TI – Page 3 – Giuliettas

May 7, 2009

TI Tidy-up part 5: The plan.

Now that I have successfully completed the Sprint engine rebuild I think I will try again to plan a project. I will lay out here the specification, schedule and budget to reach my desired outcome for the TI tidy-up. At the end you will find my nice to have’s and dream to have’s.

What do I want from the TI? The same thing functionally as the Berlina provided, a safe, fun, reliable daily driver. This time though, I want it to be presentable and plan on taking it on some weekend rallys and tours. Of course I want all this as inexpensively as possible and as soon as possible.

This picture borrowed from the AlfaBB shows the original color of my TI and the original 15″ wheels I hope to find a set of. Anyone?

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May 5, 2009

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.

If 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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May 4, 2009

I guess this is TI tidy-up part 3

I couldn’t sleep last night. I worked hard on the TI Sunday until 8pm and got inspired to fix it up and then when I tried to go to sleep I kept thinking about what I needed to do to put it together. Well, after dragging my tired, I-only-got-2-hours-of-sleep butt around the office I simply had to stop off at the shop on my way home to do at least a little something to the TI since I spent all night trying to get it out of my head.
The shop engine hoist came back from a service call so I put it to work and pulled the engine out while no one was looking. PO had 1 nut holding the engine in.

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May 3, 2009

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.
The 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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March 24, 2009

Berlina Register Newsletter 28 out now!

Andrew likes to keep us up to date on the Berlina world by reporting sales, stories and the like in his newsletters. Newsletter 28 (berlet28) appeared in my email box yesterday so naturally I decided to post about it. I’ve noticed the last few years he has strayed from the primary topic (Berlinas) and it has become more and more the Alfa Sedan Register Newsletter. Yours truly features in one of the sale reports, as I did in Berlina Newsletter 27. Stay tuned for the next installment on that front where I will likely feature again, perhaps twice in Newsletter 29, which will put me in there three issues running. If you go to the Berlina register website (there’s a link on my homepage) you can find an archive of all of his Newsletters going back to when market reports included $800 Berlina original runner/drivers that would be $8000 these days. So it goes.

SF Gate published an article about Andrew in their CARS section recently that is linked below.

SF Gate article about Andrew.

The SF Gate article included a photo session but strangely there are no pictures with the article anymore. Here’s Andrew with his Super.

February 2, 2009

Original TI pictures found!

I was looking for a picture of Hans Mathon (sp?) I have at a CSRG event standing beside his Giulia SS that he recently sold via FJ when I came across the pictures below that the guy I bought my TI from sent me when I was on the fence about exercising the $3500 Buy It Now option. Really sad how busted up it is now. Oh well, have wrench , will fix.

mygiuliafront A complete runner, very blue and pretty good looking. I was in my twenties and wanted a Giulia sedan in the worst way.
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January 28, 2009

Finally bought my first Alfa…

It’s not very often you get a chance to undo something you did that you regret. My first Alfa was a this 1964 1600TI and I sold it after about a year of ownership. It came up for sale last week on eBay and Craigslist for less than I sold it for. When I saw the pictures I understood why. The guy I sold it to had ground paint off in areas he suspected had rust under the paint, pulled the drive-train out and took the interior and front end trim apart. As sad as it was to see this car in this state and knowing full well it would be difficult to get it back to the state it was when I had it (which wasn’t all that great and to add insult to injury, it appears he lost some of the parts), I had to decide if it was worth it to buy it back and get it back on the road.

742947-r1-015-6_006 Here it is being delivered to me when I bought it off eBay for $3500 in late 2002. Car looked great in the pictures and the plan was to fly to Atlanta and drive it home, but the seller changed his tune about it being capable of making the 3000 mile drive so I shipped it. That’s a younger version of me and my cousin Norm pushing it onto the loading deck. Car needed a clutch almost immediately and would likely have stranded me if I drove it home.

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