I have had several requests from people to start a blog about my work and here is my first attempt to do so. It will be challenging to stay at it so we will see how far we get with this… I’d like to start with the Iso Fidia I have been working on for some time and is now in very advanced stages of its restoration.

An Iso Fidia (and it’s early version S4) were cars built by the now defunct company Iso Rivolta S.p.a. in Bresso, Italy. They were advertised as “the fastest four-doors on the planet” and priced as high as a Rolls Royce and found their way into the hands of (very) well-heeled buyers only. This is one of the reasons why the production number did not even meet the 200 mark. This, of course, makes them now very rare and finding good examples does not happen very often. The early cars were powered by a Corvette 327 V8, later ones got a Corvette 350 V8 and the last few cars before bankruptcy were powered by the Ford 351 Cobra Jet V8. The car in my shop is the rare 350 V8 4-speed version with all option boxes ticked when ordered new by a client in Italy. It was delivered in May 1970 and was purchased by a doctor in California around 1995. It used to be gold metallic in color with a tan velvet cloth interior, the main things that got changed during its life time.

Here is the car when I first saw it in 2002. A Dutch friend (Marvin) had me do a PPI on the car when it was offered for sale in Van Nuys (airport). I got to inspect and drive it on the runway only because it was not registered, the seller had two hangars full of classic cars he seldom used. The car itself was pretty nice and rust free; however some things were changed and the engine needed work. Marvin ended up not buying it and it was sold to another friend here in Socal. Here are my first pictures of my inspection of the car back in 2002.