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Event Notice: Pedal Pushers Pullover Rally 11/15/2008

I thought it would be nice to pass along a press release from the Pedal Pushers website. They have put a lot of miles and effort into putting on an exciting fun event with great T-shirts. Show up in your classic car and bring $20 to buy a shirt, you’ll be glad you did. Supplies of the shirts will be very limited so arrive early! The following is all nearly verbatim from their website:

Don’t put your vintage ride into hibernation just yet…Come on out and join us for the Pullover Rally, a 150+ mile romp through the back roads and hills of the East Bay

The Pedal Pushers would like you to join us on Saturday, November 15 for some fall season driving fun. Our route will begin in the heart of Oakland, behind Peet’s coffee at 3401 Fruitvale Ave and we’ll make our way through remote two-lane roads and fields of windmills to reach our lunch stop, an Italian ristorante, where we’ll fuel up on pizza, panini, and cappuccinos before the second leg begins. After we zoom along beautiful scenic roads, we’ll race over the backside of nowhere to a watering hole in Port Costa, between Highways 80 and 4. Approximate driving time including lunch is 6 hours, ending the rally by 4 pm.

Giulietta and FluviaGiulietta Sprint belonging to giuliettas.com and Pedal Pusher Citation Bait sits beside Shaun and Candy Pond’s award winning Fulvia at the lunch stop on the last Pullover Rally.

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Giulietta Sprint 101 1300 engine rebuild part 3: more bottom end work

If you’re not into reading about engine rebuilds the next few posts will probably bore you… I woke up early Sunday and set out for the shop determined to figure out the oil pan set up on the engine I’m building. I bought a 101 1300 Normale oil pan for pretty cheap that was dirty and the windage tray had a lot of surface rust, but I figured I could clean it up and if I got the rust off it would stay off since it will be in an oil bath. I had to look at the parts book illustrations several times before I figured out how the windage tray brackets get installed. The brackets themselves were bent up but I aligned everything with some pliers and I’m now confident I know how it goes together.

1300 windage tray bracketThe brackets are taller on one side than the other, probably to put the windage tray at an angle to direct the oil to the pick up as it drops out of the crank. The ‘cigarette’ seals can be seen here sticking out of the end main cap. These will have to be trimmed before the final assembly.

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Giulietta Sprint 101 1300 Engine rebuild part 2: depths have been plumbed and the ascent begins.

I have a good honest tired accomplished feeling tonight. I spent about 5 hours on the bottom end of the 101 1300 engine that is going back in the Sprint and I got a lot done.

I brought the 1400 kit I bought along with the head to Glenn Oliveria, local Alfa engineer par excellence and driver of a neat column shift 750 series Giulietta Sprint race car, to get some advise. He measured a few things, thought about it and decided the head had been milled .040″ already and would require a .010″ skim, in addition to a valve job, to be ready for action. He explained what was involved to use the 1400 kit, chamfering the head, measuring valve to piston top clearance, measuring tdc combustion chamber volumes to calculate compression and balance the compression across all 4 cylinders. Oh, and peening the rods might not be a bad idea. Long story short, a $1000+ machining bill would be paid to make the 1400 kit work so I am going to go stock 1300cc 9.1 to 1 compression ratio piston liner set for the Giulietta Sprint.

1300 crud trapThese holes are about 2 inches deep. When I first started cleaning this up they were barely visible. Lots of crud had gotten in here over the years. I used a drill bit to help auger it out then washed them out. Nice and clean now.
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Market #57: New Delhi $50K ’59 Spider Veloce

Update:  If you scroll down to the comments you will find a comment by the owner of this car.  This auction is a scam, no doubt about it.  Makes me wonder a few things…  What possible gain is there in running this scam auction?  I don’t think there are very many buyers interested in this car who exist in a vaccuum as it were, who would buy without telling any other Alfa owners or asking around for verification that it is a Veloce, correctly set up etc. 

I also wonder about eBay.  Granted, everyone knows they have postured themselves with policies to support high volume sellers of crap that bulk up search results but add little of value to the discerning buyer, probably to increase traffic and there-by perceived company value (and stock price), at the expense of the little guy who is in reality selling the thing that most people go to eBay for.  I used to frequently sell on eBay to help pay for my hobby but between eBay fees and Paypal gouging policies I have all but given up.  Search on Alfa Romeo, I bet the items you express interest in are sold by low volume individuals, the very people eBay policy is the least sympathetic to.  On top of this is the fraud auction problem.  There should be an internal listing review audit that sees an auction like this with high buy it now price, little information given and a no-feedback seller that goes through a verification process before the auction goes live.  This sort of auction makes ebay look bad. 

It’s time for a dedicated auction site for classic cars and car parts for and by the little guys.  I have some ideas if your interested in going for it.

Currently on eBay is this 1959 Giulietta Spider Veloce.  Entire text of ad reads as follows:

“Alfa Romeo 1959 Giulietta Spider, very rare car only 2800 made ever.  Only serious buyers contact.  Scammers do not bother to contact.  Car in excellent condition.  Not driven in over a year now.  Serious buyers contact for further details.  Will have to meet in person for completing the deal.  Thanks for looking.”

3814_1Doesn’t look too bad, but then again, with picture resolution like this is could be one of those high quality scale models coming out of Italy now.

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Interview with Berlina Register Keeper Andrew Watry

This morning when I checked my email I found that Andrew had sent me his latest Berlina/Giulia/Giulietta Register Newsletter No. 27 (November 2008).  As I was reading it I realized that Andrew has been a fixture in the Alfa world for a while and I didn’t know much about his history with Alfa’s, so I emailed him a few questions.   The result is the first in what will probably turn into a series of interviews with notable characters in the Alfa world. 

What made you decide to do the Berlina website and Register?

“I started the Berlina Register began in 1997.  There were other Alfa Registers (particularly the Giulia Sedan Register) to serve as models; I had loved Giulias for years and had just bought a Berlina, so I thought it would be fun and useful to become the clearinghouse on Berlinas and gather other interested folks.  Not many people cared about them at the time except me, it seemed.  I took over the North American Giulia Register five-ish years ago when Dave Mericle stopped handling it, and added the Giulietta Sedan Register in 2007 when I bought one of those.”

 andrewAndrew in his Cortina (that is currently for sale) leading the Berlina Register tour.

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Best of France and Italy 2008

The Best of France and Italy car show takes place annually in Woodley Park, a well shaded green strip of park in Van Nuys.  If pictures are to be believed, previous years turnouts were heavy among both spectators and exhibitors but a threat of rain seemed to keep many of each away this year.  Alfa Romeo participation was particularly strong at this show, probably making up half the field, but FIAT, Citroen, Renault, ISO and others were well represented.

Below are some photographs I took and many more can be found on my Events page.

Giulietta SS 589What can I say, I’m a sucker for an SS, especially when it’s a Giulietta and one of the nicest in existence.  That guy with the bushy blonde mustache from that TV show and his crew were all over this car when I showed up. 

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Market #56: British ‘Style et luxe’ Giulia SS

Giulia SS AR10121*380784, Engine 00121*00722. This car is available here now for 44,321 Euro’s, which at todays exchange rate is $57,387 (would have been $70,000 a few weeks ago!). Elmar sent me the link to this fine specimen which is described thus:

“1965 Alfa Romeo Giulia 1600 Sprint Speciale with coachwork by Bertone. 1965. Rare RHD. Rosso with black hide. In the current ownership since 1979, this is a well known car having multiple concours awards to its credit as well as having been the subject of a number of magazine articles. The car also featured in last year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed Cartier ‘Style et Luxe’ display. Very rarely found in this condition. Please telephone or e-mail for fuller details.”

Nice Nice Nice, especially after the Project featured a few posts ago. I’m not even going to try and critique this.

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Berlina Project part 5: Road report and teething

When I started this project I had one goal: to make an economical, mechanically simple yet comfortable commuter to try and keep my BMW 3 series wagon from reaching the end of its warranty miles (100K) a year before the warranty termination date (3/10).  I think I have achieved my goal but I have had some small teething problems in addition to the long list of perceived problems I made before I started driving the Berlina daily.

At 83961 miles I put in 10.7 gallons in to fill it up.  This morning at 84,300 miles I put 10.17 gallons in.  339 miles on 10.17 gallons of gas equals 33.3 mpg.  Amazing for a 1750 with dual Dellortos and 10548 cams being driven ‘spiritedly’ as the Brit’s like to say!  Even if my odometer is off by 10% I’m doing good.  I guess the economical part of my goal is currently exceeding expectations.  It can also be said that when the fuel gauge starts looking low I still have about 5 gallons of gas.  I will take a few more MPG readings over the next few weeks and report.  I will also try and check how many miles my car thinks a mile is.

Leaky Axle seal?  Probably.  Squeek from a loose sway bar mount?  Maybe.  Worn out trunion bushes?  I hope not.  In addition to the obvious leak I get a little more wiggle in the rear end in cornering than I am used to in an Alfa and some squeeks.  I’ll probably have to stick my head under here this weekend.

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Alfa SS Project

This Giulietta or Giulia ‘Alfa SS Project’ was forwarded to me by Elmar who has seemingly volunteered to hunt down Vin numbers of SS’s for me in Europe (Thanks Elmar!!!) and I added several new SS’s to the register with his help.  The company that has this Frankenstein on their website also makes Alfa repair panels for SZ, GTA etc.  I suppose if all you have is the body, without any other parts, this sort of thing makes sense, and everyone would approach it differently so I can’t really criticize too much, but from the pictures it’s going to look like an SS body with a Spider nose and Milano wheels rather than some cool ‘ooh, what’s that’ special. 

I have long thought that a GTV or Giulietta roof on a Duetto would make for a neat special, but a Spider nose on an SS… not so much.

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Market #55: one owner baby blue Giulia Spider

Update 2/10/09:  This car has been on eBay, Hemmings and anywhere else the seller could think of.  Most recently it ended on eBay for $18,500 reserve not met with 32 bids.  The interest is there, but the seller wants too much.

Update 12/4:  This car is back on eBay.  No new photos are included and the text of the auction is the same and there is a reserve.  I suspect this auction will end about like the last time.  Juan: if you’re going to relist as car that everyone has already seen a bunch of times you HAVE to change the auction or list it with no reserve!

Update 11/25:  This car is now listed here with an asking price of $33,500 and on Hemmings for $31,500.  I still think this is a $25,000 car at most and with the economy as it is, that may even be high.

Reserve not Met!  Bidding reached $21,100 with reserve not met and the car has been relisted.  Let’s see if this car can break the relist jinx.

Giulia Spider AR*375944.  This car is available right now on eBay out of Roswell Georgia with a buy it now price of $33,000.  Fusi indicates this car is a 1963 year model and should have an engine Tipo 00112* and a  number ~08000.  Seller states that it is a one owner car with 55,000 miles.  Paint if it is original is spectacular, but I doubt it is.  This blue, renamed may times over the years in Alfa’s catalogs, is what I usually call Celeste blue, Italian for Heavenly or Sky blue.

Brightwork fit on this nose is very good, except the missing trims that go around the upper edges of the grill openings.  The mount holes for these can clearly be seen here.  I would think for $33k the seller could spring for a set since they are not usually expensive. 

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