Rusty But Trusty

No doubt you’ve often wondered to yourself, how can I be more like the guy that writes those posts on RustyButTrusty? Well, here’s your chance to be exactly like me! Step 1: Start with a couple of cheap Alfas. Step 2: Add lots and lots of money, without any expectation aside from the enjoyment of some fine Italian automobiles that nobody else except fellow oddball car nuts will see the value in. Step 3: Profit! I mean, Success!

And unlike me, there’s no need to spend time dilly-dallying about, with a 14-year gap between the acquisition of your transaxle Alfa and your convertible Alfa. You can go in head-first with this lovely pair. Let’s start off with the prettier of the two, this beautiful 1976 Alfetta GT from when Alfa was confidently relying on the past racing glory of the 159 Alfetta race car, instead of the past sales & racing glory of the Giulietta sprint veloce. The seller calls this color dutch blue (blu olandese), although to be honest, I thought that was a lighter shade. But what do I know, my Alfetta is (sadly) red, and this color seems to suit the car a lot better. At $500, I’m just thrilled he took the time to write such a thorough description of the car, which is listed in Sammamish, WA (near Seattle) for $500.

Unfortunately, he’s saving the gold Daytonas for himself, which is a particular shame since they match the sweet gold striping down the side of the car. Maybe you can prise these from him in exchange for a few extra readies. Widened steelies painted a dull gold might also look pretty tough. He’s also pulled the GTV vents, as well as the headlights… nothing you shouldn’t be able to get off another parts car or from Alfa Parts Exchange. The one hitch is there could be SPICA issues – a bit of time with the resources on Wes Ingram’s site and you’d be able to figure that out. Tomorrow is his deadline – call him and you can probably get a semi-running Alfetta for the same money I paid for mine, or less.

We’ve also got this spider, also with a remarkably thorough description – much more than the usual one-liner people bother typing out for a car at this price level. However, the owner appears to be an Alfa nut (with a couple more in the background of the photos), and has lavished some attention on this aging car. You get a new exhaust along with backdated 4-2-1 headers, redone seats & steering wheel, good tires & top, and more. The body is rust- (though not dent-) free, so pick this thing up, learn some paint prep, have the minor body issues fixed and run it over to Earl Scheib for their presidential job. Or do like me and spend untold dollars on it before and after the paint job!

Tags: alfa, alfetta gt, coupe, Feature, italian, spider, sprint veloce, under $2000

This entry was posted on March 15, 2011 at 6:00 am and is filed under Feature. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.