Hello, AlfaBB. I am a idiot and a few months ago I bought this:
1974 Alfa Romeo GTV Project on Bring A Trailer
Is it ugly? Yes. Did I overpay? Certainly. But restoring it should be....fun? That's the plan, anyway - make it look less ****. Join me in my suffering.
I am also posting this on fabulous internet forum somethingawful.com, so if this seems familiar that's why.
Pros are that it runs great and drives nicely and was well-maintained and good until the previous owner's reflexes deteriorated and he starting running into ****. PO owned the car since 1979 and I have a thick envelope of repair receipts. So mechanically the car is sorted, and the interior is in decent shape.
Cons are it's been hit on every panel except the driver's door and roof. And who knows how much structural Bondo and sadness are hiding underneath the shiny new paint job. Also, the PO changed the color (original color was poo to be fair) and they didn't do a full strip so you can see the old color everywhere. I'm going to probably change the color again because there are enough red Alfas in the world, but not going back to original Cava Beige or whatever it was. I'm leaning towards French Blue, I love bright blues.
Here's a big dumb idiot driving her home:
And here she is in the driveway before I started tearing her apart:
The next step in the project is to strip it to the shell so I can have the paint stripped and really see what I'm working with. I took the hood and trunk lid off and have removed most of the interior, I just need to get the dash out.
Here's what the floor looks like inside:
Passenger Side Front
Driver's Side Front
Both are a bit rusty, and the driver's side is smashed up from the bottom, and the front jack point is gone from that corner. Luckily, the inner sills look really good, although the outer sill on the passenger side has some suspicious filler smears:
So that could be hiding some ****.
I also pulled all the lights and started pulling things from the engine compartment. I need to empty the fuel tank and then I can remove the fuel system from the trunk. Then I'll pull the engine and trans. Then I need to build or buy a cart for the shell so I can pull the suspension. Then she goes off to the stripper to have the paint removed and an epoxy primer sprayed on.
Then I get to order several thousand dollars worth of sheet metal to weld on.
1974 Alfa Romeo GTV Project on Bring A Trailer
Is it ugly? Yes. Did I overpay? Certainly. But restoring it should be....fun? That's the plan, anyway - make it look less ****. Join me in my suffering.
I am also posting this on fabulous internet forum somethingawful.com, so if this seems familiar that's why.
Pros are that it runs great and drives nicely and was well-maintained and good until the previous owner's reflexes deteriorated and he starting running into ****. PO owned the car since 1979 and I have a thick envelope of repair receipts. So mechanically the car is sorted, and the interior is in decent shape.
Cons are it's been hit on every panel except the driver's door and roof. And who knows how much structural Bondo and sadness are hiding underneath the shiny new paint job. Also, the PO changed the color (original color was poo to be fair) and they didn't do a full strip so you can see the old color everywhere. I'm going to probably change the color again because there are enough red Alfas in the world, but not going back to original Cava Beige or whatever it was. I'm leaning towards French Blue, I love bright blues.
Here's a big dumb idiot driving her home:
And here she is in the driveway before I started tearing her apart:
The next step in the project is to strip it to the shell so I can have the paint stripped and really see what I'm working with. I took the hood and trunk lid off and have removed most of the interior, I just need to get the dash out.
Here's what the floor looks like inside:
Passenger Side Front
Driver's Side Front
Both are a bit rusty, and the driver's side is smashed up from the bottom, and the front jack point is gone from that corner. Luckily, the inner sills look really good, although the outer sill on the passenger side has some suspicious filler smears:
So that could be hiding some ****.
I also pulled all the lights and started pulling things from the engine compartment. I need to empty the fuel tank and then I can remove the fuel system from the trunk. Then I'll pull the engine and trans. Then I need to build or buy a cart for the shell so I can pull the suspension. Then she goes off to the stripper to have the paint removed and an epoxy primer sprayed on.
Then I get to order several thousand dollars worth of sheet metal to weld on.