1985 Alfa Romeo GTV6 (my first Alfa)

Xflowgolf: Thanks, but since the rest of the car needs paint anyways I figure redoing the hood shouldn't be too much more effort. In the famous words of Jeremy Clarkson: "how hard could it be?"

I DID find someone on the Alfabb board who is willing to trade the stock parts for my Zender kit. He currently has a Zender kit on his car and wants mine for spares, he is located in Madrid, Spain and it all sounds mutually beneficial so I think I'm going for it. It may be rare, but the Zender kit just isn't my cup of tea.

OOH! Good news everyone! I finally got a hold of the "Head Guy". He says he can't do the valve seat replacement, or a three angle valve job (god only knows why not) but he says he'd be more than happy to replace the valve guides, and plane the head true for me. I figured "what the heck" and dropped my heads off yesterday. I have no idea what it's going to cost... (so I guess that's "good news" with an asterisk then)

Oh, I almost forgot: The guy doing the head work is the only guy within 45 minutes that has an established "shop"...

Good times

It's been over a week since my last post so I figured it was time for an update:

The heads are still "off at the shop", so no new news there...

The Zender kit is officially off the car (yay! ) and the search for a box big enough to send this to Spain begins.

(dog crate, kid pool, and porch furniture not included in kit)

I had to remove the wheels to get to some of the rivets that held the kit on, and when I did I found another stripped lug nut on the driver's-side, rear wheel (it's the top one in the picture below). I've gotta be honest here, I've never seen so many stripped lug nuts in my life!!!

Lucky for me I had one left over from the driver's side, front, lug nut replacements. Unfortunately for me, I have to remove the rear hub to get the lug stud out, and I don't have a socket, wrench, or crescent wrench large enough (37mm). So I call the picture below "I'll get to it later".

I have a "cherry picker" lined up for use when it comes time to pull the engine, but unfortunately I didn't have my jack and stands back this weekend, so I still have to disconnect the drive shaft etc. I was able to keep myself occupied by removing most of the under-hood components (coil, ign box, etc) and wiring:

and when I was done with that I went and had a "go"at the interior. I started by removing the dash and got as far as getting the tachometer out of its hole when I found that the wires had been "smoke checked":

I thought it's operation was a bit slow an bouncy... I guess now I know why. The sad truth is that this is only the first component behind the dash that was smoke-checked, I'll get pictures of the rest of the melted stuff later.

Speaking of behind the dash, everything to the heater except the driver's side vent control lever was broken... (so I can switch from vent to defrost on the driver's side only. No temp control, no passenger controls). I'll either have to rig something up or buy a new heater control unit to get that fixed. I thought I might have broken something (it was a bit stubborn in it's removal) but orange overspray on the broken bits was a good indication that it had been in that condition for a while...

The center console was removed as well. Keeping with the "remove something and find something" it looks like the shifter boot was cut all around it's base. I figure it was because someone couldn't get the shift knob off, but really wanted the center console out anyways. AND I figure that same someone couldn't get the shift knob off because of a cut-and-weld(?) mod done to the shifter... (I thought it seemed a bit "short")

Photo bucket is a bit overloaded at the moment. So "Coming Soon":

• We play "what's behind the front bumper?"

• We see what else is melted

• We find out why I really don't want to spend $70 on the stock air box (to replace that cone filter)

But for now you poor tired Alfa, we'll leave you to rest. So goodnight wires

Sleep tight interior

Hold strong hatch strut,

Hang on bumper,

Rest up grill,

and Goodnight dash.

Goodnight grassroots.

oldtin wrote: Impressive use of zip ties in variety and application. Looks a little daunting, but far from the worst I've seen. Cool project. The MAF looks very similar to the bits on porsche/audis from the time period.

It looks similar to the ones on the M42's as well.....

That MAF reminds me:

It turns out that the Alfa's MAF was the one I was expecting to see under the hood, it was just flipped upside down and mounted funky when the cone filter was installed.

I'm guessing the stock air box was discarded when the PO installed the cone filter, and a replacement is going to run me about $70 plus shipping from E-bay (so with shipping, and filter element it's probably closer to $100+)

SO! Since I'm a cheap-o I did some poking around and found out that the sheet-metal shop at work was in need of some "training project ideas". It turns out that they had some 2024 untreated aluminum that was of no use to the aircraft. The sheet metal manager and I worked out a deal where I would bring in a cardboard template and he would assign two guys to train with me on some of the equipment back there (finger brake, shears, riveting, etc).

Here is the "Before" picture:

Template in progress...

rough draft:

Getting closer:

Closer:

Done:

Here she is in the car:

I call this the "Mark 1" and of course I'm not happy with it (first pancake is always the worst). One of the things we wanted to do as part of our training was to drill out and replace a rivet. We selected the right size drill bit, but the gentleman in charge of the drill tried to wobble it out. The new rivet looks like crap.

I'm not sure if you can tell, but the rivets in the latest picture are countersunk, to add variety we used button heads on the section that bolts to the side of the MAF. Those look like crap too. The metal was so soft that when we drove them in we dimpled the metal around the rivet. All a good learning experience though.

So! We begin work on the "Mark 2":

I gave it a larger opening at the front to take advantage of a large(er) hole in the front wall of the car. Unfortunately I forgot to trace out enough material to rivet the side to the base so I didn't even bother drilling the holes to rivet the two together. Instead I'm going to proceed directly to the "Mark 3" which is going to be about an inch shorter, have tabs large enough to rivet to, and otherwise be identical.

(this is how I've been filling my lunch breaks lately...)

When I get a box that I like I'll buy some edge foam to clean it up a bit and to cover the sharp edges, but until then:

Total cost for air box = $0

Good times

Beautimus!

Maybe its just the angle, but it looks like you have plenty of room to press the studs out with a ball joint separator?

like so

My concern with the "heat shield" being so close to the filter is that it'll end up warming up the filter in the end. I had a similar setup on my Civic back in the day and ended up lining the heat shield with Thermo Tec Cool-It mat.

I didn't like that too much either, but I'm afraid there wasn't much I could do. The distributor is mounted in kind of an inconvenient location, and I was afraid of the high tension wires rubbing on the aluminum.

With the second attempt, I started the "side bend" a little sooner leaving less of the side wall of the heat shield close to the filter. I'm afraid there's not much I can do with the floor of the filter being that close. If I move the filter any higher I start to run into hood clearance issues

Ideally, in the third go at this, I'll have a small scoop dropping down at the front of the box to take advantage of the hole in the front wall. I don't know how much air actually moves through there, but the idea would be to direct the cool air through the box.

All in fun though. The same shop that did this "training" has offered to do some composite training if I bring in the materials. The heat shield to my starter is missing and I thought it would be neat to make one out of carbon fiber (heat shield is currently about $70 on e-bay). Unfortunately I have to wait to see what the damage to my wallet is going to be from the head guy first before I go buying sheets of CF.

Good times

As promised, it's time for "What's behind that bumper!"

The answer is:

shotty weld repair!!! (this is from the top looking down)

(and from the bumper looking into the engine bay)

Also, as promised, I took some pictures of "What else is melted?"

the fuse box hold tab:

I think this is a relay box?

and another (yet unidentified box)

I also found this (a large capacitor? For a reason I don't yet know...):

And a couple of these:

and I'd like to know why there is caulk on the heater box... (rhetorical question really, as I'm sure I know what fault enticed the previous owner to repair it, but I'd still like more incite into his choice of repair materials)

I'm beginning to think this isn't a fair fight anymore

Good times.

2-months and no posts

The project isn't dead (yet) I've just had my hands full with work, kid, etc. Aside from some online shopping there hasn't been anything "post-worthy".

Good times. -Bill

Thanks for the update, enjoying watching your progress.

Had an hour to play with the kid before dinner today.

I got my spare set of heads back from the shop, no work accomplished on them though. The shop couldn't get the valve stem guides or the valve seats. I figured why do half the work, so I said never-mind.

Also, I had the Zender kit boxed up and ready to ship and I ran into a bit of a Catch-22. The box with the bumpers is too heavy to ship via the post (40kg) but the dimensions are ok. Yet the box is too large (dimension wise) to ship via the couriers in town (DHL, etc) but they don't mind the weight...

I'm of the thinking that the Zender kit trade might be more of a headache than it's worth at the moment.

This Saturday we have a two-week road trip coming up, so for now:

Good times -Bill

Woof! Three months without an update this time.

Ouch.

I took a new position stateside, and Mrs. Hungary is letting me take my cars with me! The short version is: I've spent what time I've had in the garage putting parts back ON the 'ol Alfa to get her shipped back to the states.

(I use the term "on" loosely. IE: The dashboard is "on" the back seat, etc.)

Good times.

The boat should hit the shores on January 21st. So cross your respective fingers please. I'm very worried about my babies (also in the container is my Impala). My brain refused to go to sleep last night and instead chose to provide me with very exaggerated examples of what could go wrong with the whole shipping process.

Best wishes!

Good luck

Customs cleared in Slovenia. The car is due to leave December 20th and now due to arrive at my doorstep on January 28th. The tally so far? Why I'm glad you asked

• 51 e-mails

• 14 Adobe documents

• 81 scanned pages (not counting the ones where I made a mistake and had to re-do the paperwork).

• 6 different people

• 3 weeks waiting on the docks (so far).

Good times.

-Bill

Having missed a lot of updates, were are you heading when you are in the US? Hopefully, some of the many GTV6 members will be nearby and be able to help out.

Good luck.

So glad to hear!

Since you'll be in the States. There is one name you need to remember: Roman Tucker. Roman is a friend of mine and I've left a lot of DNA on the vintage GTA's and GTV's he has restored and races. I don't know how much he deals with the 6 cylinder cars but I'm sure he can point you in the right direction for anything Alfa related.

Roman Auto Prep Lapeer, Michigan

http://romanautoprep.com/video/index.htm

I'm heading to Tacoma, Washington. I've already stumbled across a couple Alfaholics in the neighborhood, and some Hungarians in the area reported seeing an "Alfa Repair Shop". Very interested to learn more. (There's also a 164 in a pick-n-pull not 7 miles from my house )

Jgrewe: I think my first question for Roman is going to be: "Can you make my car sound like that?" Awesome!

This may be a pointless question at this point, but I have to wonder... given the relatively high price you paid (compared to US prices) for the condition of the GTV6, isn't it expensive to ship a car as well?

Would it not have been better to just resell there, and find a cleaner example in the US to start from scratch?

I don't mean this in a judgemental or harsh way, and we all have different connections with cars, I'm just curious what your thought process was.

Good luck, and congrats on the new position!

Since Roman is a looooong way from where you are going, here's one that's a lot closer- http://www.wesingram.com/

If you had a Spica injected car, wes would be your guy.

There's a strong AROC chapter in the northwest- they hosted the AROC National a few years ago. North West Alfa Romeo Club.

All of this, of course, available on alfabb.com... but you knew that already. probably even have hooked up with the folk up there. great people.

miss post

Dang, headed for the west coast.

Yea, Roman is about 2400 miles from you lol. That car in the opening of his video is owned by my old mountain climbing/hiking buddy, Bernardo Martinez Jr. I did a lot of the filming for the vid at an event at Mid Ohio a few years back. Roman has restored three of Horst Kwech's cars, two of them are owned by a couple other friends of mine.

Here is some Alpha porn from my computer.

Us finishing cars for Amelia Island

Sam Cummings' Kwech car winning its class at the show. Left to right; Roman, Bernardo, Me

Bernardo Martinez Sr's GTA driven by Carlos Lepro for the first win EVER for a GTA in an FIA event.

mmmmm Alfa pron I will own a 105 some day.

xflowgolf wrote: This may be a pointless question at this point, but I have to wonder... given the relatively high price you paid (compared to US prices) for the condition of the GTV6, isn't it expensive to ship a car as well? Would it not have been better to just resell there, and find a cleaner example in the US to start from scratch? I don't mean this in a judgemental or harsh way, and we all have different connections with cars, I'm just curious what your thought process was. Good luck, and congrats on the new position!

Weeeeeeeeelllllll...... the simple answer is "It would have been cheaper, and probably a crap-ton easier".

The longer story is:

For the last year or so I've been having a real hard time dealing with stupidity at work. Stupidity is one of those things I have a hard time dealing with, but when it's showing it's ugly face at a place I worked really hard to get hired at (I've dreamed of working for this company since long before I was old enough to work) it was a bit harder than normal to just "let go" of the job and work elsewhere (especially when you get paid as much as I did here, while living in Europe).

Anyhoo! To relieve some stress my wife and I agreed that maybe a new car project would be helpful in the "relieving some steam" department. Plus it'd be a lot healthier than drinking.

So, I bought the Alfa. There weren't many to chose from at the time (and I'll admit to being more than a bit anxious, as I usually am about such things) so I bought the first one in my price range that didn't look like a complete disaster (little did I know). Besides, if it'd help my sanity then I'd welcome ANY challenge (the more the merrier, we weren't planning on leaving for another 4 or so years at this time)

Fast forward to July-August: I spent 28 days on temporary assignment in India helping them receive their first few C-17 aircraft. For 28 days I felt lighter and happier than I had in YEARS! It was so nice not being micro-managed, being actually trusted to do the job I was hired for, praised for my hard work, (etc. etc. etc.) that my wife and I decided "to hell with it, we're moving. Nothing is worth losing sanity over".

So I started applying at a TON of jobs (India included). Because of our current financial situation (we've been able to save a little over one years salary in our bank account over the course of the last four years) it was decided that we better keep the cars we got because we're probably not going to have this much money again for a loooooooong time. We kind of figured that any hit to our over inflated bank account now would be negligible and would be worth it in the end to keep the vehicles I liked, versus wishing we could afford another of the same later.

The biggest thing, though, for me was thinking that if I gave up on the Alfa now it'd end up in a scrap yard. All the Alfa is at this moment in time is a shell with wheels (plus engine/transmission, but nothing else). I don't see many GTV6's these days, and didn't want the responsibility of being someone who sent another to the scrapper. I figured no Hungarian wanted to read my parts lists or sort through all the random boxes I had of parts (plus all my notes are in English).

Shipping was $7000 for a container to hold the Alfa and Impala, versus somewhere in the neighborhood of $1500 for a "roll-on Roll-off" for the Impala.

When it came down to it: I like THIS GTV6

There are many like it, but this one is mine.