rust

[markwilliams131]

i had a chap out during the week  2 remove the front and back screens  from 1 of my sports
and he was telling me he rembered been on a tour bus in italy back in 1979 or 1980
and passing by a a feild full of 131s hundreds he said all bran new waiting 2 be sent 2 dealers
or 2 be shiped and he said the water was up 2 the door handles
could this be another reason why they rusted so quick and bad

[bellamacchina]

I know from older Quattroruote issues that there were indeed lots of trouble with high water in places and extremely a lot of lost cars. The pictures I saw were so horrible that you don't have to be afraid that the cars could be still delivered. Under mud till the roof, crushed to eachother. These could go immediately into the crusher.

[Gremlino]

I have heard this before,

I was told the field was adjacent to an industrial estate in Genoa (port city), the 131s were there for a few weeks before being transported.

This may have been an isolated incident and there were many causes for the rust issues... dodgy Russian steel, poor rust proofing, bad drainage design and too many exposed double skins....all of these factors made the cars vunerable to the metal maggot.

Its a shame and well known fact that nearly all the Italian steel bodied cars of the mid to late 70's were badly affected by rust...even Ferrari (308 GT4 & 412 especially).

We are lucky today as owners that most of the rot-boxes have long gone.

Anyone got a 131 with a water mark inside...say halfway up? ?

[Gremlino]

Hey is this why Fiat did the  'Water Roll' limited edition 131? 

Sorry!