Two years is a long time to wait plan and ponder but here I am seeing what has for so long seemed like something consigned to some later date. Bill, old friend and recently arrived shop mate agreed to have a go at welding the floors into the SS. I had a floor set I bought from Wolf last year and yesterday they finally saw some action.
The Veloce e-brake mount finally has somewhere to mount. Looking good. Welds will be cleaned up later.
1 Comment | 
Bodywork, Sprint Speciale, Working on my Cars | Tagged: Alfa Romeo, Car Restoration, cars, Classic cars | 
Permalink
Posted by Matt
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.
1 Comment | 
Giulia 1600, Giulietta & Giulia Market, Project cars, Sprint Normale's | Tagged: Alfa Romeo, cars, Classic cars | 
Permalink
Posted by Matt
Giulietta Spider Veloce 1495*04351, 1315*31400. This car is on eBay right now out of Michigan. d&T lists this car in mid-1958 production among a run of about a dozen sequencial Spider Veloces. This car reeks of patina and it would be a shame to undo the years by redoing everything, but classic cars have not yet, and may never catch up to ‘regular’ antiques like 19th century furniture where refinishing a piece destroys 90% of the value. There are obvious limits to this where vehicles are concerned, function being paramount, but a car like this deserves to be let show its age. I guarantee that someday patina will be valued over refinish, because if for no other reason, it will be the rarest state. Repaint a deteriorated repaint? Tough call, would have to see in person.
Front is pretty nice for an unrestored car. All the trim is in good shape and the paint has a nice warm ‘I’ve been here for ages’ look. The seller indicates it needs paint because the paint on it is a lacquer repaint that is peeling. I like.
Leave a Comment » | 
750F, Giulietta & Giulia Market, Preserved Cars, Project cars, Spider Veloce's | Tagged: Alfa Romeo, cars, Classic cars, Veloce | 
Permalink
Posted by Matt
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 nerar 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.
2 Comments | 101's, Giulietta & Giulia Market, Spider Normale's | Tagged: Alfa Romeo, cars, Classic cars | Permalink
Posted by Matt
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.
4 Comments | 00121 engine rebuild, Fasteners, Sprint Speciale, Suspension, Working on my Cars | Tagged: Alfa Romeo, Car Restoration, cars, Classic cars | Permalink
Posted by Matt
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!
2 Comments | 00121 engine rebuild, Sprint Speciale, Working on my Cars | Tagged: Alfa Romeo, Car Restoration, cars, Classic cars | Permalink
Posted by Matt
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.
2 Comments | Bodywork, Project cars, Sprint Speciale, Working on my Cars | Tagged: Alfa Romeo, cars, Classic cars, restoration | Permalink
Posted by Matt
Update 12/7/09: This car sold for $15,967 after 31 bids were placed. A reader expressed surprise at this result, thinking it would sell for more. I think the result is about right. Most people are going to want to change it -whether it means a bigger engine or a correction of some of it to a more original spec. This car represents a good buy in my opinion.
Giulietta Sprint 750B 1493*06702, 1315*05885. This car is on eBay right now from the collection of an Alfisti in southern California, known for both the rarity of his cars and his willingness to do his own thing when fixing them up to put them back on the road. Originality police will no doubt give this car a hard time, but it was probably done when these cars were $2500 for runners and restoration parts were few, far between and expensive. He has sold some odd stuff in the past like a 2 door Giulia Super conversion and a Giulia Super truck conversion but of all the things he’s sold, I still wish I had gotten a loan and bought the Giulia Promiscua he sold through Fantasy Junction a few years ago!
I like these cars with out the brightwork. Grill opening bars are adapted to this car from elsewhere… an early 750 Sprint or Spider perhaps. Stance of this car on the Panasports is tight and the paint and shut lines look good in the pictures. Most missing trim is said to be included in the sale. Read the rest of this entry »
7 Comments | 750B, Giulietta & Giulia Market, Sprint Normale's | Tagged: Alfa Romeo, cars, Classic cars | Permalink
Posted by Matt
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.
4 Comments | 00121 engine rebuild, Sprint Speciale, Working on my Cars | Tagged: Alfa Romeo, cars, Classic cars | Permalink
Posted by Matt
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.
2 Comments | 00121 engine rebuild, Sprint Speciale, Working on my Cars | Tagged: Alfa Romeo, cars, Classic cars | Permalink
Posted by Matt
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.
3 Comments | Discussion and Strategy, History, Sprint Speciale | Tagged: Alfa Romeo, cars, Classic cars | Permalink
Posted by Matt
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?
17 Comments | Discussion and Strategy, Sprint Speciale, Working on my Cars | Tagged: Alfa Romeo, cars, Classic cars | Permalink
Posted by Matt
