1983 Alfa Romeo Spider Veloce for sale! $4,500

When I first saw Rinata on eBay she looked like favorite, faded and well worn pair of jeans. Her Celeste metallico #365 paint was thin, nearly gone on the hood and trunk; her top was faded and starting to fray; and her interior was sun-baked. Having lived her life in the Bay area near San Francisco, she had been donated to a charity, and the initial impression would have been that after 102,000 miles, the roadster was ready to be parted out.

But a deeper dive showed she came with a fat binder of receipts, and those documented lots of high quality mechanical work over the years. And the seller claimed the car ran well. I bid a modest amount and soon she was on a truck headed east.

That truck positioned Rinata beneath a Lincoln that leaked oil. And apparently the trucker went off-roading through an aviary, so my poor Alfa arrived to my driveway tarred and feathered.

This car gave me the opportunity to do a renovation far beyond any other I had attempted, taking the car to bare metal in some places, while fixing any dings or scratches. I had her repainted the original color (the same as in all 1983 Spider advertisements and the factory catalogue for this first year of the Series 3 spoilered Spiders). Added a new blue cloth top. Found a matching darker blue hardtop. Found a fresh set of blue vinyl seats to replace the stiff, compressed leather ones. I also made custom leather replacements for the top of the door sills and the shift boot, and I refinished the wood steering wheel, staining it darker to match the tones of the interior.  

This was my first Spider with a roll bar. I did time trials in this car at the Alfa convention in Detroit in 2007 (second place in class) and took it on the track in Chicago the next year, where a fellow competitor lost his oil, leading me to tap his side with my nose. Rinata underwent rhinoplasty and was refinished and lived to shine again.

While I termed her "the best driving Spider I've owned," Alfa means "Always Looking for Another" so around 2009 I sold Rinata to focus on two 1960s Spiders. She sold for what was then high dollar -- $8,000.

In 2016, she came back on my radar, up for sale at the DC Auto Auction. I found her a bit worse for the intervening years -- rust had done a number on her rocker panels and under the rear bumper -- but the paint still was shiny and the interior sharp, and when they fired her up at the auction she sounded great; so I bought my old friend back. I focused on ensuring she was mechanically strong, and postponed the body work.