Anyone want a very straight and solid California “Black Plate” Alfa Guilietta Sprint? I think it has a 1600 engine. We’ve had it at the shop for awhile and I’d like to sell the car so let me know if you are interested.

Alfa Giulietta Sprint

Alfa Sprint Bertone

This is so cool, it must be some sort of World War II Aircraft Manufacturing technique for welding aluminum by smashing it together that was used for cars. This trunk lid was made by Carrozzeria Touring in the late 1940′s and as much as I curse the way they build cars, this is some of the most amazing craftsmanship I have seen. Since it isn’t adding any new material its keeps the panel very light and super strong and without the heat of welding, the panel doesn’t warp and distort. I’m guessing that the force of smashing the two aluminum pieces together in a focused area causes enough heat to melt and stick them tight.

Welding aluminum with a punch

Aluminum welding technique

I’d like to see other examples of this attachment procedure and find out what it’s called.

GTC for Sale 330

Here is a Super nice 330 GTC that a customer of ours is interested in selling. We’ve gone through all of the mechanical components within the last two years such as the engine, transmission and numerous other details. This car is outstanding and is ready to light ‘em up for 2012!

MGA 1600 Barn Find

What do you think this car is worth? Even though the inside of all the sheet metal has a light coating of surface rust, the car is amazingly solid without any evidence rust bubbles in the rocker panels or bottom of the doors.  The car is complete with all the brightwork and trim and as you can see, the side curtain’s are still in tact. The seats are nice leather things that probably came from a Volvo, absolutely not original.

The engine turns over freely with the starter and it sounds like it has even compression in all cylinders. It has all the original mechanical components like the Lucas Starter, Generator and distributor. Based on how well all of the panels fit and the condition of the sheet metal, it doesn’t appear to have ever been in an accident. The odometer shows 15K miles, is that possible?

I’m thinking of putting it on ebay but need to get a feel for the value before I go through that exercise. I’d really appreciate anyone’s feedback on where to go with this MGA.

If I were making a production run of something, this isn’t how I would do it. Ferrari made thousands of “250″ series cars all with these goofy water pipes for the cooling system which vary drastically throughout the 10 year production run.  They are so complex and hard to duplicate that re-making them nearly impossible. This “J” shaped pipe has a compound curve with barbs that have to be welded on in exactly the right location even though they appear to be stitched on at random locations. If they are off one millimeter, they will hit the oil filter or run into the fan.

These pipes are for the Lusso/GTE series of 250, but I can make a number of other styles from 166 up through the 275 cars utilizing my incredible and growing stockpile of bends and flared ends. Right now I am making a short run of the water pipe that connects the thermostat housing to the engine on a 275 GTB/GTS Two-Cam engine.

Water pipe for Ferrari

Water pipe copied for Ferrari

A 1971 Porsche 911 came in with a melted main wiring harness. A number of shops advertised new-old stock  harnesses on their websites but when I inquired they admitted that these parts haven’t been available for years. I called some used parts shops such as CarQuip and a place in CA, cannot remember the name…. and they had nothing. It seems that these harnesses get damaged and need replacing frequently!Tom at CarQuip did send me a used harness for a ’71 but the wire colors and gauge of wire didn’t match which I thought was very odd.

Y-nZ’s has supplied us with spectacular harnesses for 356 Porsche’s and most recently an amazing harness for a 1952 Chrysler Imperial but they quoted a larger price than I thought it worth so here is Casey making one from scratch! We bought all the terminal ends and had the PVC housing so for a major cost savings, here you go, a harness with factory color wire and correct appearance harness!

Main harness Porsche 911

Porsche 911 early wiring harness

Here’s another 250 engine being assembled, we didn’t overhaul it but had to disassemble it to correct head gasket leaks, water pump leaks and replace the roller followers with the needle bearing type. We have had great results with the needle bearing style followers and but poor results with the bushing type which wear out in 600 miles! When an engine needs this much work we pull it from the chassis so it can be test run and inspected for leaks. Here are our famous formula head gaskets in use which have proven themselves reliable and consistent.

250 GT engine 27XX

Restoring a VESPA

Over the last few months I have been pecking away at this 1966 Vespa 150 Super to get it ready for a final finish. It had been crashed so the front fender was dented and warped and the front “leg shield” area was all dented and nasty so I spent some time on the sheet metal and locked down the metal with epoxy primer.

I just finished overhauling the transmission and engine so once it is painted the assembly begins!

Here is the BB engine, finished up and running on the stand with a link below to see it on youtube. No leaks! Needs a little more tuning but this is the second start up and it ran very well. Since this video was taken, we dialed in the carburetors and it sounds amazing.

It was an unfortunate day when this beautiful BMW CSi was side swiped buy a tractor trailer backing into a loading dock. This is a spectacular car with a recent re-paint and an engine and engine management system from a late model 535 as well as many other subtle modifications. We are looking for door parts and a right front turn signal side marker but I believe we can salvage the fender and other sheet metal. The RH side of the car looked fine until I found a crack in the paint near the side marker from where the car made contact with a small trailer so we have to re-paint the whole front end.

BMW CSi