A very modified GTV

[Subtle]

Hey----This one looks good.

Hope this subscribes as I'm in Tokyo and my regular eMail seems not to be working.

[akitaman]

Wow! it looks like we have a good thread dialog going. Good. Okay so today it was time to cut weight. When possible, I like to pull as much of the panels in one piece as we can. Here we were able to remove the whole front clip as one.




Here you can see the radiator supports still in tacked. I don't want to pull those until I brace up the inner fender area. This will be change for a stepnose radiator support later.


Next we removed the rear as one piece.








Now that the body was done, it was time to remove the door skins. The 74 GTV has very heavy doors. reason is 74 model have a side impact beam. These beam weight about 20 pounds! Well they have to go.


And with the beam out.




And with the the door frames back on.

[genericwood]

Daron, good luck with your project. I look forward to following your progress. As a point of reference, my race car weighs 1850 pounds (without the 150 pounds of lead I have to add!). It is a steel step-nose chassis with GTA flares, lexan windows all around, aluminum doors (<10 pounds), fiberglass hood and deck lid, aluminum radiator, aluminum calipers and 11 pound magnesium GTA wheels. Oh yeah, it also has had holes drilled all over the place! On the other hand, the cage is probably a little overbuilt, and there are a few pounds of unnecessary weight here and there. So I think your target is possible, but it won't be easy!

Since the car apparently will not have to conform to any race series rules, I would work really hard to get unsprung weight out of it. There are lots of options for dramatically lightening the front suspension. But since you were standing behind the Alfaholics table when I met you, you already know that!

Erik

[Berlinista]

Daron, forget about the Scalino rad support. Just install a roll cage tube instead. Box in the insides of the front clip, and weld in the tube, it will be so much neater , more practical, as well as stronger. It will also give you some more space which will come in handy when installing the rad and oil cooler. It won't be original anyway, so that shouldn't be an issue.
I will be doing so on my personal favorite Berlina, as well as making the lower front panel removable with Dzus fasteners. On a Giulia I have even made the top rad support removable , which really makes engine removal easy. Slip in, or out!

[benjoys02]

it's fun watching this thread! daron, you are simply amazing!

honey, more popcorn and soda, please? better yet, ice cold beer and some bratwurst!

[Chsmadden]

Quote:

Originally Posted by akitaman reason is 74 model have a side impact beam.

[ciscotex]

Daron, great project and thread. Do you have a set of scales, by chance? I'm curious as to what the naked steel chasis weighs, so as to start a database of component weights.
I don't mean to cause you extra work, but, while we know what some complete cars weigh w/ different combinations of parts, it might be interesting to know what the component weights are. Besides, I've never seen a GTV that naked before...

Thanks for taking the time to share this great project.

Paul

[Berlinista]

regarding scales, did/do you/will you weigh out the body before affixing a roll cage?
I always find that the hardest part!
I want the body straight and true on all three axis before welding in a cage. I also have a trick in pre- tensioning a chassis .

[Federico]

subscribed!

[kengta]

[quote=akitaman;710823][Well we just got back from a very long road trip. We went and recovered this car. And here's the plan.

We are about to do a complete conversion on this 74 GTV. We will be turning back the clock too. The car will become a 67 stepnose. All the exterior steel will be changed out with aluminum. Every bit of it. Hood, roof, trunk, quarter panels, rear and front clip, and door skins .] end quote

Hi, I was wondering about your source of Aluminum panels. Are you buying, making or ?? Can you share that info with me and if not here by PM or e-mail?

Looks like a big interesting project.

I'll stay tuned

Ciao

Ken

[PSk]

Hmmm, interesting.

Pity you didn't start with a really rusty one Daron ... after all you are throwing away, or atleast taking off all the exterior panels. One less good GTV for the amatures to easily restore.

I also find the engineering interesting with these projects, but why does everybody who wants to modify have to start with such good original and straight cars?. Just as easy to do all this work to an absolute dog ... and then we have a win win situation, ie. a dog is made road worthy again and the nice and clean cars are left to continue being nice and clean cars, just needing a tidy up. Also before we start talking about rusty chassis, etc. ... Daron, you can repair that area on a dog in probably a single day now , so those dogs could be used for these replicas .

Anyway all the best, and I have no doubt this car will be a stunna when finished .
Pete

[Super1600]

Like all definitely suscribed. Kengta, I don't know where Daron will get his ally panels from but certainly most are available from Alfaholics, though not cheap.

Ditto I know where Pete is comming from but perhaps in a way a 2L 105 GTV is slightly more common than a stepnose, and as well as given there are some apparent strengths in the chassis etc of a 2L over a stepnose, hence the reason for going for converting this model. Ditto in going for a non rusty one this means less work and therefore some savings to the owner.

Anyway will be a very interesting project. This comes on top of Tom Golds conversion or merging of a 105 GTV with an Alfetta GTV6 (the Leopard Lives thread). All good fun these projects. Dave

[akitaman]

Well we took the roof off tonight and the radiator framing. I took pictures but the camera is at the shop. I'll post those in the morning. Sorry.

Erik!- Just wait my friend, we have a few tricks I might show with this one. I'm always told that we share to much. Hey the BB is for sharing right.

Chris- if your dreaming of this stuff..... you might just be a certified Alfaholic.

Paul- I'll see what I can do. It would be good to know the base numbers.

Hi Ken!- everything we have done to this point was done knowing we have access to what we need. It would be very goofy of me to pull metal with no replacements in hand or ablity to get them. I say this because the biggest hang up one will run into when doing this level of work is the aluminum roof. Nobody has or makes them. But we have that worked out too. I will send you the details in the very near future.

Pete! I have shied away from the BB for a while, and with that said, I have missed your unique insight. But Pete, this was a rusty girl! We just so happened to be lucky that the floors and rockers were good.

[Chsmadden]

Quote:

Originally Posted by akitaman Chris- if your dreaming of this stuff..... you might just be a certified Alfaholic.

[Berlinista]

Aly roofs ARE available no sweat. Though they have to come from Italy. Contact me PM if necessary.

Rik