Projectissimo Alfa Mar 1, 2006
We’re picking up our newest project car next weekend. A friend of ours, Mark Daddio, found this car in storage where it had been sitting for three years. It’s a 1974 Alfa Romeo GTV that was last registered in 1983, as far as we can tell.
The car has 69,000 original miles and it has had quite a bit of bodywork, including a high-quality paint job. Unfortunately, it was purchased missing quite a few parts, including the glass and trim. We’ll be sorting through the boxes that come with it to see what we have.
The engine is going to need some help. It’s got a cracked head and hasn’t been started in at least three years. Luckily, the gas tank is out of the car, so we don’t need to deal with a lot of varnished gas.
Alfa Parts Car Found Mar 10, 2006
We haven’t even taken delivery of the project car, and we’ve already found a parts car. We bought a 1974 GTV that was stored outside for years.
It’s a bucket of rust, but it has all of the glass except the windshield. It even has good bumpers. Those parts far outweigh the purchase price of $400.
Alfa GTV Comes to Our Garage Mar 20, 2006
We know it’s missing a lot and that may determine the future direction of this project.
We picked up the GTV on Saturday morning. We left Friday morning at 6 am and got up to Beacon Falls, Connecticut at midnight. We caught up with Mark Daddio on Saturday morning and had the car loaded and got back on the road by 10:00 a.m. We finally arrived in Ormond by 1:00 p.m. on Sunday. The things we’ll do for a cool car!
The car was as represented by Mark and in some ways, a lot better. The good: The car had close to $10,000 worth of sheetmetal and bodywork prior to its abandonment in the storage facility. That includes new floorpans as well as new bottoms for the quarters, front fenders and doors. The car has had a boatload of mechanical work done as well, including a rebuilt head and transmission, as well as extensive brake work (which still function by the way)
The bad: The car picked up a few dings while it sat, and the head is indeed cracked in several places. The trim and interior are shot and we haven’t inventoried all of the now crumbling cardboard boxes full of stuff to see how complete it is. We know it’s missing a lot and that might determine the future direction of this project.
While our parts car in nearby DeLand will get us a rear window and side window, the windshield was still AWOL. We called a buddy of ours, Al Taylor of Al Taylor Sports Cars who happened to have a spare GTV windshield, and even the trim pieces that surround it for $150.
It’s even the more desirable seal-type from an earlier car, not the glue-in type, which is all that’s practically available now. We picked up the windshield as we headed South through North Carolina, which saved shipping costs.
Organizing and Planning Our Alfa Project Mar 22, 2006
We’ve now organized the boxes of parts that our car came with and evaluated what the car will need. In short, just about everything.
The start of any new project is a unique mixture of excitement and anxiety. The massive amount of work that is in front of us seems daunting, while the site of a new project (and it’s smell!) are emotionally stirring. We’ve organized the boxes of parts that came with our car and have evaluated what the car will need. In short, just about everything.
Looking at how the Bertone-designed coupe was constructed, it appears as though the headliner will need to be replaced before anything else goes on the car. After that, we can install the windows (need seals!), door panels (yep, need those too) and stainless trim pieces.
Much of the car’s brightwork was stainless steel, but they used little normal steel screws to install it. We picked up a few bags of the correctly sized screws in stainless steel. Not factory correct, but it’ll look nicer in the long run.
Last night, we went out to our parts car and started picking off pieces. Some of the parts were good (rear window, side windows, rear bumpers) and some will need to be sourced elsewhere (rear taillights). We took the rear bumper home and used some CLR (Calcium, Lime & Rust) cleaner to remove the rust stains it had on it (it’s stainless, but it was stained by the car rusting around it).
It still needs some polishing, but it looks worlds better than the bumper we have. We’ll pick up the front bumper this weekend (we need to bring an angle grinder to cut through the bolts that hold it on, they are truly rusted together.
At this point, we’re starting to assemble a list of parts that we’ll need. Those include door panels, window seals and miscellaneous trim bits. We think we can actually use the ignition switch (and keys!) from the parts car for ours, as well as the locks from the door handles. We’ll see.
Work Begins on the Alfa GTV Mar 24, 2006
Our next order of business will be to install the front and rear glass.
We actually started some work on the Alfa Romeo itself. We installed the passenger side vent window, which we grabbed from the parts car as well as the driver’s side door glass.
Our next order of business will be to install the front and rear glass. Since the car has already been painted and the areas that need to be repaired aren’t any where near the windows, we want to get the glass installed as that’s the safest place for it. However, since the headliner on our Alfa goes in before the glass seals, we'll need to install a new one first. These range in price from $105 to $159, depending on the source. We also need to source new front and rear window seals. Those are about $90 a piece.
We cleaned and polished the rear bumper and installed it with new 10x150mm bolts. The original bolts were too rusted, so a new pair were used to bolt the bumper to the body. We made sure to scrub the rubber blocks that serve as bumper mounts, as well as the backside of the bumper and guards before everything was assembled. The ends of the bumper were attached to the body of the car using a small stainless panhead screw and a rubber washer.
Tomorrow we are heading back to DeLand to pick some more parts off the hulk. We’re bringing an angle grinder to cut through the bolts holding the front bumper on, as well as drill out the security bolt that’s holding the ignition switch in. We’re also going to grab the passenger door glass as ours is pitted from the original body shop doing some grinding near it. Now that we know how it goes in, it shouldn’t be that big of a deal.
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