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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.)
