have ever parted out. I drug one home when I was in college. The interior was actually in decent shape, the interior had been taken out many years before the car ended up in a barn. I finally realized it was too rusty to save. Parts of that car are now on at least 4 different continents. I tried to sell the whole car, but only found a guy interest in the engine. Everytime I put a part ad up on ebay I included (I have more parts let me know what you need.). The almost bare rolling chassis ended up as a prop for vacation bible school at church. Ten guys can carry a 850.

    Reply
  3. Bryce Womeldurf Avatar
    Bryce Womeldurf

    I was having a discussion about seeing things like this in the salvage yard recently on Google+. It definitely is tough to see. I try to think of it as an automotive form of reincarnation. The parts go on to keep other cars running. But then when you see something like this that looks like it was decently intact when it was left there, it can be hard to get myself to believe that.

    Reply
  4. mdharrell Avatar
    mdharrell

    That last artsy shot looks familiar somehow….
    http://hooniverse.info/2013/01/25/mystery-car-116/

    Reply
    1. Toxic Avenger Avatar
      Toxic Avenger

      That was a good post. All the guesses as to the camera reflected on the cap.

      Reply
      1. mac350 Avatar
        mac350

        I was riding on my motorcycle and all I had on me was my i-phone. The pictures turned out better than I thought they would.

        Reply
  5. wisc47 Avatar
    wisc47

    Man that's sad. Unfortunately I don't think there is as much parts support for the 850 as there is for the 124 and X1/9 I guess in part because they're more rare. It looks like at least some of the interior parts could be replaced by 124 parts, assuming you did some fabricating. Also, those gauges are freaking awesome looking.

    Reply
  6. Trouble Avatar
    Trouble

    shoulda used more protective garbage can lids

    Reply
  7. Perc Avatar
    Perc

    > I need to move to a place where rust does not exist.
    That's the good kind of rust. I choose to call it patina.
    Here's the bad kind.
    <img src="http://i.imgur.com/eyHfjF9.jpg"&gt;

    Reply