It isn’t clear how long this Alfa Romeo Giulia Sprint GT had been sitting in the shed as pictured above, but I suspect that it was quite a while. It has now been dragged out, and the owner is looking to move it on to a new home. It is located in Cleveland, Ohio, and is listed for sale here on eBay. At the time of writing, bidding has reached $12,100 in a No Reserve auction.
Judging by the comprehensive gallery of photos that the owner provides, it doesn’t look like the shed in which this car has spent so long was a particularly dry environment. From experience, most of us seem to know that it is never good to use the words “Alfa Romeo” and “damp environment” in the same sentence. That is exactly what we have here. Surprisingly, this little Alfa has survived quite well in that environment. Yes, there’s some pretty comprehensive rot in both rockers, but the floors, the trunk, the quarter panels, and under the battery tray have avoided the worst of it. There are a fair number of dings and dents to be repaired, and the rear bumper is missing, but it might just be that this Alfa will spring a surprise.
However, before we get too carried away on the rust front, there is one further factor to consider. Some of the “before” photos show the interior as having a fair old coating of mildew. In fact, the owner suggests that the carpet will need to be replaced due to this issue. That raises two things to think about. The first is to wonder whether the odor that mildew produces has permeated all of the upholstery and padding in the car. The second is whether the carpet has been particularly damp, and if so, whether this has started the rust process from above instead of below. This is something that should be checked quite carefully. Leaving aside the mildew issues, the interior looks pretty good. There are a few minor items missing, but it is actually in quite remarkable condition. The only sour point for me is the really ugly radio/cassette player that is fitted to the Alfa. That would definitely have to go.
Powering the Alfa is the 1,570cc twin-cam four, which is backed by a 5-speed manual transmission. While 105hp may not seem like a heap of power, it is certainly enough to propel the 2,000lb Alfa to a top speed of 113mph. That really isn’t shabby, and this is further accentuated by the fact that the Alfa handles well, and stops brilliantly courtesy of the standard 4-wheel disc brakes. The owner says that the car doesn’t run, but that the engine turns freely. Honestly, I would be giving the engine a pretty thorough check before I hit the key. The last thing that you need with an Alfa is for the engine to make one very loud noise, followed by no noise at all.
On the surface, this Alfa Romeo Giulia Sprint GT is a wonderful little car that seems to possess a lot of potential. When these are functioning as they should, they are just a fun little car to point at a piece of twisting road, because that’s where they truly come into their own. They are also shockingly prone to rust, but if this one checks out as a solid car, then it could be a great project.
A very cool project, totally worthwhile.
Hemmings has it too: https://www.hemmings.com/classifieds/dealer/alfa-romeo/giulia/2248470.html
The rockers appear to be the worst of it, maybe the car won’t hold too many rot surprises elsewhere.
Eh, Adam, I don’t think that you’ll find a 5-speed transmission in this car, unless you’re including reverse in that count! ;-)
You may be right on the transmission front DayDreamBeliever, but I’m not sure. I followed up on a number of different sites looking at the specs for the 1965 model, and they all keep telling me that they are a 5-speed. A friend of mine had a ’65 model, and I can’t remember what his car was fitted with. I’m pretty sure that some of our readers will be able to set us straight on that. If I’m wrong, then it’s one that I’ll cop on the chin.
The Hemmings listing has it as a 4-speed.
That’s interesting, mate. I found the listing on Hemmings and you’re right. It definitely says that it is a 4-speed. Concept Carz, Auto-Catalog and Car Folio list the ’65 Sprint GT as being fitted standard with a 5-speed. Maybe this one has had a swap somewhere along the way. It would be interesting to know.
This is a 105 car and has a 5 speed. Alfa Has been using 5 speeds since the 750/101 days in the mid 50’s and the 105/115 cars only had 5 speeds and I have never seen one with anything other than a 5 speed and I have built several hundreds of these gear boxes and know them pretty well.
According to Wikipedia (although they are not always correct): “Common to all models was also a 5-speed manual transmission and solid disc brakes on all four wheels”.
I’d say you’ve got more sources that say 5-speed and only one that says 4-speed. So…
OK full disclosure is that I love these little cars and have owned several and still do own more than a few Alfa’s.
These cars have been going up in value in the last few years with nice ones going for mid 40’s. So this one is tempting at 12k.
Problems with it. The rust is worse than it seems, it always is, and the rockers are critical on this car as they give the car strength. Fixing this is not for the faint of heart, but can be done. Wolf Steel sells repair kits for about 300 bucks for the parts and while some of their stuff is not up to spec these seem to work pretty well. Classic alfa has the stuff that is spot on for about 425 per side. Then there is the actual repairs which take many hours.
You are also going to have rust in the window channels, particularly around the lower corners of the rear window. Glass has to be removed to fix properly.
The mechanical stuff is all pretty much straight forward. It is pricey if you are use to working on Chevy’s but cheap compared to Ferrari’s.
Trim items can be eye watering. I recently purchased a bumper for one of these and it was 800 USD and the front triangle grill is 300.
In the end if you buy this one and do most of the work yourself you may come out OK. If you bring it to me and do a checkbook restoration you are going to be severely underwater.
Kevin I have had a few of these and surprisingly with no rust problems what so every on mine but you are quiet correct that these are rust breeding spots on four wheels. The problem is that they are so much fun to drive and in general so useful from grocery getter to long distance transportation. I find them most useful in the mountains.
Thank you very much for posting where to go for the parts. I have been out of the Alfa world for a while and I would not have known where to go to get the best stuff. For what it is worth the construction of Alfas in terms of body construction is very straightforward if you can get the parts. As these become more and more valuable more and more critical parts are being made. NOT CHEAP to purchase but available.
These are great little cars I have two of them both 67 GTJr’s one a turn key driver the other a project like this. Granted I don’t need two but I just can’t part with them that and they don’t take up a lot of room ;-)