Barn Finds Success Story: 1963 Alfa Romeo Giulia Sprint
I’ve been asked many a time why we started this site and my wife frequently asks me why I spend so many sleepless nights working on it. Well, stories like this one are why we do it! Several years back, I wrote about a somewhat sad looking Alfa Romeo Giulia Sprint barn find. You can read my original article here. Since it was located in the UK, I figure I would never hear or see of it again. And boy am I glad to be wrong! Reader Lorenzo L purchased the car after reading my article. He recently reached out to let us know that the car is undergoing a complete restoration!
Lorenzo is based in Europe and after working a deal, he had it transported back to his small workshop where he has slowly been working on it. There’s lot of rust to be dealt with, it’s Italian after all. He’s pulled the interior out to deal with the rust in the floors and to work on the dash. It’s slow going, but this is definitely a worthwhile project, as values have climbed steadily since I wrote about it back in 2016. At that time, top condition cars were fetching around $50k. Now, those same cars are trading hands for $80k or more.
There’s a lot of work to be done here, but Lorenzo starting in the middle and working his way out seems like a good strategy. Restoring a car like this is a process that takes time and being methodical will yield the best results in the end! I hope to see it finished one day, but even if Lorenzo never gets around to it, I’m at least glad to see some progress has been made and that it went to a Barn Finds Reader. And while I’m sure it’s already been a ton of work, it sounds like he’s happy to have it. We work hard on the site every day because we want to see finds like this go to good homes, where they can bring their new owner enjoyment and it sounds like that’s exactly what’s happened with this one. So, my personal thanks to Lorenzo for contacting us. I wish him the best with his Alfa and I hope he keeps us posted on his progress!
If you’ve purchased a find as a result of seeing it here on Barn Finds, we would love to hear about it! So please, send us an email with photos and your experience at [email protected]. It sure would make our day!
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Comments
Sure makes me feel good about the cars like this one we’ve restored over the years. Go Lorenzo!
I think that this is not yet a success. Unless Lorenzo is a master welder this is likely to be featured at a later date on Barnfinds as a failed restoration. At my old body shop we would advise customers not to start on this large a project. Either the body man would wear out or the customer would run out – of money.
Agree with Jack. That car could not be done in our shop without spending three times it’s worth. But… the old Alfa coupes of that era are scarce and an individual with the time and money could restore it. Case in point is this ’59 Porsche Convertible D: Rusty shell bought for $85. At least 2/3rds of the pan gone to rust. At that time there were very little reproduction parts available. It took a little over one year and every spare moment we had to put it back together. Almost 300 hours of metal work and welding. Wish we had this one back as one sold at auction recently for $120,000.
I can relate. Also 1963 Giulia undergoing restoration.
Ian.. would love to see a picture of the end result. Beautiful cars. Our total Alfa involvement , other than the ’80s cars as a dealer service manager, is the like new ’58 Spider 2000 steering wheel that’s been on our office wall since 1972 with a 356 Porsche horn button in it. Saved it off a car headed to the crusher. The Italians did have some designers!
Alfa’s have definitely skyrocketed in value. Wonder if anyone across the pond is making patch panels?
Always loved Alfa’s. In ’65 when my buddies and I were expanding our universe on Sting Ray bicycles there was one in an apartment complex a mile or two away. We always used to ride past to see if it was there. As I recall it was already pretty rusty… I can still see it in my head.
I wish Lorenzo the best
Thank you 🙏