Alfa Romeo – Page 3

September 7, 2015

Market 388: SS 00242 in New Jersey

Update September 15 2015: Reserve not met at $65,200.

Apparently SS values have gone up $6000 since this car was last listed. I think I would have been tempted to sell.

Update September 7 2015: This car has reappeared, this time on eBay being sold out of Florham Park New Jersey.

I was just last night talking to a friend and SS owner about the value prospects for the SS these days across the project to perfect spectrum. He opined that they had actually gone down a bit in the last few years by his reckoning. Not some huge slide or anything, just market forces balancing restoration quality of cars bought and improved to make a quick buck, that seem to come back on the market repeatedly, driving values down a bit as a result; versus genuine ‘restored for the love of the thing’ cars that not only look good but are complete, correct and actually a pleasure to drive. Projects aren’t seeing the frenzy of 2 years ago, while the number of prospective owners out there is probably a bit stagnant and not as deep pocketed as the few high priced auction examples would have you think. I’m sure there are lots of Alfisti would happily add an SS to their stable, the question is, at what price? And then there is the almost absurdly high survivorship of SSs -probably above 20% tracked on this humble site alone.

Continue reading “Market 388: SS 00242 in New Jersey”

August 20, 2015

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.

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”

August 19, 2015

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?

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””

August 18, 2015

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.

How hard could it be to lose the black?

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

November 11, 2014

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.

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”

November 7, 2014

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.

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”

November 6, 2014

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.

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”

November 5, 2014

Market 497: Spider 750D 02553 incomplete basketcase

Giulietta Spider 750D 1495*02553, 1315*04353 (non-matching). This car is available now on eBay out of Connecticut with a $17,500 Buy it Now. It’s a long way from any semblance of nice or usable, but it’s a 1957 model and 56-57 Spiders seem to be more sought after than the later siblings, probably due to the idea of ‘event eligibility’. Anyone have a 1957 that got them into an event that a 1958 would not have? Like everything else, I suspect it’s about who you know, and the magnitude of check you can write.

It’s amazing how the 7000 or so 750D Spiders ever made seem to have transformed into an endless supply of projects like this. Step one? A big can of Kroil. Step two? Get good with Excel.

Continue reading “Market 497: Spider 750D 02553 incomplete basketcase”

November 4, 2014

Market 496: Giulia Spider 1600 374563, with a 1300

Giulia Spider 1600 10123 AR374563, 1315*012684 (non-matching). This car is available now on eBay out of St Johns, Florida. Seller purchased the car from Fantasy Junction in 2003 and used it sparingly. This car would have originally had an 00112 series 1600 engine, but is currently fitted with a 750-to-101 transition 1300 unit from probably mid-1960. If one were looking for an attractive and fundamentally sound driver 101 Spider that will likely end at a reasonable price, this could be a good option. Originality purists will find lots to complain about/nitpick here, but one needs to keep in mind the qualities that make these cars the generally well regarded, desirable objects that they are: smile inducing drivability and beautiful lines, both of which this example possesses.

When you have spent a lot of time with something, you can forget the things that originally attracted you to it. Imagine this is your first time seeing a Giulietta Spider.

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May 18, 2014

Market 495: Sprint Veloce Basket case 10124*23895

Giulietta Sprint 10124 1493E*23895, 00106*01059 & 00102*29231. This Sprint Veloce is on eBay being offered by Classic Invest out of Denver Colorado. It is incomplete, but tempting for a guy like me who has boxes of parts and a scruffy Sprint Normal to potentially move a bunch of parts off of. This series of Sprint seems to have come with an 00106 Veloce engine, the US version of the early 10106 Sprint Veloce. I have 10124 23899 in my picture files, and it has an 00106 engine with 40DCOE’s instead of 40DCO3’s.

I worked on a car like this, that had been painted at some point in the last 10 years and then was stored a lot like this. There will be scuffs and scratches to the extent that you may just want to go for it and repaint it now while the painting is easy. Grills look alright. Continue reading “Market 495: Sprint Veloce Basket case 10124*23895”