[Andrew]

I've kicked out all the 70s cars and my garage is now full of Giuliettas. Following from buying Bill Gillham's Spider Veloce in October (and a 2000 Berlina in November that came with it, sort of), I bought and dragged home (with Bill doing 95% of the towing) his 1956 Giulietta Berlina last night. VIN 1488.01774, engine 1315.51850. Still has its original engine and patina galore, including see-through patina in some places.

This is a car Bill outbid me on when it was on ebay a couple years ago. It's a project, no doubt, but it rolled off his trailer and into my garage with only moderate strain to overcome the dragging brakes.

Came with lots of goodies, some new, some old, and five extra doors to replace the rusty existing ones. But as with the Spider, it's better in the flesh than I expected from the pictures. Here's one pic that Bill took before I bought it. So cool. Thanks to Bill.

Andrew

 

[Subtle]

Nice--and even the Giulietta Berlina is an interesting car. ++

 

[rcess]

Andrew,

I remember when the Berlina was on ebay and Bill bought it. When Bill posted it for sale on the 750-101 list, I recall that it came with an incredible number of spare doors. Where the heck did he find those. You now become one of four people I know (myself included) in the U.S. who own Giulietta Berlinas.

My Berlina is a Series 2 and has a completely different dash layout. The PO (a gentleman in Rome) evidently was nervous about these cars not having a coolant temperature gauge, so he installed one in the glove box.

 

[Andrew]

Bill got his (now my) five extra doors on ebay.it with some help from Peter Yaxley of the Giulietta Register. The cars has extra used and NOS parts with it that Bill sourced during his ownership. I haven't even gone through them yet. I literally pushed the car in the garage at 11:45 last night and went to bed, because I had to get up early to return Bill's rig to him 40 miles away, then go to work. Sheesh; where are my priorities?

Andrew

 

[pathung]

How do you keep the wife at bay? That's one secret I'd like to learn.

Now you have TWO vehicles that are automatically ACCEPTED to run in my Giulietta Jaunts; lucky you!

 

[rogerspeed]

Congrats on the cars. I got close to a Guilietta Berlina once. Back in about '86-'87 I located a roller at a wrecking yard in Maine. I was in LI at the time. So I made deal with Tom Zat; he was driving arround the county with an tractor trailer car carrier wheeling and dealing, picking up old stuff. I was to meet him at Alfa's Unlimited in Norfolk CT, he was to have been up to Maine and grabbed the Berlina for me. So I arrived as agreed with a Duetto and complete 750 Veloce engine in tow for Tom. He was there but no Berlina, don't know what happened with that car, I can only guess, having learned how Tom worked.

 

[Andrew]

My wife doesn't at all mind; I guess I'm lucky. She has her own expensive hobby (triathlons and Ironmans) so we have kind of a de facto agreement not to examine each other's hobby budgets too closely. It is my plan to get rid of something (probably my GTV) to make physical and financial room for this; I sold my GT4 in the same way to accommodate the Spider Veloce.

I have only seen five Giulietta sedans in my life including this one. A black one in San Diego near SDSU in the 70s at a gas station/garage, a red one being autocrossed at the San Diego national Alfa convention in 1980ish (I have pics), and two at the Giulietta 50th event in Sausalito a couple years ago, and one of those two at Laguna Seca a couple years earlier (the one from Santa Maria?). I considered Tom Zat's Giulietta, which I presume is still for sale on his website, but it all seemed too difficult after talking to him.

So now I have a Giulietta berlina, Giulia berlina (Super), and two Berlinas. Nice spectrum, and I think I'll stop there and not add Alfettas and beyond. A 1900, 2000, and 2600 would be nice to add though.

Andrew

 

[rcess]

Andrew,
If you have seen five Giulietta Berlinas, then you are way ahead of me. I have only seen one, and that is the Berlina I own.

 

[Andrew]

I misspoke. I should have said five Giulietta sedans of all types. I'm sure a couple were TIs.

Maybe I'll make mine a "Giulietta Super" with a Veloce engine. I have a spare 101 Giulia engine, and a 1750, and a 2000, so anything's possible. And Bill says when we can work it out this car comes with spare 750 engine and tunnel case trans, presumably a column-shift one. Kinda kidding about this, but as an interim measure I might put another engine in if I can do so without making any changes to the body. In the long run, I want the original engine and trans in there, but time will tell what their condition is. And with a column-shift car, I can't readily drop a floor-shift trans in without cutting a hole in the floor, which I'm not inclined to do. I have years to figure all this out.

Andrew

 

[Andrew]

More pics in its new home. Love that trunk badge; reportedly the license light shines through the translucent red piece, illuminating the Alfa Romeo script to all the car that are waiting to pass you (53 HP in Berlina form).

Andrew

 

[Peter]

More pics in its new home. Love that trunk badge; reportedly the license light shines through the translucent red piece, illuminating the Alfa Romeo script to all the car that are waiting to pass you (53 HP in Berlina form).

Andrew

that's such a nice detail!

 

[rcess]

Unfortunately, the Series 2 Berlinas (like mine) do not have that detail.

 

[Andrew]

Does your car have any script at all on the back? The TIs say "Giulietta TI" in an upward slanted script on the right rear of the trunk, which is very sassy and appealing I think.

Andrew

 

[rcess]

No, there is no script on the trunk lid, nor is there any indication that there were ever mounting holes on the lid. I checked the Parts Catalog, and the script was only used on the TIs.

My car is all original, with only 94,000 kms (59,000 miles) on the odometer. As I mentioned in a post to the 750-101 list, the PO installed a coolant temperature gauge in the glove box.

When you have a chance, check and see where the oil drain plug is located. If it is like mine, the cross member has to be removed to drain the oil. Strange.......

 

[Andrew]

So there's nothing on the back that says Alfa or Giulietta on your series?

On my car, the crossmember is not there, so I can't tell if it interferes. I'm hoping it's in the boxes of junk inside the car, but I haven't gone through them yet.

Is the parts manual available in repro anywhere? I have the shop manual, but haven't seen a Berlina/TI parts manual ever.

Andrew

 

[Il Vecchio]

More pics in its new home. Love that trunk badge; reportedly the license light shines through the translucent red piece, illuminating the Alfa Romeo script to all the car that are waiting to pass you (53 HP in Berlina form).

Andrew

Andrew, that looks like a fun project. The only Giulietta sedan I've seen personally was a very nicely restored one at the AROC convention in '82, also shown in the 1st ed. Alfa Buyer's Guide.

Lots of room to drop in a 2-liter lump if you're looking for more power! However, it's nice to see a sedan restored back to original spec as well, as they're so thin on the ground over here.

Does yours have a knob to pull to engage the starter?

 

[Andrew]

Not sure, but I believe that's the setup. I am very remiss in not having pawed over, or even cleaned out, the car yet. Trying to get a 2000 Berlina out of the driveway first.

Andrew

 

[alfazagato]

I don't know how or why I missed this thread before...but congratulations on a Berlinetta. Peter Yaxley does have a lovely one which I think is 99.999% original in black. Extraordinary cool car. The values seem to me to be shifting constantly and the high prices appear to be for original specification cars. If you are thinking of modifying the original specification I would be careful as values plummet quicker than reputations!

 

[Andrew]

No plans to modify soon or permanently. If I make any changes they'll be easily reversible (like dropping in a different engine while I rebuild the 750 if need be). Peter sent me pics of his car and it's phenomenal-looking.
Andrew

 

[pathung]

Andrew, if you drive the Berlinetta on the next Giulietta Jaunt, you would "cement" the importance of this splendid Alfa event for its ability to bring out the rarest of the rare Alfas! Rarer than even the SZ in the States, apparently. If you do decide to leave the 50 hp motor in the car, I promise to slow down and wait for you once in a while.