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Market 411: Sprint 750B series 1, no vin

Update 7/1/12: Why didn’t I buy this !?!?

Giulietta Sprint 750B.  This car is on eBay right now out of Alamo Ca from a classic car dealer who seems to have set up shop there recently.  Alamo is an old, affluent town near me and probably home to a lot of good cars like this waiting to be unearthed.  This car has the 7″ lights, the first series body style and is not a Veloce so it’s vin number is in a pretty limited range.  I asked the seller if the Bertone body number was intact -will report what they say.  How do you register a car with no vin?  Not sure.

One wonders where it was hiding.  Body looks great on the outside.  Trim isn’t too bad for a rough project.  I like it!

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Market 410: Spider Veloce 750F 06681 in NL

Giulietta Spider Veloce 750F 1495*06681, 1315*32551. Henrik made me aware of this project Spider available in the Netherlands from Strada e Corsa.  No price is mentioned, nor is there any indication whether it has its original engine, but it looks okay if you’re into this sort of project where every nut bolt and washer needs attention.  Have a look around the sellers website -lots of neat stuff!

White sure minimizes problems with body work.  This car looks to have seen some abuse from parking or more likely time spent in a not very careful storage situation.

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Glas 1700 GT: bringing it home

It’s really funny to think that I had plans to have this car run before Rufus was born, and here he is 6 weeks old already!  Well, today I made a big step in the direction of it running -I went and fetched it from Sacramento!  As soon as I saw it again the fire was stoked, and I’m hot to get it put together.  The bottom end of the engine, rebuilt head and all the other little parts I’ve cleaned up have been waiting for this.  Time to get cracking!

Freshly powder coated wheels look great.  Tires are 175/70/14’s.  Two of the rims had some scale rust around the valve stem hole that prevents the stem from sealing so I will be using inner tubes in those two wheels.  Almost looks like a car from this side -being mostly red and all.

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101 Sprint CA plate TIG 200 -where are you now

A friend sent me this picture.  Not sure where he found it or when it was taken, but it’s a California black plate car with a road bike on a roof rack.  Plate number looks like TIG 200 or possibly TJG 206 or some combination there of.  Anyone know this car?

White car?  Period plate frame.  I can’t tell anything about the bicycle.  No hub caps.

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Giulietta Sprint Accessories part 3: the rear seat

Update 3/27/12: I received a note from Brian today that included these pictures of his Sprint back seat.  He’s getting it redone, but thought we would like to see the originals before they disappear.

This rear seat is in great shape for being original -but still has the usual discoloration from water or whatever.  Here again is the raised headliner bit -as if someone tall enough to need clearance would fit back here.

Looks like the stuffing has died.  Underdash Norelco razor?  I don’t think the bottom cushion is original.  Child seat mount straps or seatbelts seen between the bottom and back on the driver side?

Door panels look really good.  Nice to see a good set of these.

Originally posted 8/16/2008:  A rear seat in a Sprint. This is one of those ‘what were they thinking’ accessories, like a phonograph or an in-dash DVD player. I earlier reported that on one desperate occasion I had 5 people in my Sprint and it was a squeeze of clown car proportions. I am not overly tall or long legged but when I am driving my Sprint there is maybe 3 inches between the back of my seat and the ledge the rear seat would sit on. It can’t be more than six inches with the seat all the way forward. I could see this working for a small child, maybe. It’s possible there was a tax or vehicle registration benefit to having the Sprint be a 4 seater that outweighed the cost of the seat but I’m not sure. I do know that Italian tax and registration laws of this era had all sorts of weird impacts on vehicles, most notably the sub 1300cc and sub 600cc breaks. I’ll explore this at a later date.

Below are two examples of rear seats I’ve come across recently. I’ve probably seen three more in the last year in my scouring the net for cars to write up. I have a feeling that when orders for the rear seat didn’t materialize, Bertone started shipping them with cars to get rid of them. I think all the rear seat cars I’ve seen were 1959 or 60 cars.

Vaguely reminiscent of the rear seats found in GTV’s but with a center fold down arm rest. This one seems to have been redone at some point as the original upholstery would look more like that in the next picture.

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Market 408: Spider 10103 170673 -just the body

Update 3/27/12: I am impressed by this sale price.  $11,000 for a body on suspension.  Such a deal.

3/25/12: Giulietta Spider 10103*170673.  This car is on eBay right now out of Appleton WI.  WYSIWYG with this one.  I don’t know how easy it is to deal with paint matching the lids and doors to a freshly painted body, but people are bidding on it, so it must make some sense.  If I had a rusty complete Spider from this series I’d buy this and move assemblies over to the new body one at a time as they are restored.  Might be fun.

Looks pretty good!  Paint is even, I don’t see signs of poorly done bodywork, and it’s ready to go.  Someone in the right part of the country (right being where you can get decent bodywork done for $20 or so an hour) could make a cottage industry of buying whole rusty cars, doing this to the body then selling the parts one at a time on eBay.

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Market 407: Castle find SS project in France 10120 00440

Update 4/6/12:  Car reached an underwhelming $15,099.  I’ve heard of 00120 engines selling for about $10K, so this is pretty cheap for this car, regardless of how busted up you think it is.

Giulietta Sprint Speciale 10120*00440 This car is on eBay out of France right now. Seller commented a few days ago about the availability of this car, wanting to post here, but I was away from the internet for a few days and now here it is on eBay. The car is said to have been vandalized and stripped of parts, but it looks solid enough to be viable for someone, and since these have gone up in value, more parts -especially trim bits, are available new.  Car received ‘final assembly’ in France by Renault -part of their trade agreement for car imports.

Nice color combo!  Looks like that late 60’s GTV color, and the blacked out bumpers are an interesting touch.  Kind of looks like the car was driven into a corner, creating angled dents at each headlight.  

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6C2500 Freccia d’Oro – looking for a good home

6C2500 916587 ‘Freccia d’Oro’.  Some cars come up for sale and you forget them the moment you look away -others stick with you, lingering in your mind like a pretty face from your Differential Equations class in college.  For me, this car is one I’ve thought about occasionally since the first time I saw it about 10 years ago on eBay out of Southern California for about $20,000 (anyone remember exactly?).  It sold through Fantasy Junction in the last few months for just under $50,000 and is now offered by Autoclassic in Italy.  The eBay and FJ sales had it powered by a Chevy V8 (get over it), but Autoclassic seems to be selling it with a core 6C2500 engine and transmission.  I have no idea what such an engine and transmission are worth -I would think quite a bit (anyone?) -but I have no doubt the price has nearly doubled.

Stunning big car.  These cars were built at a glacial pace.  I think the paint was pretty far gone when it was on eBay -as was the interior.  I am not a fan of the red wheels.

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Market 406: Sprint 10105 20729 -how you used to find them

Update 4/6/12: I subscribe to the idea that the price is the price -especially in the pure market forces exercise that an auction is, but I can’t help thinking that this car is under-appreciated and worth more than the sum of it’s parts.  Car is listed in the current Giuliettaletta for an asking price of $20K.  A little high in my opinion, but not massively.

Update 3/27/12: Car went unsold with a high bid of $12,100 -not meeting reserve, but has been relisted.  I wouldn’t have sold it for $12,100.

3/17/12:  Giulietta Sprint 10105 1493*20729.  This car is on eBay right now out of Kennett Square, Pennsylvania from a long time Alfa club guy.  Seller says it was owned by the Dupont family and under went several color changes from the original Celeste (or whatever shade of light blue).  Car is currently powered by a 1600 engine out of a 101 Spider that has a blown head gasket, but comes with the original 1300.  The usual caveats apply -it’s complete, together, and not far from the road, but needs a lot of help to be a nice car.  That said, it is one of the better Sprint projects I’ve written about.

Looking very much like my car -patina and all.  Biggest plus for this car is its potential to be a rolling restoration.  Check the brakes out, do the head gasket or whatever, tie up the loosest ends in the interior, suspension etc and drive it.  While you use it you can source parts, come up with a plan, and begin the restoration.

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California S.B. 1224 -move emissions exemption from 1975 cut-off year to 1981

This will mean less to the rest of the world than it does to us here in California, but the state senate is voting March 27th on a bill that would move the exemption cut-off year from 1975 to 1981.  I read about it here. This is BIG news if you are a vintage car enthusiast in California.  If it passes, it will have some interesting ripple effects.  The obvious change is a greatly reduced stress level if you happen to drive a car from this time period.  Getting 75 – 81 cars to pass emissions is notoriously draconian and expensive.  More subtle effects include: registrations of cars that were previously PNO’d or just plain off the record should increase -adding revenue for the state;  the value of some cars from this period will increase (78 Ferrari 308, Lotus Esprit or Alfetta GTV anyone?); there will probably be an uptick in local repair businesses when these cars begin to filter back out onto the road.

A 1976 Lancia Beta coupe in the Italian countryside.  In California, it used to be that if you wanted one of these you searched, (usually in vain) for a 1974 or 1975 model – or deal with the heavily painful emissions tax and hoop jumping.  Now, if this bill passes, just about any Beta coupe you find will be a no-smog deal.  Don’t get me wrong -I grew up in California in the 70’s and remember driving in San Bernardino when the mountains a few miles north were not visible through the brown smog -emissions standards are great, and have done a wonderful job of cleaning things up.  

What would I buy from this era?  Lancia Beta coupe, Alfa Giulietta 1.3 (the one with the GTAJ style over-square engine), Lotus Esprit, Porsche 928, Alfetta GT or Sedan, Ferrari 308 GTS, Fiat 131 or X1/9, Jaguar X? many VW’s etc.

If you are in California and the idea of this bill passing excites you -get the word out and write to your senator or who ever it is that votes in these committees.