Peek-a-boo! Welcome to the automotive equivalent of “Where’s Waldo”. Check down in the bottom left corner of the photo and you’ll find our feature car sitting in the same spot that it’s been in since 1994. Located in Floral Park, New York, and listed for sale here on eBay, this 1976 Alfa Romeo Spider comes with a clear title. The seller has set the starting bid at $1,300 but there have been no bids to date.
Why does Alfa Romeo keep doing this to me? The Spider is just such a wonderful looking little car with so much promise, but they are just so unfortunately “water soluble”. What we can see is what could be best described as disfiguring rust, and it’s in all of those obvious places that we expect with an Alfa. The seller is only the second owner and has owned this little gem since 1994. He states that he only drove it for about 600 miles before putting it into storage. While things don’t look that great here (and I wish there were some shots of the trunk floor and underneath the car) there is one small crumb of hope. There doesn’t appear to be any rust on the scuttle between the passenger area and the deck-lid. Couple this with the fact that the doors open and close perfectly and maybe, just maybe, things are structurally sound.
Under the hood is the 1,962cc all alloy 4-cylinder twin-cam engine, which is backed by a 5-speed manual transmission. The seller has not attempted to start the engine since it was excavated from its hide-out, and we don’t even know whether the engine turns freely. Given the fact that the car has sat undisturbed and buried in that garage for 24 years, a further worry may be what damage to the electrical system rodents may have inflicted. This is all a shame because that little engine featuring those twin Weber carbs and the 5-speed transmission promised a rewarding driving experience.
The interior looks reasonable. The dash is complete with all gauges intact and the dash pad uncracked. The only obvious deviation is the fitment of an after-market radio/cassette player. The door trims look like they are slightly warped and the carpet looks slightly odd because the aluminum trims on the insides of the door seals are missing. The seat covers look like they could also do with replacing due to wear and tear.
The optimist in me wants someone to breathe new life into this Spider. The fact that the doors open and close well indicates that there may be some hope that the car is structurally sound. The fact is that all of the visible rust can be repaired as new parts are readily available for the quarter panels, rockers, etc. However, history has not been kind to the Alfa brand, and I can’t help but think that this may be another Alfa that is destined to be a parts car. You know what? This is one of those times when I hope that I’m wrong.
Starting bid set at $4,300 now. Seems a bit high considering the rust.
Last time the seller ran it through eBay it didn’t get any interest at its opening bid of $2,000. I don’t know what they were thinking raising it to $4,300 unless they did it by mistake and didn’t proof read the add. With the amount of rust it looks like a parts car, at best it’s worth 50% of the parts.
Steve R
Maybe they’ll do better the third time they try to sell it. But a seriously doubt it.
ouch
Hey Babe!! Not sure who convinced you that after 3 days at an open of $1300 you weren’t getting any bids because your price was too low. Now you’re 3 grand higher and still no love. Here’s your sign………………
WOW Adam, you have a broad definition of the word treasure.
Yeah Miguel. Sometimes you just have to say things with a “tongue in cheek” approach. Maybe it just wasn’t buried deep enough.
Just looked at the eBay ad. Two days left and zero bids.
Perspective. I purchased this one for 3500. It is rust free, and runs and drives. It needs a new top and the seats are split, but otherwise a good car.
Floral Park is in Queens a stones throw from Bay Ridge. The price is too high.
Rule of Alfa rust #1: wysinwyg
What you see is not what you get
When I see a garage like this, it makes me think mine’s not so bad. I think this Alfa has more rust than one I have, that has sat outside.
I stopped in to the Owl’s Head Museum in Maine the day after their big yearly auction a few weeks ago and walked around and looked at the auction lots that hadn’t been picked up yet.
The highlight was a 2 owner ’70 Superbird that sold for almost $300K, but there were 3 Alfa Spiders, each representing the last 3 design changes. All were in great shape and 2 of them did not meet reserve.
I had never seen a last design model up close and I can see why there were complaints that it took away from the classic look. But, taken by itself, it was actually a very nice, more up to date design.
It’s a $1500.00 car period, and you can find some nice ones still at reasonable prices.
looks a lill like the ’66 I ran around in the early ’70s.
Fun, meanwhile the school mates had the muscle cars.
I beat em in the corners (alot in the n.e. country rds, they got it on the long straight aways (not too many).
Fiats’n alfas v stangs’n GTOs…
$1500? I would have a hard time paying $500 for this. With so much rust, it’s not even a good parts car. I love these Alfas, have owned three of them, but I would run the other way from this rust bucket. Looks like it’s been in a flood. Does not run, tires are old and flat, top no good, etc., etc. Methinks the seller put one too many zeros on the price.
When you sourced your steel from the Soviet Union, well…what can you expect?
The plastic washer fluid bottle did not rust
Hello Guys,
here in the Netherlands we have joke about Alfa’s.
Ask someone the question:
Why can’t you sleep in an Alfa?
The answer is
You can hear them rust.
Have a nice day.
These cars are a dime a dozen you might find a nice one here or there but they are very tempermental, would not want this its a POS sorry.