1969 Duetto

[earcarpho]

New to Alfa, and new to this forum, and any advice/help would be greatly appreciated.
A close friend of mine recently passed away and left me his 1969 Duetto, and I am new to the marque, but have always loved the boat tail.
In memory of him I have decided to try and make the car presentable.
It is many shades of red, has some rust in sills and quarter panels which I intend to get repaired.
Problem is I think it has the wrong nose on it and I want to correct it. (see pictures attached)
I know replacement panels are available, but can anyone help with the 'cow horn' bumper assembly.
Does anyone have a template that I can get a copy made from?
Or am I asking for the impossible?

The car currently has a very home made looking box assembly and it won't hold the correct '69 bumpers.
Bit of a dilemma,
Regards,
EarCarPho

[Balfa]

Welcome EarCarPho

Sorry to hear about the passing of your friend and it would be a great tribute to him to get his car 'presentable'.

I probably won't be able to provide much advice about the duetto, but I'm interested in viewing the pictures. unfortunately I couldn't view the images you attached - are you sure you attached them correctly?

[earcarpho]

Apologies for the error.

[Craig_m67]

I've been restoring my Duetto on and off (more off) for about three years now.
I will take a picture of the bar (cow horn) that the bumpers attach to for you

The bar is available from a couple of the European suppliers.

It is welded to the same triangular supports on the inner wings (under the headlamps) that the tube mounts your car now has are also welded to ie. it should be simple enough to remove the tube mounts and replace with the original bar as the original mount didn't change on any version. In fact its the same mount on all 105 series cars; GT/GTV and Guilia etc

Craig

[GTV-074]

That front doesn't look like a roundtail duetto front.....

Can we see a pick of the rest of the car? Is it a Kamm tail? (ie. cut off tail?)

Cheers.

[earcarpho]

Craig,

Thanks for your advice.
The car is a roundtail, although the only other photograph I have at the moment doesn't specifically show it.(see attached).
I know what a Kamm tail is, and this is not one of those.
Searching the alfabb, maybe this is correctly identified as a 1750 Spyder, not a Duetto, (I am obviously not down on all my alfa models yet) but still I think it has the wrong nose on it.

Thanks.

[earcarpho]

Here are some other photos of the nose.

[GTV-074]

Yeah thats a roundtail!

You are probably right, the front has been changed at some point.

Have a look here to confirm the correct nose,

http://www.duettoinfo.com/

I reckon you've got the best combo there now - later S2 nose and the roundtail!

Good luck with with it.

Cheers.

[Mick A]

1750's are super rare. Fantastic car

[earcarpho]

Mick thanks for the tip.
Do you think it's worth the effort to replace the nose, or fix up the S2 nose?
Cheers,

Earcarpho

[rowan_bris]

Any idea why has it got US bumper mounts and bumpers on it? 

[earcarpho]

Rowan, no idea.
I wish I knew.
The car was left to me from a friend's deceased estate, and before he passed away I wish I had got some details of the car.
I do know he got it from Canberra or Sydney, probably 4/5 years ago.
I have been all over the car, and I have also had an Alfa Workshop go over the car, and there isn't any evidence of it being a LHD to RHD Conversion.
I can only guess that somewhere at some point in it's life it has had a front accident, and a later model nose has been put on, because the paintwork is so dodgy (crazed paint, blisters, air bubbles and body filler).
As for the US bumpers and mounts, no idea also.
Regards,
earcarpho

[ItalCarGuy]

An email with your chassis number sent to the Alfa Archives will get you a response with where it was sold new. Its easy to tell by the chassis number if it was originally LHD or RHD

centrodocumentazione@alfaromeo.com

http://www.alfa-male.com/blog/2012/03/27/finding-out-about-your-alfas-early-history/

[Craig_m67]

Mick thanks for the tip.
Do you think it's worth the effort to replace the nose, or fix up the S2 nose?
Cheers,

Earcarpho

The S2 nose is very, very similar to the S1 (Duetto and 1750 roundtail) and can easily be reworked to match.  Indeed, up until recently the only way to rebuild a damaged S1 nose was to graft in the the relevant bits to a S2 nose.

Excluding the obvious front dimple (raised bit above the scudetto/badge), the S1 lower part of the nose is also slightly different to completely accommodate the grill (scudetto).  If its a (Duetto) 1600 there will be no internal faring to guide air to the radiator. The later 1750 has the internal faring (as does yours). it also has a slightly different bonnet frame (less rigidity) although the shape and size of the bonnet is identical across the entire S1-S4, so a new one can be far easier/cheaper to source than reworking a 40yr old one.

On the other hand the round tail boot lid is made of Unobtanium.  DO NOT LOSE IT. if it needs reparis the last (back) 20cm or so of the skin or inner frame is available.  I searched (globally) for three years to find a good (uncrumpled) one ..

Headlamp buckets for the S1 and S2 are the exact same shape, so fitting the Carello covers is easy. The S4 and I think S3 (??) nose cone has a slightly different (wider) shape so the covers will not fit properly.

Again, i'll see if i can get some pics for you on the weekend, its obvious once you see a S1 (Duetto/1750) front end


As Derek suggests a quick email to Marco at Alfa will tell you exactly what you have and when it was made and delivered.
He usually gets back overnight!
Don't forget to ask what the original colour was, he also may have this.
... there are more red Alfa's now than ever left the factory

[earcarpho]

Craig, Derek and others, awesome help and advice thank you.

Can't wait for the photos Craig, cheers.
Coincidentally I e-mailed 'centrodocumentazione@alfaromeo.com' a few weeks ago, and received a confirmation e-mail overnight.
What a great resource.
The plot thickens, or get's more complicated.
It is a 1969 September build 1750, delivered to the US on October 1969 (just after "Summer of 69").
Matching #'s with engine, so that's a relief.
Originally red.

I can only guess that it has had an accident at some point and had a nose replacement in the US, which explains the US style bumpers.
It made it somehow to AUS and has been turned into RHD.