With RustyButTrusty headquarters located on the west coast, it’s not unusual to see cars that lean away from the rusty end of the spectrum. Experience shows that, if you are fairly careful about keeping a car dry, existing rust may not be a deterrent to enjoying an older car. Wrenching on it or letting your kids hang out around it may be another story, but when your personal economy works against fixing all the rust on your old heap, there are plenty of other things you can do to make it fun. And perhaps that’s the right approach for this 1975 Alfa Romeo Alfetta Berlina for sale for $995 somewhere near Detroit, MI.
Not half bad from the outside, this car has sat for the past 30 years. Estimating conservatively, that means the car spent 11 years on the road, though it’s not likely an Alfetta would have survived 11 years of Detroit winters in this condition. It’s now said to be a barn find – fortunately those words aren’t accompanied by an insane mark-up this time – but it’s not clear what kind of a barn it was in. Do you think that bumper corner was ripped off by a cow, a horse, or a particularly angry chicken?
The seller concedes that there are pop rivet sheet metal repairs to the rockers, and other rusty areas on the car include the spare tire well and door bottoms. In spite of that, the car looks very good for a rust belt Alfetta. The car appears to be wearing Michelin XAS tires, so it’s certainly been off the road for some time, even if it clearly didn’t escape all winter duty. And while that’s a shame, they are said to be great in the snow.
The interior is perhaps the car’s strongest point – note the good, uncut dash, clean carpets, and likely original seats showing only minor tears. Door panels don’t appear warped or cut either, so if worst comes to worst, another early Alfetta sedan owner would be happy to give you some cash for those bits. The dash top and rear seat are also in excellent shape.
If your hopes weren’t high for the engine either, this might be where things start to unravel. The radiator and SPICA fuel injection system were pulled off, though it looks like the manifold remained, so hopefully the butterfly valves were closed and kept the engine protected. Thirty years of storage may have seized any engine, though, so plan to at least invest in a can of Marvel Mystery Oil, and while the SPICA and radiator are included, you’ll want to test/refurbish both before re-installing for the start-up. All that said, the biggest concern is the interior surface of the fenders – it looks rather bumpy when you really want smooth. Hopefully, this is just surface corrosion or dirt, but if it isn’t, brush up your welding skills (or learn on this thing – you couldn’t possibly make it worse!). 1975 Alfettas don’t exactly grow on trees in Michigan, so if you’re in the vicinity, this one’s probably worth a look!
Tags: 116, alfa romeo, alfetta, berlina, Feature, italian, sedan
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