USA or German subscribers - can you help with history of my Giulietta Spyder?

[Antonio Caira <avfcaira@domain.elided>]

Hi out there,
A couple of years ago I bought a rather dried out but rust free Giulietta
Spyder through Chequered Flag in the USA. 

The car needed a good respray and a (very) little floor work but overall
was in very, very good condition. Its headlights were missing (and it
looked like they had been for some time) but apart from this it was very
complete, with all of its original panels (all numbers match), and mostly
original paint - apart from on a repair to the boot (trunk) rear edge
where later investigation showed a whole new rear lip had been welded on
at some distant point in the past.

I contacted the Alfa museum in Italy received a heritag certificate
stating  it was registered in March 1960 in Germany but with no other info. 

This explained why one of the plates on the bulkhead was in German and
referred to Milan as 'Mailand'. The car also, along with the german
models, has its side flashers to the rear rather than front of the wing
(I have original german promo material showing this to be so for german
models), and amber front flashers.

Now this car made its way to the USA somehow. US forces overseas perhaps?

It to me came with 2 reg plates - one from Florida (Red and White) for
1972, and it has a state of Florida tax sticker on the windshield. The
other plate is has is a light blue and yellow I think) California plate
dated April 1983.

The guy at customs told me the old florida plate may be of value to
collectors in the USA? I don't know about this...

The vehicle original ALfa ID plates under the hood are totally intact,
and it has a 101 body number:

It states:

Giulietta 10103
Autotelaio 149509254
Motore AR 1315 

YUP THATS IT!!

Just 1315 - no more numbers......?
It does indeed have a 750  engine as number suggests too.

Also to complicate matters even further it has the 'fixed bar' type of
soft-top, where the bar is fixed to the body rather than folding totally
inside it - this too is in the original paint (ie light-ish red with a
coat of yellow primer under it)  so must have been there from the start -
yet people keep telling me only a few 61 USA models had this type of
soft-top design.

So - can anyone help me on the history of this car?

It looks like the last owner gave up on radiator and waterpump problems -
when I got to me the radiator was burst and off its mountings  the top
hose and thermostat were missing and the water pump pulley was severely worn.

To help identify it:
The car had had non standard usa red seatbelts fitted (dated 1972), non
standard light red carpets and had Charlie Brown cartoons under them
(intact!!) from 1973.
It also had a wierd passenger wing side-(not wing-top) mounted ariel and
a H..u...g...e chrome door mirror with an orange reflector circle on it.

I'm trying to put an article together, hopefully for the Giuliettaletta
and would love to know more about this Italian, German, American and now
English travelled Alfa.

Sorry for the length!

Best regards
Antonio Caira
UK

------------------------------

End of alfa-digest V7 #712
**************************