I saw the '55 Alpine I mentioned. This is a great car if you want to
restore one at a great price. I am not going to get it because we simply
do not have room and my wife, who the car would be for in the first place,
is not too hot for it. But, if one of you folks are interested, let me
tell you more.
First, I think he'll take around $2,000 for the car. It generally appears
to be all there. Even the original door panels are there in seemingly
great condition, except that they have faded. The body is straight and
does not appear to have ever been in any major accidents. Actually he says
it is the factory paint. So, it does not appear to have been in any
accidents. The top is there, with possibly the original material. The
seats are covered in plastic bags. But, underneath appears to be the
original seat material, hanging by threads, literally - for those that like
the restorations where original materials are used where possible, the
seats might work for that too. The car does have the optional overdrive
that engages by this nice neat chrome sliding piece on the steering wheel.
The car is even still standing on 3 early white walls (though they really
are history). The engine is apart. The auxillary pieces (carb, manifold,
generator, etc.) all looked very clean. The front grill and bumpers have
already been rechromed. The original radio is there too.
The dash was also different than the dash on the '53 one I saw, with the
Datsun engine. This one's speedo was much bigger, and it had a tach, and
some weird winged thing that was on the steering column. Didn't get a
close enough view to figure out what is was.
The guy bought the car when it was 5 years old, in 1960. He has the
original owners manual and this really neat color poster/chart that shows
all the lubrication points and various other tune up areas on the car.
Now, let's not think this is all great. Here are some problems I noticed
too. The only place I noticed significant rust was in the hinge area for
the spare tire door. In fact the hinge mechanisms seems all screwed up
too. But, that may be minor. The steering wheel is there, but the
ceramic/plastic that surrounds the metal core of the wheel itself is all
but gone. The center badge seemed messed up too. The windshield was
cracked by a golf ball hit by the owner's dad. There is no guaranty what
the condition is of the crank, cam, waterpump, etc. The lenses on the rear
tail lights were missing (but the housings were there, as well as the front
lights and signals). He said they were in the car. One chrome side strip
piece was not on the car. He said that was in the car too. His brother
started working on it and stripped the paint off of the trunk and never
covered it. So, it has a layer of surface rust on it. I did not see into
the floor boards since a lot of parts were piled inside and I was running
out of time.
I only got to spend about 10 to 15 minutes looking at the car. The drive
took longer than expected (2.75 hours) and I had to get all the way home
for dinner in 2.5 hours. So, I didn't get to see more. Let's just say
that it's nice sometimes to have a car that happily passes other cars at
speeds I shouldn't have been doing even without passing.
He did e-mail me a few pictures. I'd be happy to send them to anyone who
is interested. Let me know. As I said, if you want one of these beauties,
this is a great car, especially for the price.
Jay
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