Finally here! Right-hand drive outer headlamps for Bertone GTV from 1968-76 (GT Junior from 1971)

Spider full length floor pan 1970-93 - left and right sides

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Classic Alfa News No 3 August 2005

Second Year in Review

Well it’s been another year of changes & improvements here at Classic Alfa. At the beginning of 2005 (after 14 interviews!) I found someone to join myself & Fred Baker in the form of Reg Davey.

Reg has joined me in the office assisting with the 2 non-stop phone lines here and also helping to restructure the stores and manage the stock control. Reg has restored and owned a number of classic cars & motorbikes and has plenty of technical experience and understanding of classic cars. Since joining Classic Alfa his knowledge of our beloved Alfas is growing every week and along with Peter Eaton, our book keeper, we now have a team of four ready for the years ahead!

The restructuring of the parts stores and installation of 2 car parking ramps to make more parts storage space has resulted in us being able to store larger quantities of stock so we aren’t caught lacking too often in the spring time rush and can keep 98% of our catalogue in stock. We have also moved the second hand parts to a separate unit two miles from our main premises.

As I begun with second hand 105 parts I have never forgotten the importance of breaking cars but time restraints have made it very difficult in the last few years. This year however I had two fortunate opportunities, one in the shape of 4 Bertone GTVs (2 already dismantled) offered to me as a job lot by their lady owner of many years in Essex and the other, two weeks later, with the acquisition of Spider Cars of Liverpool’s stock. This meant (once we had broken the other GTV and sold the remaining 1750GTV as a project on Ebay) that we had the parts from 3 Bertones and at least 6 or 7 Spiders on the shelf inside a month which certainly replenished my used parts stock and necessitated the new storage space! It also meant we had 16 gearboxes and loads of radiators/starter motors/alternators etc for rebuild which was fantastic.

This website has grown massively in popularity with July 2004 seeing 2016 unique visitors (290,000 hits) growing to 5131 unique visitors (793,000 hits) in July 2005 and the Cars for Sale section has grown noticeably in size with many customers now submitting their adverts for £50 to £75 (depending on the car’s value) for a 6 month advert usually resulting in a sale in the first few weeks!

We are constantly keeping the content fresh with (at least) monthly updates to the Parts News and Cars for Sale sections and expanding the other sections when necessary. We are also regularly adding images to the existing parts listings making on-line ordering simpler, especially for our many overseas customers for whom English is not a first language.

Another fantastic change here has been the arrival of my first daughter Lara on the 4th July. She arrived a healthy 7lb 4oz at two in the morning right on her due date and is teaching me the art of sleeping 3 hours at a time and getting up at 6.30am. Still, it means I get some pretty early starts at the office these days!

We continue to increase our range of parts for both 750/101 Giuliettas & 105 series cars and have expanded the performance range of 105 parts greatly in the last 12 months. As a result, our old catalogue is now a little out of date and we hope to have the new one ready by late Autumn with a greatly expanded Giulietta section & much more!

In all the re-shuffle here we are having a bit of a clear out and along with a small ex-dealer stock which a customer recently put us on to, the New Old Stock section should look a bit fresh & interesting in the coming weeks. We have found two new 2000GTV front panels, a roundtail spider door & new door handles, 1750 Berlina front bumper, Mk1 1750 rear lenses & front sidelights, 2000 Berlina headlamps & lights, various mechanical parts - all new in Alfa packets & there’s more, keep an eye on that section from mid-August!

Thanks again to all our customers, old & new, for your continued support and business - without it we couldn’t continue doing what is our passion.