Zatmobile - background info

["Ed Solstad" <esolstad@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Ah and the fog continues to thicken. I was alerted to my old Giulia SS #
AR381238 appearing on eBay. Here is an update on this cars background: I
purchased it in Utah in the fall of 1981 and drove it back to Minnesota.
Good runner, presentable interior except for fraying cloth on seat
centers, shiny paint, sagging driver's door. I drove the car for perhaps
2 years until it was involved in a minor rear end crunch. I took it over
to Tom Zat's for an estimate on body repair. 20 miles after leaving
Zat's it turned into Giulia the deer slayer. A good hit to the left
front. Tom came out with some tools and pried the fender sufficiently
far from the tire to allow the damaged Giulia to be driven back to Alfa
Heaven. We stayed the night and returned to Mpls via rental vehicle. The
body on the SS was in worse condition than I had realized. The sagging
door was the result of serious rot in the left front fender and door
post area. This was just the first of a number of iffy body repairs that
had been made before the first class paint job. The decision was made to
trade the Giulia to Zat in exchange for the restoration of a Giulietta
SS from the Chicago area. The Giulia languished for a number of years
until something on the order of two weeks before the Tulsa AROC
convention (1987?), Zat became inspired and did a major rehab on the
body turning it into what you see today. The car first appeared at Tulsa
with many appearances at later Alfa gatherings. As most people would
have parted out the car, I don't fault Tom for the modifications that
were made. Yes he could have also brought it back to original but with
difficulty.  15,612 mi.? Maybe on the odo but not on the car. 140 hp -
probably not. Hand hammered steel/aluminum SSZ body? Well, the hood is
aluminum and I don't know what went into the mods on the front fenders.
Tom does have the capability of forming aluminum as he made a new boot
lid for our XK120. As for a prototype SSZ - well sort of. Its styling
mods inspired the creation of a styling buck which was used to make the
molds for the first SSZ. The buck was created by applying large amounts
of filler to a very rusted out Sprint Speciale  As it stands, this is an
interesting car in its own right (purists aside), just don't be taken in
by the excess amount of hype. Is it worth the asking price? Only if you
approve of the cars modifications, know its background and are willing
to anti up the kind of cash that could buy an unmodified Sprint
Speciale.
Hopefully I've shed light on this particular car.
 
Ciao,
Ed Solstad
61 Giulietta Sprint Speciale
63 Giulia Spider normale
64 Dauphine (badged as a Dauphine Alfa Romeo)
64 2600 Sprint
72 Spider
85 GTV6
88 Milano Verde
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