Fiat Abarth before body restoration

Fiat Abarth ‘double bubble’

One of our latest projects is this 1960 Fiat Abarth Zagato with a hand made aluminum body by Zagato. I flew to France last spring for a long time client to perform a PPI (pre-purchase inspection) on this car and actually rode around in the streets of Paris with this car. Our client was able to negotiate a purchase after the inspection and the little car arrived at our shop in Frenchtown NJ a few months later by sea container.

The car had been refurbished in the not too distant past so it didn’t need a so called “frame off” total restoration. The exterior re-paint was actually not bad, over-all, but several areas of the body showed signs of swelling under the paint. Removing paint and filler from the offending areas revealed pin holes in the aluminum, caused by galvanic corrosion between the aluminum skin and the steel skeleton. These pinholes had been filled with polyester body filler during the previous work. This is a no-no since polyester filler will absorb moisture if it is not completely sealed front and back. The filler was pulling in moisture from the back-side and swelling up.

To avoid damaging the minimal upholstery inside, the whole interior was removed.

After repainting this Abarth was on display at the 2009 Valley Forge PA Fiat Freakout