Re: cross country spin.

[Steve An <stevean@domain.elided>]

Hi Steve,

In short, I  advise against it, unless....

Past experiences, I bought my Duetto from Maine and drove to Boston without
any incidence, I also bought my Giulietta from Virginia and drove it back
to Boston without much hassle, it only stalled once due to vapor lock in
the Webers (90+ mph on the NY Thruway in August will do this). In both
cases, the cars were in good shape and had been DRIVEN REGULARLY, and I am
intimately familiar with both of these models. They are simple cars.

On the other hand, last summer, I bought my Dino 246 from the Harrah museum
and thought about a cross country trip to bring it back east. Gumball
Rally, Speedvision's car movies, Hunter Thompson, Steinbeck... all bad
influences.

The engine was rebuilt (1K miles) prior to going into the museum, they
drain all fluids etc.... and attended? to the car once in a while, so I am
told and the climate inside that museum is controlled, in other words, this
car was properly stored. The car was in there I reckon for about 8-10
years. The owner (the director of Harrah) took it out, got it service by
the museum staff and drove it for a month to make sure everything was OK. 

But in the last minute, I decided to ship it back to Boston since the
museum could help arrange shipping for me cheaply and conviniently. BTW, I
highly recommend Intercity Lines, they do all the shipping for Harrah and
other museums, as well as Barrett (I think).

And boy, was I glad I made that decision. I had the car up at Paul Glynn
and we basically had to replace every rubber hoses, fuel, coolant
connectors, even metal ones were like swiss cheese. I would never have made
trip. Dead Dino in Montana, yikes!! 

My maiden trip in the car around Downtown Boston, the coolant hose clamp
came off, spewing coolant all over Marlboro street, eventhough the coolant
was new, there was so much other nasty stuff in it, all looking like
spoiled cottage cheese. 

Bottom line, I wouldn't take a chance with a car that has sat in storage
for that long, unless you go through it and replace every rubber hoses and
tighten up everything, replace all fluids, flush the engine etc.... and
pray hard.

Best of luck,

	- Steve.

At 07:04 PM 8/29/01 +0000, steve hynes wrote:
>Hello All,
>I just purchased a '73 Montreal that is in storage in Texas, sound fun? 
>Well, I'm in Michigan. I'm planning on flying out along with my mechanic 
>buddy and actually driving it back. It's been stored for four years without 
>being run or even moved. How many of you have faith in the Alfa V8 and think 
>we'll make it the entire 1500 miles? The mill was freshened 1000 miles 
>before it was put up, and that's all I know about that.
>Ciao,
>Steve Hynes
>'73 Monti
>
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