BTDT ... gotta do it again someday.
I've got a 78 MGB roadster sitting in my basement and a 79 sitting out at my
sister's (which used to be my Mom's) place.
Short version ... the 79 was the parts car I bought the first time I had to
rebuild the 78 ... but it turned out to be too complete to part out so I had to
find the parts somewhere else.
The 79 was a "round tuit" vehicle left over after I finished rebuilding the 78.
But before I got a "round tuit" a bunch of delinquent kids smashed the windows &
windshield on the 78 (last day of school 1995 - the only time I had ever parked
it on the street overnight).
I got "reimbursed" for the broken glass, but never could get the glass out of
the interior, so the entire interior has to be replaced. I didn't get
"reimbursed" for that, so it's been sitting up on jack stands in my basement
ever since.
Your spider was a beautiful car. So what happened to it?
On 4/13/2020 10:21:10, Godfrey DiGiorgi wrote:
I had a 1978 Spider that I'd gotten from a friend somewhere around 1996 and
shaped it up. Along the way, I found a 1979 that was sitting abandoned in my
company's parking lot—I found the owner, asked what he was going to do with
it, and he gave it to me. A couple of months later, I was riding my
motorcycle along the Pacific Coast Highway and spied an '82 languishing in a
field under a tree. It was a mess, but I stopped to look. The owner stepped
out to ask if I was interested to buy it, he wanted to get rid of it. I gave
him $500 for it as I knew it would be rust damaged (it was, badly!), but the
mechanicals should be good.
In early 1999, I'd just about gotten to where I wanted the '78 to be, and
then it was smashed by an out of control car while I was on my way to the
office. The collision didn't damage me at all, but it bent the Spider's frame
and the car wasn't worth the cost of repairs. I looked at the three cars
together and figured that there might be a complete running car between them,
and one with the later '82 power train should prove more responsive, more
reliable, and easier to service. I had all three cars transported to the shop
where my Alfa Romeo mechanic worked, and we started from there to strip all
three and build up one complete car, based on the '79 chassis, from all the
best parts.
It was always scruffy. Originally painted silver-gray, I changed the color to
bright yellow to enhance its visibility on the road at night … all too often
people would not see it as I drove with the top down in the evenings. I
overhauled and upgraded the suspension, the driveshaft, and had to replace
one of the two computer boxes that drove the combined injection/ignition
system … never mind all the work that went into splicing the '82 electricals
into the '79, etc.
It was a fun project and a massive amount of work. And it came out just as
I'd hoped: a great daily driver that was a lot of fun to drive and was not a
pristine garage queen only suitable for driving to car meets and shows.
G
On Apr 13, 2020, at 7:01 AM, Alan C <[email protected]> wrote:
Interesting. Did you buy it a knocked down kit? There is red one here
belonging to the proprietor of a local hardware business. I'll see it I can
get a photo.
Alan C
On 13-Apr-20 02:55 PM, Godfrey DiGiorgi wrote:
I was browsing one of the photo forums and came upon a thread
highlighting "Your Favorite Ride" … that is, what car/motorcycle/bicycle
captured your fantasy of the moment. Someone posted a photo of a
beautiful 1971 Alfa Romeo GTV 1750, in yellow, that inspired me to look
through my photo library to see if I could find a similar quality photo
of my last Alfa Romeo Spider …
1979 Alfa Romeo Spider, "FrankenSpider" – Cupertino 2008 ::
https://flic.kr/p/2iPRP59
It was both beautiful and a kick to drive, probably my last ever Alfa
Romeo. I had a ball building it exceeded only by the joy in driving it.
:)
enjoy, G — Oh lost, and by the wind-grieved ghost, go back again! - "Look
Homeward, Angel" by Thomas Wolfe
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