[Aggie57]

Around 25 years ago I owned a 1750 Berlina, which was actually bought as a breaker but ended up becoming my daily driver for a while. I ended up selling it to a friend who used it to create a "new" car, by combining my car with another and completely rebuilding the mechanicals.

After a while he moved to the US, the car was passed on to his sister and then went into dry storage. He recently decided to find a new home for it. If no-one else wants it I'll take it on and get it mobile as a classic run about. I must admit I'm kind of hoping nobody does as we don't want to see it broken up; the idea is to keep it together.

The body is complete, the mechanicals need a thorough going over, the seats are knackered (and from a 2000 Berlina), and there is some pretty serious but repairable rot in the left hand side sill. Here is a picture.

In the next few days we'll get it out of the garage, give it a good clean and post some more pictures.

Oh - chassis number is 1461899, type 105.49 which I believe makes it a 1969 build series 1. I"ve sent an email off to Marco Fazio for confirmation.

 

[tdskip]

Cool - I think you mentioned this on another thread but please post your updates as you get her back on the road.

Do you have a plan of attack mapped out yet?

 

[Aggie57]

Cool - I think you mentioned this on another thread but please post your updates as you get her back on the road.

Do you have a plan of attack mapped out yet?

No plan yet and yes, I moved this from Andrew's thread so as not hijack it unintentionally.

 

[Aggie57]

From Marco:

According to our documentation files, the chassis number AR 1461899 originally corresponds to an Alfa Romeo 1750 Berlina RHD (105.49), manufactured on the 27th January 1969 and sold on the 19th February 1969 in Melbourne, Australia.
The body colour is metallic medium grey, with wild boar leather skai interiors

So complete respray at some stage, including the engine bay. Must have been a fast boat as well!

 

[Andrew]

Was it maybe assembled in Australia? I thought they did that.
The world probably has plenty of maroon Berlinas (in the US it's the #1 color by far); it's funny it got painted from grey. Should look great if you go back to that.

Andrew

 

[Aggie57]

No, imported fully built up. There were a few very early 105 Sprint GT's imported by a company called lightburn with the intention of assembling in Australia but I believe that plan fell through before any cars were actually built here.

Yes, I agree the colour change is strange. I'm not looking at a respray though so it'll have to stay Maroon for now.

Is that "leather skai" imitation leather? I don't recall seeing any Alfa's here of this vintage with factory leather interiors. By the early 70's yes but not before.

 

[Erik]

Skai is what AR called the plastic seat covers that looked like leather. My Spider's '70 got this wording: "The body colour is ivory, with black skai interiors"
Erik

 

[DPeterson3]

I'm seeing a lot of cars that don't match the color and configuration quoted by Mario. I realize they are the "unimpeachable authority", but I'm wondering if the emperor has new clothes?

I've corresponded with two other owners recently with cars that weren't the color that Mario quoted, and there was no evidence of re-spray, and plenty of evidence that the colors were original. Also, the year of manufacture was suspect.

I'm not surprised that Alfa records are so chaotic, and guess we need some source of "reliable" data. Still, I find myself wondering....

 

[Erik]

Italian Chaos

I'm seeing a lot of cars that don't match the color and configuration quoted by Mario. I realize they are the "unimpeachable authority", but I'm wondering if the emperor has new clothes?

I've corresponded with two other owners recently with cars that weren't the color that Mario quoted, and there was no evidence of re-spray, and plenty of evidence that the colors were original. Also, the year of manufacture was suspect.

I'm not surprised that Alfa records are so chaotic, and guess we need some source of "reliable" data. Still, I find myself wondering....

I agree, but were would you find more reliable sources?
Isn't it just part of the AR and Italian charme? Near my holyday flat in Sicily is a smal vilage called "Kaos".
I own a 1970 Spider 1750 S2 (105.57) and found that the number produced of this version, according to Fusi is about 1000 units higher than the allocated VIN numbers.
However, the info on it's original color and interior from Archivio Storico are correct. It is now Farina Rosso but a few places you can see the original white color. Seats are now upholstered in the now popular real leather, still black thou.
Erik

 

[Aggie57]

Skai is what AR called the plastic seat covers that looked like leather. My Spider's '70 got this wording: "The body colour is ivory, with black skai interiors"
Erik

Thanks Erik. I thought that was the case but wasn't sure.

Yesterday we spent some time on the car to see if we could just get it going. The clutch master / slave and fuel pump are dead so no success but we did find a fuel filler flap loose in the boot that was indeed metallic grey in colour and the current owner remembers one of the donor cars being silver / grey. So in this case it seems that the information we got back from Marco was quite likely correct.