More Berlina details

[Scott Fisher <sfisher71@domain.elided>]

I swear, half the fun of these cars is figuring out
what might have happened to them over the years.

I still get the sense that the Berlina (a '74
registered as a '73) that I bought last month was
cared for very well for most of its life before being
left to sit for a long time.  Last Sunday, Jeff and I
drained the brake fluid and replaced it with new clear
good stuff, which resulted in the brake warning light
going out for the first time since it came on some
time in the Bay Area, before we towed it home.  The
pedal action is still a little softer than I'd like --
but then so is my Spider.  (I have thighs like mature
elm trees, though, and prefer driving cars with no
power assist.)  I don't think it's a problem, but I
will continue to observe the brakes as I go through
the car.  

While the wheels were off, I noticed something I'd
never seen on an old Alfa: stock Spica shocks.  Could
they possibly be the original equipment shocks?  The
fronts certainly looked as well-used as the rest of
the front suspension, and the rears were only shiny
where the bellows had slid up and down the shock tube.
 (Oddly, the car either seems to be handling better as
I use it -- because the seals are being lubricated
with the internal shock oil?  That's the only thing
even close to a plausible explanation I can come up
with -- or, more likely, because I'm used to it.)

Putting the car back together to take it on the road
was an exercise in good faith, however, as the
tires... Well.  The left-rear is decent, an old
Michelin XAS I think (asymmetrical zig-zag tread),
with lots of rubber left on it.  Both front tires have
lots of rubber, but the other rear (right) is pretty
solidly bald, with some cord showing in patches. 
They're none of them any better than the bald, worn,
cracked tires on the alloys I took off the GT Junior,
but they're close. 

Worst of all was the condition of the sidewalls.  They
basically were showing more cracks than a plumber's
convention.  Again, I wouldn't want to drive this any
farther than the nearest tire store, except I probably
won't.  The current plan is to use the Way Cool
6-point StilAuto alloys taken from my Junior, put new
tires on them, and mount them on the Spider -- then
put the Spider's wheels on the Berlina, if only for
Joe Cantrell's benefit:

Of all things that sip the benzina,
I'm quite fond of my new Berlina:
Though its handling is greasier
With its tires' alopecia,
It'll rock once it's shod by turbina.

--Scott Fisher
  Tualatin, Oregon
.
Yahoo! Tax Center - online filing with TurboTax
http://taxes.yahoo.com/

--
to be removed from alfa, see /bin/digest-subs.cgi
or email "unsubscribe alfa" to majordomo@domain.elided