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1965 Fiat 2300s - Owner, Christy Tiballi
These are pretty rare cars in the USA. They were never officially imported here, and according to legend, this is the only one running in the USA. Additionally, they are really trick, especially for a Fiat. The chassis was assembled by Fiat itself and then sent to Ghia coachworks to have a handmade body fit to it. Then the car was sent to Abarth (Fiat’s equivalent to BMW’s M division) where Carlo Abarth and his cronies put together a hot rodded Fiat 2300 inline 6 cylinder engine. They came stock with power four wheel disc brakes, dual carburetors, an aluminum head, a hot cam, a wide aluminum oil sump, and a full set of gauges. This particular car has even more goodies on it including a slightly larger engine, fully polished internal engine components including the rocker arms, 3 side draft Weber carburetors, a wilder cam and a set of trick 15” Campagnolo wheels of which two sets are known to exist. These cars were known as a poor man's Ferrari given their throaty intake roar and snarling exhaust note.
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Condition of The Dash at Purchase
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When Christy acquired the car, the mechanicals were supposedly done with the exception of the front suspension. The body of the car is relatively straight, but the rocker panels are severely rusted out and will need serious reconstruction. The bottoms of the the doors had been repaired for rust already, but the repairer hadn't accounted for the door's curve at the very bottom. As a result, the doors come straight down and stick out over the rocker panels. They will obviously need to be reworked. The rust is pretty normal, especially when you consider that there where never any drain holes made in the rocker panels or doors. When the previous owner flushed out the rockers, he said that mud and crud was packed in there.
The interior is mostly gutted, although all the parts are supposedly there (you know how that goes). We have yet to sort through all the bins of parts we collected from the previous owner's garage, but from the look of things the important parts seem to be there. The car also came with a parts car, that is so severely rusted that it would take major reconstruction to make it whole again. We will strip it of all useful spares, including body panels and sadly send it out to pasture.
Our first operation will be to organize the all the loose parts, cleaning and checking them over. While that is happening, we will also replace the severely worn ball joint so the car can be driven safely. It will them be taken to various shops for estimates on rust repair, body finishing and painting. Once that has been completed and a shop selected, we'll strip the car completely prior to dropping it off. From there, we'll be restoring all the individual parts that need it, preparing them for installation back on the car when it returns. Hopefully, the mechanicals are truly in order and there won't be much to do to them aside from freshening up their appearance.
Christy is trying to decide on a color, although after seeing a factory sales brochure included in the sale of the car, she is leaning pretty heavily towards red. The interior will be done in what appears in the brochure as mohair or pure felt. Originally, this car had vinyl, but one look at the mohair and Christy was sold.
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Condition of Engine Compartment At Purchase
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Condition of Exterior at Purchase
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