Hi and sorry to bust in on your thread with such brazen opportunism but I have a Guilia Super (sold 1970 build 1969) that I want to sell. Actually I do not 'want' to sell it at all but the car is in Adelaide South Australia and I live in Indonesia.
I have to sell it because to go on keeping it is unrealistic.
I can empathise with the work involved in your project as I did all this with mine many years ago. Fortunately though I was dealing with a much much younger car though and the rust was quite minimal rather than being of the seriously invasive nature depicted in your shots. OMG, those floor panels, and I wonder how the flasher repeater mounting holes acquired that ragged hole...
I have been storing it for many years at shocking cost and I have to just accept the reality that the chances of me ever getting to have the sort of fun with it that I fondly recall having in years past are now possibly just never going to happen.
It has been in a storage centre for nearly 10 years and I as I am in australia at the minute (sydney) I am thinking this is a good time to do something about it. It was the last Guilia Super sold in Adelaide and my family bought it from the Adelaide Alfa dealer where it had been returned with minimal miles on the clock because the original purchaser had changed his mind and wanted a Berlina (yes...odd decision I think). I took it over in the late 70's and did a full strip to bare metal shell and 2 pack re-spray a few years later.
It is the model with a single brake booster and has the under dash handbrake location.
When the restore was finished it was a better paint job than when new and actually looked better than when I first sighted it in the dealers showroom in 1970.
A handful of the subtly later model with 2 brake boosters and a floor mounted hand brake were sold subsequently to this one in Sydney and they were the last sold in Australia as far as I know. Mine was definitely the last sold in Adelaide though.
I rebuilt the engine and took care of a lot of small issues that had accumulated over time and the vehicle was returned to use in 'as new' condition.
It was subsequently re-furbished a couple of times as I always kept it in near concourse condition despite daily use.
In the late nineties a bit of rust popped up despite all the fish oiling, underbody and the cavity protection spraying done when it was stripped down prior to the original repaint.
By that time it also needed an engine overhaul to keep it in top condition.
That work was all done in Sydney were I was living at the time.
Shortly after I returned to South Australia but a con-rod bearing failed on the engine a few miles from my final destination. At this time I was still running it in. I was seriously disappointed.
I had done the trip between Adelaide-Melbourne and Adelaide-Sydney more times than I can remember with only a head gasket problem and a broken windscreen ever causing problems.
A problem like a failed bearing after using genuine alfa parts out of the box and a full crank balance and journal polishing was a sad moment.
The car sat in the shed at the back of my restaurant in the Clare Valley for over a year and then I got sick of not being able to use it and eventually took it to Adelaide for Repair.
The engine had another full rebuild this time by Luigi Amori of Italservice Adelaide. By coincidence he was the mechanic who serviced it when new and that was when I first made his acquaintance. I recall his spirited test drives through the adelaide hills after scheduled services when the car was new. Guilia's were very fast cars in their day and I do not recall anyone ever overtaking... ever .... I also recall they attracted higher insurance premiums as other road users had a habit of running into the back of them as they also out-braked anything else normally encountered on the road.
This car is really quite stunning. It has quite low milage (I forget how many-maybe 70-80,000), it looks great, and the 'new' engine has not even been run in yet having done only 'proving' miles.
It got put into storage before I even got to have any fun with it.
The interior is in very good condition (basically looks like a 6 month old car) and even has the original carpets. (I always used floor mats to protect them). The only significant modification is it has a Bose stereo system built into it. The only other mods are re-rated rear springs, Koni shocks and mag wheels, an alfa original sump guard, a small nudge bar (unboltable) with driving lights mounted to it and a radiator overflow (header) tank as the original specification did not have this feature. The Headlights were replaced with Cibee's rather than the original italian issue as the french lights were much better and I used to travel a lot at night at ridiculously high speeds.
I think it still has a mid-nineties era alarm system in it as an annoying insurer insisted on my fitting it.
It is a very serious car and has enormous potential for an enthusiast or collector. It is highly suitable for vigourous daily use and has a lot of potential as it has spent so little of it's life on the road.
I do not imagine there would be another Guilia like this anywhere in the world unless someone somewhere stuck one in a museum or something similar when it was only a few years old.
There are very few in europe I guess because of the old habit of spraying salt on the roads in winter.
I am sure any owner of an early model alfa will readily understand the implications of that practice.
I saw a couple in new zealand years ago and I also saw one in Jakarta Indonesia sitting on the side of the road back in the early nineties.
I heard a story the Italian Ambassador brought it in years back but it might have just been a story.
From looking around the web it appears they are getting pretty thin on the ground now.
My Guilia Super is a 38 year old car now but it has certainly spent only about half of that on the road as my family stored it for about five years before I bought it from them and I have stored the thing for more than half of the rest of its life.
It has also scarcely seen the road since 1991.
I always cared for it very well and always garaged it and I guess that is why it still presents like a near new car.
It still has the original engine (1600 of course) with the standard Webers.
The engine tune is standard.
I have the adapter for the Alfa oil cooler (GTA) but never got around to buying the cooling element and hoses.
I also have the adapter for the later 'canister' type oil filter but it is not yet fitted as the 'insert' filter was still available when the car was last on the road (I bought the last one in stock in adelaide at the time).
It is white with a black interior and has dark grey carpets.
If you know of someone who would like to buy it please let me know or pass on my details.
I am sure not everyone has the time/inclination/ability/patience to do a restore-rebuild like you are doing and may be interested in buying one that does not need it and is ready to go.
It is currently sitting on blocks with oil in the sump, no battery and a dry cooling system (I drained it of course when I put it into storage).
I can be contacted on +61428210585 or emailed at
felix505@optusnet.com.au
Hope your rebuild goes well, please email me a shot when you are done.
Is it going to be a red car or a white one?
Mostly a philosophical question I suppose.
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