Tag: Classic cars

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Market 100: Late Spider project

Update 3/30/09: Auction ended with 13 bids and a closing price of $4250, reserve not met.  Considering the seller paid $1500 for it and is going for a quick flip, I would think this would be a perfectly acceptible price.  Oh well, look for this car to reappear on eBay and elsewhere until either the seller reconsiders how much they should take for it or someone who wants this exact car shows up.

Giulia Spider 101.23 AR392006, Engine 00112*15462. Car should probably be 379206. This car is on eBay right now at about $2700 with 2 days to go and Hemmings.com with an asking price of $7000. The seller Fat Dog frequently sells Alfa and other vintage parts so he knows his wares somewhat. There is a Fat Dog in Berkeley that owns a guitar shop, anyone know why a guy would call himself Fat Dog? Is it a Grateful Dead song reference?

bo6romqbmkkgrhgoh-csejlllzpb1bjdzhdz5_3Lookin’ not so good. Well, all things considered and for the right money this could be a decent place to start your quest to own a Giulia Spider, but with less rusty, near-to-running projects seemingly abounding these days and less than $10K, why not spend a little more and save yourself a lot of work. I know, there is a whole class of Alfa guy who prides themselves on bringing cars back, and for those guys this is perfect.

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Berlina Register Newsletter 28 out now!

Andrew likes to keep us up to date on the Berlina world by reporting sales, stories and the like in his newsletters. Newsletter 28 (berlet28) appeared in my email box yesterday so naturally I decided to post about it.  I’ve noticed the last few years he has strayed from the primary topic (Berlinas) and it has become more and more the Alfa Sedan Register Newsletter. Yours truly features in one of the sale reports, as I did in Berlina Newsletter 27.   Stay tuned for the next installment on that front where I will likely feature again, perhaps twice in Newsletter 29, which will put me in there three issues running.   If you go to the Berlina register website (there’s a link on my homepage) you can find an archive of all of his Newsletters going back to when market reports included $800 Berlina original runner/drivers that would be $8000 these days.  So it goes.

SF Gate published an article about Andrew in their CARS section recently that is linked below.

SF Gate article about Andrew.

andrew_alfa_4The SF Gate article included a photo session but strangely there are no pictures with the article anymore.  Here’s Andrew with his Super.

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Market 98: Nicest early Sprint I’ve seen

Giulietta Sprint 750B 1493*01149, Engine 1315*01110 (I think).  This car is one of the earlier Sprints I’ve seen come up for sale and is available now on Anamera for 50,000 Pounds Sterling.  This car is well known to Alfa enthusiasts in Europe, having been displayed in shows and driven on events there by the seller.  A friend who owns several Sprints (early, late, veloce etc) said he wouldn’t hesistate to lay out the cash if he could afford it.  He says that this car is as good in person as the pictures and has been warmed up so that it really goes.

95aec285f4The car at speed.  Note the wire wheels.  Stunning, and I even like the color.

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101 1300 part 17: It ain’t over…

I keep thinking it’s time to write the epilogue, you know, with a final tweak or two to the Weber or ignition described, a break down of what it ended up costing and some video at 80 mph on a nice long back-road sweeper after the exhaust system is welded up. Well, it’s not that time yet. I keep having to revisit things I was taking for granted as done.

I guess the big lesson for me is that when rebuilding and installing the whole drive train, a bunch of the parts of which have never met before, there will always be one more thing to do before it’s done.

img_7895

As usual- my teaser picture. I took this last week after I had just come down from my parts loft. As much as I am enjoying the challenge I would rather be getting on with the SS rebuild. Continue reading “101 1300 part 17: It ain’t over…”

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Market 97: Very nice 750F Spider Veloce

Update 3/24/09: Auction ended at $49,999 with 43 bids.  This is about what I thought it would do.  Apparently the economic rollercoaster isn’t confusing buyers of fine cars that are likely to appreciate or at least hold their value.  I wonder where this car will go?  Germany?  Belgium?  Japan?  Dubai?  Berkeley?  I hope the latter.

Giulietta Spider Veloce 1495F04358, Engine 1315*31402. This car is on eBay right now out of Santa Clara Ca. These early 750 Spider Veloce’s are the Spider to get if you can find one and as always, if you can find a nice original it’s the one to get, if not, get a no excuses restored car like this.

bowniqmkkgrhgookjgejllmyuwjbjumv2e2ow_3I don’t usually have black come to mind when I think of a Giulietta Spider, but I have seen a lot of local cars in black over the last few years and I think going forward I will always think of them in black.

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101 1300 rebuild 15: almost back together

Goodness I’m tired! Saturday was a long day but I got close to being back where I should be. Let’s see, where to begin. So I got the piston/connecting rod that was in backward out and took it to Norman Racing Group on Thursday afternoon. Dan Marvin agreed to check the rod for straightness and pointed out that the piston was making contact with the head, something Tom Sahines told me to look for. I brought the head along too so they could tell me if there were problems with valve clearances etc which was a good thing as it was needed to cut the pistons down to clear the head. I asked if they could do a one day turn around on Friday so I could reassemble everything this weekend if I got the other three pistons to them first thing Friday morning. They said they would try.

I left their shop and pulled the other three pistons. I can’t complement Norman Racing Group and Dan enough. I had my wife drop the pistons off on Friday morning about 10am and they were ready when I got there at 430 to pick them up. I guess the bag of pastries she brought them probably helped but I doubt they were necessary. He gave the backward connecting rod a clean bill of health. I bought a new head gasket and set of Viton oil passage seals and away I went.

img_7882I guess you can’t really see the orientation in the manual, but I can tell you the offset goes toward the center on 2 and 3. Continue reading “101 1300 rebuild 15: almost back together”

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Market 96: Confused Spider in So Cal

Update 3/19/09: Car received 2 bids and with the reserve not met the auction was pulled in the 11th hour. 

Giulia Spider 101.23 AR379169, Engine AR00536*07055 (not original). The eBay auction says 1965 Normale/Veloce and it is in about that order, a Normale with a Veloce engine and trunk badge from our friends at Sports Car LA. black plate, no rust, odd color and a $9500 starting bid.

used-1965-alfa_romeo-giulia-normale__slash___veloce-6818-3921364-3-640Looks like an honest Spider just how you used to find them.

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Sprint Speciale as art? Absolutely!

The Cincinnati Art Museum is displaying a 1964 Giulia SS belonging to Richard Grant of Dayton Ohio from February 10th to June 7th.  If you are in the area, stop by.  I sure would! 

“Supporting the Art Museum’s commitment to showcase art and design across multiple disciplines, classic and concept cars introduce visitors to industrial design and its place in the history of art. Starting this February, visitors can experience the curvaceous and futuristic form of the Alfa Romeo’s 1964 Giulia Sprint Speciale created by the famed Italian design studio, Bertone. A limited production car, its body panels were carefully formed and finished by hand. The styling of the Sprint Speciale, considered especially radical when first introduced, took its cues from the study of aerodynamics and the global fascination with space travel and supersonic flight prevalent during the 1950s and 1960s. “

839_3A teaser from the Museum website.   Looks like a sublime specimen of the Sprint Speciale species. 

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101 1300 part 14: two steps forward and, er, 10 steps back

I’m usually pretty good at analogies. I am thinking maybe my current situation is like flying to Italy and finding out you have to fly home to San Francisco, turn off the oven and then fly back to Italy to get on with your vacation.

Okay, what did I do that is so bad? A total rookie move so it’s a good thing I’m a rookie. I put the number three connecting rod in backward. The Engine ran with a not terminal sounding but noteworthy knock. “The engine ran???” the attentive reader will ask.

It goes something like this…

img_7866I’m not sure why but it is somehow immediately apparent that this engine runs. This was right before the steps back announced in the title began.

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