Project cars – Page 13

December 9, 2009

Market 122: 63 Sprint, some assembly required

Update 2009/12/08: I received an email from Bob in Vancouver who bought this car and it sounds like it is in good hands, already seeing a hotted up 2 liter with transmission enroute from the builder and the shell due back from the painters by the end of the year. It’s good to see a car like this find the right home.

Update 2009/07/14: After another go on eBay this car ended reserve not met at $4050 with 18 bids. Not sure what it will take to sell it but hopefully the seller will keep improving it. Lot’s more pictures of trim were added and it looks to be fairly complete.

Update 2009/06/16: Reserve not met at $5111 after 8 bidders stepped up. I was thinking that, with a running 1600 installed and almost everything needed to complete it on hand, this car would reach at least $8000. If it were me I would run another auction with an inventory of included parts and better finished product pictures. I think it would see this car sold.

Giulia Sprint 10112*353214. This car is available right now on eBay out of Scotts Valley California, in the Santa Cruz mountains. Not too many of these later Sprints show up for sale, and when they do they are usually a mess. This car seems to buck that trend though it has some issues of its own to address. The ‘buy it now’ price is quite optimistic unless that paint is really nice and the parts included are in very good shape, but as the seller points out, it is easy to be $12,000 into a project like this and be at this point or not quite at his point yet. Anyone interested is advised to go and have a look.

You have to admit that the paint looks good here, as do the grills. Hood shut lines are excellent. I wonder if the hood is bolted in or just sitting on top? Note door in the background.

Continue reading “Market 122: 63 Sprint, some assembly required”

December 4, 2009

SS Bodywork 5: the engine compartment

I have been looking at this car for 2 years now, in pictures after sending $4500 to the seller in December of 2007, trying to come up with a coherent plan for tackling it, and since then as a sculpture of sorts, always looming in the background corner of the shop, watching me toil on other cars, patiently waiting its turn. It’s turn is here.

Having a really snotty cold complete with a crackly sounding cough ensures your work wants you as far away as possible, and when you start feeling pretty good but your body is still in clean up mode you have to get out an do. In this fit of new found near health I decided that since I lacked the parts to finish assembling the engine, I would start in on the body, and where better to start than the engine compartment. It has been a hellish job, but, as with all jobs, took starting and doing if it was to be seen finished. I guess I could have paid someone to do this, but that would have been cheating, and besides, my funds are already in arrears of the someones I will be paying for time spent exercising their skills on my car.

The starting line. First order of business was removing the steering components, the wiring harness and some other odds and ends so this would be a long level run rather than an obstacle course. Looks pretty bad doesn’t it.

Continue reading “SS Bodywork 5: the engine compartment”

November 23, 2009

Cleaning up my SS and TI gauges

Update 11/23/09: I started back in on the SS so I thought another repost about working on it would be good. I am especially proud of my efforts on this post and the one that followed it.
I have spent a lot of time going through catalogs and making shopping lists so the GTV has to be sold soon to buy a bunch of the stuff I need. If you have any interest in a 69 GTV let me know. It wont be expensive. I am working on the SS rear end right now so look for another post about it soon.
Original post 6/27/09. I know it’s hard to believe but I did some work on my SS! The buyer of Market 1 SS, that had the incorrect earlier style gauges, bought the Italian/metric gauges that came out of my SS so I started cleaning up the US market gauges I had been contemplating using. Funny what a wad of cash can help you decide. The condition of the US gauges turned out to be one of those better and worse at the same time deals. Cosmetically they looked bad and the guts were in need of cleaning and lubricating, but the fundamental parts were presentable and most important, the plastic had not yellowed, so I could make a good set out of them with a little effort.

The fruit of my labor. Lot’s of spiffy gauges ready to tell me how I and my car(s) are doing. Still need to clean up the SS tach.

Continue reading “Cleaning up my SS and TI gauges”

November 19, 2009

Market 166: Scruffy but nice early Spider

Giulietta Spider 1495*02713. This car has been on Bringatrailer, Craigslist and Alfa BB. It may be still available, but I doubt it. This car is a 1957 which makes it elligible for events not open to 58 and later cars. Car is in San Diego and asking price of $14,000 is reasonable if it needs as little as the sellers description indicates. I am primarily adding this car for posterity.

This is how you like to find them. Straight, dry and in need of the kind of improvement that is fun to do between drives. Hood and door fit looks excellent. I don’t see any evidence of rust.

Continue reading “Market 166: Scruffy but nice early Spider”

November 16, 2009

Market 164: Another Spider racer roller

Update 12/5/09: This car sold for $5025. I would have to see the quality of the paint in person but this seems like a pretty good price for a car you can just start bolting parts onto.

Giulietta Spider 10103*170861. This car is on eBay right now out of New York. Seller says it’s a 1600 and it has a 1600 hood, but the vin number stated is that of a tipo 10103 1300. No big deal, it’s not going to get restored any time soon.

The car looks pretty good. Wheel wells look to have been flared slightly. Cage is pretty substantial. Wheels are 105/115 era BWA’s I believe. I kind of like these wheels and would put them on the 69 GTV given the chance.

Continue reading “Market 164: Another Spider racer roller”

November 12, 2009

Market 163: Interim Spider racer project

Update 12/5/09: This car sold for $5000 even. Seemingly the new norm for incomplete unremarkable Giulietta Spider rollers.

Giulietta Spider 1495*09110. This car is on eBay right now from a seller in the north east US who seems to have a lot of Giulietta stuff in their barn. This car is said to have been a long time race car, but seems to only be stickers, stripes and a roll bar away from being your usual remainder of a parted out Spider- very solid and rust free remainder I should add.

Race number might help explain why it ended up years later stripped on anything of value and sold off. Front looks tough with the bumper brackets and blanks where the signal lights go. Certainly sits low for a car with no engine, supporting the race car claim.

Continue reading “Market 163: Interim Spider racer project”

October 27, 2009

Market 158: Interim 750E Sprint Veloce project

Update 11/11/09: This car was relisted and sold for $11,500 with 1 bidder. This is a little more like it for a Veloce.

Update 11/6/09: 21 bids, $7300, reserve not met. I am a little surprised by this. Veloce’s are usually at a premium. Maybe the reality of trying to track down all the required stuff to restore it has dampened the usual fervor. We’ll see it again I suppose.

Giulietta Sprint Veloce 750E 1493*11014. This car is on eBay right now out of -you guessed it- Newport Beach California. I’m pretty sure this is a car that was on Craigslist recently and the seller, a guy I know from buying a 1750 for my SS before I found the 00121 1600, decided he would let a pro list it and get all the money for it. The original engine would have been one of the last 1315*3xxxx Veloce engines, but I suspect it would have had 40DCOE 2’s at this point as they had been out for a while. Anyone have a Sprint Veloce from this series 1493*11001 – 11101 or a Spider Veloce 750F between 1495*05620 – 07213 that has 40DCO3’s?

Nose is in good shape. You can clearly see here how Bertone used lead to fill out the body shape . Bumper, grills and headlight rings all look good.

Continue reading “Market 158: Interim 750E Sprint Veloce project”

October 25, 2009

69 GTV go over: creature comforts coming together

If you’ve been following this thread you know I have the dash out of the GTV and an aim to make the car somewhat pleasurable to drive in the coming cold months. In this spirit I decided to remove the heater unit and clean it up. The wires to the fan motor were disconnected so I had a fear that, like the wiper motor, a PO discovered the motor was frozen with rust and simply unplugged it.

Removing the heater is easy enough, it is held by 4 8mm nuts that thread onto studs under the dash bulkhead that also act as grounding points for the dash and heater circuits. Once these nuts are removed you have to disconnect the heater hoses and either disconnect it from or bring it out together with the heater control sliders and cables.

You can see here that I decided to bring the control cables out with the heater unit. You can also see that the foam gasket that seals the heater intake against the bulkhead is pretty rotten. I’ll replace this with some weatherstripping meant for camper shell to truck bed edge sealing. Also note the cosy nest in here.

Continue reading “69 GTV go over: creature comforts coming together”

October 15, 2009

69 GTV go over: trying to make the wipers work…

I had a kind of disagreement with the Mrs recently. It rained like crazy on Tuesday and Wednesday and I had to use our modern car (BMW, aka: her car) to get to work, which leaves her asking a friend for a ride, because the Sprint doesn’t have working wipers, the GTV doesn’t have working wipers (or reg), the Fiat isn’t running, the SS is in a million pieces and, well, you get the idea. I promised that the highest priority for me would be getting a car together to drive to work that was appropriate for all weather. I’d rather not drive the Sprint in the rain anyway, so the GTV is the logical choice for this sort of daily duty.

What I figured would be a blown fuse has morphed in to a full restoration project. Sigh.

The wiper motor lives under this cowl. They say it’s a good idea to remove these occasionally to clear leaves out. I wonder what I’ll find?

Continue reading “69 GTV go over: trying to make the wipers work…”

October 7, 2009

SS 00121 Engine #2: Clean up and assembly

After 9 months in gestation, this baby is going back together. I have been stumbling over parts to this engine (main caps here, front cover there, toe stubbed on crank under rag) while treadng the circuitous detour paths paved by the Sprint, Berlina, TI, Fiat, Multipla, and GTV and it is time to get it together before any of it’s parts disappear.

I’ve been throwing in one part for this rebuild with every Centerline order and, with a few exceptions, I think I have everything required to get this thing together.

This engine had been sitting in the corner until the Sprint engine came off the stand, at which point it went back on. Refreshing the 2 liter for the TI meant it came back off. A couple of weeks ago in a fit of working against entropy, I got it back on the stand, gathered up all the parts I had stumbled over in the last 9 months and made the practical decision to put it together soon. Practical becasue a: it’s hard to loose engine parts that are assembled with foot pounds and sealer/glue to a very large heavy object and b: if I have nice shiny three thousand dollar engine waiting to go in the SS I might be more motivated. Continue reading “SS 00121 Engine #2: Clean up and assembly”