1990 Alfa Romeo 2000 Graduate Spider with Bosch FI and variable cam timing

1990 Alfa Romeo 2000 Veloce Spider Additional Info:

Does it seem that these days you can no longer get a cool, fun Alfa Romeo spider at an affordable price? Take a look at eBay any day and it certainly can seem like all the Alfas available are either seriously rusted, going to need a total restoration. or they are extremely pricy and on their way to collectors and car show trailers?
As an alternative scenario, here is a cool spider starting at a low price with no reserve. This is a "Graduate"model, but it has the cool 5 star 14" mag wheels. (I took off the centers for these wheels when I painted them, butunfortunately, I can notpresently find them, and they arethereforenot guaranteed to be included...).
Indeed here is a chance for someone to get a great deal on a fabled spider that has been driven on scenic evenings and weekends for these past many years and now is ready for a new home. This is not a show car, just a wonderful honestentry level opportunity to get in on some top-down Alfa Romeo driving right now, while the beautiful Autum weather is all around.
This was a Washington DC and Arizona car for most of its life, hence the lack of body rust as shown in the photos. It is a great driver with apositive gestalt in presentation, but clearly not a car to be judged critically close up... The original color black repaint was done perhaps 10 years ago, while a friend/previous owner had the car. There was too muchhardner used in the paint, (perhaps also somealcohol was involved here), which resulted in an overall "orange peal effect" This paintjob might still possibly be sanded and buffed to a much better finish, but in the ensuing years, it hasjust been used by the painter, then another friend, then this seller...
The previous owner/painter also installed new replacement seat covers and a new top. Perhaps my signature contribution since purchasing this car in 2016 from the second friend, who bought it from the mutual (painter) friend, has been to install some oldcloudy headlight covers that Ipainted black... Ithink it gives a distinctive "Lotus like look" (...and who can afford to drive an actual old Elan these days? Not me...). Twoquick screws removed and you can pop onthe chrome headlight trim rings and drive this carduring the nights and evenings too!
This car shows very well in the pictures, but there areflaws, including asmallarea at the top of the convertible rearwindow has become disconnectedfrom the top. (I felt it was notnecessary to worry about it). By the way, these Alfa spider tops flip upand down so well, you will never miss topdown driving, even for a fewminute-long errand run! Drive a car like this to work and it can transform a normally "throw away" portion of the day toperhaps the best part! Also, no workingradio or AC here, but they have not been missed...
More disclosures: This car is only "almost" completely rust free... I did find a small bit of classic spare tire well rust-through just beginning when I took the spare out to photograph that area... Theremay be someotherrust as well, but as the photos show, rust iscompletely missing from the typicallyravagedareas of NorthEast Alfas. All the gages work fine except the speedometer and odometer, which are inaccurate to the point of uselessness... The mileage listed on the speedo at 82,000 is low as the speedo always shows a lower speed thantthecar is going. Forhighway driving, I use the two basic speed/tachometercalculations that 3,000 RPM in 5th is equal to 66 MPH and 40 MPH occurs at 2300 RPM in 4th...
Hey, if you drive old Alfas like this car, youalreadyknow that thesecond gear down shift can be made effectively with a "double clutch" even with a wornsynchro... Yeah, in this car you need to do that... Also, this car could use new ball joints installed on the right side. The good news is that two new ones are included in the trunk, along with new sway bar drop links. There arealso three new ty-rod ends, (...which it may or may not need). I was going to install these parts,buthaven'tgotten around to it... Oh,there is also a spare used "Monza-like" rear exhaustsectioning the trunk which I thoughtwould look cool, but I havealso not gotten around to installing...
The car is in Westport MA.