Category: fun stuff

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Pushing Product 5: At it again

This pushing product series is funny -an analogy for the intended effect of having the ladies beside the vehicles. I get a high number of visitors for about 2 days after posting one of these photo collections and lots of picture views of the sexier numbers. This installment is the usual aggregate of pictures of ladies used as advertising that readers forwarded me links to or I found on my own while on an internet expedition. From the classy to the silly to the chaste to the sleazy. Behold.

50_specialAaron sent me this one. She is very cute and obviously quite fond of the motorcycle. Dig that white belt. She would be what, 75 years old now?

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Pushing Product 4: Models not included

You’ve all been waiting for this.  I know because more than anything else I get emails with links to PG-13  auctions.  Not too much ill-advised content here, just decent looking chicks hopefully earning a few easy bucks while trying to make some poor guy bid on the object at auction with his virility.

!aveo kit twosomeThis is a kit car based on a Chevy Aveo.  Girl on the right reminds me a bit of Christine Taylor.  This picture is all curves.  I wonder how much a gig like this pays?

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Motherlode 400 event report

The Motherlode 400, organized by expert and enthusiastic haver of good-times Josh Prentis ran on June 20 – 21st, but began for me on Friday the 19th when I spent an hour rigging up an air cleaner for the Sprint from some borrowed components from shop mate Duff.  Sprint’s oil and water levels were fine so I chucked one of my better looking spares in the trunk, filled a pillow case with tools I might need, stowing it under the back parcel shelf panel and declared myself prepared for the worst.  Having commuted 70 miles a day in the Sprint for two weeks solid, I was confident my tools would stay stowed unless needed by a fellow motorist.

Joined by first timers Hoon and Coutney in their charming Datsun Fairlady 1600, we rolled off from Peet’s coffee in Oakland at 7am on Saturday.  Meet up was at the Jackson Lodge in Jackson. 

motherlode thumb stephPedal Pusher Citation bait getting used to the new and potentially improved Sprint that she is half owner of.  The tach cable started squeeling like crazy soon after this and I had to cut it at the firewall.

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TI Tidy part 9: Two Liter refresh complete

This weekend I managed to squeeze about 6 hours of work in to my busy social schedule and prepped the 2 liter for its new home in the TI.  The plan was to replace front and rear main seals, do the head gasket and just generally inspect and clean everything up.  Andrew helped me check the compression on the engine and it was all over the place.  # 1 had 160, #4 had 80.  With oil added it was about 160 across the board.  I consulted some local experts and it was decided to carry on with the freshen up, that the compression should come back up once its run and the valve seats and rings reseat.  I’m crossing my fingers!

2 liter doneStarting at the end as usual.  The mighty 2 liter ready for installation in the car after new front and rear main seals, new head gasket, 1300/1600 style water pump installed, cam timing set and ignition close.   I still need to attach the transmission, replace some intake side head studs, install the starter and a few other things.  Also still looking for a set of side draft carbs.

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Market 114: Giulietta Sprint Veloce?

Giulietta Sprint 750 1493*08625, Engine 13156*32468.  This car is in Canada and advertised for sale on Anamera.  I had the pleasure of answering a bunch of questions about this car last year when it was for sale in Autoweek out of the South East (Georgia?) for I think it was $29,000.  Well, the car has gotten around as these cars do and now it is as seen here.    The $30,000 question is: Is it a Veloce?

2aeb7c52ccSo far so good.  A very well done car with much attention to detail spent.  Someone in the market for a nice one would be asking for more pictures and information.

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TI Tidy-up part 4: steady progress

As I get older I find myself and my expectations changing to adapt to the realization that there is a limit to what can be accomplished with the resources and time on hand, and frankly in most cases good enough really is good enough. For example the engine compartment on the TI. I could go over the top with prep and paint and the like, but considering how marginal the rest of the car is I don’t know that it makes any sense. In this spirit I decided to paint it black with truck bed-liner paint. My rationalizations? It would be tough, look good and mimic the finish of early Giulietta’s. If it was good enough for a Conrero prepared lightweight, it’s good enough for my VERY incorrect TI.

img_8385If I was a real hillbilly I would have managed to get over-spray all over the tail lights, windows and INSIDE the glove box. Phew, passed that test! C’mon, admit it, looks like it could work.

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Another busy Weekend, Berlina Tour and TI tidy-up

I guess the reason time goes by faster when you get older is you find more stuff to fill it. This weekend was another blur of activity starting with pulling the FIAT engine on saturday morning, the subject of my last post. Sunday I joined Andrew and the ARA for the Berlina Tour on rain-soaked roads in the East Bay hills. Click here to see my photo set from the drive.
aaron in the mistThe morning started out a little rough, fortunately the Berlina’s unreliable wipers behaved. For that matter the tired solenoid did too. Aaron is seen here on 580 braving the May showers.
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Fiat Fresh-up part 2: who’s knocking?

This is apparently the year of the engine rebuild for me!  The attentive reader will know I have been lagging on pulling the FIAT engine, but no more.  The engine came out today with a minimum of fuss and of course now I am faced with deciding what to do about the rod knock that led to these circumstances.  You probably want to hear about the process first.  It goes something like this…

Fiat 124 seda engine coming outAlfa’s have a built in lift point on the head, not so FIAT’s, so I rigged up some tie-downs looped through the engine mounts.  The transmission and engine are only held together by 4 bolts, but they are M12’s or something.  Once everything was free I hooked up the hoist and went to work.

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Happy Birthday to Giuliettas.com!

It’s been a year since I started giuliettas dot com and while I’ve entertained a few milestones along the way (100 posts, 200 posts etc) , I think  this one is pretty big for me.  If you told me I was going to accomplish the things I’ve accomplished over the last year I probably wouldn’t have believed you, so I’ll start with the numbers.

  • This is my 224th post meaning I’ve posted on average 4.25 times per week.
  • My posts average 1000 words, so I’ve written about 224,000 words; 1/3 of ‘War and Peace’ or a little more than the New Testament.
  • 112 Market reports have been written covering 115 cars, not counting repeat sales or attempts at sales.
  • On March 24th, I had 605 page views, my most ever and about double my 2009 average of 308.  2008 average was 197, not bad for starting from zero!
  • If you are reading this on 4/30/09 you are a page view between 85,500 and 86,000 total.
  • I have identified 97 Sprint Speciales as existing, 4 as scrapped (but who knows what the future holds).
  • My register has grown to include 512 cars, not including reference cars. 

truck-close-upI wanted to see what my Sprint would look like with the Zagato Lownose treatment.

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Weekend fun: Pixar’s ‘ Up ‘ movie premier, Snowball rally and California Mille send-offs

To help meet the requirement that I take 5 days off work this quarter I took Friday off which allowed me to run some weekday errands. As it was my weekend was planned with the precision of the gold heist in ‘The Italian Job’, so this extra day was welcome. Datebook entries for the weekend included The Snowball Rally send off, a Saturday class (part of a Masters Program I am going through), the Pixar Company premier of ‘UP’ at the Broadway Theatre in Oakland with an after party at the newly renovated FOX theatre and then Sunday morning a visit to The Fairmont in San Francisco to have a look at this years California Mille entries.

I started out early Friday to meet up with Larry to rummage his crates of 750/101 series Alfa parts for bits I needed for the SS and Spider and to pick up what might be the most difficult to find 101 Veloce part: the tapered top tube 00120/00106 type DCOE intake manifold. More on the parts run later in the week.

mrs-and-spidersThe Mrs. poses with Spider’s Veloce in front of the Fairmont Hotel on Nob Hill. I saw 4 black, 2 red, one silver and one white Giulietta Spider, not to mention a Sprint Veloce Confortevole and a Sprint 750B.

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