Alfa Romeo – Page 52

June 12, 2009

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.

June 10, 2009

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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June 5, 2009

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.

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!

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June 3, 2009

Market #37: “Alpha Romeo Giulietta Sprint Voloce”

Update: 6/3/09. 20 bids, $11,311 the high bid with reserve not met. I am willing to bet this is less than the current owner paid for the car, pity since it sounds like it is in perfectly usable shape. If it were me I’d go down to the local auto paint shop, get rid of the yellow and buy some grills for it. I doubt there is one bidder who is not subtracting at least $1500 from their max based on doing these things. Other than that maybe add all the badges and get some Sprint seats.

Update: 5/28/09. 21533 is back on eBay after having found an owner to attend to its needs making it roadworthy, as presentable as possible, and who could write an auction description that actually tells something about the car.

I’m still at odds with the blacked out grills and yellow mask, but over-all this is an attractive car. Current owner has done a good job preparing it for a profit making resale.

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May 29, 2009

Market 121: A tale of 3 red 1600 Spiders

Update 6/2/09: Canada Spider is no longer available for sale. I guess they got cold feet about a last minute bid surge. Okay folks, here it is, the secret to a solid auction: start very low, $1 is good, provide ample information on the car you are selling and high quality pictures, have no reserve and let the auction play out. If you need a shill bidder to establish a fake reserve, so be it, but if you are unrealistic, your car won’t sell. If you look carefully at these three auctions my advice is substantiated. Look for another mediocre auction featuring then now passe Canada Spider. Sigh.

Update 6/1/09: Colorado Spider sold for $17057,95 with an amazing 48 bids. Staten Island ‘Spyder’ sold Buy it Now for $13,500. Apparently the seller got excited and lowered the buy it now price. Canada Spider still has some time left. It looks like it will out-do its last sold price of $17,600, having 1 bid at $18,999 right now.

It’s not often there are 3 red Spiders on eBay at the same time in similar condition. With the market thus flooded it might not be a bad time to make a play for that Spider you’ve always wanted.

Giulia Spider 1600 10123*xxxxxx is in Canada with a starting bid of $18,999, no bids as of now. This is its second pass on the eBay carousel. There are a lot of poor quality pictures and not much information about the actual car at auction (simply described as ‘restored’) among the published model specifications. Stated to have 46,292 miles.

Giulia Spider 1600 10123*372601 is in Co lorado and currently at $11,100 with 24 bidders. This auction features 4 poor quality pictures and no relevant information about condition other than a statement that is a ‘daily driver’. Stated to have 91,000 miles.

Giulia Spider 1600 10123*374706 is in Staten Island New York. The price is $6101.07 with 3 bids at time of writing and the car has a buy it now price of $14,500. Vague description is shouted out in all caps and provides a decent baseline for questions. This car has a lot of above average quality pictures.

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May 27, 2009

Market 120: 101 Giulietta Spider ‘not’ to restore

Update 6/1/09: It seems that I, or the multitude of red Spiders, scared the bidders off and this car ended at $18,100 with 35 bids, reserve not met. I think better pictures and a ‘just the facts’ description would help it out.

Giulietta Spider 10103*171685, 1315*010467. This 1961 101 Spider was on eBay and ended last night at $18,100 reserve not met with 35 bids. The car has had lots of care recently but retains the charming if somewhat rustic patina I usually aspire to have my cars show.

Nose is a little chipped up but over-all the condition is good. Silver always looks good with chrome and clear lenses. Why are photobucket pictures always so bad?

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May 19, 2009

TI tidy up 8: the Bosch distributor

Some days it’s all I can do to find 20 minutes to tackle some small job on whatever project I’m working on, much less take the time to write about it. Yesterday afternoon I degreased, inspected and noted any parts needing replacement on the mechanical advance Bosch distributor that the TI is going to use. I get asked a lot how I manage to get these projects done seemingly fairly quickly and I always say it’s not the few long days that gets it done but the countless 20 minute sessions where I tackle one small job.

A quick test fit with the clamp in place of the newly spiffed up distributor. Red Cavis wires are like new. I’ll check the resistance through each wire to see if their all the same.

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May 16, 2009

Ti tidy 7: moving right along

The Giulia TI is coming along nicely. The greasy lump seen below showed up on Thursday afternoon. I had to give up the mid-seventies 1300 that came with the car but it was not the original engine so I wont lose sleep over the loss. All I have to do is remove the Spica intake parts, degrease it, do the head gasket and install a few parts appropriate to its new home and I’ll be on my way.

This fine unit started life in a 1973 Spider. One thing led to another and 36 years later it founds its way to me. Note the mechanical advance aluminum body distributor. Red wires are original Cavis made OEM items.

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May 12, 2009

TI Tidy 6 meets Sprint Surprises

Do you ever get the feeling that somehow the powers that be have conspired against us to take away free time and purify the cycle of sleeper/worker/consumer, gleaning the little joy that used to lubricate the cycle? Well, I’ve been busy like never before and thus I am writing a post at least two days after it was thought of.

There it is, returned from professional care, the Weber 28/36 DCD mounted at last, and with the airbox to boot! Yes, it now idles when warm, yes it is faster.

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May 8, 2009

Market 115: Gran Sport Quattroroute Zagato 4R

Update 5/26/09: Sold for $53,000! I can’t say if this was well bought or sold, but obviously someone wanted it at this price.

Gran Sport Quattroruote Zagato 4R 10123*393050, 00112*16491. This car is available right now on eBay and Anamera. I’ve never seen one in person that I can recall so I’m not sure how these pictures will translate into a large physical object , but it looks pretty cool in a pipe-smoking, tweed-wearing sort of way. The seller sums up the story of this odd Giulia cousin so I’ll spare you a rehash.

Kind of like Buck Rogers or any other long term sleeper, this staid gentleman finds itself out of place in the period dress of his time but youthful with the latest under its vintage inspired skin.

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