[Leica] Alfa rust

[topoxforddoc at btinternet.com (Charlie Chan)]

Aren't old Alfas just works of art? Ok the second photo (of your 16  
year old Alfa) looks a little down at heel. However, it would have  
restored really well. Not sure about the Chevvy Vega though - that  
looks like a pepperpot!

Best wishes,

Charlie Chan
Cheltenham, UK

topoxforddoc at btinternet.com
www.cancer-surgeon.co.uk
www.charlie-chan.co.uk



On 4 Feb 2010, at 22:02, Lawrence Zeitlin wrote:

> I don't know much about the current Alfas but in the 1960?s, while
> consulting to a Madison Avenue advertising company (now defunct), I  
> was in a
> sports car phase. Sequentially I owned a 1956 Jaguar 140MC, a Jaguar  
> 3.4
> Sedan (the type Chief Inspector Morse drove), and a 1959 Alfa Romeo  
> Sprint
> Veloce Coupe (probably the most beautiful car Bertone ever  
> designed). My
> bosses frowned on this adulation for foreign exotica and assigned me  
> to be
> research director of their new automobile account as a lesson. It  
> was the
> Edsel. I left the advertising business soon after and took up a  
> different
> kind of work.
>
> The Alfa was a jewel. Not only was it beautiful but it was a real  
> driver's
> car. It had a DOHC  aluminum block engine fed by dual Weber DCOE  
> 40mm carbs,
> each cylinder having its own carb barrel. I enlarged the engine from  
> its
> stock 1300 cc to 1500 cc by replacing the wet liners and slightly  
> stroking
> the crankshaft. The car could easily cruise at 120 mph and held the  
> curves
> like it was on rails. Braking was handled by huge, sculpted aluminum  
> drums
> with shrunk in steel liners. It was the only car that I can truly  
> say I
> loved.
>
> Unfortunately the materials and details of construction didn't match  
> up to
> the esthetics or performance. The metal of the engine block was so  
> soft that
> you could dent it with a thumbnail. Round bolt holes soon elongated  
> to an
> oval shape. Rust was a constant problem. The trunk mounted battery  
> fed an
> anemic Bosch starter through a 10 foot long cable. Winter starting  
> was an
> iffy affair unless you had the sense to park on a hill.
>
> I learned to put up with the car's eccentricities and systematically
> replaced all the Bosch electrics with either AC or Delco  
> replacements. I
> kept the car for 15 years until job and parenting responsibilities  
> meant
> that I couldn't put in the hour of maintenance that each hour of  
> driving
> demanded. The Alfa was beginning to show definite signs of wear.  
> Besides it
> attracted traffic tickets like files to honey.
>
> I eventually gave the car away to a collector who promised to  
> restore it and
> give it a good home in a museum. I couldn't bear to sell it. I  
> should have
> kept it a few more decades because I saw a fully restored version on  
> sale
> for $100,000.
>
> Here are a couple of pictures of my car, scanned from a 4 x 6  
> drugstore
> prints. Of course these snaps cannot compare with Charlie Chan's great
> pictures of Alfas.
>
> Alfa in 1959, when new.
>
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Larry+Z/Alfa.jpg.html
>
> Here is the car in 1975, waiting patiently outside my garage for  
> needed
> maintenance. You can see some paint flaking and incipient rust.
>
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Larry+Z/Alfa+2.jpg.html
>
> Finally, here is the Alfa's replacement, a Chevrolet Vega. It served
> adequately as a family car but began to rust in the showroom.
>
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Larry+Z/Vega+_75.jpg.html
>
>
> Larry Z
>
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