[dcasper66]

Very interesting bumper conversion.

 

[robatsu]

Very interesting bumper conversion.

I got the idea for rear bumper from a poster on Alfabb. Going with duetto bumpers in front matches the lack of black plastic on the 510 rear bumper and leaves a natural gap if one wanted to install some discrete auxiliary lighting

I’ve been quite happy with it. Seemed to get generally positive comments on the forum here.

 

[robatsu]

Some more pics

 

[robatsu]

Bit of a story on this car.

In July 2019, I went to Kendall Used Cars in Eugene to sell my 2015 Tacoma and this car happened to be on their showroom floor.

They had no story for the car other than Kendall Toyota had gotten it on a trade after it had been in storage. They were much more interested in getting the Tacoma and made no representations on the car, they seemed completely uninterested in even trying to sell the Alfa, kind of a white elephant.

The car showed 37k then and while I’m not a vintage car guy, I’m fairly mechanical and it was obvious to me that the this was not a 137k machine by overall condition.

As some further background, when I was a young naval officer in Hawaii going for my first new car, I fell in love with a gray 1988 Quadrifoglio at the Honolulu dealership but it was unfortunately a little out of my grasp financially, alas.

And coincidentally I was preparing for a trip to the northern tip of Vancouver Island to meet a friend I had served with and shared a home at the time, the plan being to sail his boat to Alaska and back

We were both car nuts and seemed like a coolio surprise.

So I bought it, took it to Sports Car Shop here in Eugene who worked out a few glitches then a week later drove it 700 miles up to northern end of Vancouver Island from Eugene.

It was doing so well that I took the long way home, the coast road all the way down through Washington then Oregon to Florence

Since then it has been a project for me and my teen son ti just keep stroking and improving a quite nice survivor.

The concentration has been on getting it ti roadworthiness by modern traffic standards, high mechanical reliability and smoothness as setting a baseline for performance mods and a cosmetic pass.

That’s where it sits now. And my son has graduated from HS, so I don’t really need the car any longer

It pulls strongly and smoothly up to 100mph easily and with confidence in the suspension and steering. Took a while to get everything sorted but it’s an excellent driver.

 

[robatsu]

Some more background:

Immediately after purchasing I took it to Sports Car Shop in Eugene, a place I had noticed often but never visited.

Turns out the owner is a major Alfisti, races a Duetto.

I noted that the steering seemed loose and oil pressure seemed to drop more at idle than I would expect. No light going off or anything though.

So it turned out it had thrown a crank plug, which may explain why it was originally put in storage, tires date coded 2005.

They were able to fix this pretty easily via the oil pan. My mechanic reported that this tended to support the idea that the miles shown were accurate as throwing crank plugs tended to show up around 40k miles.

The guys I bought it from paid for this repair incidentally.

I never researched the issue as it got fixed up front but I’d suppose there is a lot of knowledge in this forum on that topic.

 

[robatsu]

Photos of negatives. wanted to wash car first but having a smoky day in Eugene

Small dent in front

Front seat is ratty

Rust spot on rear

There was a bit of trim representing a vestigial grill with the black bumpers and some mounting holes and residue remains

The clear plastic on the grill emblem is cracked. It is the original emblem from the black bumpers

 

[robatsu]

More pics. No crack in dash. Jack and toolkit appear untouched ever, it was like opening King Tuts tomb first time I opened it.

And

 

[CountryAlfa]

Is this still available? I'm in Oregon as well and looking for a driving project for my son and I--does this beauty pass DEQ? What condition are the top/boot? Any rust to note under the vehicle aside from what's shown (floors, chassis, etc.)?