Bell'ochio,
I'm a decisive guy, so it didn't take me long to buy my first Alfa: five years. Of looking. And learning. Most of that delay, I will admit, was driven from fear of being taken for a ride. When I was 20, I found the first GTV I liked. I gave the mechanic of the shop 800 bucks as collateral while I took the car to a mechanic I trusted. He told me it was junk. I lost the cash.
Maimed but undeterred, I kept at it. A few hunts later, I found a '74, like yours, a nice plum burgundy. The car started fine; came from a reputable shop. When I took it to test, the ignition cable got wrapped around the bellcrank and revved at crazy RPMs, unstoppable. I thought it was going to explode. The guy told me (correctly I later learned) that it was an innocent issue, easily fixed. Nevertheless, I bolted.
About 4 cars and two years or more later, my car found me. It's the first car I ever owned. I am thankful I didn't buy the others. But, each time, I had picked something up.
I joined the Nor Cal Alfa Assoc. and found myself calling members at their homes, asking them about repairing oil pumps and steering boxes. Stuff I never thought I'd find myself doing. They were always ready and willing to provide minute detail on things, way beyond the call of duty. You'll find the same sharing attitude in these posts.
The local Alfa club here publishes a magazine called Overheard Cams. So I subscribed, and used to read it all the time. You should do likewise in LA, even before you buy. Alas, I didn't find this Board until a decade later and, in fact, very recently.
Definitely go buy Pat Braden's Alfa Bible. It's awesome. He's got another book that was just published in 2003 or 04, I think. I mourned when I heard Pat died a few years ago; he was my Virgil. But, his wife still posts here under his name, as you can see above.
Best of luck. You'll find it's a slow, persistent, lingering burn, this Alfa obsession. You'll have the shop manual on your bed stand before you know it.
Joe
PS: Are those Portuguese Water Dogs???
