[alfa] A good replacement for SOMA!

[mdpordes@xxxxxxxx]

Paul and the Digester gang,

I read the news about Pino selling his SOMA shop in San Francisco, and
wanted to offer my opinion of a great alternative, Richard Ott at Alfeta
Motors, 30 miles up the road from the city - in Vallejo.  Rich takes care
of my 87 Milano, my 91 Spider and my 95 164 LS and is an amazing Alfa
mechanic.

Rich operated Autoparts Italia/Alfeta Motors in downtown San Francisco for
over 30 years. Around the Bay Area, he is known as "the old man of Alfa."
He moved his shop to Vallejo a few years ago to a nice facility at 1329
Virginia Street. (707-645-8154) Rich lived in Italy for 11 years so his
Italian is pretty good.

As Vice President of the Alfa Romeo Association this year, I and some
friends recruited Rich into the club and as an advertiser in our club
newsletter, "the Overheard Cams." When I attend club functions, it is
really interesting to see people come up to Rich and pay reverent respect 
-similar to either the Godfather movies or the Pope, (I'm not sure which.)

Anyway, give him a try. He has the factory tools to work on anything from
a pre-war Tipo to a 164Q, has tons of parts in his shop and has forgotten
more about alfas than most mechanics know. A recent article about Rich in
the 'Cams from a grateful GTV customer explained how he properly set up a
Spica pump using the factory tools and the guy's GTV ran better than it
had in 10 years, so he pulled it off the market! My loss for turning the
guy on to Rich, as I was thinking of buying that 73 GTV!

He is also very good at sourcing parts for older Alfas that no one seems
to be able to find. He seems to have a "network" that somehow finds stuff.
He can get on the phone, rap in Italian and come back with , "It's gonna
be here Thursday." I don't ask.

Regards,

Michael Pordes

87 Milano Verde
91 Spider
95 164LS (my daily driver)
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