A Sprint project lurks in your garage. It’s in need of attention and you need a plan. To have a plan you need to know what you want from it -where are you going with it. So… -what do you want out of it? What does your Sprint look like and drive like when it’s done? This is the most important information for your restoration. Why? Defines your budget, timeline and a lot of other details. So, what do you want?
This is a starting point that was all the excitement on the AlfaBB a few years ago. The project has gone dark as far as I know, but this car is in a garage somewhere waiting for work to be done. This is probably as difficult a starting point as you want to call a starting point.
I (we) see a lot of cars on the market and they are all a bit different. What makes them different? That’s easy -condition right? But condition is a snap shot. A point in the decay of the car. They all started out new, more or less the same, they all got used -some died young, some carried on to today looking pretty good. Most of them suffered rough treatment and ended up in a condition I describe usually as ‘doable’ and ‘challenging’ in the context of them as projects. Most cars that come on the market are either somewhere on the path of decay from their initial glory, decaying after the first attempt someone has made to return them to their initial glory, or a car molded to be something it wasn’t made to be -like a hot rod or a race car. I’m going to ignore ‘done’ cars, and cars from that last group because they are seldom bought as restoration projects: they’re bought to use and enjoy.
Where-as, compared to the car above, this car that sold through bringatrailer is probably as good a starting point as you will find. Looks better than my Sprint that I drive everyday.
What does that leave us? Projects. A Sprint project lurks in your garage and if you’re going to do something with it you need to know what you want it from it. Well, that’s not entirely accurate, but if you start off without a plan you’re likely to end up in a quagmire. It goes something like this…
I’d be happy with the paint and body looking THUS. I’d like the interior and trim to look THUS. I’d like THIS much horse power and THAT sort of interior. It’s easy to say you want perfection, but be honest with yourself. Most cars you’d call perfect are not so on close inspection. I’m not saying it’s not okay to say you want perfection and accept less gradually -I just think it’s easier to embrace reality from the get go.
This car has sold a few times in the last month. Last time was close to $200,000. Some guys would call this a project. It’s incorrect in many small ways after all…
You need to know where you’re going to go there and you need to know where you are to start.