Two 1978 Fiat Spiders

[fp55scca]

all '78s came with a 4.3:1 rear end stock, whether it was early or late style.

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--Csaba, how confident are we that this is true? I remember seeing a late '78 with a small bump hood and 1.8L motor, but with '79 door handles, circuit board tail lights, and the late 3.9 diff. There was no evidence that the diff had been swapped out (even though it would be easy to do), but not so much the door handles and tail lights....?

[cyber104]

Jim: I had a late '78 Spider and what Csaba says is true - also I've never seen a late '78 with the 2000 style taillights (door handles yes). The quarter panel cutouts are very different so it would need to have been built with the 2000 style quarters as well as the proper tail panel.

[fp55scca]

...... I've never seen a late '78 with the 2000 style taillights (door handles yes). The quarter panel cutouts are very different so it would need to have been built with the 2000 style quarters as well as the proper tail panel.

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--Chris, I couldn't agree more! Hopefully, if I see the car in question again, I'll get pics and a VIN #.....this thread reminds me of the time we tried to figure out when in the 1972 model year, the 1971 wrap-around tail lights terminated.

[vandor]

all '78s came with a 4.3:1 rear end stock, whether it was early or late style.

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--Csaba, how confident are we that this is true?

I think you misunderstood me. What I am saying is that the late style rear end with a cover on the back in a 1978 Spider had a 4.3:1 ratio.
I think you understood that no 78s had the late style rear end.

[fp55scca]

I think you misunderstood me. What I am saying is that the late style rear end with a cover on the back in a 1978 Spider had a 4.3:1 ratio.

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--Oh wow Csaba, that does make a late '78 a rare animal then!

--I'm quite certain that the late '78 I saw had the '79 door handles, and late circuit board taillights, plus rear end with the cover on the back; but still had the small bump hood and 1.8L motor.

--Fiat did some strange things in the transition years. I seem to recall one of the books (Tipler or Buckley) addresses using stocks until depleted, and then using new stock. Fiat was very frugal when building these cars....they changed very little, but when they did, unfortunately it was not always better. We could run a thread on that topic alone!

[bartigue]

1978 cars made in the second half of the production year used the 79 top and doors. It's a well documented change - refer to the microfilm.