Alfa Romeo Giulia TI 1965(Bought in 1993 from San Francisco, CA)(Sold in 1999 to a friend in Chicago)(Bought back in 2011 from the same friend) |
A Bit of HistoryWhen I was 7 or 8 years old, my dad received a 1969 Giulia Super from a motor pool at his university in Thailand. It was a few years old at that time. It was white with 1600 CC engine. I remembered that it was loud, fast, and smell a bit funny. His chaufeur loved driving that car, and I loved riding in it. Fast foward 15 years, I lived in Chicago. I was looking for a car with manual transmission and fell in love with a black Alfa Romeo Milano. It was an executive demo car and the dealer, West Suburban Auto Imports, was asking a very reasonable price. That purchase sparked my addiction to Alfa Romeo. I love owning them, driving them, and especially working on them. In 1993, I found this car in the classified section of the Alfa Owners magazine. The car spent most of its life in CA. Still, it had some rust issues in the past, maily around the front floor pans as they both had been patched with sheet-metals. However, the rest of the car was solid. It had the original 1600 engine with single Solex carb. The engine was a bit tired; it smoked a bit and the second gear grinded upon downshifting. It had the original Dunlop brakes. The sports suspension consisted of Ward and Dean springs and Bilstein shocks. It had new headliner and red seat covers. However, the seat bottoms had already sunk in a bit. There was a lot of cracks on the faded white paint. We ended up repainting the car to AR 343, navy blue. In 1999, a dear friend really wanted this car. He offered to trade his red 1971 GTV for the TI. After refusing for a few months, I finally gave in. We did the trade during the fall of 1999. Here are some photos of the TI and the red GTV. |
Photos from 1990's |
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Under my Friend OwnershipMy friend spent a significant amount refreshing the car. In 2001, he dropped off the car at Besic Motorsport, a premier independent Alfa garage. It stayed there for a bit over a year. Mike Besic built a high-performance 2-liter engine for the car and ported the intake manifold for a pair of spanish Webers DCOE 45 (I bought them from Thailand for my friend). He replaced the standing pedal assembly with the one from 1969 so that he could add heavy duty hydraulic clutch. He replaced the front brake spindles so that he could use the larger ATE calipers from the later 105 cars.He also installed a rebuilt transmission and 4.56 limited-slip differential from a later spider. The two were connected with a new drive shaft. He sent out the radiator for recore. My friend also replaced the original wheels with 15x7 Borbet Type-A so that he could install wider and lower profile tires. He set up the car more for track days than everyday driving (e.g., 36mm chokes on the Webers). He enjoyed driving this car at various gathering and track events hosted by AROC-Chicago Chapter from 2004 to 2010, while putting up about 6,000 kilometers. In 2011, I received a call from my friend. He had gone back to live in Thailand with the plan to bring the car back home with him. He dropped off the car at his shipper in Chicago a couple of months earlier, and went home to prepare the paperwork to import the car. Unfortunately, he found out that Thailand no longer allowing cars older than 1975 to be imported into the country. His phone call was to gauge my interest in buying the car back. Of course, I jumped at the opportunity to own it once again. I arranged for Passport Transport to pick up the car in Chicago and bring it to Lincon. I picked her up from the gas station at the corner of 84th and Cornhusker. The car was fast, loud, and loved to rev. However, with the big chokes, it was difficult to keep the engine idling at stop lights. Here are some pictures. I took them right after Passport Transport dropped it off. The bumpers came in the backseat so I also put them on. |
Photos from 2011 |
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Photos from 2014 |
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Current Photos |
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Maintenance Record
(Mostly Done by Me)
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September 22nd, 2011 (77384 KM) |
Replacing tachometer cable Cleaning out gas tank Flusing radiator Changing oil+filter (Amsoil 20W50) and sparkplugs (NGK Iridium) Changing differential oil to Redline 75W90 Installing 123 electronic distributor, cap, coil, and rotor |
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May 26th, 2012 (78876 KM) |
Replacing wheels with Panasport 15x7 Rejetting the Spanish Webers to 33mm choke |
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April 20th, 2014 (80124 KM) |
Replacing right front passenger window cable Repairing the grey rubber door panels |
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September 23rd, 2014 (80365 KM) |
Strengthening left front shock mount with new welding (Midtown Bodyshop) |
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August 3rd, 2015 (80992 KM) |
Installing European air intake, purchased from AlfaBB Replacing the gear shifter, the original one was way too short Changing oil + filter (Amsoil 20W50) |
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June 17th, 2016 (81472 KM) |
Replacing the steering wheel with Hellebore repro from Classic Alfa |
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March 12th, 2018 (81785) |
Replacing clutch slave cylinder Replacing fuel pump Installing the refinished original grill Installing stainless front windshield trim Installing front cowl stainless strips |
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April 14, 2021 (82453 miles) |
Replacing the center muffler and installing rear stinger Replacing front anti-sway bar links with poly-bushing Replacing Bilstein shocks with Hydrasport shocks from Vick |
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June 14, 2021 (82536 KM) |
Installing rebuit Italian Weber DCOE 45 carbs (135 main, 195 AC, F9 e-tube, 33mm chokes, 50F8 idle jets) |
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July 1, 2023 (82702 KM) |
Installing Ronal Kleeblatt wheels with Vrdestein tires (185/65R14) |
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August 15, 2024 (83554 KM) |
Replacing Benditalia booster, rerunning part of the brake line Changing the brake fluid reservior Replacing brake master cylinder Changing oil + filter (Liquimoly 10W60) Changing spark plugs (NGK Iradium) |
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August 24, 2024 (83562 KM) |
Replacing front seats with a used pair from CA Replacing the oil pressure sender Replacing the original grill with the later grill to protect it |
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September 14, 2024 (83562 KM) |
Replacing anti-sway bar drop links and add poly swaybar bushings Replacing both engine mounts Replacing differential oil (Swepco 201) |