I had a busy t/day long weekend

Chris Obert

Chris Obert

autocrosser, X driver
I always enjoy reading about what everyone is doing. I was pretty busy over the long weekend, and thought I would share some of it.
Sorry, the only thing I did with my X was to go buy beer & a quick Mexican dinner, and to go to Costco for this week's food supplies.

A few weeks ago I seriously got started on the restoration of my 1958 Allemano 750 GT Spider. I have had it for years, but this one was pretty bad from the previous owner letting it sit for years outside in the dirt...



Here it is mostly dissasembled, notice no floors & not much to hang them from.



Here it is with the floor area cleaned up & some dash work completed



And here it is with all new inner rockers, new central tunnel walls, and a lot of other sheet metal work along with the floors mounted. By Sunday night I had the floors welded in and all of the underside of the car restructured when I ran out of oxygen, and light, so I could not get some completed pictures. I still need to fabricate the lower parts of the inner rockers & repair the outer rockers...

But the long weekend was not all Allemano, I took my recently completed 600 Jolly to a local car show Saturday morning.



OK, it's not completely done. UPS lost my inside mirror stand on it's way to get rechromed. I am having a new one cast from a sample I borrowed, Ghia sometimes did them in alloy, so this one will not need to be sent out for chrome. Hopefully it will be all done in a week or so.

The Allemano may get put into storage, I got authorization today to start on a complete 500 Jolly restoration. It's a good sign that the economy is changing as I have not had any paying major restoration work for quite a while.

I think when I am done with the Allemano (painted, still needing to be assembled) I will get started on my 74 X. Thankfully it does not need any welding work! Hopefully there will be lots of paying work beforehand.
 
Chris... I found this link...

http://www.conceptcarz.com/view/photo/417332,17288/1958-Abarth-Allemano-Spyder_Photo.aspx

I would imagine this is close to what you are working on... This appears to be an ABARTH version... similar to the hundreds I see driving around my neighborhood every day...

(HA!)

It would appear you have a "bit" of work ahead of you... did you salvage the floor pans or did you make them up?

Hopefully he rarity of this car will bring you some satisfaction in several regards, I find it a bit hard to embrace aesthetically, and it appears that you don't have a PAYING owner for his restoration either, besides yourself! Love the Jollys... they are much easier to hug and take home and it would appear the market for these is quite stable from what I've seen and read.

Soooo... I'm afraid my weekend just involved the traditional family and turkey dinner along with replacing a $2000 dollar Spa Heater and filter system. I'm still eating leftovers and picking PVC cement off my hands and clothes... Just what does a Mexican Thanksgiving Dinner consist of... I imagine a few dozen margaritas and chips... but what would the main course be?

HA! Thanks for sharing... looking forward to seeing more fotos as you continue the restoration... and also your Mexican dinner recipes...
 
Black-Tooth said:
http://www.conceptcarz.com/view/photo/417332,17288/1958-Abarth-Allemano-Spyder_Photo.aspx

I would imagine this is close to what you are working on... This appears to be an ABARTH version... similar to the hundreds I see driving around my neighborhood every day...

(HA!)

It would appear you have a "bit" of work ahead of you... did you salvage the floor pans or did you make them up?

Hopefully he rarity of this car will bring you some satisfaction in several regards, I find it a bit hard to embrace aesthetically, and it appears that you don't have a PAYING owner for his restoration either, besides yourself! Love the Jollys... they are much easier to hug and take home and it would appear the market for these is quite stable from what I've seen and read.

Soooo... I'm afraid my weekend just involved the traditional family and turkey dinner along with replacing a $2000 dollar Spa Heater and filter system. I'm still eating leftovers and picking PVC cement off my hands and clothes... Just what does a Mexican Thanksgiving Dinner consist of... I imagine a few dozen margaritas and chips... but what would the main course be?

HA! Thanks for sharing... looking forward to seeing more fotos as you continue the restoration... and also your Mexican dinner recipes...
Click to expand...

Tony,
The grey (?) car is only similar to mine. Like most any coachbuilt car of the era every one is different. The one in your pictures has a completely different dash and it's body is only similarly shaped. Considering they pounded out the sheet alloy on an old tree stump it's not surprising.
There was another car much more like mine at Fance & Italy, it was the red race car next to my X, I only took pictures of specific spots, but I have seen other pictures posted of the entire car.

Here is a shot of mine when I got seriously started

I had already removed most of the small bits.

And here is a shot of a client's car that recently sold


Notice that the noses on both of these cars are different, so that makes three different noses so far!
My car has the "very rare long nose", which I personally like much more than the more common "pug nose". Even the 1/43rd model I purchased from China on ebay for less than $3.00 has the pug nose.

You won't see many, it seems that less than 300 750 GT cars were built by Allemano, and they estimate less than 100 survive. Abarth seems to have sold much more of the Zagato bodied coupes.

The car is structurally just a 600 with all the body replaced, so floors & inner rockers I had in stock. There was nothing to salvage, and this car was an excellent example of why not to store your car on dirt. But there is still a huge amount of fabrication I had to do to make parts that have not been reproduced on any scale. I still need to fabricate inner lower rockers and outer rockers as those are specific to Allemano.

Back when I was young we always felt the Allemano was the ugly one, and the Zagato version is what everyone wanted. But the Allemano body does grow on you, and it is so much rarer...

I have a big folder of pictures, and for me that Mexican dinner was from a local place & was carne asada nachos. I was hungry, & it was fast.

As for the Jolly, the market is currently down, but it is growing again. The folks buying Jollys are an interesting group because most of them are not Fiat enthusiests, but folks who want something interesting, small, & cute for their collections. The Abarth buyer is a serious buyer who has a specialized collection. A good Abarth is easily worth twice what the Jolly is, and the Abarth usually dissapears from public view. Jolly owners seem to enjoy driving them.
BTW, even though I currently own both of these cars, I am currently spending my time "banking" towards when the market turns around and I get busing doing all paying work again.
 
Last edited:
I can NOW see all the differences...

... as you pointed out.

Thanks for taking the time to post... I'm sure we'd all like to see your progress fotos as well.

Truly a unique car... and the badging... HA! I remember getting a box of parts in the service and on the side of the box were the words:
"If you make it, be proud enough to mark it!"
PRINTED BY JOHN SMITH AND SONS​

It would appear that Fiat and Abarth were proud to leave their mark on these cars. I'm also reminded of my original '79 X1/9 badging... that faded away COMPLETELY in about 3 years! HAHAHA!

Carne Asada huh... Para mi, es Carne al Carbon ala Tostada, muchos gracias... y dos cervesas mas!
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top