Alfa GTV6 Restoration
Discussion
Hi everyone. Having spent many hours checking out some lovely cars cars on here, I thought I'd share some details of my "project".
My best mate Alex Jupe, owner of Alex Jupe Motorsport has spent the last 16 years trying to coax me into the world of Alfa ownership, but given their reputation for reliability and rot, I stuck with the more traditional/sensible options for daily use, promising Alex that if I ever purchased a toy, it would be an Alfa.
Spending more and more time at his workshop, seeing the quality of his workmanship and the standard of cars he was producing, an itch that needed scratching started, and then in October 2007 along she came.
A 1985, Alfa Romeo GTV6 with 60k on the clock, which had been stored in a dry garage since May 1989 after the engine had blown. Having managed only 4 years on the road from new, many of the issues that you would normally associate with these cars were yet to appear, although for a car that had only been on the road that length of time, it was clear that she had seen better days.
As you can see from the first pictures, someone had begun to dismantle her, and both the inner wings had already rusted through to the top of the wings.
Day One:
Hearing Alex enthuse over her general condition, comparing her to the others that had come and gone before her, and picturing how she would look when finished, I knew this was an opportunity not to miss out on, and at that point I became her 3rd owner from new.
The initial plan was to rectify the inner wings, repair any other rust that was present, and treat her to a full respray. An engine would of course need sourcing, and we agreed that she would benefit from a handling kit.
However, given the fact that she was in a relatively good condition to start with and that the underneath of the car was yet to see any underseal, Alex and I agreed that she would be restored to "better than new". This would involve stripping the entire underside of the car of all suspension, gearbox, fuel pipes, cables etc, allowing the entire bodyshell to be painted.
Stripped of suspension:
The pictures of post steam clean show just why these cars suffer so badly from the dreaded metal oxide, most of the underneath of the car covered in a thin coat of primer, with a splattering of silver paint here and there!!
All suspension components would be shot blasted and powder coated, leaving them looking a little different to when they were removed from the car. The gearbox would also be exchanged for an Alfa 75 T/S gearbox (better suited to the 3.0 V6 that would be going in), that would be fully rebuilt and painted accordingly.
The welding then began in earnest, both inner wings were cut out and replaced with repair panels which are available to buy. Front wings for these are rarer than hens teeth, so Steve (Alex's bodywork genius) made replacement sections to replace the affected areas.
The other area that is usually affected by rot is at the bottom of the windscreen in the corners, and mine was no different. Again, Steve cut the rust out and made up sections to replace them and welded them in.
There were a number of smaller areas that were also dealt with accordingly, before the underneath was prepped and painted.
Once the underneath had been dealt with, the rest of the car was then given a full respray and treated with approx 10 litres of cavity wax, here's how she looked afterwards.
Having spent all of my money getting her to this stage and my wedding around the corner, the project had to take a backseat, so she was parked and covered up in April 2008.
Whilst the bodywork was being dealt with, a 3.0 V6 from an Alfa 75 was sourced. As the engine was out of the car it was an ideal opportunity to replace the head gasket, port the heads, fit new valve guides. re-cut 3 angle seats, replace the water pump, cambelt and of course paint everything and replace every nut and bolt. Unfortunately I haven't got any photos of the finished product myself yet, but the engine was photographed and used to support a feature written on the Alfa V6 in the June 2009 edition of Classic Cars.
Here's how the engine looked when we sourced it:
With the wedding out of the way and some more cash saved, she was retrieved from my garage this week, and after much sweating and hard work, the engine was dropped in, gearbox added, reconditioned/balanced propshaft refitted, and all suspension fitted back to the car, complete with new bushes, balljoints and the infamous RS Racing handling kit. Again, every nut and bolt used to mount the suspension has been replaced with new.
She was dropped back onto her wheels yesterday afternoon and is now ready to have everything refitted ready to return her to the road, having spent the last 21 years off it.
Plenty of extra pics have been taken, and as soon as I get hold of them I will update this post with them, I'm hoping the photos do her justice as the results are better than I could have ever imagined. Every car that Alex turns out is spectacular and his attention to detail is incredible, however, the combination of a freshly painted shell, gloss black powder coated suspension componentry and new nuts and bolts throughout really do make this one very nice looking car (if that's your bag of course).
I hope I haven't bored everyone too much with the above, and for those that are interested, there are further photos of the restoration on Alex's website (although not in chronological order) http://www.alexjupemotorsport.co.uk/projects.htm mine is at the top of the page.
Any comments/questions would be very welcome
Apologies for the smaller photos, I lifted them straight from Alex's website, if anyone knows how to make them easier to see your help would be appreciated.
My best mate Alex Jupe, owner of Alex Jupe Motorsport has spent the last 16 years trying to coax me into the world of Alfa ownership, but given their reputation for reliability and rot, I stuck with the more traditional/sensible options for daily use, promising Alex that if I ever purchased a toy, it would be an Alfa.
Spending more and more time at his workshop, seeing the quality of his workmanship and the standard of cars he was producing, an itch that needed scratching started, and then in October 2007 along she came.
A 1985, Alfa Romeo GTV6 with 60k on the clock, which had been stored in a dry garage since May 1989 after the engine had blown. Having managed only 4 years on the road from new, many of the issues that you would normally associate with these cars were yet to appear, although for a car that had only been on the road that length of time, it was clear that she had seen better days.
As you can see from the first pictures, someone had begun to dismantle her, and both the inner wings had already rusted through to the top of the wings.
Day One:
Hearing Alex enthuse over her general condition, comparing her to the others that had come and gone before her, and picturing how she would look when finished, I knew this was an opportunity not to miss out on, and at that point I became her 3rd owner from new.
The initial plan was to rectify the inner wings, repair any other rust that was present, and treat her to a full respray. An engine would of course need sourcing, and we agreed that she would benefit from a handling kit.
However, given the fact that she was in a relatively good condition to start with and that the underneath of the car was yet to see any underseal, Alex and I agreed that she would be restored to "better than new". This would involve stripping the entire underside of the car of all suspension, gearbox, fuel pipes, cables etc, allowing the entire bodyshell to be painted.
Stripped of suspension:
The pictures of post steam clean show just why these cars suffer so badly from the dreaded metal oxide, most of the underneath of the car covered in a thin coat of primer, with a splattering of silver paint here and there!!
All suspension components would be shot blasted and powder coated, leaving them looking a little different to when they were removed from the car. The gearbox would also be exchanged for an Alfa 75 T/S gearbox (better suited to the 3.0 V6 that would be going in), that would be fully rebuilt and painted accordingly.
The welding then began in earnest, both inner wings were cut out and replaced with repair panels which are available to buy. Front wings for these are rarer than hens teeth, so Steve (Alex's bodywork genius) made replacement sections to replace the affected areas.
The other area that is usually affected by rot is at the bottom of the windscreen in the corners, and mine was no different. Again, Steve cut the rust out and made up sections to replace them and welded them in.
There were a number of smaller areas that were also dealt with accordingly, before the underneath was prepped and painted.
Once the underneath had been dealt with, the rest of the car was then given a full respray and treated with approx 10 litres of cavity wax, here's how she looked afterwards.
Having spent all of my money getting her to this stage and my wedding around the corner, the project had to take a backseat, so she was parked and covered up in April 2008.
Whilst the bodywork was being dealt with, a 3.0 V6 from an Alfa 75 was sourced. As the engine was out of the car it was an ideal opportunity to replace the head gasket, port the heads, fit new valve guides. re-cut 3 angle seats, replace the water pump, cambelt and of course paint everything and replace every nut and bolt. Unfortunately I haven't got any photos of the finished product myself yet, but the engine was photographed and used to support a feature written on the Alfa V6 in the June 2009 edition of Classic Cars.
Here's how the engine looked when we sourced it:
With the wedding out of the way and some more cash saved, she was retrieved from my garage this week, and after much sweating and hard work, the engine was dropped in, gearbox added, reconditioned/balanced propshaft refitted, and all suspension fitted back to the car, complete with new bushes, balljoints and the infamous RS Racing handling kit. Again, every nut and bolt used to mount the suspension has been replaced with new.
She was dropped back onto her wheels yesterday afternoon and is now ready to have everything refitted ready to return her to the road, having spent the last 21 years off it.
Plenty of extra pics have been taken, and as soon as I get hold of them I will update this post with them, I'm hoping the photos do her justice as the results are better than I could have ever imagined. Every car that Alex turns out is spectacular and his attention to detail is incredible, however, the combination of a freshly painted shell, gloss black powder coated suspension componentry and new nuts and bolts throughout really do make this one very nice looking car (if that's your bag of course).
I hope I haven't bored everyone too much with the above, and for those that are interested, there are further photos of the restoration on Alex's website (although not in chronological order) http://www.alexjupemotorsport.co.uk/projects.htm mine is at the top of the page.
Any comments/questions would be very welcome
Apologies for the smaller photos, I lifted them straight from Alex's website, if anyone knows how to make them easier to see your help would be appreciated.
Edited by GTVGraham on Friday 2nd April 18:30
Praise be! A proper GTV6 
I like the newer ones (interesting and great value as a perf. car) but these have a whole other appeal, despite the challenges of rust and other more idiosyncratic qualities. Looks sharp, goes well enough and sounds like a Fiat Dino that's grown into its singing voice
Top class - keep it coming!
I like the newer ones (interesting and great value as a perf. car) but these have a whole other appeal, despite the challenges of rust and other more idiosyncratic qualities. Looks sharp, goes well enough and sounds like a Fiat Dino that's grown into its singing voice
Top class - keep it coming!
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