Tag: cars

Posted on

Market 143: RHD Giulia SS project

Update 9/15/09: This car sold for 16,100 pounds “inclusive of buyer’s premium” which I think means that the fees associated with the sale are included in this number.   This is $26,500 in our US money and about what I would have predicted had it been on eBay instead of at a live auction in England.  Assuming the buyer inspected this car before bidding, I imagine the condition of the body was better than expected from a rust point of view. 

Giulia Sprint Speciale 10121*380459, 00121*00897.   Bonhams will be auctioning off this Speciale on September 12th 2009 at their Beaulieu National Motor Museum auction.  Bringatrailer brought this car to my attention and their write up is right on.  Pictures are limited, but even the best pictures tend to be misleading.  If you are looking for a right hand drive SS, make the trip to the auction.

untitledI suppose you could turn that slotch into a number meatball.  Other than being dirty it seems to fit together well and being an Alfa, it could probably be put on the road without too much fuss as just about every part needed is available and not expensive.

Continue reading “Market 143: RHD Giulia SS project”

Posted on

Market 142: restored 1600 Spider

Update 10/12/09:  An offer of $30,000 has been accepted for this car.  Well bought?  Well sold?  Who knows, I’m just surprised the seller got $1000 more than the Buy iy Now price from the first time around.  Nice work!

Update 9/16/09:  After failing to attract a bid at $29,000 the seller has relisted this car with the ante upped to $35,000.  Makes perfect sense to me… 

Giulia 10123*379928, 00112*11686.  This car is on eBay right now with an opening bid/Buy it Now price of $29,000.  The car has 7000 miles on a restoration.  The mechanical specification is impressive and if everything is as stated, this is retail price for a good car.  I’m not excited about the red paint, but would rather have a no nonsense usable car in a color I am not excited about than a car that needs a lot of TLC in a color I love.

Alfa 1600 Spider 101Paint looks great, as does trim and shut lines.  I need a set of these headlight rings!  From this angle and with this camera it looks like it’s peering out of a goldfish bowl.

Continue reading “Market 142: restored 1600 Spider”

Posted on

TI tidy 24: this and that and possibly more of this

Where have I been you ask? It’s been 5 days since my last post and all, well, truth be told I had a kidney stone last week and I wasn’t much good for anything except watching movies I’d seen dozens of times and sleeping 15 hours a day. On Saturday I started feeling better and ventured out in the TI for an inaugural run into Berkeley to run some errands and lets just say it was interesting.

The list of – shall we say – inadequacies was long but I am feeling better so I’ll put it out here: tired tires wobbly, roofing tar on floor slippery in heat, dynamo light erratic but not as erratic as the idle, induction noise intense, carbs out of sync causing no end of smells, noises and visible black smoke, brake pedal getting soft, bouncy rear end – dead shocks?, and lots more that are nothing more than trivialities compared to the above. Time to get to work!

weber 40dcoe27 Starting at the end as usual. The last thing I did before driving off and heading for the grocery store this evening – stealing air cleaners off the GTV and mounting them on the TI. Very nice if I do say so.

Continue reading “TI tidy 24: this and that and possibly more of this”

Posted on

TI tidy 23: Home!

I guess I was closer than I thought. The list seemed daunting: set alignment, hook up blow by canister to breather, dip stick breather, intake manifold port and plumb it out the back, investigate a flickering dynamo light, hard mount the seats which required removal of no longer useable VW/Audi seat belt tension spools, double checking a few bolts for tightness and installing the hood. Here’s how it went.

IMG_9395I think it might look better in this picture than it is. Hood fits pretty good. I need to fashion a prop for it since I don’t think the stock prop will fit. If I paint it I think it will stay this color.

Continue reading “TI tidy 23: Home!”

Posted on

Market 141: Superb Silver SZ

Giulietta Sprint Zagato 10126*00067.  This car, available now at Fantasy Junction, went through Bonham’s earlier this month and failed to sell with an estimate between $240,000 and $270,000.  Current asking price is $268,500 which, after FJ takes their 6% cut and monthly boarding fees, puts the seller in the low end of the above estimate.  FJ is a natural venue for cars that fail to sell at the Monterey weekend auctions, being close to the action and a very highly regarded outfit.  I usually try to do a walk through a few saturdays after the big weekend to see what exotica has turned up.

31261A very subtle design, with function informing beauty at every intersection, and yet in all its spartan glory, it has headlight rings, grill trims and hubcaps ‘just in case’.  A car in which to win the Targa Florio in or pick up your significant other for a night on the town.

Continue reading “Market 141: Superb Silver SZ”

Posted on

Ti Tidy 22: Time to start driving

Saturday morning I decided it was time to get back on the TI after a week of being tired after work and just going home and reading instead of going to the shop.  The steering box had been in for a week but I hadn’t hooked everything up and put the dash back together, so my path was clear before me.  The car had been on jack stands for 3 weeks and I was eager to get it back on four wheels so I started under the car.  I hooked up the tie rod ends, made some small adjustments to the alignment, bolted the wheel on and took it off the jack stands. 

steeringDash is at last firmly mounted and bolted together.  Steering wheel now has a woodruff key.  Headlight stalk has an end on it so it can be turned  without difficulty.  Column cowl is on straight and, best of all, the ignition key is mounted to a bracket that is screwed to the dash.  I need to get some cheap stereo to fill that hole.  Anyone have anything they want to donate?

Continue reading “Ti Tidy 22: Time to start driving”

Posted on

Monterey Weekend/Concorso 2009 wrap up

Monterey weekend was brief for me this year.  Brian and I drove down to Big Sur in his Junior Z on Thursday afternoon to stay at Trevor’s house, which would be our launch pad to the Concorso Italiano at which Brian had signed up to show his car.   We drove highway 1 from Half Moon bay all the way to Big Sur.  Just north of Santa Cruz we drove under the smoke/dust/ash/steam cloud from the Bonny Doon area fire, which was ominous in a post-apocalyptic way (see picture below).

No Monterey weekend is complete without a $9.25 tour of the 17 mile drive so we hit it on the way down as well.  About 10 miles into it I spotted the car you see below.  Photographers were crawling all over it and spectators had gathered.  I came away with a few iPhone shots and a lot of curiosity.  The car had a Ghia badge and a 5 inch turbine exhaust port right in the middle of the back. 

jimmy cropImagine if the future we were promised was the future we got.  Instead of Camry’s and Ford F150 trucks my commute would be populated by vehicles like this.  A later encounter informed me that this was Streamliner X “Gilda” built by Ghia at the request of Chrysler.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyP_ojULewk] Bat9d moving under its own power.  As it should be.

Continue reading “Monterey Weekend/Concorso 2009 wrap up”

Posted on

Market 140: Some Rough Sprints

These Giulietta Sprints are part of that group of cars stashed away by the owner of a car dealership in Kaufdorf.  The Swiss government has ordered the site cleaned up so the cars are being auctioned.  These Sprints range from massive projects to seemingly ‘ran when parked’ cars.  The Europeans seem to enjoy a good challenge, so maybe some if not all will be bought and put back on the road.  I wouldn’t be surprised if they all go to one buyer, like Joop Stolze, for reasonable money.

pa_06big11988This guy lost part of his nose ot cancer a long time ago.  Plenty of good parts here or ambitious project.

Continue reading “Market 140: Some Rough Sprints”

Posted on

Market 134: 750F Spider Veloce

Update 8/10/09: This car sold for $24,700 with 7 bidders in the hunt.  The seller noted that the engine was incorrect and bidding seems to have taken this into account.  This money seems about right for the car.  There is a Veloce block on eBay right now that would be acceptible for this car, the new owner should consider snapping it up. 

Giulietta Spider Veloce 1495*04178, 1315*44341.  This Spider Veloce is on eBay from Brighton Motorsports in Arizona.  It is listed as being numbers matching but it clearly has a Spider Normale series engine number, so either it’s not really a Veloce or the engine has been replaced.  I suspect the latter since it comes with all the Veloce components installed and the Veloce engines were known to fail if not properly maintained.  Also, Veloce’s tended to be built in pairs or groups and 04177 is a Veloce.  I’ll check d’A&T tonight and update.  I emailed the seller about this and they said they would note it on their auction but they haven’t yet.  Some discussion has been made of this car on the Yahoo group for these cars and other discrepancies have been pointed out.  d’Amico and Tabucchi say 04155 – 04229 are all Veloce’s so I think there is a good chance this car is a Veloce.

149504178 nose closeNose ridge is shapely and blends to the edge of the grill nicely.  Some guys take the stamped edge off the grill so there is a smooth transition between the body and trim.  Between the grill and drivers side over rider the paint looks bubbly or textured by being sprayed over crud.  Have a look before you buy. 

Continue reading “Market 134: 750F Spider Veloce”

Posted on

Pushing Product 4: Models not included

You’ve all been waiting for this.  I know because more than anything else I get emails with links to PG-13  auctions.  Not too much ill-advised content here, just decent looking chicks hopefully earning a few easy bucks while trying to make some poor guy bid on the object at auction with his virility.

!aveo kit twosomeThis is a kit car based on a Chevy Aveo.  Girl on the right reminds me a bit of Christine Taylor.  This picture is all curves.  I wonder how much a gig like this pays?

Continue reading “Pushing Product 4: Models not included”