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Market 416: Spider 10103 09100 project

Update 8/19/2015:  This car is back on the market after having some work done.  The body is better than it probably bought to be considering the snowy woodpile it spent several years associating with.  What is a restored LWB Normal of this vintage worth these days?  $50K?  $60K?  $20K?  I don’t really know -haven’t been paying enough attention, but this doesn’t seem like a bad deal at $12,500, but you probably need to be near by and fancy a challenging project.  Perhaps a garage endeavor to work on in your retirement?  Be aware, last I checked, there were not too many places willing to take on metal replacement.

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Update 7/1/12: This car sold for $10,201.  The saga continues!

Giulietta Spider 10103 1495*09100.  Projects are in fashion, and this rough around the edges interim car is riding the wave on eBay right now.  It’s not too bad, not too good, just your usual needs everything project.  If you jump now it could be yours -current bidding is a paltry $7350.  Summer is upon us!

Busted in the nose, but trim unharmed, with lots of weird corrosion.  Looks neither good nor bad -just a but rough.  There’s a bit of corrosion in the rocker visible here.

Continue reading “Market 416: Spider 10103 09100 project”

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Market 501: SS 381151 at Fantasy Junction “POA”

Giulia Sprint Speciale 10121*381151, 00121*01052.  Fantasy Junction, a respectable local to me seller of high end sports cars has this SS listed in their inventory, price: POA.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen them use this pricing convention – maybe it has something to do with last weekends rigmarole in Monterey and they didn’t want to be caught out if pricing moved in leaps due to an auction result.  I didn’t make it to Monterey – opting rather to hang out with my dad.  Any big Giulietta sales go down?

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That is a great color on an SS.  So tempted to make an unflattering comment about Toyota dark metallic gray – better let it go though.  This car sits well, everything is where it belongs, and I am excited to go check it out in person – maybe they will let me test drive – who knows.  Anyone have POA I can borrow?

Continue reading “Market 501: SS 381151 at Fantasy Junction “POA””

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Market 148: Cobra-ized early 750 Spider

Update 8/18/2015:  As yet finding it difficult to find a human whose tastes align with its character, this Giulietta Spider continues to float from mark-up to mark-up (I would have thought mark-down to mark-down -but who am I to speculate).  Buy it now on eBay for $37,900 and be eschewed by Alfa owners, Cobra owners and those who aren’t comfortable in the presence of this much yellow.  I mentioned in the last update that the clock was ticking toward a time when it would be an attractive value proposition to take this car back towards stock.  That clock is still ticking.

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How hard could it be to lose the black?  

Continue reading “Market 148: Cobra-ized early 750 Spider”

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Alfa Romeo Giulietta turns 100!

No, that title is not a typo, and this post is not from 39 years in the future, but it is about the future.  I have been having a lot of conversations about technology, especially self driving cars lately, and this post is in reaction to those conversations, and anticipates / explores that topic through a possible experiential evolution of my Sprint ownership.

An early SS advertising photo.
An early SS advertising photo.  The first picture I posted to this blog 7+ years ago.

Continue reading “Alfa Romeo Giulietta turns 100!”

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My Sprint part 3 – What the heck have I been doing etc

First, I want to thank all you who have written me emails encouraging me to get back to writing the blog. I really appreciate the concern. No, this site will not die, no, I haven’t given up on it forever. After Fuelist fizzled out I needed to take a break from cars for a minute, but now I am feeling inclined to get back at it – especially considering I am weeks if not days from being reunited with my Sprint. Being a dad and fulltime engineer (again) has made heavy demands on my time, but no so much that I can’t contribute here once in a while.

So, that out of the way, here are some pictures of the work that has been done to my Sprint. Engine is looking phenomenal as is the engine compartment. I highly recommend Toms work if you are considering having someone work on your Sprint, Giulietta, or Alfa in general.

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Almost a shame to cover this up with an engine.

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Unless it’s this engine.  Yep – that’s a programmable distributor I got from Classicalfa.com.

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That spin on filter came with the car.  Headers are 1600 Giulia items.

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Bling has been liberally applied.

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Market 500: Late Sprint Veloce project E159104

Giulietta Sprint 10106 ARE159104, 1315*42314 (not matching, from a 750D Spider).  This car is on eBay right now from the same seller as the two Spider projects concurrently listed out of Connecticut.  Matching number 00106 engine is missing, and it needs a lot of help, but these late Sprint Veloces seldom show up in any form for sale.  I know they guy who bought this on Craigslist about 10 years ago out of the Mojave desert area – assuming this is the only Sprint Veloce in this paint scheme of course.  As usual, it’s a Sprint project and I find myself tempted.  Not the best group of pictures I’ve had to work with.

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Not the only metallic purple Sprint I’ve seen, but yes, the only one with white Vikings style swooshes.  Looks like a steering column switch gear sticking out on the right, and a control arm part on the left.  You could live with these grills.  I’d be kind of tempted to get it going and drive it with this livery for a while. Continue reading “Market 500: Late Sprint Veloce project E159104”

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Sprint 10105 20379: an update and a plan

Yesterday I watched Sprint 20379 get winched up on to a flat-bed truck and then slowly disappear from sight around a corner.  No, I didn’t sell my old friend, it is just going south for a few weeks/months of residency in the garage of Tom Sahines for an engine rebuild and a few other much needed and overdue remediations.  Didn’t I just rebuild the engine you ask?  Well, the answer to that depends on your definition of “just”.  I did rebuild the engine in the last 5 years, but I also drove the car daily on my commute for at least 6 months – not an exceptional feat for a Giulietta until you consider my commute was 70 miles each way, and I also drove it on all my incidental trips in between, probably totaling 20000 – 25000 miles in just those 6 months, but it’s not really the miles that has me rebuilding it.

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On its way to the spa. Continue reading “Sprint 10105 20379: an update and a plan”

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Market 499: Spider 750D 1146: complete and 80% there

Giulietta Spider 750D 1495*01146, 1315*41158.  Just ended today on eBay with 14 bids, the highest of which was $4051.  It’s always sad to behold a car that is just plain beyond reasonable help.  Judging by the level of completeness, it was probably parked with a leaky valve stem in 1969, and the battery drained before it could be fixed, then winter set in and you know the rest.  A 1956 model year Giulietta seems to carry slightly more ‘early model’ cache than a 1957, so perhaps someone with a donor body, or connection to inexpensive foreign skilled labor will decide this is worth having a go at.  After all, this car restored to the standards a couple guys around the country can achieve is probably an $80,000 + car.  Sorry for the order of the pictures, I’m still working out how the bulk media uploader works on my CMS.

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Rust may never sleep, but it does move at different paces in different places.  If this was on the north coast of Kauai all you would find are the headlight glasses, tires and anything else plastic, rubber or glass surrounding an oxide welded barely recognizable lump of used-to-be engine.   Continue reading “Market 499: Spider 750D 1146: complete and 80% there”

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Market 498: Late 1300 Spider project 171160

Giulietta Spider 10103 171160.  This car is available from the same seller as the car featured in Market 497, on eBay out of Connecticut.  They made about 500 1300 Spiders after this one in 1961, putting it near the end of 1300 production – not much of a distinction I suppose.  Engine block is blank, indicating a factory short block replacement – probably under warranty if the stories the oldtimers tell are true.

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You can kind of picture the downhill slide – minor fender-bender (or nose in this case) becomes multi-decades long neglect, complete with parts car status at some point.  Interesting light configuration.  One is fog, the other spot if the PO had any sense. Continue reading “Market 498: Late 1300 Spider project 171160”