AFrench Blue '69 GTV Restoration

[Peter]

awesome job, Rossano!!!

[1750GT]

Thanks Peter....all the black sound deadening material was cleaned off with a wire wheel and I etch primed all those areas..



The roll bar pick-up points are now all straightened out and ready to go. This was done when the inner skirt was removed and I had complete access to the area from the inside.



One thing I noticed as I was cleaning this area out is that if the drain hole in this pocket (where the inner contol arm mounting point is) is not clear, water will not drain out of this pocket. Luckily the car lived most of it's life in a dry climate and so has not suffered the ill effects of corrosion in this area.



So this is pretty much where the body work part of this project is at today. As for the mechanicals, I've begun disassembling the engine in order to assess it's general overall condition....and it looks like at this point it too will need a full restoration. I'm not sure that I'll be posting many pictures of the engine rebuild however, as there seem to be many threads dedicated to this topic. Plus I'm only planning to do a mild upgrade with Euro cams and the stock Spica system and so I'm thinking it would probably not be that informative.

[mubezzi]

Nice detail Rossano. One of which that should be more talked about instead of being "Bondo'd" over....if you get what I mean. It certainly makes for a more interesting topic (every chassis has it's own surprise) verusus rehashing wheel choice for the 100th time, as an example. Nice wheels are cool but a kick *** chassis is even better....maybe I'm just weird.

[BlpltGTV]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mubezzi Nice detail Rossano. One of which that should be more talked about instead of being "Bondo'd" over....if you get what I mean. It certainly makes for a more interesting topic (every chassis has it's own surprise) verusus rehashing wheel choice for the 100th time, as an example. Nice wheels are cool but a kick *** chassis is even better....maybe I'm just weird.

[Vytas]

Rossano!!...I seriously can not believe my eyes. You have done so much work. And like ken had mentioned before, extreme patience. When you had mentioned you would be restoring that car ihad no idea it was to this quality, well done !!

[1750GT]

Michael and Will...my sentiments exactly!...I've always found the chassis structure to be more interesting than some of the other aspects of the vehicle. This is why I opted to do a restoration rather than buy a car with nice paint but poor chassis. At first my wife couldn't understand this decision but as I'm fixing all the problems areas on the car, she's finally coming around and seeing my point.

Vytas, this is a golden opportunity to fix these things now so I might as well do it right! Hope to see you at the next cruise night (I missed a few this year).

This past weekend I've been practising MIG welding the quarter panels for some rust repairs on my wife's Nisssan. I was using a new wire called "Twenty Gauge" which is a .030 in powder cored wire and found it it too be much easier to use than the solid .025 wire. I never had one burn through with this stuff and I was able to weld upside down and on the vertical quite successfully (at least for my experience level). It is a little pricier (10 lb spool @ $70.00) but I was very happy with this wire and recommend it highly.

[PSk]

Tack, tack and more tacks (or spots) with the MIG. Ensure you walk away and let the area cool, etc. Hammer if necessary to keep flat/straight. Then spot inbetween the previous spots and repeat until no gaps. Sometimes it takes me a couple of days to butt weld a seam ... with the MIG.

That is how I butt weld thin panel steel.
Pete

[1750GT]

Thanks for the tips Pete, and I need to have some of your patience as well (sometimes I tend to rush because I want to complete a mini project in the time I allotted myself for it).

Now on this outer sill the previous repair had this cut-out on the top and when I removed the 4 or so tack welds holding it on I had a pretty good idea at this point that I'll be replacing this sill.



The inner rocker structure looks pretty solid (some surface rust around the top)...but the rest looks in good shape. The outer sill however....



..has a bit too much bondo for my liking (again another rushed insurance job I bet)..

[1750GT]

I finally got around to bringing the quarter panel (and a few other pieces) to TECHNOSTRIP for de-rusting and it came out looking real nice.






The lower aft corner however had some heavier rust and with the acid cleaning these holes appeared. I'm going to cut this area out and replace with new metal....If I screw it up, I'll get a patch repair panel piece that seems to be readily available from a few sources.

[1750GT]

I also received these rear floor panels from Richard Norris @ ClassicAlfa. They are the correct replacements for the series I 1969 GTV's and are excellent quality. I received these and the a front half section floor panel in less than two weeks via regular postal service at a very reasonable cost of around $100...are you listening Mr.Biondi? ClassicAlfa are excellent to deal with and do all the leg work...are you listening Mr.Biondi?



The inside seat belt mount has the correct reinforcing...



...the forward seat mountings have the correct reinforcement as well..



...most of the seat mounting points are all there. This will make the job of replacing the floors much easier for me.



I'm really happy with these panels and glad I waited for these. Initially I was going to go use the later series 2 style floor panels that I bought a few months ago (Alfaholics supplied via AKITAMAN) but I just couldn't bring myself to install them because they just weren't 100% correct for my car.

[GTD]

Rossano
It's nice to have the correct panels to use with the proper tools and talent.
Congratulazioni!

[1750GT]

So these are the series 2 GTV floor panels (the difference being in the seat mount point areas) and came from Alfaholics. I'd say they look like they came from the same supplier (although I can't be certain for sure) but they are of identical workmanship quality as the ClassicAlfa ones. To be more correct for the year, they really should be used on the 71 and later GTV's. Notice that these don't have the reinforcing for the seat mount points (I'm guessing that the suppliers are only getting around to adding these in now).



As for the front floor panels, the one on the left is an Alfaholic supplied one and the right is the ClassicAlfa one. Again both of identical quality and are dead ringers to the original floor panels on th 69 GTV. I will finally get to work on this area of the car.....not sure when but soon.

[1750GT]

GTD ...I think talent in the case of body work is a part of it...but finding the desire to want to do it probably plays the bigger role. I don't know why, but I always liked doing this work myself.....plus it does save a lot of money in the long run.

Thanks

[rafael]

In my case the upper side of the middle sills looked OK. However the lower side was completely rusted. I hope this is not the case in your car, otherwise you have to replace the middle sills as well.

[1750GT]

I've been waiting for a long time to get to this point, and even though the rotisserrie I should have started for this part of the project is not yet done (i.e. not yet started) I just had to get my teeth into this right away. I decided to begin the process with the car on the jack stands and suffer a little with having to work on my back when underneath the car (hey I'm not that old that I can't do some of this the good old fashioned way!). I began by cutting around the perimeter with the cut-off wheel and stayed well clear of the structural bits underneath.



The trailing arm forward pick-up point support reinforcing piece will have to be removed since it sandwiches the floor panel between it and the kick panel. Plus I need to repair the rusty areas of kick panel as well.



Once the spot welds are partly drilled through with a 1/4 inch bit, it is relatively easy to pry in between the two pieces and pull them apart.



Similarily along the drive shaft tunnel. I guess I could have drilled right through at this location since I'll be plug welding from the tunnel side. I also cut extra slits along the left over floor flange to weaken it as much as possible....makes it easier to pry apart. The tunnel metal is much thinner so I was careful and tried not to be too heavy handed in this area.