Original TI pictures found!

I was looking for a picture of Hans Mathon (sp?) I have at a CSRG event standing beside his Giulia SS that he recently sold via FJ when I came across the pictures below that the guy I bought my TI from sent me when I was on the fence about exercising the $3500 Buy It Now option. Really sad how busted up it is now. Oh well, have wrench , will fix.

mygiuliafrontA complete runner, very blue and pretty good looking. I was in my twenties and wanted a Giulia sedan in the worst way.
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Market #81: Last of the Giulietta Spider Veloces

Sold! Car received 29 bids ending at $17,100 and seems to have sold. A good deal for he buyer if everything was as described.

Giulia Spider Veloce 101.18 AR390222, engine 00121*01752. This late Spider Veloce is on eBay right now. You don’t see original Spiders this clean very often with such regular old paintwork and straight trim with an even shine. California Black late is an unexpected bonus on a car being sold out of New Mexico.

spider-frontAt this point, 20 years into their development these Spiders were just filling a hole until the new Spider could be rolled out in full swing. The first Duettos had appeared and the GTC was available, though neither was being pushed.

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Market #80: Black Giulietta SS at Bonhams

Update 2/10/09:  Car sold for 41,100 Euro’s including auction fees.  Not too bad.

Giulietta Sprint Speciale 10120*00366, Engine 00120*00775. This 1960 Giulietta SS is going to be auctioned by Bonhams on 2/7/09 as part of the Retromobile show in Paris, France and is expected to make between 25 – 30K Euro’s. Without better pictures I can’t really comment on that estimate, but from what can be seen it looks like a nice car.

ss-366-cornerThese pictures are not very high quality but I have a contributor who is going to get better pictures if possible. I am into this color combo and may have to change my SS color plans, Black with Dove gray is spectacular!

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SS Engine 00121 #1: Inspections

Drum roll please. The moment you’ve all been waiting for, I am back on the SS project. I know, I know, the 101 1300 I’ve been rebuilding for the last 4 months is not in the Sprint yet so why am I shifting gears and diving into this? Well, this engine rebuild is next on the list and I need to figure out what I need to replace (buy) and what performance modifications I am going to try and incorporate so cracking it open now will help my planning and give my wrench a smooth transition.

00121 veloce as found frontLooks like a greasy Alfa engine to me. Note early Marelli distributor, I think this may be destined for the 1300.

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Market #78: Spider Veloce shell

4 bids, $1000 selling price… not bad!

Giulietta Spider AR167162 with an F.  EBay is an endless source of entertainment and todays entertainment is provided by this Spider shell, on offer right now from a California based supplier of Alfa interior components.  The front is tore-up and it looks horrible, but if it is indeed a Veloce, some one will be scrambling to save it or at least moth-ball it away for when the economy turns around.  If I was at this moment restoring a similar Normale the price difference between Normales and Veloces (about $20K) is such that it would almost make sense to get this body, blast/repair/paint it then assemble the Normale bits on to it and then swap Veloce parts onto it as they become available.  Selling the Normale body to someone with a rusty car would probably pay for a good bit of the swap project. 

217191907_oOuch and Ewww and scarry but doable.  Presence of suspension and steering  components is a bonus.  How does this happen? 

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101 1300 engine rebuild part 7: even closer

I had a lot of time this weekend to work on the Sprint engine rebuild and I got a lot done.  I had been stressing out about getting the cam timing set but it turned out to be an easy process.  I still need to get a dial indicator to find TDC perfectly, but it is very close right now.  All I did to set the cam timing is I pulled the adjustment lock bolts out, loosened the vernier adjusters, connected the timing chain and tensioned it, verified TDC and cam marks again then tightened the lot up and reinstalled the adjustment lock bolts.  I put a little red locktite on the big cam nuts and bent the lock tabs over.  I still need to install new cotter pins in the adjustment lock bolts.  Once that was done it was a downhill coast until I broke a stud off …

cam-timing-doneHere it is, cam timing adjusted, everything torqued and cam chain tensioned.  I plan on dousing this all with oil before the initial start-up, probably a few weeks away.

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Market #76: Older resto 65 Giulia Spider Veloce

Giulia Spider Veloce 390549, engine 00121*01983.  This car is available right now out of Cambria California on the Alfa BB for $39,000.  This a rare Veloce version of the official last year for the classic Pininfarina Giulietta shaped Spider.   The 00121 engine is common to the Giulia SS and in stock form makes anywhere from 120 – 129 hp depending on source of the information.

rightsideThis is the kind of car you want to buy if you can’t find a similar condition original car.  Car was restored to a  straight, clean and functional condition then driven.   Everything should fit together and work nicely since it takes a kind of fine-tuning that can only be done a little at a  time during  frequent use to get the most out of a mechanical restoration. 

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Market #75: Giulietta Sprint Project

This Giulietta Sprint ran on eBay over the turn of the New Year and was bid to $2551 by 20 bidders. Reserve was not met and a buy it now option for $5400 was available. Number stated is AR14322515 makes no sense other than if it was AR1493*22515 in which case yes, it would be a 1959 Sprint Normale, but then it should have a 101 series 1300 engine, not the 750 series item in the pictures.

WAIT A MINUTE… AHA! This car was seen here on Giuliettas.com before as a project out of Florida that sold for $310! The statement below from the auction description speaks for itself.

“I’m listing this car for a good friend who’s a licensed car dealer, specializing in rare and unusual cars. He doesn’t do eBay so I listed this for him. I have inspected the car to give you the best possible description. I am an automotive engineer and have over 35 years of experience with classic & foreign automobiles.”

market 75 noseNose seems to have been bumped a few times, nothing serious though. Grills look good, hood fits okay and the lights have decent alignment. Market lights in the front side corners may indicate a European delivery car.

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101 1300 rebuild part 6: getting close

Here it is, probably my last post of 2008. I might have squeezed one more in and wrote about one of the Sprint Veloce Lightweights for sale in Europe right now but I have been busy keeping up the usual holiday schedule and another post doesn’t seem likely.

This post is mainly to catch up on two busy days at the shop trying to get as close as possible to having the Sprint on the road before the end of the year. The first picture in the series is a teaser and should be farther along in the series, but I like it since the Sprint can be seen watching my progress in the background.

img_7036I suppose the color of the turn signal lens could be called ‘impatient Orange’. When this was taken I had just made all the head nuts finger tight after fishing the timing chain up through the timing case.

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Market #74: restored Blue plate Spider

Update 1/12/10:  It’s funny to go back and look at these old Market reports.  Funny in this case because I go on about the wheel baase of this car but now know that 08607 would be a LWB car.  Oh well, you learn and have to admit mistakes…

Giulia Spider. For sale on bay area Craigslist. No real information given. $56,900 asking. Umm, yeah.

Ad text states it’s a 59 but I don’t think this style hood happened until late 61 or even 62 so I’m not sure what to say without the correct VIN to check. They say the vin is 000014908607 if I dare extrapolate I could guess 1495*08607, which is a 1960 Spider Normale, but that number series should be for an early style car with short wheel base, flat hood and early style gauges. Hood and gauges can be changed but a measure of the wheel base would tell the whole story.

00000000014908607-1Nice car for sure. I mean really nice car. Perfect. Of course a shiny red car at dusk always looks good. One would have to inspect…

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