ALFA-LESS NO MORE!!! - Longish

["John Pardillo" <jpardillo@domain.elided>]

I AM ALFA-LESS NO MORE!!!
I am pretty pleased with myself.  I sold my GTV-6 maybe 8
months ago after finally acknowledging that, truth be told,
I was not going to be fixing the rust on her and it hurt me
to see it.  Hopefully the new owner has (he said he was
going to have a body shop do it).
I moped around (as in past tense of mope, not an
underpowered motorcycle) and made do with my Saab 9000 Turbo
but a big chunk was missing from my life, at least the
automotive aspect of it. Even my wife noticed; "We have to
find you another Alfa, honey".
Finally, I decided to rid myself of some of the Alfa
detritus littering my yard and shed.  Nature abhors a vacuum
they say so perhaps I could create an "Alfa vacuum" for
myself.
I sold a bunch on eBay (alfadog) and carted off some
leftover pieces of cut-up car (untitled GTV-6 parts car I
cut into widdle pieces) to the dump.
Well, it worked.
First I heard from a fellow in upstate NY (I am in Miami)
that had been selling a GTV-6 on eBay months ago but had no
takers. He had my e-mail address from some query I'd sent
him.
We settled on a price and I made arrangements to fly to NY
to pick it up.
Within 2 days of buying my ticket I picked up an old Flyer
(local free paper) and saw a Milano locally. "1987, needs
valve work"  Turned out to belong to the ex-wife of a
serious Alfisti (I think he is the guy selling the Q4 and
Verde on Excite, but that is just a suspicion based on a
casual description she gave of his cars).  Anyway, it seems
to have slipped valve timing and she couldn't find anyone to
fix it for her so I got it for a song (or an aria).
Hopefully it hasn't bent any valves (knock on wood with
crossed fingers).  Other than that it is very clean with 75K
original miles.  I got a fellow Alfisti to help and we towed
it home Sunday before last (the Saab was the tow car and
didn't complain).
The GTV-6 is a 1982.  I flew into Newark last Wednesday and
my ever-helpful sister drove me upstate.  I made the deal
and drove it back down 250 miles to my sis' place on Long
Island.  The car had 61K original and was in pretty decent
shape.  Bit of interior work needed and a bit of noise
coming from the driveshaft on a trailing throttle.  By the
time we got to LI the noise was considerably louder and
pretty consistent at slow speeds.  I jacked it up but
couldn't figure it out as it was above the heatshield over
the center muffler.  I suspected the center bearing was
coming apart but figured I'd "soldier on".
Last Saturday I ran it down to my also ever-helpful
brother's place in Raleigh NC.  Somewhere past DC I heard
something fly off under the car and the knocking stopped.
More vibration now at low speed but just fine at cruising
speed of 70-75.  I stopped for the night in NC and was going
to look under the car but figured, what the hey, I couldn't
see anything anyway and I'd already decided that it would
make the drive to Miami.  Instead my bro said he wanted to
show me a shop he'd driven by that had a bunch of Alfas
outside it.  Turned out he was talking about Peter Krause's
shop(www.krauseandengland.com).  It was probably about 6:30
PM but Peter was still there and was happy to show us
around.  Peter reads the Digest so I will take this
opportunity to thank him again. He couldn't have been more
hospitable.  He gave us the Grand Tour, first of his shop
(full of fine Alfas), then his warehouse (finer Alfas), then
one of his race trailers (GTA and Devin Ermini), some more
cars outside.  Visit his site to get the idea and if you are
ever in the area (it's only about 20-30 minutes off I-95)
stop by for a real treat.  Thanks Peter.
Well I left Raleigh on Sunday 8 AM.  The sound was really
nasty now at low speed but cleaned up at speed.  I made a
deal with her.  We'd drive straight through, the barest
minimum of stops, steady 70-75 and that would be all I
asked.  We made the 822 miles to Miami in 12 hours flat
including only one stop for gas and lunch (and to pick up
the tailpipe that fell off, no loss, she needed a new rear
muffler).  Mileage was over 26 mpg at 75. Pulled into the
driveway around 8:15 PM and she hasn't moved since.
So now I've got my work ahead of me.  Figure I'll get the
Milano running as a driver and do something cool with the
GTV-6; I may make into a race car or autocross car.  Any
ideas? (I know, sell it to you, laff).
That's all for now.  I'll take some pics soon and post them
on my site and let you'all know the link.
John (alfadog)
87 Milano
82 GTV-6
needing names
And yes, I still love my 86 Saab 9000T

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