1972 Alfa Romeo GT Track Day Build!
 

Fellas -

A little background -- I'm active duty military, assigned to Italy for 2-3 years. Instead of bringing over one of my musclecars from the states, I decided to pick up something local to build. After a fair amount of research and negotiations with the CFO (I was thinking Ferrari, she was thinking Fiat), I decided on a "smooth nose" '70-'75 Alfa Romeo GT Junior 1300. Frankly, it was an easy decision based on availability, price, aesthetics/character, aftermarket support, etc.

After a bit of looking, I found one relatively close by (Pozzuoli) that hadn't been "restored" (local translation of "restored" - shiny paint over ****ty bodywork/bondo). Cost me $13,500; could have found one a bit cheaper, but I was tired of looking and ready to get started.

It's had one repaint in the factory color (Amaranth Red); looks good from 20'.
http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m...ps4h6jdsth.jpg

Goal is to construct a track day car in my garage, farming out only engine machine work. It will remain street legal, but with minimal creature comforts. Plan for the drivetrain is to remain somewhat stock-ish, but ditching the 1300 engine for a 2 liter of the same vintage.

Some inspiration -

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m...pscz8nbo1r.jpg

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m...psosxsln2n.jpg

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m...psluobxzlz.jpg

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m...ps45gf03f7.jpg

Scott

I've had the car for several weeks now, but the majority of my time in the garage has been spent on organizing and getting everything set up. Kind of a pain in the ass setting up a garage every 2-3 years when you move. Really seems to take about 6 months to get everything in place, wired, plumbed, organized, etc.

Here's the house we're renting; garage is the basement level.

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m...pscpfetgdv.jpg

Garage is decent size - fits my tools with room for the Alfa and one of our daily drivers.

From garage door looking towards back wall. This is before it was painted and before my tools arrived.

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m...pshjfkwfek.jpg

Same spot, looking towards the far corner.
http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m...pspucjaewg.jpg

And looking to the right.
http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m...psfnatp0iu.jpg

It's still a bit of a mess now, but I'm getting there. This gives you an idea of the dimensions and setup. Guess I need to figure out how to resize this picture...

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m...s9zde73r6.jpeg

Scott

A few more car pictures.

Interior was all original and in decent shape.
http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m...pssvz3jekt.jpg

Engine is all aluminum, twin cam, a pair of Webers, about 80 hp. Plan is to swap it out with a 2 liter of the same vintage. 200 hp to the rear wheels would be nice; doesn't sound like much, but these cars only weigh about 2,000 pounds.
http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m...psitb478ap.jpg

Interior mostly gone and working the tar on the floorboards.
http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m...psqdbaniiu.jpg

Glass out. It's a one man job with these cars.
http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m...psf4dxzhz5.jpg

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m...pseyf5zm1c.jpg

Some rust near the back glass that will need a patch. These cars are notorious for rust problems, but at least this one has the original floors and rockers. Both will need work, but probably patches instead of full replacement.
http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m...psyhekbsb9.jpg

Scott

One of my favorite cars, looks like a great project! 200hp is plenty for that car, will be a fun ride.

Progress continues, but not at breakneck speed. Grille is out. Getting ready to yank the engine, but my cherry picker is 5,000 miles away. Ordered a chain hoist/chain fall and will see if I can fab up an A-frame to hang it from.

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m...psc8wl5mcv.jpg

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m...psc9rb4aap.jpg

First off, thank you for your service. :military:

Cool project and a good looking Alfa for sure...my son's fav.

Subscribed. :thumbsup:

I aplaud your choice
 

Having spent a few years and tears in and on ALFAs I have some pointers If you would like. The body is a fun worthwhile project pay particular attention to the lower side panels as these are structural and have a tendency to rust. The rust you show is pretty common and while fixable is a pain. The suspension can be enhanced by adjustable upper control arms in front for camber and spacing the spring perches on the lower spring plates be VERY careful with the front springs they are preloaded very heavy and will hurt you if you do not respect them. the rear suspension can be helped with the usual bushings and shocks but if you really want to go all out look for the GTA "sliding block" suspensions on Auto Delta cars of that vintage. The Transmissions are good and solid. The engine, the "2 liter" has some issues in the head that you will spend a lot of money and effort trying to correct the port flow and frankly you are better off seeing if a newer ALFA will bolt up ALFA uses a ECOTECH engine that was used in the Cavalier Colbalt that is a better engine has more HP potential and is more reliable I'm not sure which model ALFAs used it but it is a better option. having said that if you do choose the 2000 one of the things to pay attention to is the head gasket. The manual states to torque to some thing like 40 lbs the in 5 lbs increments to 60 or 65 lbs to make the Gasket live longer torque to the initial setting then go 5 lbs for a couple of round the 2 lbs to to the end torque setting. This helps the head stay in one plane and even. It DOES make a difference. Good luck with your car and yes thank you for serving.

Thanks for the detailed input. It's much appreciated.

Scott

Crazy week here. Got back from Bosnia (Sarajevo) on Wednesday, only to find out that I had to leave for Ethiopia on Thursday. However, after my flight from Naples to Frankfurt, I was called back to the mother ship; trip canceled. Painful trying to get back to Naples – I flew from Frankfurt to Munich to catch a connecting flight to Naples, but the flight to Naples was canceled. So I spent the night in Munich. Next day, I flew back to Frankfurt and caught a flight to Naples.

So instead of a weekend spent in Ethiopia, I was home and able to get a bit of work done. Can’t really tell by looking at the car, but I was fairly productive –

-Got the brake booster/master cylinder out, along with the clutch master cylinder.

-Got the brake and clutch pedals out, and made up a few new curse words in the process.

-Front wiring harness is almost out.

-Intake manifold off.

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m...psjgrx6qm6.jpg

-Exhaust manifold/exhaust off. I loves me some Kroil – this stuff is great for loosening up stuck/rusted bolts.

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m...psfk4f3m1l.jpg

-Water pump off.

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m...psboikzt0f.jpg

-Shifter out.

-One crossmember out – this one appears to be mainly for the driveshaft. Still have to get the transmission crossmember off.

-Front bumper off.
http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m...psvjn091sy.jpg

-Inner fender covers out – had to drill out about 5 rivets on each side. Was quite pleased to see how nice the sheetmetal looked behind the covers. The actual covers are in good shape, too.

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m...psa2qirg3r.jpg

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m...psaocknhi4.jpg

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m...psmlk0pemx.jpg

Headed to Berlin for a few days of vacation this weekend. Should be able to spend some time on it in the next few weeks. Plan was to have disassembly complete by 1 January, and I don’t know if that’s going to happen.

Next step will be to pull the engine and trans. Had planned to drop the bellhousing and trans out the bottom, but that’s before I decided to fab up a wooden gantry to hang a chain hoist from. Now I may pull them as a unit.

Love these cars. As a lad I lived in the South of France from 1970-1973 and remember seeing these cars ripping around, along with Alpine-Renault's and the like.

Cool story. Don't see hardly any of these ripping around these days. I don't think I've ever seen one on the road besides mine, and I've been living in Italy for almost 8 months.

Frankly, not much vintage iron still on the road here.

Ciao,

Scott

Doors are off. Was able to do this myself since they're pretty light. Doors themselves are in very nice condition; no rust or repairs evident.

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m...ps7kmmsdei.jpg

All the suspension is off but the majority of it needs to be cleaned and inspected.

Took off the panels at the rear of the front wheel wells. One is in need of repair. Can't believe how much dirt was behind them. Found an old rusty wrench back there, too. Given the amount of crud back there, surprised that this area did not rot significantly. Having said that, there is some rust on the driver's side at the front of the rocker that will need some attention.
http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m...psx7gtgjfm.jpg

Trunk lid is off. It's pretty rough.

Spare tire well has some rot that will need to be fixed.

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m...ps7xisjzpj.jpg

Area under the windshield wiper transmission will need some work. Not going to be easy forming new metal to replace what's rotted.

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m...psfzfrjwfs.jpg

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m...ps7s5mifjy.jpg

Tried to do a bit of paint removal by scraping with a razor blade. It was easy enough to get the paint off but not the tan primer. Under the primer is a coat of bondo - pretty thick in places.

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m...psfuoteuit.jpg

Interior is all out, of course. Front floor pans will need some patching.

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m...pskooj3e1b.jpg

Engine compartment needs a good cleaning before I start with the paint removal.

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m...psensrc6iu.jpg

last summer i was in the province of calbria and found a guys stash beside a market, he had quite a collection going but they were all rusting away, even in
Italian i heard i will get to them some day.

Nice progress!

Paint removal will be with razor blade and heat gun. Should only take a few hours to get rid of 90% of the paint. Rest will have to be done by hand, with stripper, or media blasting.

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m...psprezoqgm.jpg

Just heat up a small area with the heat gun and it scrapes right off in big strips.

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m...pskg0d6fjk.jpg

I have some Picklex on order to treat the bare metal for now. Need to source some epoxy primer locally.

Got the tar scraped off the floorboards. Several hours worth of work with the heat gun and a scraper. Using dry ice to freeze it would have been easier, but by the time I figured out how to say "dry ice" in Italian and figure out where to buy it locally, I would have been done.

About halfway done in this picture. I need to get after the caulking/seam sealer with a wire brush on an angle grinder. I also need to finish getting the tar residue off the floors - I'll use diesel or some sort of solvent to get down to bare metal.
http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m...ps2ttsbkvy.jpg

Floors look pretty good under the tar, but I did uncover a few areas that may need some attention. Wouldn't have found these if I hadn't removed the tar.

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m...ps0mdvrd7u.jpg

Just for sh*ts and giggles, I weighed most of the tar that I removed. Came to 20 lbs. Not earth shattering, but a step in the right direction.

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m...psi2ugqmbg.jpg

Need to get the undercoating scraped off the bottom, too. Plan at this point is to patch the floors instead of replace them entirely but will make final decision after I get it all undercoating off.

More progress. Got about 1/3 of the car stripped down to the metal.

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m...pskhnc4uhm.jpg

This is the worst spot on the passenger side rocker! Hooray! Driver’s side is the same. Rockers are notorious for rusting out on these cars and it did have some bubbling in the paint here.

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m...pswzewzeoq.jpg

Not such good news on the quarters. Both have been replaced and they were brazed in.. Passenger side has some accident damage, too -- bondo was 1/4 and thicker in places. Will need some hammer and dolly work. What would y’all do about the shoddy looking brazing? Cut the quarters off and re-attach? I’m assuming the bronze melts at a lower temperature than steel, but can I melt it out like lead without warping the panels?

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m...ps8yhxyyet.jpg

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m...psnaaolxwb.jpg

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m...psjwiww8cs.jpg

I'll end up using all sorts of paint removal methods by the time I'm done -- paint stripper spray/liquid (found some at the local box store; works ok), sandpaper on DA grinder, media blasting, etc. However, I'll strip the majority of the paint with heat gun and razor blade. Very easy to clean up.

Thanks

Scott