Legitimacy

["TJ" <tj@domain.elided>]

After months of lurking on this list, raising my hand only to dispute
the differences between Stoddard Solvent and Mineral Spirits I have
hopefully gone and done something to make me legitimate.

My 20 year dream of owning an Alfa Coupe has become reality.  Outside my
window, sitting happily in the driveway is a 1967 Giulia Sprint GT, one
of my favorite models of Alfa ever produced.  

Having recently finished restoring a 73 BMW CS, I promised my wife that
the next car I (we) did would be of her choice.  Thankfully, (and this
is part of the reason I married her) she has great taste in machines,
and decided that an Alfa was her first choice.  After four years of
viewing Alfas at the Palo Alto Concours and the Concorso Italiano we now
have our very own Alfa which hopefully someday will be worthy of display
at these events.  Between now and that day however, there is lots of
work to be done, and lots of cash to be spent.

The car featured in the craigslist ad that James Montebello forwarded to
the list is the one we bought.  It was a short drive up 280 to Daly City
to view the car.  With my wife, Fiat-phreak brother and two dogs for
moral support loaded in to the truck we poked and prodded the poor car
assessing its condition.  With a charged battery I brought along, and
some Pyroil Starter Fluid she fired up pretty quickly.  Based on the
condition the owner and I negotiated a deal both were happy with and the
car was now ours.  I spent most of the day running around getting a
flatbed trailer, retrieving the car, and then returning the trailer, but
like I said, the car is now home.

To say the car is rough would be an understatement.  I bought it with
the assumption that it needs to be completely restored, engine out,
baremetal, remove rust, rebuild suspension and brakes completely and
restore interior completely.  Not a cheap or easy endeavor, but I've
done it before and I am obviously dumb enough to want to do it again.

What's good about the car is that it's an early Giulia, with the 1600
motor with Dual Webers and in my opinion one of the prettier combination
of body styling and trim.  The body is for the most part structurally
sound and does not have too much really bad rust on it.  That is not to
say that it's rust free, because it's not.  

What's bad about the car.
-the brakes drag badly
-the radiator leaks
-the engine may need a rebuild, it's got decent compression (one
cylinder was low at about 90PSI, the other three were 130).  The
compression may come up in the low cylinder once the engine's driven a
little, but I'm still assuming complete rebuild on the motor.
-exhaust system is rotten
-interior is thrashed
-no front bumper
-suspension needs complete rebuild

I'm sure I'll find much more wrong with it the deeper I dig, but for now
the patina of excitement has not yet worn off.  I'm off to peruse my
stack of Alfa books and IAP catalogs with a cocktail.

Forza Alfisti!

TJ
Ready to add the Alfa to my .sig below!

TJ Noto		AFM #134  	Cowpoke Racing-"Friends in Slow Places"
http://www.cowpokeracing.com
67 Alfa Romeo Giulia Sprint GT (Chela's)<----------------------------  =
)
95 Ducati 916 Strada
96 Ducati Monster 900 (Chela's)
61 Ducati Falcone 80			
70 Norton Commando Fastback	
73 BMW 3.0 CS ("deviated from museum reliquary standard"-Perez)
97 BMW Z3 (Chela's)
77 Mercedes 280C (Mimosa)	
00 Ford F150 Supercab		
87 Suzuki RG250 (For Sale!)
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