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A French Blue '69 GTV Restoration

878K views 2K replies 203 participants last post by  1750GT 
#1 · (Edited)
I’ve been meaning to post this thread for the longest time…so here goes. Last year (while surfing the net) I came across the ALFABB and the fond memories that were resurrected of my previous GTVs, made me decide to get back into one again.. (after about an 18 year abscence). Initially I thought to limit my search to local cars only. A few GTVs were available and after checking them out and driving them I realized that I wasn’t going to be happy spending maybe $ 6-8 K on a rusty GTV with worn out interior, botched up wiring, unknown mechanical condition and…and…and…If I was going to spend over $10K on an +30year old car….I might as well look for a project car from southern (salt free) states which (hopefully) would be relatively rust free (in the key critical areas at least) and which I was going to restore in as pristine a condition as my abilities (and budget) would allow. In my younger days I had restored a ‘71 FIAT 124 Sports Coupe and then a ‘72 1300 GT Junior with very limited budget …this time around I feel will be much more enjoyable.

My search ended last February after negotiating for a 1969 US Series 1750 GTV in Alfa color AR342 (French Blue)…the PO had convinced me to buy this in lieu of his other ‘69 ocra yellow GTV..and since I was only looking at photos I figured he probably knew better. I had the car shipped from the southwest to Buffalo and then drove down and trailored it back home across the border, about an hour’s drive away. I will be posting photos of the work as it progresses. For starters….these are the first pictures……

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#20 ·
..and more...original engine maybe?...what do you think PAPAJAM?...
View attachment 56853
The engine number indicates that it is correct for a 1969 US version 1750. Lacking documentation from Alfa, which I have not seen for cars from this time period listing engine numbers to chassis numbers, one can not be absolutely certain this is the original factory fitted engine. However, for all intents and purposes, I'd consider it original.

My hat is off to you for your desire to save this very savable Alfa!! And it warms my heart knowing that some of the parts I saved from my first Alfa, a 69 US 1750 GTV, will once again live in yours.
 
#5 ·
Looks like you made a good choice Rossano! The rust I see appears to be minimal and the rockers look pretty solid. I look forward to progress reports.

Let's hope all the field mice and/or birds find a new home! :D
 
#7 ·
That's a great project, the car looks pretty complete.

And it proves you don't need to spend a lot of money on fancy sound proofing, a bit of hay is all that's needed! Plus it has the added benefit of extra dampening in the rear end! :D

Good luck with the project, look forward to seeing some pics of the work in progress.

Damien
 
#8 ·
...Damian that hay grew all around the car...even between the innner and outer fender skirt cavities...but I'll get to that later. I started with a teardown (or should I say a tearout) of the interior...and when I got to the carpets, I was left with not much more than dust as it disintegrated in my hands! (sorry I didn't get a picture of that). The rear trunk mats are the rubber type, but was as brittle as plastic...need to find a good set of those somewhere. When removed...found the trunk in this condition...

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..which was a pleasant surprise....most of the ones I've seen around our parts have significant rust in this area. The tank came out and will get cleaned in the latter stages of the project.

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#9 ·
...thankfully, most of that brown material in the trunk is not rust but the adhesive used to hold the rubber mats (the normal colour for that should be yellow) but this car must have been sitting in some pretty hot sun for a long time..in order to turn all the rubber and soft plastic into......well brittle plastic.....

.....drivers side of the car from rear to front. The exposure to the elements pretty much removed most of the enamel on the top side of the car, I sprayed some cheap red primer over it for the time being...

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....original rockers...no filler to be seen ( or heard at all!).....so far so good! ......
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#13 ·
..this side looks not too bad.....but I'll have to pull the quarter panel off (which I'll get to later)......

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...and now the ugly!....(OK the interior was pretty ugly as well)....but this was not expected at all. Seems like the car suffered a front end hit at some point in it's life. The front nose panel was replaced as was the right quarter but not the inner panels (the photo actually looks better than in real life). The rad closure panel was left off, and no paint was added to the inside of the new pieces. The battery tray has seen better days as well. This area I've already fixed with new pieces....(I'll post the repair later on)......

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...the floors I was crossing my fingers and hoping that since the rockers and sills were in such great condition, that it too would be. But I'm guessing the windows were kept down for a while allowing rain to pour in and onto the carpets....you've all seen this before I'm sure......obviously I'll need to put in new rear floor sections.

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#14 ·
Hi Rossano,

This is a perfect canidate for a nice restoration project. Nice to know we will soon see a nice 69 at our club events. If you need any assistance, support, etc, just let me know. Have fun and good luck!
 
#16 ·
Thanks Christopher. At first I was actually contemplating changing it to something more common...but over the course of working on the car....this colour has grown on me...it has great depth and richness and should look great when finished.

..a few more early pics...

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..one of the problem areas was created by the collection of debris under the valence and at the back edge of the hood thereby trapping moisture.

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...resulting in a very badly rusted valence...which will be replaced with one that I picked up from Joecautela...

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..and a very rusted area on the hood as well....the hood is being replaced with a clean rust free one that I picked up from GTA ALFA...

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#17 ·
..like the hood, the trunk lid forward edge fell victim to the effects of trapped debris. Up in the North here we usually see the aft edge of trunks rusted out, this trunk's aft edge is clean and rust free...
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..but the entire forward edge is rusted right through on the inside structure......

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...I wonder if this engine lived a hard life....the heavy oil on the outside does seem to indicate that. I hope I won't find any bad surprises in there.

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#19 ·
This blue is as you say very pretty to look at. Your progress on this car is amazing. When you pull that windsheild you will find rust in the right corner where the water would puddle under the trim/glass and you most likely will find rust along the center where the two firewalls come together. Easy enough to repair with new metal. Some of the metal work that Akitaman is doing at his shop as evidenced in the threads on here is what you will have to fabricate.
Check out the rust under the chrome trim by the rear side windows, this is another place where the tin worm would give you a surprise. Best part is that alot of the parts you need are not all that bad, and readily available from donor cars.
There are only a handful of French blue cars that made it to these shores. I knew of 3 of them, and 3 more have surfaced here on the BB. Yours being one of them. Put the right wheels with the car and you have a real looker.

The grease on the engine looks typical for road grime. Should clean up well. The 1750 engine if you haven't driven a car with one, is a real delight for pick up and returns a good gasmileage. The 1971 injection pump was the richest of the pumps Alfa imported for fuel delivery. The car would still return a respectable 27 mpg highway.

I will be watching your restoration with interest. :)
 
#21 ·
Christopher, I did own a 1750 GTV with carbs 18 years back.. and it is as you say a real delight to drive....expecially on the track.

Papajam, it'll be because of guys like you who've been willing to save some of these out of production parts for all these years that'll make the restoration a lot easier than it would otherwise have been....so thanks to you again.
 
#22 ·
The last couple of cars I restored I had to do all the repair welding with an oxy/acetylyne torch. The setup allowed for perfectly acceptable welds except that on the heavy gauge metal, a lot of heat was required and more time is required to apply as well. After reading some of restoration threads on this BB, I was convinced that a MIG welder with an Argon/Co2 gas would be the best all around set-up to use. I picked up this used Lincoln SP135( it was repainted and tuned up) from a welding Rental outfit that at times sells some of their surplus machines. I also bought a self darkening Helmet as recommended by a few on this BB.

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Not having used one of these before I practiced on numerous small pieces of clean sheet metal first so as to get a feel for the wire speed and voltage settings. The first repair I thought to tackle was that of the valence panel tabs which were badly rusted ....



as were some of the areas were the mounting screws are attached. I cut out the small areas with a dremmel tool using the small oxide cut-off wheels (it cut through this very thin material very easily...to my surprise)..

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...I used short bursts of tack welds (letting each cool down in between) and welded on both sides of the repair pieces. If I had to do this with the oxy/acetylene I dare say that it would have been much harder for me to do...with the MIG, there was very little heat build-up on the part...

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#24 ·
Nice work, looks good. A MIG is the way to go. I can do some clean Oxy/Acl welding, but it takes for ever and the amount of heat required can make life hard. When you use the MIG, becareful not to let the weld completly cool before starting the next burst. If it does, you could end up with slag in the weld causing a weak spot. That will be a sweet car when you are done. I like my 69 1750, but I'm having a hard time keeping it close to stock (the more power bug is running rampant.) The US spec cars are rare, only 640 made.
Good luck with your project, if you need some year specific pictures, let me know and I will try and help you out.

Will
 
#25 ·
Will, my MIG has Argon/Co2 and hence does not produce any slag at all...and so the welds end up very clean. Are you using a flux-core MIG machine? I wouldn't want to be cleaning the flux off of metal this thin....would be a real chore. As for the power situation, I was wanting to keep this car all original with the Spica FI, my previous GTVs were carburetted so I don't know how it'll compare till I drive it....but I'm not really looking to rebuild this into an all out street machine anyway. As for photos, I'll probably be asking for some for sure so thanks for the offer.
 
#26 ·
Update time...the inner front panel needed straightening and the only way to do this properly was to remove everything that would be in the way. I ground away the bondo and cut with a 4.5 inch cut-off wheel along the previous repair weld line.
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..front panel removed..and inner diapragham pieces being dissambled...
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..front will get acid dipped.....
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...example of how not to weld the front panel on. This one was lap welded and the excess left on so as to be a good moisture trap...resulting in some bad rusting.
 

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#27 ·
I brought the front panel out to get acid cleaned at TECHNOSTRIP While I was there I saw a LANCIA FULVIA chassis that had been dipped and it looked great....so nice to work with clean rust free metal. They quoted me a cost of $2,000 to do a whole car, doors and all. In my case I don't believe it needs this radical a cleaning. The front panel is a thin piece and I didn't want to wirewheel it clean so I thought I'd try it to see if the results merit the expense...didn't realize they had a minimum cost of $100...but the end result looked great..

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...almost looks new...
 
#28 ·
Nice work! Wow, that panel looks new. Looks like when it was replaced they really used the correct front panel, as well (however badly attached), since there are no welded-up lower holes. :)

Karl
 
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