Category: Project cars

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Pushing product the old fashioned way

I noticed a while back that some eBay auctions have an eye-catching accessory that lures in shoppers no matter how uninterested they are in the product offered, sometimes the addition of this accessory is successful, sometimes less so. I have saved examples of auctions featuring this accessory since I started this blog. Over the years there have been other memorable examples, but alas, I lacked prescience and failed to save them for the appreciation of future generations.

c0b1_3This Bus has a faked black plate and the dog looks bored. This is the unpaid ‘friends good-looking girlfriend’ version of the accessory.

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Market #81: Last of the Giulietta Spider Veloces

Sold! Car received 29 bids ending at $17,100 and seems to have sold. A good deal for he buyer if everything was as described.

Giulia Spider Veloce 101.18 AR390222, engine 00121*01752. This late Spider Veloce is on eBay right now. You don’t see original Spiders this clean very often with such regular old paintwork and straight trim with an even shine. California Black late is an unexpected bonus on a car being sold out of New Mexico.

spider-frontAt this point, 20 years into their development these Spiders were just filling a hole until the new Spider could be rolled out in full swing. The first Duettos had appeared and the GTC was available, though neither was being pushed.

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Market #78: Spider Veloce shell

4 bids, $1000 selling price… not bad!

Giulietta Spider AR167162 with an F.  EBay is an endless source of entertainment and todays entertainment is provided by this Spider shell, on offer right now from a California based supplier of Alfa interior components.  The front is tore-up and it looks horrible, but if it is indeed a Veloce, some one will be scrambling to save it or at least moth-ball it away for when the economy turns around.  If I was at this moment restoring a similar Normale the price difference between Normales and Veloces (about $20K) is such that it would almost make sense to get this body, blast/repair/paint it then assemble the Normale bits on to it and then swap Veloce parts onto it as they become available.  Selling the Normale body to someone with a rusty car would probably pay for a good bit of the swap project. 

217191907_oOuch and Ewww and scarry but doable.  Presence of suspension and steering  components is a bonus.  How does this happen? 

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Market #73: Best color combo Spider Veloce

Update: Bidding ended at $24,100.  Solid money for this car in a depressed market.  Hopefully some of its originality can be maintained.

Giulietta Spider Veloce 750F 1495*04644, engine 1315*31682. This car is available on eBay right now. d’Amico and Tabucchi list this car as a 1958 model.  These don’t come up often in this nearly-a-runner barn find condition. They are usually very challenging projects or restored. The rare intake components are listed as included but there are no pictures so one would want to see their condition before diving in too deep.

bc86_3Another car that makes me wonder ‘who would let this happen to a car like this?’ This is actually pretty early for a Spider Veloce and arguably the best color combo. I would guess rust on the hood is the result of a tarp trapping moisture against it.

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Market #72: Dejavu 58 Sprint Veloce

Update 1/6/00: Now on eBay with starting bid of $10,000.

Update 1/5/09: This car was on eBay starting 12/29/08 for about 5 minutes with a starting bid of $12,000 before ending early. 

The following was added to the description: ”

The Alfa featured here was a regular at the Lime Rock race track in Connecticut where its previous owner of 25 years raced it, including many VSCCA vintage events. The roll bar should still meet SCCA regulations. The engine has a 750cc Veloce bottom end and a 101-1300 head, intake, and dual Weber carbs. Gear changes are made by a lightened GTA close-ratio gearbox and the limited slip rear end has a 5:12 gear ratio. The no restriction exhaust makes the wonderful music you expect to hear from an Alfa race car. We bought this car with the intent of restoring it as a second vintage race car sister to our vintage racing Duetto but after a year of sitting we realize it is time to let it go. It runs great, the clutch, transmission and brakes are all good. As you can see from the photos, the nose has been pushed in a bit but nothing serious or structural. We do have the grills and other exterior trim to return this to a stock, street driven car but our wish was to return it to a streetable vintage race car. We had intended on painting the car black and retaining the stock red interior. This is such a fun car, if you have never experienced a vintage Alfa that has been built for racing it is very hard to put into words the absolute joy to be had. Though great mechanically, we would love to be a part of returning it to its former visual glory and will offer the new owner a very attractive price for a cosmetic restoration of this little gem. If you are viewing this listing you probably know as much (or more) about these cars as we do and if you don’t we recommend you do some web research to learn more about what makes these cars so special.” 

 Giulietta Sprint Veloce 750E 1493*06930. This car is available right now from Brighton Motor Sports for $28,000.  This car is humorously described as having a “900cc block with a 1250cc head”, pictures of the engine compartment look like a 1600 is installed.

I recently sold SV 06917 to Corey in Seattle and SV 06924 was sold last year by FJ, both those cars are the same Amber White but with with blue/gray interior.  This car probably shared the paint booth with those cars and they almost certainly went tip-to-tail through the assembly line together.  This car is not in as good shape as 6917, and certainly doesn’t have the monster 1750 that it has, but the asking money is the same.

880820032Ouch!  My red Sprint experienced this sort of thing when its brakes went out.  Was $1800 to fix it up back to presentable.  Stripes almost look like 3M masking tape.

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Neglected Alfa’s around the world

There are more scruffy project cars than usual on Italian eBay right now so I thought I should share some of my favorites.  It’s odd to think that most of these cars would get an eager response from would be buyers if they turned up for sale on San Francisco Craigslist, but in Italy they are just old cars and better specimens can be found for not much money.

b1e3_1Looks a lot like the car Andrew has been restoring color and condition-wise.  Nice setting by the way.

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Market #63: Baby Blue 10102 Sprint project

Update 2/10/09: This poor bugger just showed up on italian eBay with a fresh nose job!

3124_1I guess moving to the old country didn’t agree with it.  Shame, it was such a straight, original car.

Update 12/1/08:  This car ended, reserve met for $12,100 with 9 bids.  I forcast $12,500 so I guess my sense of the value of these cars must be getting better.  Having the first crack at a car like this would be fun, making it run and drive before doing any major work.  I bet the new owner will tear it apart, loose half the pieces and despair when the bill to repair the head is $1400 then put it on ebay after 10 years sitting in a wet climate under a blue tarp- aren’t I the optimist this morning.  Actually I would love to hear from the new owner about their plans for this remarkably original car.

Giulietta Sprint 10102*158890, Engine 00102*24926. This car is on eBay right now out of Florida. Fusi lists this as a 1961 Sprint from right in the middle of that years numbers. Rusty trunk corner aside, this is probably about the nicest Sprint project I’ve seen since the dark blue eyebrow car that was the subject of Market #9.

sprint noseBright-work is very straight and nice. The little bit of rash on the hood is probably from a blue tarp trapping water against this panel and the roof.

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Market #61: SS 00001, ‘Squalo’ again.

Another thought for this car: I’ve been thinking about this car (what can I say, despite my tough talk below I think it’s awesome and wish I could buy it) and as recommended by Elmar, I think the thing that should happen is it should go to Arese to be part of Alfa’s permanent ‘Museo Storico’ collection. They have the prototype successor to the SS there and they have the model they made this SS after so why not add this car to the collection. Fiat has deep pockets and Italians are museum minded if my trips there are any indication. If the BAT cars are worth what they are worth (hey, if I had a spare 20 million I’d buy them in a heart beat) then this car has plenty of headroom, but I want some cold hard documentation before I call it the prototype. If this car is the SS prototype, it is more closely related to the BAT cars than any other car. I have seen in print that the SS is considered the production result of the BAT cars so it makes perfect sense. OK, back to worrying about the small end busings on my crappy 59 Sprint Normale…

Update: A reader informs me this car is known to Italians as SS ‘Squalo’ or shark for the shape of the grill opening.

Giulietta Sprint Speciale 10120*00001, Engine 00120*00003. This car has surfaced for sale again, the third time in a year or so since the ‘well-known collector and long-time owner’ parted with it. Each time about $100k has been added to the price but nothing has been done to rectify the cars short comings and so here it is looking for an owner who will appreciate it for what it is and what it isn’t. Oh, and the new owner will be required to fork over $275,000.

ss 0001 nose diagonalLooks phenomenal in this picture, but the flaws have been air-brushed out and apparently it is appropriate for deep space travel. Those alumimum headlight rings are too cool. I bet the mirrors take the coefficient of drag from .28 to .30.

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Market #58: Very Rough incomplete 56 Sprint

Update 12/2/08:  This car reached $3650 with 24 bidders before ending reserve not met.  I don’t think we’ve seen the last of this car.  As I mentioned before, I am interested in it, but I just couldn’t pull the trigger yesterday while looking at those floors, knowing I have been too chicken to go for it on my SS that doesn’t need this much.

Update 11/25/08: This car is now on eBay. A trunk lid (courtesy of me) and rear glass have been added along with more detailed pictures of the floor and trunk rust. A project for the brave. Opening bid is a realistic $1956 compared to the $6950 asking that was lowered to $5950 when it was on CL. Original engine number for this car was 1315*03053. I may actually bid on this thing.

Giulietta Sprint AR 1493*03146, Engine 1315*40174. This car is available now on Craigslist out of Newport Beach from Fastcars of California. According to Fusi this car was made late in 1956 and the engine came in an early 1956 Spider. These early column shift Sprints don’t come up for sale often and it is doubtful many were made.

This car is likely to define the bottom of the market for early Giulietta Sprints. I’ve seen worse cars being tackled by enthusiasts but those cars are usually purchased for very little money so the first resurrection phase brings their investment up to about this cars starting asking price.

leftfrontTusk style bumperettes are odd and give the car a less than sporty makeover. All in all the trim is there and not too bad but the shape of the front looks to me like it has been pushed in a little.

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Giulietta Sprint 101 1300 engine rebuild part 3: more bottom end work

If you’re not into reading about engine rebuilds the next few posts will probably bore you… I woke up early Sunday and set out for the shop determined to figure out the oil pan set up on the engine I’m building. I bought a 101 1300 Normale oil pan for pretty cheap that was dirty and the windage tray had a lot of surface rust, but I figured I could clean it up and if I got the rust off it would stay off since it will be in an oil bath. I had to look at the parts book illustrations several times before I figured out how the windage tray brackets get installed. The brackets themselves were bent up but I aligned everything with some pliers and I’m now confident I know how it goes together.

1300 windage tray bracketThe brackets are taller on one side than the other, probably to put the windage tray at an angle to direct the oil to the pick up as it drops out of the crank. The ‘cigarette’ seals can be seen here sticking out of the end main cap. These will have to be trimmed before the final assembly.

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