The seller describes this 1959 Alfa Romeo Giulietta as being “A very solid example that needs a complete restoration”. I agree totally, with the most important part of that statement being the word “solid”. We see a lot of Alfa projects where either a large check, a lot of time, or both will go into the body restoration long before anything else the car needs. This little coupe isn’t like that. It’s listed for sale here on eBay where bidding still is below $8,000 as I type. The car is located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
The lines of this particular Alfa have me wondering whether the designer couldn’t decide between a three-box design and a fastback. No matter what, they are pretty ones. It appears that restoration was started on this car sometime in the distant past, but stopped for some reason. There’s a detailed story about the original 5-Alfa find here from our friends over at Hagerty; this car is one of the two “gems” of the find.
While the underside of the car is by no means perfect, it’s a lot better than most 1950s Alfas I’ve seen. The car also looks quite complete once the trim parts are included (see next picture).
The seller states that many of these items actually come from a roadster; while that may cause you some difficulties with fitment I understand the two models to be similar. No matter what, you will have a huge jigsaw puzzle on your hands; it’s a good thing that there are many Alfa specialists around to help.
There’s enough left of the original interior that you should be able to have it duplicated by a decent upholstery shop. Or be really brave and have them just replace the panels that are torn.
I’m not sure I’ve ever seen an Alfa barn find with the original-type air cleaner still in place. Hopefully, that means most of the rest of the mechanical items are intact as well. Hagerty speculated in their article that this car could bring as much as $40,000-$53,000 when sold; I’m not too sure of that amount, but if it’s even close to correct, the little coupe is one heck of a bargain right now! Let us know if you are the buyer.
Did J. Geils own one of these? Maybe two? The shape looks familiar, from what I remember from the estate auction catalog.
Most of the value is the dirt collected from decades of storage. Very hard to replicate today.
This and 4 others are featured in the latest issue (Jan 2021) of the British magazine “Classic and Sports car”.
Can we still get “Classic and Sports Car” in the USA? I have not found out how to subscribe for any reasonable price. And I guess I was paying over $50/year a dozen years ago.
I would be delighted if this was actually worth $40K+ in this condition… I own a nice one! Also, trim parts are not interchangeable between Sprint and Spider. That doesn’t mean those Spider parts aren’t valuable – they could be good trading currency.
Dec 09, 2020 , 2:15PM
Current bid:US $12,100.00[ 43 bids ]
Reserve not met
Item location:Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
I think Hagerry were out of their minds if they think this car is worth 50k as it sits.
That said, the car apparently was not going to sell for high bid price under 13k either. ..and it didnt.