I know it's not a Miata but It's a touching story.

I had a customer Recommended to me through My Tampa Life (Thanks Denis)

His father recently passed away and he wanted to do something "special" in his memory.

The customer decided since his father always wanted to fix up his roadster.. he would do the thing his father never got to accomplish.. SO. I agreed when the car got towed down here from New York (Ithica) to take a look and see what I could do. we were dealing with a very strict budget. and I was a bit dismayed to find a car completely rusted from the wheel arches down.

But there was something special about this car... it had soul.. Start it up and the smell of a poorly tuned Italian engine burning 6 year old gas, blowing over the dropped top was unmistakable. as you may allready know this car is a Alfa Romeo Spider.

It was a matter of telling the customer the car was not worth it, or figure a way to fix it.. well long story short I pulled some strings, got some parts From Italy from the original dies. and Recreated a Pinafarinina Masterpiece.

as some of you may know this car has no body "panels" it's a "Stressed Skin" Monocoque Design. so every peice of the body had to be welded in place no bolting or swapping panels. and structual rigidity had to be a major concern along the way too much tweaking and the car would never line up again. so as each section of the car was removed a new piece had to be welded in, and reinforced to support the next repair.

the Porsche Guards Red paint is still curing, (going to take 3 weeks since it's 11 coats 5 color and 6 clear) but I have the first pictures before buffing. and Before I Install the New Panasport wheels.



Next month the car gets a new interior, Momo Steering Wheel, and seats and a 1st Place engineering designed suspension, Engine tuning and I'm building a custom intake and exhaust since none are commercially available.

Look out for this little beast. It's a runner.

Thanks for hearing me out
Jeff Lloyd
1st Place engineering 813-333-1100

Alfa ro is hotness. More pics, please. BTW, its Ithaca.

I have seen this car at Jeff's shop. It is soooo freakin' cool. I can put you in touch with the local Alfa club if you want. They have all the contacts and I am sure would help you out. I just to work with one of the former club presidents. Actually, they are having a club outing at Fort DeSoto next weekend, it think. All cars are invited to attend. I went last year and was impressed by the level of commitment and detail. That might be a good time to introduce yourself. I will get you the details.

That would be Great.. I'd love to get the customer involved.

Great car, didn't know that about the body panels.

Nick

I'm glad the Alfa has new life welded to it. It's such a cool car.

Alfa Club Meeting this weekend. All car welcome.

2010 is the 100th year of Alfa Romeo. this car should be on display since it's one of the few remaining examples of a Bosch L-jetronic injected kammback. there was only one 1/2 year of alfa-ro that had the bosch injection and the classic body. this one has some performance enhancements, but nothing to hurt the value.. but this car was not about value.. it's going to get passed to Ed's son, and his son.. and I'll Rebuild it AGAIN I'm sure.

If you are not familiar with Bosch l-jetronic injection, look at a <96 miata almost 10 years later they copied it wire for wire. actually Bosh licensed the technology to Hitachi, and Nippon denso... that's why it's identical.

I'm sorry I didn't get more pictures, but the car ended up with the chrome "euro" bumpers and side mirror relocation. if you see this car say hi to ed.. I know he wanted to show off to his mom when she came down.