Market 127: Sold Spider. Assembled in Mexico!
Giulietta Spider 750D 1495*02420. This car sold on eBay recently for $18,100 after 38 bids. About the right result for a car like this. What do I mean ‘a car like this’? See the sellers  description for the full details, but basically a largly unoriginal bitsa that spent most of it’s life in Mexico. Not that any of that is in and of itself bad, especially if the result is fast and looks good, but Giuliettas are trending towards originality being reflected in asking and selling prices as interest and values go up. Bringatrailer did a write-up which can be found here.
Always a pleasure to see a Giulietta Spider nose that is well turned out in a color other than red, white or black. Not a lot to fault up here!
Continue reading “Market 127: Sold Spider. Assembled in Mexico!”
Market #39: rough 60 Spider project non-roller
Update 7/14/09: 7 bidders had it out and the new result was $2025. Not bad really.
Update 7/1/09:  “This car is being relisted due to difficulties in concluding the sale to an International buyer. U.S. Bidders only!!!b”
Update 6/11/09: Wow, 15 bidders fought it out and the winner spent $2236 buying this car, 11x more than the last result. Bravo, so now buy my car already, it’s twice as good as this and closer to home.
Update 6/4/09: This car has been listed on eBay again. Get in there. What are you waiting for? Bidding starts at $200. Such a deal. I’d drop half that to have the hood hinges.
Update 8/19/08. Reserve not met. Bidding reached $202.50 and would have been very well bought at that price. Car is relisted with $50 opening bid and $1500 buy it now. At least we now have an idea what the seller thinks it’s worth. Due to the complexity of moving this thing I am not sure even $1000 makes sense to anyone but a local to the car.
Giulietta Spider 10104 1495*11267. Listed here on eBay as a 1958 Spider parts car or body for restoration. Numbers indicate the car is a late 1960 interim car. As of writing this the auction has no bids and starts at $50.
It’s nice to see someone list a car like this without the usual hyperbole about how close it is to being a runner etc. The real shame here is this doesn’t look like it was such a bad car too long ago. I am going to guess someone pulled the wheels off to get some tires mounted and do the brakes, lost interest for a few years , lost the wheels and brake parts then sold it for parts. Eventually it ended up belly on the ground in Orrick MO (just outside of Kansas City), where we finally caught up with it.
Surprisingly straight and solid on the top side at least. I paid $1500 for a similar car earlier this year but it was on wheels. Trim parts seen here are all very valuable.
Continue reading “Market #39: rough 60 Spider project non-roller”
Market 126: Giulia Spider 375817. Nice!
Update 6/29: Alright people, come to order. Yes, this is an attractive, well maintained Giulia Spider with a storied past, and very well presented auction, and yes, it is pretty cool, but $33,100 after 48 bids? Wow, I’m glad to see 101 cars are still doing okay. My Spider looks pretty good at $4000… maybe I’ll just fix it up!
Giulia Spider 10123*375817. This red Spider is currently attracting bids on eBay out of Denver Colorado. The write up is extensive and it’s ownership record reads like a who’s who of well-known long-time Alfa (AROC) Enthusiasts. With 2 days, 8 hours left in the auction it is sitting at $20,600 after 21 bids, reserve not met. Full auction write-up is at the end of this post.
Now that is nice! Trim finish is perfect, trim and panel fit is exemplary and the color red is right. Uncle Rick would complain about the ‘eye liner’, but then he’s that way. Eyeliner refers to the ‘licorice rope’ rubber edging that guys like to put under the trim to protect their $10,000 paint job from vibration scratches inflicted on the paint by the trim. I can dig. Why do these kind of headlights bother me?
Market 125: Giulia Spider project 10123*379887.
Update 6/28: 29 bidders duked it out and the high bidder got this car for $6433. Not bad, not bad at all. Seller is probably back in the green on the sale and high bidder got if nothing else a fabulous parts car or tough but do-able project.
Giulia Spider 10123*379887 is available on eBay now out of Lafayette California, just over the hill from me. It wears Texas plates and has some significant but not terminal underside rust so don’t let the California auction mislead you. It is however an unmolested example (unmolested is another way of saying ignored), ready for restoration so the new owner will be the first one to take anything apart and begin the process.
Appears to have been molested a little to the left of the grill. Center badge is missing (cheap repro is available) and so is the grill eyebrow above the license plate. All in all pretty good up here.
Continue reading “Market 125: Giulia Spider project 10123*379887.”
Motherlode 400 event report
The Motherlode 400, organized by expert and enthusiastic haver of good-times Josh Prentis ran on June 20 – 21st, but began for me on Friday the 19th when I spent an hour rigging up an air cleaner for the Sprint from some borrowed components from shop mate Duff. Sprint’s oil and water levels were fine so I chucked one of my better looking spares in the trunk, filled a pillow case with tools I might need, stowing it under the back parcel shelf panel and declared myself prepared for the worst. Having commuted 70 miles a day in the Sprint for two weeks solid, I was confident my tools would stay stowed unless needed by a fellow motorist.
Joined by first timers Hoon and Coutney in their charming Datsun Fairlady 1600, we rolled off from Peet’s coffee in Oakland at 7am on Saturday. Meet up was at the Jackson Lodge in Jackson.Â
Pedal Pusher Citation bait getting used to the new and potentially improved Sprint that she is half owner of. The tach cable started squeeling like crazy soon after this and I had to cut it at the firewall.
Market 123: Barn Find late Spider Veloce
Update 6/17/09: “The seller ended this listing early to sell to the high bidder(s) at current bid price.” 50 bids, $25,300 and the seller ended early to sell to the current high bidder. I guess eBay has figured out that there was no way they could keep this from happening so they have embraced the off auction sale. $25k for this car is about right in my opinion.
Giulia Spider Veloce 10118*390214, engine 00121*01727. This car is available out of Southern California on eBay and includes the rare Pininfarina factory steel hardtop. Auction description is lengthy and included at the end. Seller states the car is a 1965 and no doubt that is what the title says, but d&T and Fusi both indicate it was manufactured in 1964.
This is how you find them and when you are very lucky you are the first one to find them and get a very good deal. I don’t think I would do much to this car at this point, just make it safe and clean. By the shape of the ovals in the wheels these are Borrani’s. There late Veloce’s seem to always have these wheels.
Market 124: Selling my SS and Spider
Giulietta Spider 10103*370645. Giulietta Sprint Speciale 10120*00413. I am streamlining my operation, or, I suppose you could say simplifying my life while simultaneously lowering my overhead. My goal at the end of the year is to have, gasp, one Alfa (no Fiats or vintage Toyotas) and no Second Mortgage. Which Alfa is it going to be? Probably the Sprint, but even that is not totally decided. I am starting with the Spider and SS because they are frankly the easiest to let go. Check out my For Sale page for more details. I’ll post inventories of what comes with each next week.
 The nose and it’s nice original paint coming out.
Market 116: 58 Spider Veloce project shell
Update 6/16/09: The auction ended at $4000 with 11 bidders. I think it has been established that this is a $4000 car!
Update 6/10/09: This car is back on eBay from the same seller as the subject of Market 95, and the same seller who listed it in May. It still looks like a good start for a Spider Veloce restoration. I wonder how much money is spent moving cars from small time dealer to small time dealer? I imagine when this car finally finds a home intesested in it as a project rather than a money maker, there will have been a $1500 ‘transport’ tax applied.
Update 5/14/09: 23 bids resulted in a sale price of $4010. Probably about right if the floors and sills are as rotten as stated.
Update: Well, more of a please note, the absence of a Veloce engine complete with about $4000 worth of intake components etc is is a high hurdle to overcome where this car is concerned and as Veloces get more expensive, so will these components.
Giulietta Spider Veloce 1495*05164. This car is available now on eBay out of Stanton California, one of the little town between Long Beach and Orange in Southern California. It looks decent in the pictures but the description says it’s rusty in the sills but no pictures are presented of the rust so assume the worst.
Looks like a pretty good nose compared to the usual mess these cars end up in. Bumpers aren’t bad as cores and it’s even a good color under all the layers.
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Sprint 750B ‘Easy Restoration’?
While on my usual morning stroll through the information super highway (I only ever go a few exits myself) I came across a reference to Bart Holland in the Netherlands on the Alfa BB. The reference mentioned ‘a lot of pictures of a Sprint 750B restoration’. I would soon learn this is an understatement. From their home page you can link to the restoration of this car.
The pictures below are of the car before restoration. I am going to assume that this is a case of the car looking better in pictures than it is, and that the owner wanted a perfect Sprint, or maybe this car was restored with such careful documentation to demonstrate their skills. Either way it is amazing. Go to the website only if you have some time to kill. Their skill at dealing with imperfect parts and making them better than new in a lot of cases is evident and well documented.Â
This picture is a copyright Bart holland. I don’t think they’ll mind my using it since I’m giving them free advertising. Looks like the ususal ‘restored’ Sprint found on eBay. Wait until you see what this car goes through!