Hi All,
After many years of dreaming about a GTV I am finally a proud owner of one. I was fortunate enough to find what I would consider a solid rare car, 69, California car purchased from the original owner! The car is in need of some tlc but is very solid for its age so I am excited about bringing the car back to its former glory.
So, with all of my excitement I have come upon a big question...How should I go about restoring this car!? I want to stay true to the origins of the car but I am also interested in making the car unique but tasteful while improving performance. So let's start a conversation on what would be considered tasteful and proper vs just plain wrong!
I will start with some ideas:
Paint: Moving from the original silver into a metallic blue with more of a silver undertone much like this: Shell Painted & Ready for Assembly - Classic Alfa Romeo spare parts
Car is red now and needs to be redone.
Engine: Staying with a 1750+Spica but modifying to put out closer to 175
Brakes: Can I upgrade these without having rotten fruit thrown at me!!Just replaced master cylinder, brake pads etc but the brakes feel a little week (first real classic car though).
Suspension: If I am increasing the power and possibly the brakes it would only make sense to give the suspension some love, how far can I go with this before turning it into a hot rod...
Interior: I am staying classic on this for the most part but thinking of replacing the famous"basket weave" material with a real leather basket weave. For such a great car I feel bad putting something into it that is real in what came out of the factory but fake in terms of what it is supposed to be.. guess I want to go with something "real, but fake".
In the end I am not going to track the car much if any and will be driving it in the hills of LA mostly. I want to make the car nice but I also want to be mindful of keeping the value of the car up, I do not plan on selling the car anytime sooner than 20 yrs so have to factor in mods that will make the car sing to me while I have it.
Let me know your ideas
After many years of dreaming about a GTV I am finally a proud owner of one. I was fortunate enough to find what I would consider a solid rare car, 69, California car purchased from the original owner! The car is in need of some tlc but is very solid for its age so I am excited about bringing the car back to its former glory.
So, with all of my excitement I have come upon a big question...How should I go about restoring this car!? I want to stay true to the origins of the car but I am also interested in making the car unique but tasteful while improving performance. So let's start a conversation on what would be considered tasteful and proper vs just plain wrong!
I will start with some ideas:
Paint: Moving from the original silver into a metallic blue with more of a silver undertone much like this: Shell Painted & Ready for Assembly - Classic Alfa Romeo spare parts
Car is red now and needs to be redone.
Engine: Staying with a 1750+Spica but modifying to put out closer to 175
Brakes: Can I upgrade these without having rotten fruit thrown at me!!Just replaced master cylinder, brake pads etc but the brakes feel a little week (first real classic car though).
Suspension: If I am increasing the power and possibly the brakes it would only make sense to give the suspension some love, how far can I go with this before turning it into a hot rod...
Interior: I am staying classic on this for the most part but thinking of replacing the famous"basket weave" material with a real leather basket weave. For such a great car I feel bad putting something into it that is real in what came out of the factory but fake in terms of what it is supposed to be.. guess I want to go with something "real, but fake".
In the end I am not going to track the car much if any and will be driving it in the hills of LA mostly. I want to make the car nice but I also want to be mindful of keeping the value of the car up, I do not plan on selling the car anytime sooner than 20 yrs so have to factor in mods that will make the car sing to me while I have it.
Let me know your ideas