I enjoy reading the stories of guys building up their cars, so I decided to add mine. It's actually a small testimony of how I got "mixed-up" with these cars in the first place. And it probably really shouldn't be called "restoration", since I'm starting with a car that many would consider "restored", but more of a refreshening. While the body is nice, the drivetrain needs to be redone (bushings, bearings, stripping protectant, replacing the engine, etc). I intend to update the thread as regularly as I "update" my car. I'll even try to do a good job of posting pics along the way. I hope y'all enjoy.
Some Background
Growing up, my Dad had a 1974 Alfa Romeo Spider. It was bright red and had a quite a few performance modifications. I only remember driving in it once. Other than that, it just sat due to minor problems like a non-functioning water pump. He used to tell me stories about his old GTV, and how he always regretted selling it (along with his ’56 Ford F100). His close friend had a few GTAs that he raced throughout the 70’s. We used to hang out in his garage looking at and talking about the GTAs, and while I didn’t know it at the time, they made quite an impression on me. I got my license and first car in 1997, an ‘88 Milano Verde. All this to say, I had become quite an Alfa fan. Over the past few years, I began to appreciate “b-sedans”. While 510s and 2002s are quite cool, GTVs has always been my favorite of the old, little Trans-Am racers.
The Car
I started considering which year GTV appealed to me most. I decided that what I liked were the two headlight GTVs, especially in red. There are some other colors that look good and have an added “coolness” due to their rarity, but red looks the best on the Giugiaro body (in the words of 75gta, and probably many others, "Alfas should be red and rear wheel drive"). So I started hunting for a red, two-headlight car with as little rust as possible (a major problem with these cars).
There was, however, a restriction on the project. My wife was gracious enough to agree that I could use whatever funds came from the sale of my 2001 VW GTI, and its spare parts, toward an Alfa and a daily driver. The daily driver turned out to be a ’91 Camry, with 200K on the ticker. After some searching, I found a ’67 GTV in Colorado and purchased it from Centerline Alfa in June 2006. The ’67 Giulia Sprint Veloce arrived in fairly good, original condition, but with a 1750 engine that smoked. It was equipped with Shankle springs and sway bars and Koni red shocks.
The day it arrived (that's not me, it's my boss, wishing it was his
)
Things kind of started off on the wrong foot though. As we were still working through the details of the sale, my wife lost her job. It looked as though the proceeds from the VW would best go toward surviving, so I started trying to sell the Alfa. A few weeks later, the car arrived. A few weeks after that, my wife got another job, allowing us to keep the car. I drove it for about a month and then decided to start taking it apart to restore and upgrade different areas.
Here's a pic after I cleaned it up and refinished the original steel wheels.
THE GOAL
1:40 at WSIR. Something my wife doesn't hate. Modified using only “period” performance parts (i.e., no Outlaw brakes, twin sparks, or coil-overs). Can easily switch between “track” look and “street” look (slap on the bumpers and steel wheels). Stick to the budget!
The body and interior (with the exception of the dash) are fine. So this project will focus on the drive train and running gear.
Here We Go
July '06: Sand blasted the oringinal steel wheels and repainted them. Had the bumpers polished to look almost like new (although I really like the look of having them off, so I'm not sure if they'll make it back on). The underside was heavily coated with that black-tar-weather-protectant stuff. They shot it on over everything so I took some parts off and began to clean them with paint thinner. Took off the shankles springs and cut them and cleaned off the konis so they are red again. Here are some pics. First is with the springs uncut. Second is with the springs cut (smestas' car is on the left)
August ’06:
I started by purchasing a 4.10 limited slip diff (more street oriented than track, but it’s a long drive to the track). After taking out the old diff, it seemed like a pretty good time to replace all the bushings with either polyurethane or HD rubber. I took out the over-spray/"mung" covered trailing arms and decided that they should be powder coated… and if I’m going to powder coat those… then I should powder coat all the suspension pieces at the same time, so as to save money... and if I'm gonna have all the suspension off, then all the bushings should be replaced with poly or hd rubber and all the ball joints and bearings too (you can see how easy it is to get carried away and the tab starts adding up). Thus began an even longer process of taking all the suspension off. It was all powder coated in DuPont’s “Black Magic” black, including a set of 14X7 panasports and an autopower roll bar.
October ’06:
I removed the rear seat to accommodate the roll bar. I am in the process of carpeting the back seat area. I attached a small piece of maple over the metal “X” on the vertical portion of the back seat. This would keep the sound deadening material and carpet from sagging through the open areas. I then cut to size and attached (via spray adhesive) sound deadening to the entire rear bench. After that, I covered it with black carpet.
Parts already purchased and waiting to be put on:
2 liter spindles and calipers
4.10 LSD shimmed
Braided brake lines
Adjustable arms (add some camber!!)
Poly castor and trunion bushings
HD rubber trailing arm bushings
Electric fan (hey, 3 hp is huge for these cars!)
Top secret performance brake pads (track capable, street friendly)
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