Of Fiats and VWs

   On my latest sweep of my neighborhood, I intentionally went in the direction of the red-and-primer Fiat 850 Sport coupe that I saw last week, photographed and posted here: http://streetshots-streetshots.blogspot.com/2010/01/more-street-shots-import-edition.html, hoping to catch the owner of the car or a caretaker of the property. What I saw were two Basset Hounds roving the lawn, a youngish man with dark hair looking out the window at me, and a light green Fiat 850 Berlina (two-door sedan) in the carport along with the 850 sport coupe rusting next to the fence.

   Not wanting to be accused of casing the neighborhood, I went on my way, taking many more photos and chatting with neighbors and car owners alike, and en route to my house, I saw the man who was looking out the window at me moving his 850 Berlina out of the carport so that he could get to his workshop. I asked him if I could possibly photograph the Berlina for this website, and not only did he say yes, but he moved it out into the driveway into a more level position so that I could take a nicer picture, repeating the kindness of the man with the $400 Fiero.

   Once I got behind the chain-link fence, I saw that the 850 Berlina was an unfinished restoration, with an Abarth-style steering wheel and maroon vinyl characterizing the partially-disassembled interior and some minor damage to the front. The little car also had very nice Panasport 8-spoke alloy wheels and some expensive high-performance tires, and we had a nice conversation lasting about 15 minutes, largely about Fiats. I looked closer at the 850 coupe, and I discovered that the interior was largely complete but with all upholstery and soft trim in poor condition and that it had some very expensive Fondmetal alloy wheels, two of which I learned were in the car's boot.

  Between the glass, the metal and wood trim, much of the sheetmetal, and the wheels, there were easily $2,000 in parts there. Also, the owner of the 850 Berlina (the coupe was stored there by a friend of his) told me that his friend had two early-70s 850 Spiders, and I asked him if by any chance they came from Scott & Sons Auto Wrecking (a long-established Eugene-area junkyard that is largely if not completely liquidated at the time of writing), and he said yes.

   Regarding Scott & Sons, I had tried for years to extract a weathered but very restorable and complete 1978 Dodge Magnum, a 1950 Ford 1 1/2-ton truck and a 1947 Citroen 11CV restoration project from the (now deceased) owner's grasp, and more recently a 1965 Hillman Imp, only to find that all four were sold and that I had no money or garage space for any of them.

   Back on the topic of the Fiats and the owner/caretaker, I was told that one good 850 Spider would be built out of the two Scott & Sons cars, and I noticed that there were assorted parts belonging to water-cooled Volkswagens and rear-engined Fiats (mostly 850s, but there was a rusty US-market 500 Nuova add-on headlight shell serving as a dog-food dish on the porch and a few pieces appearing to be from 600s or possibly even 126s in the carport), there was a disassembled VW Rabbit in the workshop and assorted random items in the shop as well as the carport. I bade the Fiat and VW owner goodbye and thanked him for his time and generosity, and headed home.

850 Berlina, from the side.

Rear view of 850 Berlina.

A closer look at the 850 Sport coupe.

(Sorry, no pictures are available of the Rabbit or the two 850 Spiders.)