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Market 172: Giulietta Spider 1495*05689 at the gallery

Giulietta Spider 1495*05689.  This car, an early 1959 interim model, is available right now from The Gallery, Brummen in the Netherlands.  The gallery looks like a big museum where you can buy the display pieces.  The stock on their website ranges from the mundane to the impressive with prices to match.  Hopefully someday I can make it there for a look around.  Someone should do something like that here in the USA.  On to the star of the show…

I chose this one for cousin Norm since it has a BMW 2000CS in the background.  Spiders look very sophisticated in white -like a guy who is always wearing a tuxedo.  Front side marker tells me it’s a European market car.  From this distance and at this resolution the car looks very nice.

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Fasteners 3: getting the hang of it!

My big mistake right now is being in a hurry to get this project to the driving part of it. All these little tasks are like making a familiar although long drive. I can imagine it going by -the blur of images, the familiar landmarks indicating progress, the dull stretches and finally the destination. Like that drive each task, like living each moment behind the wheel, has to be done. Today I spent an hour and and a half and got one little task done, like getting from mile marker 336 to mile marker 337 on the interstate when your destination is at mile marker 11,721. Enough about me and my psychology though, you’re here for the Speciale.

Before and after, you decide which is which. Yes, as a matter of fact I do wish the car was in paint so I could mount this piece!

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Body work 7 and Fasteners 2: saturday at the shop

I slept in until 10 am this morning! Two cups of coffee and the enthusiasm generated by seeing all the nice SS’s on the market I’ve written about this week saw me rushing out the door by 11am to work on the SS. I figured out everything I needed to make the plating kit work and wanted to get it all together, set it up and run some tests.

I bought 5 gallons of distilled water, a bunch of wire end alligator clips, a candy thermometer, a measuring spoon set, a spray bottle and a surge protector. I decided for my first attempt I’d use a 6 volt, 500 mA motorcycle battery charger I had laying around from who knows when. The day went like this:

The finished product first as usual. Plated engine lift bracket, head nuts and washers. I could probably have paid to plate every part on this car for what I am into my kit but this way I wont lose anything, I wont be driving back and forth to a plating shop and I can say: I did that!

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Market 171: SS 10120*00474 in Europe.

Giulietta Sprint Speciale 10120*00474, 00120*01042.  This car is available now on several European classified listing services.  Price is 35,000 pounds -about $56,900 at the time of writing.  I have this car on the Production and Register page as being in the USA, I guess it’s on the move.

I have decided against red, mainly because my Sprint is red, but this car has me reconsidering.  Appearance of this car is what you would expect for an expensive example.  I almost just typed that this car is a mid-range car after yesterdays $125,000 effort.  This is a good solid ready to use car.

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Bodywork 7: floor it!

Two years is a long time to wait plan and ponder but here I am seeing what has for so long seemed like something consigned to some later date.  Bill, old friend and recently arrived shop mate agreed to have a go at welding the floors into the SS.  I had a floor set I bought from Wolf last year and yesterday they finally saw some action.

The Veloce e-brake mount finally has somewhere to mount.  Looking good.  Welds will be cleaned up later.

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Market 122: 63 Sprint, some assembly required

Update 2009/12/08: I received an email from Bob in Vancouver who bought this car and it sounds like it is in good hands, already seeing a hotted up 2 liter with transmission enroute from the builder and the shell due back from the painters by the end of the year.  It’s good to see a car like this find the right home. 

Update 2009/07/14: After another go on eBay this car ended reserve not met at $4050 with 18 bids.  Not sure what it will take to sell it but hopefully the seller will keep improving it.  Lot’s more pictures of trim were added and it looks to be fairly complete.

Update 2009/06/16: Reserve not met at $5111 after 8 bidders stepped up.  I was thinking that, with a running 1600 installed and almost everything needed to complete it on hand, this car would reach at least $8000.  If it were me I would run another auction with an inventory of included parts and better finished product pictures.  I think it would see this car sold.

Giulia Sprint 10112*353214. This car is available right now on eBay out of Scotts Valley California, in the Santa Cruz mountains. Not too many of these later Sprints show up for sale, and when they do they are usually a mess. This car seems to buck that trend though it has some issues of its own to address. The ‘buy it now’ price is quite optimistic unless that paint is really nice and the parts included are in very good shape, but as the seller points out, it is easy to be $12,000 into a project like this and be at this point or not quite at his point yet. Anyone interested is advised to go and have a look.

Sprint 353212You have to admit that the paint looks good here, as do the grills. Hood shut lines are excellent. I wonder if the hood is bolted in or just sitting on top? Note door in the background.

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Market 128: Red Spider 10123*379964 looking for action

Update 12/8/09: This car is back in play, this time at Dearborn Classic Cars for $23,995. It has supposedly been gone through by an Alfa expert near the seller and needs nothing except a new home.

Color is a little better this time around. Still looks like a pretty good car.

Unremarkable, sits about right. Door lines are invisible but I would expect that from such a low res. picture.

Update 7/9/09: 7 days and 36 bids later this car sold for $14,500. I am going to say well bought unless it arrives as a bondoed over rust bucket, which it doesn’t really look like.

Giulia Spider 1600 10123*379964. This red Spider is on eBay right now and being sold out of Willits Ca, about 2 hours north of the Bay Area. Pictures, description etc is minimal so I presume they are hoping to drum up some local interest. Looks like a decent car, hopefully they are not looking for $50K or someother unrealistic amount.

379954 noseNot too bad for a poor quality picture. It’s all there, it all works together pretty well and it’s resale red.

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SS 00121 engine 6 and bodywork 6: the shop sunday

Update 4pm. Aaron put up a new post on his blog with a pretty cool video of his first trip in his 1962 1600 Giulia Sprint that spent a month in my shop getting freshened up to be roadworthy with some occasional, marginally helpful pointers from me.  Check it out.

Sunday December 6th, 2009.  I didn’t have any big plans for the time I would spend at the shop, mostly catching up on some small jobs and doing some organizing.  I was cold at the shop, even with long underwear and a thick hooded sweatshirt -hoodie in California stoner parlance, so I was moving slow and not very motivated.

Veloce intake side motor mount

Veloce engine mount receives a good cleaning, new bushing and used but good shape engine mount.  Note Bendix fuel pump in the background -the subject of a future post no doubt.

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SS 00121 engine rebuild 5: assembling for real this time

Saturday December 5th 2009. I arrived at the shop at noon after eating three Al Pastor tacos from my favorite taqueria -sounds like a lot but it’s not. Initially my plan was to do some more scraping of paint from the engine compartment and front wheel wells but my hands are pretty beat up from the last session doing this, and I’m tired of moving internal engine parts around when looking for things so I decided to do more work on the engine, namely install pistons and liners, water pump and get the oil pan ready for assembly.

It went like this…

giulietta sprnt speciale engine

Beginning at the end as usual. I had just installed the water pump and pulley hardware as 5 pm struck -time to go home. It’s got my name on it!

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SS Bodywork 5: the engine compartment

I have been looking at this car for 2 years now, in pictures after sending $4500 to the seller in December of 2007, trying to come up with a coherent plan for tackling it, and since then as a sculpture of sorts, always looming in the background corner of the shop, watching me toil on other cars, patiently waiting its turn.  It’s turn is here.

Having a really snotty cold complete with a crackly sounding cough ensures your work wants you as far away as possible, and when you start feeling pretty good but your body is still in clean up mode you have to get out an do.  In this fit of new found near health I decided that since I lacked the parts to finish assembling the engine, I would start in on the body, and where better to start than the engine compartment.  It has been a hellish job, but, as with all jobs, took starting and doing if it was to be seen finished.  I guess I could have paid someone to do this, but that would have been cheating, and besides, my funds are already in arrears of the someones I will be paying for time spent exercising their skills on my car.

The starting line.  First order of business was removing the steering components, the wiring harness and some other odds and ends so this would be a long level run rather than an obstacle course.  Looks pretty bad doesn’t it.

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