I managed to get up to my dads house on Monday to grab some Sprint parts I need to help overcome a bad transmission (more later) and while I was there we spent two hours and pulled the pistons out of the 216 just to make sure there was no rust as suggested by a guy on the Stovebolt forum. You will remember the engine was stuck from sitting for years -but that I had managed with no small effort to turn it over. Something was making it stick and it’s not much work to pull the pistons out when the engine is on a stand with the head off. Why not?
Nice little stain like smokers teeth. Remember the smokers toothpaste commercial -‘imagine what smoking a pack a day will do your teeth?’ I always thought -imagine what it would do to your lungs. This is what #6 looked like when it dropped out of the hole.
Continue reading “Project: Dads 1947 Chevy 3100 part 3”
Project: Dads 1947 Chevy 3100 part 2
1947 Chevrolet 3100 Thriftmaster 6EPJ3165, original 216 engine, built in Oakland Ca, 65th 3100 made?
Today was a good day. I woke up at 7, put a cup of coffee in me and a tank of gas in the Sprint at 7:40 -didn’t think I needed it but did it out of caution at the beginning of the 80ish miles to my dads house, managed to get almost 13 gallons in it. Running out of gas would have been my fault but still would have dampened my enthusiasm for the Sprint. It took about 2 hours to get there, getting wound up weaving through fairly uptight traffic from Oakland to Napa and then unwinding from Napa to Middletown on the pastoral two-lane sweepers. Plan was to do some work on the truck engine, help with some garage organization and eat a good hamburger.
Part 1 of helping my dad on the truck in case you missed it.
The Sprint, still tink tink tinking from the spirited drive over the switchback dense hill from Calistoga to Middletown. Our friend John couldn’t get over the Sprint, it’s simplicity, sophistication and style. I don’t blame him, I’m still stuck on it.
Continue reading “Project: Dads 1947 Chevy 3100 part 2”
Project: Dads 1947 Chevrolet 3100 part 1
1947 Chevrolet 3100 Thriftmaster 6EPJ3165, original 216 engine, built in Oakland Ca, 65th 3100 made!
Okay, I know what you’re thinking, but hey, if you like other old cars besides Alfa Romeo’s, raise your hand. I thought so. I’m not alone here. Here’s the story: around the time I was born (late 1972 for those who don’t know me outside of my ramblings here) my dad brought home this truck. It was owned since new by a local Blacksmith shop. I doubt my dad paid much for it. Over the years I rode around in it with him, notably driving several times from San Bernadino California to Bremerton Washington (some 1200 miles -just under 2000 km for my rest-of-the-world readers) for Christmas visits with my grand parents. It always started right up and got us wherever we were going. I can still remember the sounds and smells of riding in this truck -last time I was in it when it ran was probably in about 1990.
This truck has been waiting a good 20 years to get back on the road. That sign on the door is pretty sweet. Funny how memories of something like this truck can be so strong when other stuff so easily fades. As a kid I would climb all over this thing and the metal was so thick I doubt I made even the slightest dent.
Continue reading “Project: Dads 1947 Chevrolet 3100 part 1”
Market 250: SSweet projects o' mine
Giulietta SS 10120*00413, 00121*02334 & Giulia SS 10121*380211, 00121*00271. Liquidation sale!! Well, sort of… I am in the first months of a new business venture I helped start and have spent exactly *zero* hours on my SS projects since it started. I have more excuses but that one is the most immediate. In the case of the Giulia it’s not hard to part since we barely got to know one another, but the Giulietta has been a needy companion for a few years and saying goodbye will be hard. I’ve started down this path a few times -selling my projects that is- but just couldn’t do it when it came right down to it. This time will be different I hope.
The first picture I ever saw of my Giulietta Sprint Speciale. This car is a lot less rusty than I thought it would be when I bought it. The black finish is a very tough rust encapsulator that I have cursed countless times.
Not the first but one of the first good pictures of the Giulia. Lots more pictures here.
Continue reading “Market 250: SSweet projects o' mine”
The rear view mirror II
As part of my push to just get the Giulietta SS on the road and to satisfy a momentary curiosity piqued when I unpacked the Giulia SS, I got my rearview mirrors together and compared the parts. Â As you can see it is true that these two are exactly the same. Â Plan was to make the best unrestored mirror I could from the parts on hand, see if there were any parts I was missing and get a sense of the work required to have a restored mirror be the end result. Â I’m not missing any parts and to have a restored mirror I need to: Â Get the body re-wrinkle finished (~$5 can), get the base and surround rechromed (~$100) , get the glass resilvered (~$20) and put it all together.
Assembled and parts side by side for comparison. Â The disassembled one came with the Giulia SS, the other was an eBay purchase.
SSettling in
Giulia SS 380211 is in the house
The odyssey has ended, my new Giulia SS is in my shop space next to the Giulietta SS and the parts are for the most part unpacked. How is it? Well, it is as rusty as the pictures promised -with a need for inner and outer rockers in addition to repair to a lot of little lacey rust holes around the windows and anywhere else moisture was able to get. The good is that a lot of the hard fabrication was done before the previous owner got the car so it has a new floor, lots of new metal in the lower extremities and a pile of new metal to install, the bad is it makes my Giulietta SS rust repairs look like a cake walk. Can and will I get it together? I hope so.
Dave brought the car and 3 crates down from Canada. I find it sad that he earned 40% more than the broker company and all they did was fill out a few forms. I reckon the shipping was a pretty good deal.
On the road again: Giulia SS ready for departure
Kind of a tweet type update. Just got this picture of my Giulia SS. Flatbed will show up in Vancouver within the hour. Hopefully will be received Saturday sometime.  Exciting!
 Looks good! Crates hold parts and glass. Just like the Beverly Hillbilly’s 380211 is California bound.
Continue reading “On the road again: Giulia SS ready for departure”
Sprint Speciale Summer
This morning I got an email from the friend of mine who bought the Giulietta Spider I sold late last year. It turns out he’s shooting for a late June sports car event to have it on the road. That car was not any nearer than my Giulietta SS to being on the road so as I was sitting in very slow traffic so I started thinking about what it would take to have the SS ready for the same event. I decided I needed to define what my minimum criteria of roadworthyness is, what remains to do to get to it, and how long each of those tasks would take.
I think this will help with my suspended disbelief. Yes, I can.
Spring Sprint sparks
It has been a long winter -this very morning it was cold and even my modern car (a full on spaceship compared to the Sprint) was somewhat inhospitable for the first 10 minutes of my drive to work as dewy windows, fogged mirrors and cold leather slowly came around. About 6-8 weeks ago, when we had our first ‘hey it’s spring!’ weekend I decided it was time to dust the Sprint off, charge the battery, and start using it again. Everything was going fine -it cranked over nice and fast, the carb was atomizing fuel, it had spark but it wouldn’t start. I ended up bump starting it on my long steep driveway. This was the first bump in a somewhat long, thoroughly bumpy road that only recently smoothed.
Starting at the happy ending… Me and the Mrs. in our Sprint on the track at Sears Point. Thanks for the picture Greg!