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3,280 Posts
Hi All,
I've been asking lots of questions regarding parts and processes encountered in the restoration of a '63 Giulia Spider, and I thank you all very much for responding to such. As I'm a newbie to the restoration process, your input has been extremely helpful.
To report on my progress with the restoration, I've decided to use this thread for the purpose (as also recommended by SeekGTV), hopefully posting lots of pictures for you all to enjoy and scratch your head over.
Overall strategy: keep the car as original as I can, with the intention of using it as a nice weekend driver. If some original parts are hard to come by, I will resort to using non-original parts so as to get the car back on the road. In the next 12 months, I intend to strip the car to a bare metal shell, repaint, rebuild all mechanical parts, and put everything back together, as close to its original 1963 state as possible.
A little history on the car:
I bought the car locally in Santa Cruz, CA just over a month ago, from the PO who's had it since 1972. He in turn purchased it from a local specialty-car dealer, who obtained it from an American serviceman who privately imported it from Italy in 1963 (checking the relevant dates with Elvira). As a result of this long, run-on sentence, I'm technically the third private owner of the car. The car is an Euro version, with amber-colored side-repeaters and Euro headlights. I'm not sure what else on it is Euro. Uh, we hashed about this previously, but the car sports Giulietta Veloce gauges - why these are in there is anyone's guess, but I'm happy to keep them.
Current Condition of the Car:
The body is fairly straight, and from what I deduce from the straight bumper supports, the chassis seems to have been spared rear-endings and such; lucky me.
There's the usual rust on this car: engine compartment: surface rust along the firewall where the brake fluid reservoir is attached; chassis member under radiator and around engine mounting points. Interior-wise, and I've only ripped out the passenger-side so far, the rear-end floor pan's rusted through, I was able to punch a hole in it with a pen. The front-end seems solid, with white paint still intact. The driver's side is probably in similar condition. The trunk: though I haven't wired-brushed the battery area well, I see light coming in from the bottom - I think the panel needs replacing.
All the chrome is badly pitted, so they're going to Superior Chroming in San Jose, CA for rework. The stainless steel(?) pieces such as grille bars, eyebrows, and door trim are all in good condition, but will need some light polishing.
Mechanicals:
I bought the car non-running. The PO bent a valve in 1998, and probably cracked the original head or something in the process. He ended up swapping the 1600 head for a stock 1750 at Jon Norman's in Berkeley. He also decided to dump the Solex for twin-Webers (40DCOE4's), and was in the process of installing these when he ran out of steam. All the Solex parts are there, and I intend to put it back on the car. The radiator's been refurbished, and out of the car. The block is still mounted to the chassis, with the 1750 head sitting over the studs, unbolted. All the air-intake tubing is out of the car. The gearbox, driveline, and rear axle are all in place, as are suspension and wheels. Everything supposedly worked well before the engine trouble occurred.
What I've done so far:
I've taken off most of the chrome and stainless steel trim on the car (except the door handles, hood/trunk hinges, side vent windows, and windshield), and began tearing out the interior a week or so ago. I've finished the passenger side, and as the driver's side is harder to access at this point (until I get a set of those little wheel dolllies), I started tearing down the dash. As of this past Thursday, the only thing left in the dash is the ignition switch to be disconnected, the driver's side defroster vent, and the scary-looking jumble of wires by the fuse box area - I haven't looked at it closely yet.
I'll keep going in the next post about what I'll be doing next. Comments extremely welcomed at this point!
I've been asking lots of questions regarding parts and processes encountered in the restoration of a '63 Giulia Spider, and I thank you all very much for responding to such. As I'm a newbie to the restoration process, your input has been extremely helpful.
To report on my progress with the restoration, I've decided to use this thread for the purpose (as also recommended by SeekGTV), hopefully posting lots of pictures for you all to enjoy and scratch your head over.
Overall strategy: keep the car as original as I can, with the intention of using it as a nice weekend driver. If some original parts are hard to come by, I will resort to using non-original parts so as to get the car back on the road. In the next 12 months, I intend to strip the car to a bare metal shell, repaint, rebuild all mechanical parts, and put everything back together, as close to its original 1963 state as possible.
A little history on the car:
I bought the car locally in Santa Cruz, CA just over a month ago, from the PO who's had it since 1972. He in turn purchased it from a local specialty-car dealer, who obtained it from an American serviceman who privately imported it from Italy in 1963 (checking the relevant dates with Elvira). As a result of this long, run-on sentence, I'm technically the third private owner of the car. The car is an Euro version, with amber-colored side-repeaters and Euro headlights. I'm not sure what else on it is Euro. Uh, we hashed about this previously, but the car sports Giulietta Veloce gauges - why these are in there is anyone's guess, but I'm happy to keep them.
Current Condition of the Car:
The body is fairly straight, and from what I deduce from the straight bumper supports, the chassis seems to have been spared rear-endings and such; lucky me.
There's the usual rust on this car: engine compartment: surface rust along the firewall where the brake fluid reservoir is attached; chassis member under radiator and around engine mounting points. Interior-wise, and I've only ripped out the passenger-side so far, the rear-end floor pan's rusted through, I was able to punch a hole in it with a pen. The front-end seems solid, with white paint still intact. The driver's side is probably in similar condition. The trunk: though I haven't wired-brushed the battery area well, I see light coming in from the bottom - I think the panel needs replacing.
All the chrome is badly pitted, so they're going to Superior Chroming in San Jose, CA for rework. The stainless steel(?) pieces such as grille bars, eyebrows, and door trim are all in good condition, but will need some light polishing.
Mechanicals:
I bought the car non-running. The PO bent a valve in 1998, and probably cracked the original head or something in the process. He ended up swapping the 1600 head for a stock 1750 at Jon Norman's in Berkeley. He also decided to dump the Solex for twin-Webers (40DCOE4's), and was in the process of installing these when he ran out of steam. All the Solex parts are there, and I intend to put it back on the car. The radiator's been refurbished, and out of the car. The block is still mounted to the chassis, with the 1750 head sitting over the studs, unbolted. All the air-intake tubing is out of the car. The gearbox, driveline, and rear axle are all in place, as are suspension and wheels. Everything supposedly worked well before the engine trouble occurred.
What I've done so far:
I've taken off most of the chrome and stainless steel trim on the car (except the door handles, hood/trunk hinges, side vent windows, and windshield), and began tearing out the interior a week or so ago. I've finished the passenger side, and as the driver's side is harder to access at this point (until I get a set of those little wheel dolllies), I started tearing down the dash. As of this past Thursday, the only thing left in the dash is the ignition switch to be disconnected, the driver's side defroster vent, and the scary-looking jumble of wires by the fuse box area - I haven't looked at it closely yet.
I'll keep going in the next post about what I'll be doing next. Comments extremely welcomed at this point!