[Samana76]

Hello everyone,

I am a proud new owner of a 1968 Alfa Giulia Sprint GT Veloce. I realize it has quite a bit of work to be done, especially to the body, but I am sure it will come out to be an exceptional machine. I am posting a number of pictures to "show and tell" and to ask a few questions as a previous owner had added some racing features and I was curious about what you guys think of both the car and these additions.

Well here is the car:

Here is a little history of this car:
Original owner bought it in '68. Sold it to the second owner in the mid-70's. The second owner made the racing additions. I'm assuming he might have done club racing with it (and I think the hit the rear wheel arches which have bondo that is starting to peal off). It's been sitting (in a garage, they tell me) for the past 10 years. A third owner bought it one year ago hoping to restore it but did not have the funds for the project. I bought it from the third owner this past weekend and am planning to make a high performance street/track GT out adding a few racing touches to it without making a full blown race car. Therefore I'm happy to see that it already has a few racing additions already to it.

My questions are:

1) What do you think of the rear sway bar, is it well set-up?
2) Do you know what the name of the racing steering wheel is? It is made in Italy and seems very well made.
3) I would like to check if it has a limited slip differential. How can I find out if it does or not?
4) What do you guys think of the car in general. I know it is full of rust but that does not scare me. I'm actually half thinking to replace as many panels as possible with aluminum and make it like the street version of the GTA with some high performance parts and maybe a bolt on roll cage for when I go racing.
5) The second owner must have been something of a McGuiver as you can see in photo 0043.jpg where he used a Minnesota license plate as a heat shield
6) What's that little nob in the last photo?

In any case please let me have your comments.
Thank you AlfaBB.
Igor

 

[Matt D]

You are either much braver, richer or more skilled than I am (maybe all of the above?) This project would scare the *%@# out of me, but others have brought them back from the dead, so why not? I hope you know what you are getting yourself into. Good luck.

 

[esc2064]

This looks like the car I saw locally for sale on Craigslist for 5K, right? That is one project to tackle. I see great potential but it all depends on how far are you willing to go with the repairs and how deep of a pocket you have. Do it if you have $$$ it'll be satisfying. If you're tight on a budget, this may not be your project. These are just my opinions. Other than that good find. Good luck.

 

[AlfistiSA]

That appears to be a '68 Giulia Sprint GT "Superleggera", although the weight loss from the sills is negated by the added weight gain from the bondo & the rear anti-sway bar.

• The good - it appears to be very complete in terms of trim & those tiny bits of unobtanium that disappear with subsequent owners
• The bad - the rust & the neglect underneath - you will need to rebuild everything
• The ugly.....no I can't think of any, apart from the rust issues, you've got a nice basis for your project

1) What do you think of the rear sway bar, is it well set-up? Well it's not stock & my early cars have always done very well without the sway bar, my suggestion is to restore the car & bar & then try it both with & without the bar & see what you prefer - it's an easy add / remove item
2) Do you know what the name of the racing steering wheel is? It is made in Italy and seems very well made. It could be a Personal or a MOMO or one of several after-market ones which were on offer in the period3) I would like to check if it has a limited slip differential. How can I find out if it does or not? No it doesn't, the LS housing has a small square-ish casting towards the front of the housing, but the general test is to jack up the rear & move one wheel with the other chocked - moves = no LS, if it tries to pop the chock out from the other side, then it's been worked internally, but only opening the casing will tell for sure
4) What do you guys think of the car in general. I know it is full of rust but that does not scare me. All the repair panels are available I'm actually half thinking to replace as many panels as possible with aluminum and make it like the street version of the GTA with some high performance parts and maybe a bolt on roll cage for when I go racing. Not impossible, it's been done before & there are a few threads if you search about the GTA & GT Forums - but be warned the alloy panel route is expen$$$ive
5) The second owner must have been something of a McGuiver as you can see in photo 0043.jpg where he used a Minnesota license plate as a heat shield The standard "student" exhaust system
6) What's that little nob in the last photo?Steering lock stop

Ciao
Greig
Some 750's
Some 101's
Some 105's
Some others

 

[Dave De Rosier]

Not sure about that rear "sway bar". The way it is mounted it is parallel to the axle. I can't see how you will get any anti roll function out of it. I guess it protects the differential housing.

 

[hotcams]

Congrats on the car, Igor. Great pictures BTW. You have a lot of work ahead of you and I mean a lot! I wish you the best of luck but honestly I can only imagine what this shell or what's left of it will look like coming back from the blasters. What's nice is that it appears must of the bad rust is low on the car but you never know. There are some good things about the car. It looks fairly complete and original-the interior is not that bad actually...check out the old radio...I would begin by spraying the underside of the car with cans of PB Blaster or similiar. Air tools will be your friend taking this car apart.

ok, your questions:
1) the rear swar bar is interesting-appears to be custom a la gta style-it may be worth saving if you can. some prefer no rear bar at all. not a big deal.

2)sorry no help on the steering wheel but it looks period and cool.

3) I think you have a limited slip diff-take a pic under it to show the sump pan and casting triangle-check for the front protrusion on the diff sump-search the bb for examples.

4) the car body in general is pretty rough-its going to be a money pit but you'll know you have a truly rust-free alfa. Full make-over on mechanicals easy. Tranny may be ok, Diff may be ok but that's about it. To get this body back fully prepared in color is going to be spendy. I've seen worse get saved but the body on this will need to completely be blasted and repaired by someone with welding skills. The truth about the rust and collision damage is under there somewhere and I again hope you are lucky. The good: you do have the 4-bolt front crossmember which is better than the earlier 2-bolt. the glass looks good and there's surprisingly not much evidence of rust around the seals, the roof looks good, the front grille looks good-it is the 3-bar correct for veloce, the all red tail lenses look good, the euro lic. plate bracket is cool, overall the car is complete and not gutted/pilfered. The bad: everything shin high and below is probably rusty worm. everything will need to be removed, cleaned, repaired, replaced, etc. I love 105 GT's/GTV'S step nose cars so I like it overall but I would not take on this project. I'm glad you are saving her though.

5) that minn lic plate made me smile-funny. Speaking of plates. I dont think this one will give Cali black plate cars a good name!

6) the little knob is the steering link stop. you have the same thing on the passenger side too

Do you know what size engine you have? Should be 1600. Look for a casting mark on the front of the head, above the water pump. I think its a triangle inside a circle? The cam cover is correct for a 1600 engine with the dipped cover for stove pipe air box crossover (on the psngr floor of the interior). It would be a nice even a big plus if the engine rotated freely.
Best of luck!

 

[Samana76]

Thank you all for your comments, and especially AlfistiSA and hotcams for your answers and expert advice.
I do realize the body is going to take a lot of time, money, and patience and I am willing to put in all three. I will be asking this forum many questions and hope you all will follow this project throughout its progression.
I believe this little car will turn out to be a great performance Alfa. I have the passion and determination to make it so, and with the help and support of this fantastic community I believe there will be nothing stopping this little-big champion of a car in becoming a solid performer.
I'll add a few more details about the car:
Hotcams is right, inspecting the mid-top half of the car, it presents no signs of rust or bubbles anywhere. My suspicion is that, for some reason (flood maybe), the lower half of the car remained wet/humid for a long period of time and has corroded away, while the top half remained dry.
The engine does indeed turn freely very well as well as all the wheels - there are no stuck brakes and actually turn surprisingly well.
I'll check the engine, but am pretty sure it is the original 1600. Also I will take a photo from under the differential to see if it is indeed a LSD.
I'll keep you guys posted.

Thanks again,
Igor

 

[GTVMk1]

I think 'bit of work to be done' would be the understatement of the century.

Good luck..look forward to the end result in 10 or 15 years.


Cheers,
wazza.

 

[genericwood]

Big project. Good luck! As for the rear sway bar, it's very poorly executed. Why would you want to add the entire weight of the bar to unsprung weight?

 

[Chris1750]

I've attached a photo of the triangular rib casting on the rear of the LSDs. Yours appears to be a standard differential. If you want confirmation, either remove the rear filler plug or lower sump plate and have a look inside for the LSD clutch plates. As far as I know for the coupes, LSDs were a factory option on late model 1750s and standard on the 2000s. Your car is a much earlier 'Scalino', though this does not preclude after market fitting.

Good luck with this one - it'll be great watching it come back to life.

Chris

 

[gbasile77]

Racing features?!?! Hope you can save her; looks like a great project.

 

[flivesay]

sure its not a 67??

 

[PSk]

Subscribed.

Keep calm, replace rockers, chassis rails and front valence and probably front cross-member and she will be starting to look pretty good.

Unlike some others, at least you know where you have rust ... ie. it's not hidden under shiny paint waiting to pop out.
Pete

 

[Veep]

racing mods...which racing mods?

Only thing I see is something that is meant to bee a sway bar but not really is one. In this way it really has very little use. besides that this type of car is better off without. so cut it off. If you really are going to restore this be sure it is straight and stays straight when you are going to cut. There are better ones around though. On the other side, if you are going for a fully modified one, this is the way to go.

 

[giulia1600gt]

rear wheel arches which have bondo that is starting to peal off

they have to go

 

[desmo veloce]

Steering Wheel

Igor-

I'm excited to see the you have the enthusiasm and resources to save this car. I wish I had either the expertise or resources to take on a project of this magnitude. It looks to me like there is a lot of bondo in the RF fender and RR quarter panel. If you are planning to replace these with aluminum panels anyway, it really doesn't matter.

The steering wheel is a BWA. I bought one from Centerline back in 1985 for my Alfetta race car. Mine was 13" diameter, but they had 14" also IIRC. If you need more information, I may be able to dig up an old Centerline catalog.

Good luck!

~Chris

 

[Alfajay]

My suspicion is that, for some reason (flood maybe), the lower half of the car remained wet/humid for a long period of time and has corroded away, while the top half remained dry.

Not necessarily in a flood - Alfa GT's just tend to rust from the bottom up. Your car might have been stored outdoors, sitting on gravel/dirt, which tends to marinate the lower part of the car in a humid environment.

As others have written, your best strategy is probably to disasssemble everything, put the body on a dolly, and bring it to a competent media blaster. Once the paint is off, you will really know what you have. The photo below shows my car at that stage.

I love the uncut dash. Even though I own a stepnose, I never knew that the orignal dash had a cut-out to accommodate a radio like yours. By now, most dashes have been hacked up with a big, rectangular hole to fit a CD player. I'm pretty sure your car had a wood grain finish to the dash when it left the factory. A previous owner seems to have painted it matt black, probably because the faux wood material started to fade/crack from the sun.