When one thinks of 60s Italian cars, one generally thinks of fast, beautiful red cars driving down a windy road in Tuscany. This is an exception.
It was first sold on July 19th 1966 in Aquileia in Italy. When the car was new, it was medium grey with a red leather interior.
Almost 42 years later, this car is in Salt Lake City, Utah and it's half faded red, half POR-15 black and has no interior. So, what happened?
It was first sold on July 19th 1966 in Aquileia in Italy. When the car was new, it was medium grey with a red leather interior.
Almost 42 years later, this car is in Salt Lake City, Utah and it's half faded red, half POR-15 black and has no interior. So, what happened?
Well, the history of it is a little spotty but sometime in its life, it embarked on a journey across the Atlantic and ended up in the United States. Stickers on the car indicate it's been in La Jolla, California, and Oregon. It was last registered in California in August 1991 with plate number 2GCP759 (anybody know it?)
A guy brought it over to Utah in 1992 and didn't do anything with it. He got tired of it and sold it to another guy in SLC. This new owner also didn't do anything with it and ended up selling it to a guy I know who owns a shop in Salt Lake City. He kept it for a while but didn't do anything to it. But, up until this point, the car was still a complete car. It had been repainted red (a very good repaint, you only see the original gray behind the driver's door panel) and the seats had either been reupholstered in black or new black seats were put in at some point or time.
This was in the early 2000s. A guy bought it from the shop owner, took it home.. and took it completely apart. Down to every last bolt, he took everything apart and lost a lot of the parts along the way. Initially he was going to repair the rust in the rockers and passenger's side floors but that never got done. The car sat in his driveway (and the rest of it in pieces) until January 2006 when I got it. I also got some of the parts he took off the car but it was still missing some, including some key pieces like, ohh, I don't know, the original 1600cc motor.
I stored it at a shop downtown for almost two years. Before I left Utah I finally made room in my driveway and brought it up to my house there. Since I've had it I've gathered most of the pieces to put it back together. In lieu of the missing 1600cc, I bought a 2000cc out of 1975 Spider that will go into it next summer/fall, hopefully with carbs.It's not exactly what most people would call beautiful, it's not fast and it's half red. Not your typical 60s Italian car but being an early 105 coupe, it's worth saving and it will be a fun driver when it's finally done.
2 comments:
it's a crying shame. I have a permanent soft spot in my heart for old Alfa's, even if i'm fully aware they are complete crap.
btw I have enjoyed your site so much that i added you to the blogroll on my site, hope you didn't mind.
-James
Glad you enjoy it, thank you for reading.
Old Alfas aren't necessarily complete crap. In my experience with them, the 60s ones aren't necessarily worst than anything in the era. In some cases (look at British cars), they're even better. It's in the 70s, especially the late 70s, that the quality started to go downhill. The 1980s and 1990s were dark periods though quality is starting to go back up.
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