In the beginning....
It all started back in May ..... new to me 1974 GTV, Faggio-ish and tan, Spica, 84k on odo, true mileage unknown but seemed about right. Had been restored probably 10-15 years ago, ex-A/C car so short console. The first pic is one of the car before I bought it—this is the one that didn’t meet reserve on BaT back in January. It looked really good, but had some pinholing rust in the pass side footwell which was my first priority.
After tune up, of course. Plugs, cap and rotor, and new plug wires.
@Andrew very kindly gave me some guidance and helped me diagnose a bum thermostatic actuator. I ordered a new one from Wes Ingram (along with new rod end connector things, whatever you call those), and that solved that problem, but led to discovering another—the infamous GAP on the back of the pump body was way way off. Somebody in the past had adjusted the SPICA’s other 5 or so settings to compensate for the bad T/A, and now it was up to me to get it all back in line. That took about 2 weekends to get thoroughly schooled on SPICA, especially reading all the great stuff on the BB from
@Roadtrip, and getting it all dialed in. THAT led me to the cold start solenoid being possibly bad—it clicks when I test it, but it still is a bear to start, it’ll get there, but it doesn’t like it. Runs beautifully when warm. Just to make sure it’s all good, I ordered a pump from Wes, too. I am probably another 3 months out....
Also new voltage regulator and alternator—I didn’t have a working charging system!
Then I started really spending money like a drunken sailor: Alfa Parts, Classic Alfa, Alfaholics, OK, and Centerline. New: H4 headlights, amber fog lights, carpet, wood, gas filler flap rubber, gray wiper arm bolt caps, chrome wiper blades, taillights (I had new Euro lenses but the original housings, and two of the studs were broken), door hole bungs, rubber door striker blocks, ignition switch, all firewall grommets, floor bungs, scuttle drain hose, scuttle-to eyeball dash vent hoses, Dynamat, Dynaliner, door card reflector things, armrest chrome strips, I am sure I am forgetting stuff. Basically if it needed it I got it.
Also I got a good used hazard flasher from APE, along with missing light lenses, “DEF”, and “HAZARD”.
My car has a Bosch Spider distributor for some reason. It works fine, as far as I know, but it’s not Marelli, which is what I think was supposed to come on it. Rather than go backwards technology-wise, and at Andy Schank’s recommendation per Ton Sahines, I got a 123 ditstributor with the Bluetooth—havent installed yet, wanted to get the rust dealt with.
Then gauges — mine didn’t work, bulbs out and most importantly speedo and tach were inop. Cables are fine, so def. gauges. Took to Hartmut at Palo Alto Speedo, but with Car Week coming he was/is super backed up. I ordered a spare set from Larry Jr at APE, havent installed yet.
Then seals—I got the fully set from Classic Alfa, along with the 14 piece repro window channel kit—the ones that came on the car were rusty, and I . Haven’t installed all of them yet, but like most people on here, I found the trunk seal and the engine bay seal (the one strip along the top by the latch) to both be too thick. We’ll see how the door eats do—that’s primarily what I need, along with window scrapers—the glass it excellent save for scratched on both door windows from bad scrapers.
I finally turned to the thing that worried me most about the car: the rust. If you see a little, there’s probably more, and I figured I’d just rip off the bandage. I pulled out all the carpet and cleaned it up. It turned out to be a little more than just pinholing, but it was all localized at the floor bung. Other than that, the car is super-clean. Rockers are solid, no filler. Got a new floor pan from Alfa Parts in Berkeley (just stopping by is so convenient), and had it welded in. Better than new, solid as a rock.
More to follow...