Your correspondent has been gearing up for a long drive in the Alfetta, and part of that effort has been to attend to the disintegrating seats. Suffering from many years of sun and heat, they were actually remarkably intact, particularly (oddly enough) the driver’s seat. However, the passenger seat covering was falling apart, and the back seat seams were splitting every time something was set on them. Have a look at our worst offender:
For those of you with cars of a certain age, you’re no doubt familiar with the broom-handle method of keeping your hatch open. As an owner of two late 1970s cars using struts to hold up their trunk lids, I’ve been doing this for the last few years. Honestly, though, I don’t really understand why I did. This is possibly one of the cheapest, easiest ways to de-jalopy-ize your old car.
Both my Alfa Romeo Alfetta GT and Lancia Beta sedan use hatch struts. And both of them were failed, the Beta to the degree that they don’t ever hold up the trunk lid. Since I use the Alfetta most, I looked around for a strut online, and ended up finding one from Hatch Struts Depot. So, the reason why this is cheap and easy? Cheap: The strut was $61 shipped and arrived in two days. Easy: Replacing it required removing two circlips and pulling out two pins, then reversing that to put the new one in. Make sure you support the lid with the broom-handle while you’re working on it, otherwise that flat spot on the back of your head (from being hit by the hatch, you know it’s happened) will get flatter. And there you have it – now I have to stand back since the lid opens so quickly. Disclaimer: I’ve got no relationship to Hatch Struts Depot, other than as a customer.
Having just got back into my Alfetta, and realizing what a great car it is to drive, I thought I’d look up a couple more of these. For the money, as long as you’re patient have deep pockets to get you through smog, these can be a lot of fun. Aside from the SPICA pump oil filter, which has been craftily hidden behind the oil pump, they’re fairly easy and straightforward to work on. While they don’t have the extensive US competition history the 105/115 GTVs have, they’re still attractive cars with a design that is clearly related to the Scirocco and Esprit. Changing to smaller European stainless bumpers also does a lot to clean up the look – I highly recommend this for anyone with a US-market Alfetta.
Anyway, enough waxing on about these cars – here’s our first example, a 1979 Sprint Veloce that can be found on craigslist in Bellevue, WA for $2500. This car might be a Velocissima edition Alfetta, which got the Ronal A1 wheels you see here, along with some other aerodynamic bits and pieces that would be hard to see on a black car. Seller seems to have read the manual on how to photograph cars for sale, since he’s included 2 outside pics from different angles (one from the rear would have been better), an interior shot, and an engine shot. He also claims extensive service history, including an engine service for $4K, and some performance modifications. Detail-oriented eyes will notice some rusty-looking areas on the passenger-side inner wheel well, but I believe those are just smog stickers. Get rid of the Ferrari logo on the wheel, fix the key marks in the paint, and you should be good to go!
Rusty But Trusty 