Market 468: 1900 Touring coupe project

Update 4/25/2013: I would not have guessed that this would reach $29,100.  Seventeen people wanted it, so that had to help.

4/17/2013: 1900 Touring Coupe AR1900C*10476.  I had lunch today with some fairly well equipped Italian car enthusiasts and the subject of ‘what do you buy now-a-days’ came up.  I complained (not sure that’s the perfect word) that the days of Fiat 8V’s, Siata 208S’s, Lancia Aurelia’s and other interesting coach-built stuff available as projects seemed to have passed, that my generation had to make do with the sort of ‘hold-overs or left-overs’ from the golden age unless smiled upon by fortune.  A fairly quick response from a Giulietta Sprint Veloce Confortevole owner was “what about 1900 Alfa’s?”.  “Beautiful but complicated for the performance” was my response -but I kept asking myself on my way home.  “What about 1900 Alfa’s?”  The Touring Coupe’s are lovely cars.  Projects aren’t rare and nice cars are fairly affordable in the grand Alfa scheme.  What about 1900 Alfa’s indeed.  This jumping-off point in my exploration is available on eBay now.

The Giulietta Spider enthusiasts are noting that at first glance it looks quite familiar -besides the roof anyway.  In person you’d never make this connection -the 1900’s are a good 110% the size of a Giulietta.  Metal here all looks great.

I’m using a new bulk picture loader that does the ordering for me.  I usually put the vin picture at the end, but will live with it here.  A positive ID.  Bertone wasn’t the only one who used chunky roofing tar liberally in the nether regions of their cars.

Even this has a familiar look.  These have an Alfa of the 1930’s feel, though made in the 1950’s where the Giulietta engine has an Alfa of the 1960’s feel, though made in the 1950’s.  Cylinder head is a monster!  How hard are starter/generator/distributor/manifolds/carbs etc to find?

Bodies come apart quite a bit on these.  Seller states there is ‘less than 12 square inches’ of metal to replace.

Trunk floor and door cards?

Hand fit to each individual car no doubt.

A lot of guys think ‘Superleggera’ mainly has to do with Aston Martin’s, but this is generally what it means -a lot of little tubes to make up the frame.  I believe this style of building was developed at Touring.

I wonder how many American muscle powered 1900’s occurred?  Plenty of room.

You can picture the lines.

Similar tail light openings to a Giulietta.

I saw a nice one of these in person a few years ago and was struck by how many little detail parts it shared with the Giulietta’s -or at least how many were used when restoring the particular car.  What about Alfa 1900’s?  Hmmm.

Anyone know what the common problems to look for are on these?  I think I heard transmission troubles in some conversation from the dim past.