[RogerD]

Just a few shots. 72 Spider, Dellorto carbs, hi compression pistons, "performance" cams (per seller), nicely repainted in bright corvette yellow, with panasports. Pretty much rust free, except for some bubbles in the rear-most rocker/fender area. Interior redone in a soft cloth in original pattern. 233,000 miles with good compression. No gear crunching. Brakes solid. Has a fair sized to-do list (and the TO bearing just started making noise this morning) but nothing major; completely drivable.

I've been looking for years, first for a GTV, then a Super, but they just started to get beyond my price range (or impossible to find) for anything decent, when this fell into my lap. Now if that Oregon sun would just come out!

 

[Tifosi]

That's sweet. :thumbsup:

 

[ghnl]

Looks very nice! Was the original color a yellow or was the engine bay also repainted yellow?

 

[Peter]

SWEET! Congrats on your find!!!

 

[RogerD]

yellow, etc

The paint plate is not present, but I believe the original color was giallo prototipo (aka pagoda, or canary). The work was done by Denny Pillar, a local Alfa racer, who bought it in 1976 with 40,000. He "built" the engine (cams, carbs, pistons, header), replaced the trans with a 69 he'd rebuilt, stiffened the suspension, painted it "bright Corvette yellow" and redid the interior. Then his wife, Pat, used it as a daily driver until 1993, when he sold it with 140,000 on it. That's from a phone call to him as I was considering the purchase. It now shows 33,000, so that's 233,000. Records since then are limited, but there was head work done a few years ago.

The to-do list is not extensive: one tie end needs replacing. Needs seatbelts.
It pops out of reverse, but I'd rather just hold it for now. Oil pressure gauge works, but not warning light. Fuel gauge flops all over, speedo seems sluggish.
The dash was capped at some time, but doesn't look as bad as many I've seen, no visors, needs a new drivers side window regulator. Missing fan shroud. No lights in hood or trunk. Passenger door lock is non op. I said no rust, but there are pinholes in the sparetire well. Nothing I can't drive with and fix over time. Other little bits here and there. Should do a total fluid replacement. Did notice that the carb isolators are cracked, so that should go on the list, but it idles fine. And the TO did start making noise just today...

 

[lgbalfa]

its beautiful. how much did you pay for the car?

 

[dabigboy]

Mmmmmm dat's purdy. Congrats on the find, that's awesome that one finally worked out for you. Are these things really getting that rare? I knew they were a little scarce, but up until about 2 months ago when I bought mine I really didn't know much about them....I just knew they were gorgeous, classy, and a little more rare than my beloved Z cars. Here lately I'm doubly glad I jumped on it when I had the chance.

 

[RogerD]

"rarity"

Working with a limited budget I started looking at GTVs from 67-71 about 3 years ago. Then it seemed you could find a solid decent driver for around 10k, but I was just starting to look and learn and the ones for sale were far away, so I didn't jump on anything. Then my employment situation decayed and buying a fun car stopped being an option for a couple of years, but I kept shopping and learning.

So by now the level of car I was looking for was over 12 and pushing 15. Lots still in the 10k area, but needing body/paint/interior/etc., and I was not looking for a project to get upside down on really fast. Just a solid driver I could use for club events and fun local fun drives, that I could drive with some pride. And, really, very few come up for sale. Won't touch ebay. And after learning what photos can hide or show and what "rustfree" can mean to sellers, I lost interest in jumping on a plane for a 500 dollar weekend just to go look.

Then I got attracted to Supers. Supers are very rare in the US (as I've posted elsewhere, fewer then 5 people out of 300 million have one for sale right now) and by the time they are imported they are over my budget. And, although there are many for sale in Europe, most are not in good condition.

I finally realized that I was getting nowhere trying to find "my perfect car" for what I could afford, so I needed to re-frame the search to "what did I want out of those cars I can afford?" I went way back in my history of wanted cars and looked again at (forgive me) Porsche 912s and MG BGTs and BMW 2002s. But la voce kept calling me back.

Living in the Great Northwest I never really considered a spider, thinking I'd never drive it. But I realized I wouldn't be taking a GTV out in the rain either, so Spider made the list. I thought if I ever went that way it would only be a 67 or 69. But, again, solid drivers are getting into the mid-teens, so I looked at the series twos. Not very common, certainly not as many for sale as the later 70's through 80s versions, which don't interest me (no offense). Probably a few more series twos for sale right now than GTVs? and priced thousands better for the same quality.

Then this one just appeared on craigslist and it pretty much knocked me out. Paint is excellent, if not Alfa correct, and really looks great on the car. No significant rust, no body damage, very nice interior (again, not Alfa correct, but the cloth is nicer than black vinyl), a nicely built engine, great local pedigree, cool wheels, solid trans and brakes. The high mileage was offputting, but a compression test and a thorough PPI gave me a lot of relief, so I jumped.