Author: hamilton.mm

Update 11/6/09:  Following yesterdays installment is this one.  I saw that some of you peeked ahead and read this by following the link at the bottom of the page.  Sorry, nothing new for you guys.  Don’t worry, there will be a few new posts this weekend if the load of new parts in the back of the Sprint is any indication.  How’s the novel coming you ask?  I think I’m at about 7000 words right now.  I plan to be a few thousand ahead by Sunday evening.

Originally posted May 1, 2008. My second blog post ever!Money was paid, promises made and in early December 2007 I was the proud owner of a 1961 Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint Speciale. Between Christmas duties and ski trips for the kids it took about a month for the seller to gather the boxes of parts, pull the car out of storage and get everything loaded up and ready to ship. I have had bad experiences shipping cars through brokers so I did some searching and found Randy of Motor Auto Express on Hemmings.com. His was the only listing I found that simply had his cell phone number and what seemed like a good sign, he works out of Washington. I called Randy on a Monday afternoon and the car was picked up the following Friday. Randy was as professional as could be asked for and I am very happy with his service and have recommended him several times.

Of course the day the car arrived at my shop it was raining. Hard. Randy’s truck rolls up and amazingly the rain stops. When the door opens and the car is revealed my heart sinks, not necessarily because the car is worse than I expected, it’s just the gravity of the project settles on me with its full weight. This car needs a lot of work, a lot of work I know how to do in theory but have never attempted. I change the one flat tire and we roll it out of the truck. OK, maybe it is worse than I thought, or was I just glossing over the rough edges. I’ll have to review the pictures again to see if it was me who misled myself.

I unpack the boxes, make a list of parts that are present to compare with what was promised and take some pictures. The parts list will also be helpful as I start searching for missing parts. My work space is a little cramped so I decide the first thing I should do is build a loft to put shelves and work tables on so I can spread out. As I drive home from the shop I am wondering what I have gotten myself into. Pictures below are from the day after the car was dropped off.

Someone had started this project. The brownish-black is some sort of rust inhibiting paint.

Continue reading “D&S #2: Receiving my new SS”

Update 11/5/2009: I am participating in the NaNoWriMo this month, a 50,000 word novel written in 30 days. I’ve written about 5000 as of writing this, I started on the afternoon of the 2nd so I have a day of catch-up to do. My participation there means I will have less words to add to Giuliettas.com. In addition to that I purchased a years supply of real honest-to-god web hosting so I have a learning curve ahead of me figuring out how to have the blog stay as it is but the pages with registers and histories and all that expand and be easier to navigate.

In light of the above, and considering I am going to be back on the SS full time once the Fiat is finished and the 69 GTV is daily driveable, both of which are days away from happening, I am going to rerun a lot of the posts about the my Sprint Speciale to remind the reader of how I got it and what I’ve done so far. I think 7 people read this post the first time around so it will be new to most of you. Enjoy!

Original post from April 2008. My first blog post ever! Why give up a perfectly doable 1972 GTV project and undertake a very challenging Giulietta SS project? There are lots of reasons that have nothing to do with common sense, among them: the persistent desire to own and drive an SS, the ever increasing value of SS’s making the prospect of buying one in the future ever more remote, the desire to accomplish a challenging long-term project; any of these is answer enough. If you ask yourself though, as I did: “What classic sports car project, that is not a pipe-dream given my financial circumstances, do I REALLY want to spend money and time on, own long term, and drive?” The answer should inform your hobby as it did mine. Life is short, too short to work on a car you are not extremely excited about. Whatever car is the answer to the question above is the car you should be after. For me it is, and has been for the last 8 years, the Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint Speciale.

Period advertising shot. I suppose I’ll have to dapper it up when I drive mine.

Continue reading “D&S #1: My Sprint Speciale acquisition Story”