Just bought a trasure!

[Antti Korhonen <antti.korhonen@domain.elided>]

Ciao tutti alfisti!

I just thought I could skip from my work and write about my special
weekend to all of you.

I went with my VW kleinbus-entustiastic friends to have a look of a VW
scrapmarket in Espoo, near Helsinki. It was ok, but ofcourse there
wasn't anything really exciting to a full-breed alfisti like me...
Except that just when we were leaving I found a full set of Dellorto
DHLA 40F for 200 FIMs (about $33 USD) only! - Propably nice for my
father's Giulia Super wreck's engine... (I would be glad to hear what o=
n
earth does that F-letter mean, other wise it's the same carb than those
that used to be in Supers once...) Joy, joy, happy, happy, joy-joy. But
this was just the beginning! :)

So, we left to my friends house to talk about our vintage car
association's (Suomen l=F6yt=F6autoyhdistys SLA ry) stuff but also to h=
ave a
look of his neighbour's old (and supposedly scrappy) Alfa. ...And just
three hours later I happened to be the new owner a RUSTFREE and almost
original 1969 Giulia 1300 Ti, which is eaven the most rarest model of
it's kind here in Finland. It is very beutiful and good conditioned
all-around and I also got enormously genuine A.R. ricambi parts with a
value about 10 to 15.000 FIM ($2500 USD). And all this for 8.000 FIM...

The previous owner bought it in the beginning of the nineties but lost
his interest when it's breaks stopped working - only because of a fault=
y
main brake cylinder! (cost about 400 FIM) For some reasen he insisted t=
o
believe that there wouldn't be any left and that it's value would be,
say, more than 1.500 FIM... Most funnyiest thing was, that when he pile=
d
half of the parts to the car's trunk, he found a part that he guessed t=
o
be from the engine - a new main brake cylinder!!! Lucky me!

So now after five years I got a glance of it with my friends and I
almost fainted from what I saw. Every little detail of the car is bette=
r
than new and the only fault I found it by looking was that it was
resprayed red on it's original and rare light-gray colour. It has twin
Dellorto DHLA40 carburerators instead of the original solex (Maybe the
94 hp giving solexes are quite rare or expensive? I don=92t think that =
the
power has risen more than 3-4 hp, as a 1.6 engine with webers gives
=93only=94 102...) and really nicely done aluminium doorpanels (I have =
the
original ones too and they=92re like new) plus funky sixties rally -sty=
le
extralamps.

I think that I will have properly repainted to it=92s original color
scheme and change it=92s ugly mirror to a sweet chrome-styled. My fathe=
r
recalled that he once (~=9272-=9174?) saw two =9169 t.i. :s, the other =
one
for sale in a retailer in Helsinki and I am pretty sure that mine was
the other one.

I don't know why but the owner couldn't say any price for it, so I
offered him a noble 7-8.000 FIMs without any regrets. Afterall, I saved
the car in a way from many disasters. The owner had already given away =
a
1973 2000 Berlina for 800 FIMs only because it had a bit more rust - bu=
t
that is something just typical for a 30 years old italian saloon here i=
n
our cold homeland! Actually, as the most wanted saloon today it would
normally cost atleast as much as my "new" t.i. did to me!

I picked the car with my father and a trailer on monday evening and too=
k
it straight to home. After couple hours job we got it's jammed
Mitsubishi's electric fuel pump working and the engine running better
than any Alfa engine we've seen. Everything works perfectly and the
sound is like music! :) So, after fixing the brakes today evening I'll
need only to get it inspected to it's original plates - and drive it
allday long here in the countryside! Wroooom!

Ps. Sorry that this was maybe a bit too long message, but I just had to
brag about my luck to someone who understands my joy - or eaven better =
- -
gets green with envy! :)

Antti Korhonen
antti.korhonen@domain.elided

'62 Jaguar MK2 3.4 (wreck)
'68 1750 Berlina
'69 Giulia 1300 T.i.
'72 F12 Ambulance
'79 Audi 80 cl 1.6
(Other Alfas my family: '73 Giulia Super 1.6, '73 2000 Berlina, '74
GTjunior 1.6)

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