Category: Project cars

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Market #40: Another low in Sprints

Giulietta Sprint 1493*22515.  This 1960 Sprint Normale was on eBay here and sold for $310!  Not a bad deal if you have a project you need body panels for or if you (like me) have a lot of extra Sprint parts and are looking for something to bolt them to.  Another good use for this would be as a mule to develop some welding skills on, the benefits would be two-fold:  You’d be learning to weld and you’d be saving an otherwise fairly hopeless seeming car. 

Sellers have all the removed parts and would consider keeping them with the car for a price.  How considerate. 

The nose here is really not that bad.  I see some dents and wrinkles but this is what you would find under the paint and filler on just about any Sprint, concours contenders included.

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Sprint to Berlina engine swap advances: Part 1 of Sprint engine rebuild and Berlina revival.

After I picked up the new windshield for the Berlina in Berkeley I headed down to the shop to finish the pulling portion of the job.

I am new to pulling and dropping in engines so I probably spent way too much time thinking about it compared to just doing it. I decided to pull the transmission from below due to the tight fit of the 1750 in the Sprint, which turned out to be a good idea, though difficult. To pull the transmission the tunnel opening cover has to be removed along with both shift boots (and a whole bunch of stuff on the underside). It took about an hour to get the right angle and grip on it but eventually the trans slid free of the main shaft. I put a tire under it so if it got loose unexpectedly it wouldn’t hurt itself crashing on the cement floor.

I hated pulling up the nicely glued in carpet but there was no getting around it. The cover had two Philips and two slotted screws, nice touch. The boot you see here is what keeps you from smelling gear oil when you drive. Stinky stuff.

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Market #36: Very Rough 1600 SS

Update: This car (11/18/08) is now offered for 1012 Euro.  Next thing you know this car will be free if you are willing to get a tetanus shot and show up with a trailer.  I know of a similar car locally that, in addition to being this rusty, was hit HARD in the front, that recently changed hands for the price of a tow.  Someday for this car?  I hope so…

The opening bid of $5413.80 (3500 Euro) will probably buy you this challenging SS rusty shell project that is currently on Italian eBay. Of course what do you do with something like this? From the pictures, I’d say half of the car would have to be rebuilt from panel sections and fabricated from scratch. Lets not forget glass… doors… trim…

This is kind of what I expected to arrive when my SS came, but I spent less than this and got more than I was hoping of the trim and glass. Drivers side headlight opening is funky among other things. Steering box should be present, a small plus.

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Market #35: Black plate Sprint Veloce Confortevole project

Sold! $19,340. Deutschland, here it comes. Well, it is eBay, so we wont know until a few weeks pass without it reappearing if it actually sold.  I was kind of thinking $20,000 would be the tipping price between a good buy and a good sale, so for what it’s worth I owe myself a t-shirt.  Greig, you were the only entrant in my guess the final price contest so I guess I owe you a T-shirt either way.  Hopefully I’ll get to them in our life-time.

Sprint Veloce ‘Confortevole’ 1493E*06481, engine 1315*30972. I am starting to think that Michael at Fast Cars of California has a endless hoard of Giulietta projects, mainly Sprints. Today’s offering is a 1958 Giulietta Sprint Veloce Confortevole project that apparently spent 15 years with weeds growing through its trunk. The car is complete and basically sound but requires (and deserves) a full restoration.

Pretty much all there and ready to come apart. Nose has been where it ought not have been and has lots of little dents to show for the experience. Grill ‘eyebrows’ can be had.

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Market #33: Giulietta Spider… Veloce?… Veloce!

Reserve not met! Auction ended the second time around at $9100, I guess the repeated listing curse has struck.  I imagine the seller will regroup, make some small changes to the car then relist it in a few months when the general public has forgotten about it.

Relisted: The car is back on ebay due to a non-paying high bidder. The seller has added to the description a scan of a response from the Alfa Romeo Archive stating without caveat that the car is a Giulietta Spider Veloce. Will a relist with solid documentation take this auction higher than the first selling price or will the eBay repeated listing low-price curse strike? I anticipate the former. Veloces are special and with a little, ok, well, a lot of work this car will be fantastic.

Update: Car sold for $14,100 which is at the lower end of my speculation, but considering the expense of getting a 750 Veloce engine together this is probably a good price. As always, we’ll see if the sale sticks. I am thinking Sprints might be more popular than Spiders right now based on recent eBay results.

Giulietta Spider 10125 1495*(F)10203, Engine 1315*44059 (not original). This car is available now on eBay, another neat Giulietta project from the seller in Newport Beach who sold several of the Sprints I have written about. This car is being sold as a Veloce and has several physical characteristics of a Veloce but based on the numbers there is some legitimate doubt as to whether it is truly a Veloce.

There are a lot of VERY enthusiastic Alfa people out there whose primary interest and first love are Giulietta Spider’s, especially Veloce’s, and if you are seriously considering this car and looking for guidance, you may want to check out the AlfaBB (link is to a discussion of this car) or join the 750/101 Yahoo group to track some of them down and get their opinions.

This Spider almost looks like a wax and go in this picture. Dent in the nose is not too bad and it doesn’t seem to have affected the trim which all looks pretty good. I like the baby blue.

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Market #34: Barn find Giulia Spider Normale

Sold!  33 bids and an ending price of $8700.  Almost exactly what I sold mine for a few years back.  If it can be brought to life and put on the road without much fuss then a very good buy.

Giulia Spider AR10123*373944, Engine 00112*04458.  Available now on eBay is this 1962 Spider.  Seller says it doesn’t run but rolls and steers fine.  Rust is reported to be limited to the shelf behind the seats and the hood edges.  From the pictures it appears this car has the 3 shoe drum brake set-up and a later split case 5-speed.  No mileage is stated but these cars seem to accrue about 80 – 100,000 before they are taken off the road for lack of some small repair only to turn up as barn finds 20 years later.

I owned a 1962 Spider very similar to this car.  It was a single carb 1600 with a split case 5 speed and 3 shoe drum brakes (you can read about it here).  It had similar patina but no rust.  The engine looked about the same and with a little coaxing came to life easily enough.

Originally white, now red, with over-spray all over the place.  Looks like a straight forward honest car, not quite a wax and go, but almost.  All the trim is in place and there are no obvious problems.

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New member of the family: 1972 Berlina

I did a quick calculation and found that at my current usage, I would reach the end of the warranty on my daily driver at 100,000 miles 13 months before the term of the warranty is up in March or 2010.  Time to get a cheap commuter!

My commute is 30 miles each way and I travel both ways at the early edge of the 880 traffic, so unless there is an accident I get to do 35 – 60 mph the whole way. A beater pre-smog sedan with a 5 speed and an economical engine would be a perfect commuter for me.  I didn’t have much to spend initially so I had low expectations about what I would find, but I figured I could drive the 1959 Sprint until something turned up.

Last Saturday I went by a friends Alfa repair shop to buy some Sprint interior trim I needed for the Sprint Veloce and this car was parked on the street out front.  I asked what was going on with it and I was told the engine was coming out then it was going to the local Alfa pick-n-pull, unless of course I wanted it.  I asked how much and for the same price as the hand full of Sprint interior trim I bought it.

1972 Berlina 11500*3000189, California Blue plate 564 GQB.  Originally Silver with black interior.  Doesn’t look too bad.

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Market #32: Giulietta 750B half-off sale

Giulietta Sprint 750B 1493*01864. On eBay right now, starting bid is $1000. Vin on this seemingly very straight Sprint nose corresponds to early 1956. This would probably be ideal for the buyer of the smashed Confortevole or perhaps the basis of an interesting project for the right person. I know project?? Am I crazy? Well, if you know something about the origins of the Sprint Zagato you may have heard of the group of cars collectively known as Sprint Veloce Zagato’s.

I goes something like this: You go off the road, down an embankment into a ravine and end up upside down wedged between a tree and some rocks. You climb bruised and battered from your recently purchased and expensive Sprint Veloce. Two weeks later you deliver the car to carrozzeria Zagato to get it fixed. Elio looks it over and tells you it would be cheaper to cut most of the original crushed body work away and make a new body from aluminum than to restore it. Oh, and by the way he can make it lighter and more aerodynamic in the process, you’ve seen the ‘double-bubble’ roof right?

Only Sprint Veloce Zagato’s were not all Veloce’s or even Sprints for that matter. A modern SVZ recreation if sold as such is still a very sought after and expensive car.

Nice nose. No deep rot to be seen, lots of small parts that are hard to find still bolted and screwed into place etc.

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Market #30: Orange 750B project in Europe

Update 7/14/08: Price is now 15,999 Euros.

Update: Overnight the price went from 12,499 to 16,999 Euro’s.  I wonder what they are thinking.  See the comment below for a European perspective.  Perhaps they saw this car.

1957 Sprint 750B 1493*04327, Engine 1315*03847. This car, with an asking price of 12,499 Euro’s, verifies my claim that 750B’s are regarded as being worth a premium compared to 101 style cars. This makes sense considering the hand made nature and relative rarity of this model, with roughly 6500 being made, Veloce’s included, compared to probably more than 25,000 of the later style.

Classified text reads: “CH Fahrzeug aus 3.Hand – 1968 zerlegt & total Restauriert – Seit 30 Jahren Stillgelegt – Zylinderkopf demontiert, mit Doppel Weber Vergaser (Sprint Veloce). Die Orig. Farbe des Gulietta war weiss ! – Fahrzeug ist complet, wenig Rost, zum Restaurieren!”

Or via Google language tools if you prefer English: “CH vehicle 3.Hand – 1968 decomposed & total Restored – For 30 years Decommissioned – cylinder head dismantled, with double Weber carburetor (Sprint Veloce). The color of Orig Gulietta was white! — Vehicle is complet, little rust, to restore!”

Not too bad really. The nose looks straight as does all the trim. Drivers side headlight ring is missing. I like the fog lights. Apparently this car was in the sun long enough to fade the paint.

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