Classic cars – Page 43

December 9, 2009

Market 122: 63 Sprint, some assembly required

Update 2009/12/08: I received an email from Bob in Vancouver who bought this car and it sounds like it is in good hands, already seeing a hotted up 2 liter with transmission enroute from the builder and the shell due back from the painters by the end of the year. It’s good to see a car like this find the right home.

Update 2009/07/14: After another go on eBay this car ended reserve not met at $4050 with 18 bids. Not sure what it will take to sell it but hopefully the seller will keep improving it. Lot’s more pictures of trim were added and it looks to be fairly complete.

Update 2009/06/16: Reserve not met at $5111 after 8 bidders stepped up. I was thinking that, with a running 1600 installed and almost everything needed to complete it on hand, this car would reach at least $8000. If it were me I would run another auction with an inventory of included parts and better finished product pictures. I think it would see this car sold.

Giulia Sprint 10112*353214. This car is available right now on eBay out of Scotts Valley California, in the Santa Cruz mountains. Not too many of these later Sprints show up for sale, and when they do they are usually a mess. This car seems to buck that trend though it has some issues of its own to address. The ‘buy it now’ price is quite optimistic unless that paint is really nice and the parts included are in very good shape, but as the seller points out, it is easy to be $12,000 into a project like this and be at this point or not quite at his point yet. Anyone interested is advised to go and have a look.

You have to admit that the paint looks good here, as do the grills. Hood shut lines are excellent. I wonder if the hood is bolted in or just sitting on top? Note door in the background.

Continue reading “Market 122: 63 Sprint, some assembly required”

December 8, 2009

Market 128: Red Spider 10123*379964 looking for action

Update 12/8/09: This car is back in play, this time at Dearborn Classic Cars for $23,995. It has supposedly been gone through by an Alfa expert near the seller and needs nothing except a new home.

Color is a little better this time around. Still looks like a pretty good car.

Unremarkable, sits about right. Door lines are invisible but I would expect that from such a low res. picture.

Update 7/9/09: 7 days and 36 bids later this car sold for $14,500. I am going to say well bought unless it arrives as a bondoed over rust bucket, which it doesn’t really look like.

Giulia Spider 1600 10123*379964. This red Spider is on eBay right now and being sold out of Willits Ca, about 2 hours north of the Bay Area. Pictures, description etc is minimal so I presume they are hoping to drum up some local interest. Looks like a decent car, hopefully they are not looking for $50K or someother unrealistic amount.

Not too bad for a poor quality picture. It’s all there, it all works together pretty well and it’s resale red.

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December 7, 2009

SS 00121 engine 6 and bodywork 6: the shop sunday

Update 4pm. Aaron put up a new post on his blog with a pretty cool video of his first trip in his 1962 1600 Giulia Sprint that spent a month in my shop getting freshened up to be roadworthy with some occasional, marginally helpful pointers from me. Check it out.

Sunday December 6th, 2009. I didn’t have any big plans for the time I would spend at the shop, mostly catching up on some small jobs and doing some organizing. I was cold at the shop, even with long underwear and a thick hooded sweatshirt -hoodie in California stoner parlance, so I was moving slow and not very motivated.

Veloce engine mount receives a good cleaning, new bushing and used but good shape engine mount. Note Bendix fuel pump in the background -the subject of a future post no doubt.

Continue reading “SS 00121 engine 6 and bodywork 6: the shop sunday”

December 6, 2009

SS 00121 engine rebuild 5: assembling for real this time

Saturday December 5th 2009. I arrived at the shop at noon after eating three Al Pastor tacos from my favorite taqueria -sounds like a lot but it’s not. Initially my plan was to do some more scraping of paint from the engine compartment and front wheel wells but my hands are pretty beat up from the last session doing this, and I’m tired of moving internal engine parts around when looking for things so I decided to do more work on the engine, namely install pistons and liners, water pump and get the oil pan ready for assembly.

It went like this…

Beginning at the end as usual. I had just installed the water pump and pulley hardware as 5 pm struck -time to go home. It’s got my name on it!

Continue reading “SS 00121 engine rebuild 5: assembling for real this time”

December 4, 2009

SS Bodywork 5: the engine compartment

I have been looking at this car for 2 years now, in pictures after sending $4500 to the seller in December of 2007, trying to come up with a coherent plan for tackling it, and since then as a sculpture of sorts, always looming in the background corner of the shop, watching me toil on other cars, patiently waiting its turn. It’s turn is here.

Having a really snotty cold complete with a crackly sounding cough ensures your work wants you as far away as possible, and when you start feeling pretty good but your body is still in clean up mode you have to get out an do. In this fit of new found near health I decided that since I lacked the parts to finish assembling the engine, I would start in on the body, and where better to start than the engine compartment. It has been a hellish job, but, as with all jobs, took starting and doing if it was to be seen finished. I guess I could have paid someone to do this, but that would have been cheating, and besides, my funds are already in arrears of the someones I will be paying for time spent exercising their skills on my car.

The starting line. First order of business was removing the steering components, the wiring harness and some other odds and ends so this would be a long level run rather than an obstacle course. Looks pretty bad doesn’t it.

Continue reading “SS Bodywork 5: the engine compartment”

December 1, 2009

SS 00121 engine rebuild 4: the intake and mock up

I’ve got a pretty serious cold and in order to keep from spreading it around work I haven’t been there the last few days. I don’t feel horrible, mainly just spaced out from the cocktail of stuff in cold medicines and unable to breathe through my nose, so I’ve been spending a few hours at the shop in warm clothes working on the endless SS project. Today I decided I should mock up the engine pieces to try and identify anything I need to buy now so I can make one long trip and pick everything up at once instead of wasting days looking for one odd sized nut/bolt/washer.

I was quite proud of myself when this manifold turned up for a good price. Carbs are a matched set of early 60’s 40 DCOE2’s, the correct carb for all flavors of Sprint Speciale besides early 750SS badged cars (correct me if I’m wrong). I can’t wait to see these doing their job when I pop the hood on my daily driver SS.

Continue reading “SS 00121 engine rebuild 4: the intake and mock up”

November 30, 2009

SS 00121 engine #3: the timing case

I’ve been keen to get on with this engine rebuild since most of the impediments to my progress have been removed. With the Spider, TI and GTV out of my life, the Fiat back in daily rotation and the Sprint doing its trouble-free thing, I can focus on the SS. I may not have been working on it much in the last year, but I have been buying parts as they come up so I am mainly behind in my processing of the parts and way behind in my getting the floors in the car and the rust repaired.

Anyway, this past weekend I got a bunch of rearranging done on the shop and this afternoon I started some of the small ‘parts processing’ jobs I had been putting off, among them the clean up of the timing cover and assembling it along with the timing components to the engine.

Here’s the timing cover after a power wash, some Purple Power scrubbing, some detail work with carb/choke cleaner and a light polish. Note that the generator bolt hole is in good shape. This cover and the block are stamped ’18’. A matching set.

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November 29, 2009

D&S 6: original SS color options

d’Amico and Tabucchi in their ‘Alfa Romeo Le vetture di produzione’ list the color options for the 10120 SS as follows (the English translations are their work not mine): azzuro nube (cloud blue), bianco ambra (amber white), bleu notte (midnight blue), rosso Alfa (Alfa red), bianco gardenia (gardenia white), grigio metallizzato (metallic grey), argento metallizzato (metallic silver), verde Suez (Suez green), rosso rubino (ruby red), argento auteuil (auteuil silver), verde bosco (wood green), bleu sera (night blue), grigio Inglese (British gray), grigio Fiat (Fiat grey) and for 1959 and 1960: bluette.

For the Giulia SS they opted for a more streamlined approach to color, no doubt to increase efficiency in the paint department. You could choose from: rosso Alfa (Alfa red), grigio graphite (graphite grey), bleu Bosforo (Bosphorus blue), verde muschio (moss green) and bianco gardenia (gardenia white).

I imagine that these 5 colors are available across the line up of Bertone built Alfa’s. This all goes out the window when you consider you could pay them extra to paint your SS whatever color you wanted.

Antti in Finland sent me this picture of a Bluette (if my guess is correct and this car darkens when rubbed out) Giulia SS he has that was one of three to come to Finland new, the others being red and white. All three cars survive which means 100% survivorship in the Finnish market.

I haven’t seen too many green SS’s. If anyone has pictures of any of these colors listed that they KNOW is an original car in factory paint drop me a line and I’ll add it to this post to create a palette for reference. I don’t have access to my library of pictures right now or I could add a few.

November 27, 2009

D&S 5: Looking forward

Part of the software pack we run is a program designed to give us a visceral response to the anticipation of an event or situation. The event or situation can be anywhere in the spectrum defined by the shades between agony, ennui and ecstacy. It is this anticipation of things to come that rules our actions as much or more than that which is going on around us. Just consider how often you hear the terms ‘looking forward’ ‘dreaming of’ and ‘imagining’. These are all expressions of expectation that is being shared. The software of anticipated experience, whether tinged with forboding or longing, when viewed in this light, is an important aspect of our humanness. I’m not just talking about big stuff like getting out of jail or sex, this notion applies equally to the little stuff like a first sip of coffee or taking a pee after having to hold it for a while because you’re driving.

This blog post is to help me get a handle on my anticipations surrounding my SS project. There is a lot to consider in the context of this project I’ve chosen to undertake. Simple stuff like exterior and interior color, becomes an anticipated fork in the road to plan for. What will I do the day I am confronted with that choice and the rest of the project depends on the decision being made and undoing the decision is a matter of thousands of dollars? In light of the gravity of the decision I look forward, I anticipate what it will be like to live with and enjoy or be disappointed with the fruits of my labors. Or: what color combo should I choose for the SS? What level of quality should I strive for in the finish? Should I run bumpers and all the trim? To what extent should I wring power out of the engine? What brake set-up should I pursue? What rear end ratio should I plan to run?

Metallic dark silvery gray with red interior is not such a bad combo, especially on BAT 5, and is the color combo I am thinking of painting the SS. Careful with the gray and purple comments my eagle-eyed readers! I wonder if I can get a paint code for BAT5?

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November 26, 2009

Market 167: nice late model 1600 Sprint

Update 12/2/09: Oops, jeez, I published this initially saying $16,600, was $19,600, 22 bidders no sale. I wouldn’t have sold it either. Kind of strange that 22 bidders would have no questions -at least none worth responding to in public. Relisted of course… Min bid/BIN/make offer $27,500. Honestly about right.

Giulia Sprint 1600 10112*353231. This car is on eBay right now out of New England. Originally a red car but repainted in one of the various takes on celeste that Alfa used throughout the years with names like cloud blue and ice blue. A wise move in my opinion. If you look in the catagories section to the right of where you are reading you will see a link to ‘Sprint Normale’s’ and under that ‘Giulia 1600’. If you select that link you will see that very few of these late cars have been on the market that I’ve known about in the almost two years I’ve been keeping track.

This picture has a remarkable resemblance to the first picture in Market 132. I really dig the way the shape of the car is emphasized by light colors such as this. Grills, bumper, lights, hubcaps, you name it, it all looks great.

Continue reading “Market 167: nice late model 1600 Sprint”