All 1974 Alfa Romeo 2000 GTV updates: Project Cars: Classic Motorsports Magazine

A Fruitful Weekend of Alfa Work Mar 27, 2006

We scrubbed the bumpers using Lime-a-way, an acid based cleaner that’s meant for bathrooms. Worked great!

Installing the cleaned-up light housings.

You can see a slight divot above the bumper. We’ll probaby have this fixed while the engine compartment is being painted.

Door catches from the parts car cleaned up nicely.

Saturday dawned bright and clear here in Florida and we wasted no time driving out to DeLand to pick more parts off our rusted parts car. We got the front bumper, the rest of the glass and even the door catches.

We also tried to get the ignition switch, but it’s got a bit of a “snag” in it when the key is turned. It works, but it might have to be passed over in exchange for a new one (about $150). One interesting score was the original trunk carpet, which just needs a good cleaning.

We also scrubbed, bead-blasted and painted the light housings. It’s often been said that headlights make the car’s face (i.e.: they look like eyes) so having a face to our car makes it look so much more appealing. It’s weird how psychology affects car restoration.

We then bolted on the rest of the lights and the bumper.

The parts car yielded the inner door catches, as our car was missing these. It took quite a while to adjust them so that the car doors closed with a “click” and not a slam. Now we’ll probably have to readjust them with the new door seals.

Replacing the Alfa's Headliner Apr 27, 2006

The original headliner is yellowed and torn.

Despite our best efforts, the pulls that mount to the roof were crumbling from oxidation and the screws that secured them to the unibody were stuck fast.

The old foam was removed and replaced with new 1/2-inch thick foam.

We layed the headliner on our garage floor and marked off where the recessed area needed to go.

The recessed area was then cut out of the main liner and glued to the surround.

With the headliner initially installed, you can see the wrinkles that still need to be worked out.

Doh! When we were moving the windshield to work on the headliner, we picked it up a little crooked…and this was our reward. Time to find a new windshield-Again!

With the headliner in, we can start assembling all of the little trim bits that make a GTV so pretty.

We got a pretty big shipment of parts for the GTV last week from International Auto Parts, including the headliner and window seals.

Our first step is to install the headliner so the windows can be put back in. That’ll clean up our garage, a lot.

Last night, we removed the sun visors, handles and dome lights from the Alfa to start the headliner replacement. It took much longer than expected because the screws that secured many of the parts were corroded and stuck. We wound up drilling several out and found that several of the pulls were crumbling from aluminum oxidation. That’s pretty strange as the rest of the car is so clean. We’re actually not sure if these are going back in, as we might be installing a roll bar or cage into our project.

Last night we took several steps forward on our Alfa project and one step back. The headliner is now in and we are in the process of tightening it to remove wrinkles. With the headliner back in the car, the trim pieces, quarter windows and seals can be installed. It’ll be a lengthy process as these cars are very complicated.

When we moved the windshield around, we managed to crack it and now we’re on the look out for a new seal-type windshield for our car. After talking with our glass shop, we think we need to order either a “Veloce” or a “1750” windshield to get the correct seal-type (not glue-in) windshield.

Polishing Aluminum Alfa Trim May 15, 2006

Lye-based oven cleaner removes anodizing from aluminum without damage.

We used a benchgrinder with a polishing wheel to polish our trim bits, using a polishing compound meant for aluminum.

The resulting finish will need to be kept up with a periodic rubbing and waxing, but will look much better than the unrestored trim.

We spent some time polishing the aluminum trim that surrounds the front and rear windshields. The original polished finish was protected with a clear anodization. Over the past 30 years, this finish has become clouded, milky and less than shiney.

To fix this, we first stripped off the anodizing with a EZ-Off oven cleaner. This lye-based product is a little rough on your hands, but it’ll strip the finish without damaging the aluminum underneath.

Once we were down to bare aluminum, we used sandpaper in the 220-400 grit range to smooth out any scratches and then used a polishing wheel and polishing compound to bring out the aluminum’s shine. The end result looks darn good, although we will need to periodically re-polish the trim to keep it looking bright.

Alfa Paint Work May 22, 2006

To add some texture to the floor, we used a paintable undercoating.

We had the AR348 LeMans Blue paint mix in an acrylic enamel. It was then injected into this rattle-can. No muss, no fuss!

We painted the wiper valence using this paint, as it was still in primer when we bought the car. The paint matches pretty darn well.

The floors look awesome with this textured finish.

We had some of the acrylic enamel mixed up in the original AR348 Le Mans blue and sprayed it using Nason’s fill-in rattle cans. For $6 a piece (plus the price of the paint) these cans make jobs like painting the floor pans and rear panel very easy.

We had one quart mixed up and this filled eight cans. It’s took about five to do the floor pans, the valence and the rear license light housing.

We have an appointment on Wednesday to get the front and rear windows installed.

Replacing an Alfa Windshield May 30, 2006

The front windshield is glued in using a urethane window sealant.

After the windshield is set down on the glue, the trim was glued to the windshield. We used duct tape to keep it from moving around while the glue cured.

The first step for the rear window is to install the rubber and trim on the glass.

The glass is then set down in the opening.

Working from the inside, a cord that was previously inserted in the channel of the rubber is pulled out while the glass is pushed in from the outside.

With all of the glass now in the car, we packed it up for its move to a new garage.

We’ve got a new windshield from ProSource Glass International. It was $268 for the glue-in type, with a $115 truck freight charge and a $25 crating fee. While that’s not cheap, it’s the only source we’ve found for new glass for our vintage Alfa. We chose to go with the glue-in type glass even though we have the seal and trim for the seal-type windshield because of timing and logistics—the seal-types are on back-order currently.

Since we now need the trim from a glue-in windshield, we took a trip out to DeLand and pulled the windshield trim off our scurvy parts car. We managed to get it out with out bending it and without cutting ourselves too badly on the shards of delaminating 30 year old safety glass and jagged bits of rusted metal. Working on old cars is fun!

For install, we used the services of Lee & Cates glass; they charged us $180 to install both windows. While that seems high, it’s not the easiest of jobs and there are quite a few potential pitfalls. The least of which is the breakage of unobtainable rear glass and our newly purchased windshield.

With the car looking more and more like a real car, we packed it up for its move to a new location. Unlike it’s first move from Connecticut to Florida, this move is just around the corner to our editor’s new home.

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