What I got (pictures without words):
Engine out. Â Slippery. Continue reading “Sprint 10105 20379: an update and a plan II”
Market 500: Late Sprint Veloce project E159104
Giulietta Sprint 10106 ARE159104, 1315*42314 (not matching, from a 750D Spider).  This car is on eBay right now from the same seller as the two Spider projects concurrently listed out of Connecticut.  Matching number 00106 engine is missing, and it needs a lot of help, but these late Sprint Veloces seldom show up in any form for sale.  I know they guy who bought this on Craigslist about 10 years ago out of the Mojave desert area – assuming this is the only Sprint Veloce in this paint scheme of course.  As usual, it’s a Sprint project and I find myself tempted.  Not the best group of pictures I’ve had to work with.
Not the only metallic purple Sprint I’ve seen, but yes, the only one with white Vikings style swooshes. Â Looks like a steering column switch gear sticking out on the right, and a control arm part on the left. Â You could live with these grills. Â I’d be kind of tempted to get it going and drive it with this livery for a while. Continue reading “Market 500: Late Sprint Veloce project E159104”
Sprint 10105 20379: an update and a plan
Yesterday I watched Sprint 20379 get winched up on to a flat-bed truck and then slowly disappear from sight around a corner. Â No, I didn’t sell my old friend, it is just going south for a few weeks/months of residency in the garage of Tom Sahines for an engine rebuild and a few other much needed and overdue remediations. Â Didn’t I just rebuild the engine you ask? Â Well, the answer to that depends on your definition of “just”. Â I did rebuild the engine in the last 5 years, but I also drove the car daily on my commute for at least 6 months – not an exceptional feat for a Giulietta until you consider my commute was 70 miles each way, and I also drove it on all my incidental trips in between, probably totaling 20000 – 25000 miles in just those 6 months, but it’s not really the miles that has me rebuilding it.
On its way to the spa. Continue reading “Sprint 10105 20379: an update and a plan”
Market 499: Spider 750D 1146: complete and 80% there
Giulietta Spider 750D 1495*01146, 1315*41158.  Just ended today on eBay with 14 bids, the highest of which was $4051.  It’s always sad to behold a car that is just plain beyond reasonable help.  Judging by the level of completeness, it was probably parked with a leaky valve stem in 1969, and the battery drained before it could be fixed, then winter set in and you know the rest.  A 1956 model year Giulietta seems to carry slightly more ‘early model’ cache than a 1957, so perhaps someone with a donor body, or connection to inexpensive foreign skilled labor will decide this is worth having a go at.  After all, this car restored to the standards a couple guys around the country can achieve is probably an $80,000 + car.  Sorry for the order of the pictures, I’m still working out how the bulk media uploader works on my CMS.
Rust may never sleep, but it does move at different paces in different places. Â If this was on the north coast of Kauai all you would find are the headlight glasses, tires and anything else plastic, rubber or glass surrounding an oxide welded barely recognizable lump of used-to-be engine. Â Continue reading “Market 499: Spider 750D 1146: complete and 80% there”
Market 498: Late 1300 Spider project 171160
Giulietta Spider 10103 171160. Â This car is available from the same seller as the car featured in Market 497, on eBay out of Connecticut. Â They made about 500 1300 Spiders after this one in 1961, putting it near the end of 1300 production – not much of a distinction I suppose. Â Engine block is blank, indicating a factory short block replacement – probably under warranty if the stories the oldtimers tell are true.
You can kind of picture the downhill slide – minor fender-bender (or nose in this case) becomes multi-decades long neglect, complete with parts car status at some point. Â Interesting light configuration. Â One is fog, the other spot if the PO had any sense. Continue reading “Market 498: Late 1300 Spider project 171160”
Market 497: Spider 750D 02553 incomplete basketcase
Giulietta Spider 750D 1495*02553, 1315*04353 (non-matching).  This car is available now on eBay out of Connecticut with a $17,500 Buy it Now.  It’s a long way from any semblance of nice or usable, but it’s a 1957 model and 56-57 Spiders seem to be more sought after than the later siblings, probably due to the idea of ‘event eligibility’.  Anyone have  a 1957 that got them into an event that a 1958 would not have?  Like everything else, I suspect it’s about who you know, and the magnitude of check you can write.
It’s amazing how the 7000 or so 750D Spiders ever made seem to have transformed into an endless supply of projects like this. Â Step one? Â A big can of Kroil. Â Step two? Â Get good with Excel.
Continue reading “Market 497: Spider 750D 02553 incomplete basketcase”
Market 496: Giulia Spider 1600 374563, with a 1300
Giulia Spider 1600 10123 AR374563, 1315*012684 (non-matching).  This car is available now on eBay out of St Johns, Florida.  Seller purchased the car from Fantasy Junction in 2003 and used it sparingly.  This car would have originally had an 00112 series 1600 engine, but is currently fitted with a 750-to-101 transition 1300 unit from probably mid-1960.  If one were looking for an attractive and fundamentally sound driver 101 Spider that will likely end at a reasonable price, this could be a good option.  Originality purists will find lots to complain about/nitpick here, but one needs to keep in mind the qualities that make these cars the generally well regarded, desirable objects that they are: smile inducing drivability and beautiful lines, both of which this example possesses.
When you have spent a lot of time with something, you can forget the things that originally attracted you to it. Â Imagine this is your first time seeing a Giulietta Spider.
Continue reading “Market 496: Giulia Spider 1600 374563, with a 1300”
Fuelist mobile app is in Apple app store, and it’s free
Some of you may know I have been working on this blog for 5+ years. Â I have written about approximately 500 cars in that time, and that effort has given me some insight into how something like the Fuelist could/would/should work. Â At one point, probably 3 years ago I set out to create a database that would display a list of Giuliettas that had sold at any level of model specificity, with details of the sale captured to try and normalize sales and get insight into what was important to buyers of these cars. Â It turned out difficulty-wise to be something along the lines of building my own Sprint Veloce Zagato from scratch – doable, but highly unlikely without a serious foray in an as-yet undiscovered continent of skill developing: cutting code.
 Click here to go to the app store. Works well with iPad and iPod touch too!
To all you Android users: an app for you is in the works. Â To all you Windows, Blackberry and other non-iOS or Android users: unless the owners of said operating systems want to pay for us to develop for their platforms, I suggest er, I’m not sure what I suggest.
A screen capture from my phone of the group of 750 & 101 Spider Veloce models. Â Sortable by price and sale date. Â I could just have easily chosen only 750F Spider Veloces or 10118 1600 Spider Veloces.
Continue reading “Fuelist mobile app is in Apple app store, and it’s free”
Market 495: Sprint Veloce Basket case 10124*23895
Giulietta Sprint 10124 1493E*23895, 00106*01059 & 00102*29231. Â This Sprint Veloce is on eBay being offered by Classic Invest out of Denver Colorado. Â It is incomplete, but tempting for a guy like me who has boxes of parts and a scruffy Sprint Normal to potentially move a bunch of parts off of. Â This series of Sprint seems to have come with an 00106 Veloce engine, the US version of the early 10106 Sprint Veloce. Â I have 10124 23899Â in my picture files, and it has an 00106 engine with 40DCOE’s instead of 40DCO3’s.
I worked on a car like this, that had been painted at some  point in the last 10 years and then was stored a lot like this.  There will be scuffs and scratches to the extent that you may just want to go for it and repaint it now while the painting is easy.  Grills look alright.  Continue reading “Market 495: Sprint Veloce Basket case 10124*23895”
Market 494: Basketcase Sprint 750B 06248
Giulietta Sprint 750B 1493*06248, 1315*05668. Â This jigsaw puzzle of a Sprint is on eBay out of Dallas. Â Bumpers excepted it looks somewhat complete at first glance (Lionel is going to ask me to define complete again) but you have to wonder how useable all the parts are. Â Some metal repair has been done, the quality of which is near impossible to determine without seeing it in person, but if you go into this assuming a lot of it will be redone to meet your very high standards, you can just pretend it still has gaping rust holes. Â Pete’s has this car listed with a, $11,500 sticker price. Â Not a bad deal for someone who already has one of these under restoration.
One wonders at the 56 year road that now sees this car stripped of parts and in primer in a gravel parking lot in Dallas. Â Doesn’t look too bad from this angle if you are not afraid of fasteners. Continue reading “Market 494: Basketcase Sprint 750B 06248”