1984 Alfa Romeo Spider Veloce



It all began when LeAnn saw a pretty red sports car. When I told her that the car she was looking at was an Italian car, that sealed it - she had to have one!

I monitored the Alfa Bulletin Board and signed on to the alfa digest (an email list for people with an interest in Alfa Romeos). One day I saw a post about someone selling a 1984 Alfa Romeo Spider.

Since the seller was in Massachusetts and I was in North Carolina, I contacted my good friend Eric who lives in Massachusetts. From previous experience I knew he'd be a good 'voice of reason'. (haha - the 'experience' was when I was considering the purchase of a 1941 Chevrolet Fire Engine! I had asked Eric to come along and help me check out the truck. When we began to look it over, he kept commenting, "this is awesome, this is great, you have to buy it..." Voice of Reason, indeed...)

Eric, and his cousin David (who owns an Alfa), sent back a good report. Something like, "this is awesome, this is great, you have to buy it..." (sound familiar?)

A week or so later (on a rainy Massachusetts day - what else...), the 1984 Alfa is on my car trailer, the bed of my truck is full of spare parts and we now own an Alfa Romeo. Of course the fact it hasn't been driven in a couple of years is just a minor detail...



While waiting for my copy of the Alfa Romeo Owner's Bible and an Alfa Romeo repair manual on CD, I decided to remove the seats:


And carpets:


I was pleased to find very little rust - a small hole on the driver's side:

Most of the problem seemed to be because water would collect and not drain out. Click here to see how I made a repair panel.

More worrisome (to me) was the condition of wiring to some 'after-factory' modifications.


Guess I get to do some electrical sleuthing...


Here is a view under the passenger side dashboard. The tangle of wires were added by the PO (previous owner) for an aftermarket fuel injection system.



Here's what I removed prior to re-installing the original wire harness for the Bosch fuel injection system.



Next task is to repair and paint the fuel tank.

Here's what the Alfa's engine looks like after it has been thoroughly cleaned and rebuilt.



Now we'll see if it will go back where it came from...