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Very very pretty cars. A friend of mine is in the process of rebuilding a '73 GTV having had the shell restored and painted. his was a South African import and was remarkably rust free for an early 70s Alfa. He is going for much the same look but in white. Good luck with it. Your friend's car sounds like a cool project too, I'm still debating the final colour, I have a favorite one but I'll have to see a spray out first. I'm considering most original colours of the era except for red as its too safe and common  and black as I find it dulls out the cars lines. I've worked on it with him a few times and you can see why they were so expensive at the time. Compared to, say, an Escort, of similar vintage, it has about 3 times as many parts on it. They do look good in red but I know what you mean. I have another friend who has a 105 in a rather lovely blue which I'm not sure is factory but looks spectacular. That is also currently being restored (there's a theme here). He put it in for some tidying up and they uncovered some absolute horrors on the body from whoever has been at it before. I'll post a pic later if I can find one. I have a third friend with a (complete, running, driving) 1300 Junior also in white with no bumpers and that looks about perfect. (I should point out that I don't actively seek out Bertone Alfa owners and befriend them. I'm a still a member of an Alfa forum from my 156 driving days and a few guys local to me have been splashing the cash on old ones as there are no new ones.) |
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Jaguar S-Type 3.0 SE
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Darkspeed
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,880
Club RR Member Number: 39
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My Coupe was Dutch Blue but I think that the Red just adds so much value to an Alfa Coupe and suits the car so well.
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It seems a lot of 'good condition' Alfas of the era hide a multitude of botch jobs underneath shiny paint. I noticed by following a few restoration threads a lot of cars 'snowball' from a rust bubble on the sill to a full on resto. I'm sure the previous owner of mine wasn't too pleased after he blasted it. It had obvious rust in the sill but the paint hid an inch thick filler over wheel arch repairs and a rear valance that's half chicken wire under filler and half metal
Picking a colour is one of the most difficult parts of a restoration unless you absolutely love the original colour. Mine was Alfa red originally, it might be silly not to paint it red again but a lot of local Bertone coupes are red. They had some fantastic original colours such as verde pino (green), Giallo ocre (the mustard yellow) and their whites and blues look really good too.
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Last Edit: Oct 6, 2016 20:46:58 GMT by geoff115
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fer4l
Posted a lot
Testing
Posts: 1,497
Club RR Member Number: 73
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Ochre with some grey thrown in to bring it up to date a bit would look utterly stunning in my humble opinion! Cheers Matt |
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Well ocre yellow is the first colour choice at the moment, but I don't want to give away in the videos for the time being Its a quirky colour, very late 60's and really stands out on a coupe. I have to try a spray out as I've only seen it in pictures and there aren't any ocre coupes in Malta (as far as I know, there a couple of other coupes being fully restored so who knows) Here's a little job I did this week after hours at work. Tools really help...I cut the rotten bit with a power band saw and bent a sheet of the same thickness to match the profile of the member. I left the length longer so I'll cut the tabs to be welded to the new pan. I TIG welded the sections together  Note the previous repair, 4 angles botched together that were holding on to nothing where they met the floor  TIG welded, just need to finish it off with a flap wheel and trim it to fit the width of the floor pan. I extracted the broken screw too  |
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Last Edit: Oct 6, 2016 21:05:38 GMT by geoff115
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boxerman
Europe
I simply love Alfa boxers
Posts: 117
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This is a great project. At this moment i'm almost finished with a '63 Sprint GT. That car was accidentdamaged a long time ago en was not repaired in a good way. the crossmember where the enginemounts and front suspension attach, was in the wrong place, about 4cm to the left, 3cm to high and 2cm to far to the rear. we've send it away to be corrected on a jig after the shell was waterblasted. when it was straightened it returned to Holland and that's when i could start the bodywork. i've corrected the new innerwing, we had found a NOS Giulia super one, so the tophalf had to be corrected, repaired the radiatorbeam, let in a new frontvalance, replaced the right frontwing. both sills, repaired both Apillars, both the bottoms of the Bpillars, new rearwings and rear slampanel, both of those had to come off so i could hammer out the dents and the ripples in the bootfloor. the sparewheelwell is different for these very early bertones and unobtainable, but that could be saved. both front floorpans completely renewed and sections in the rear floorpans. the right door had to be welded on the edge where they previously created doorgaps with a grinder when the car was still damaged. the left door needed some sections in the top, the complete bottom 10cm and a section around the grip. then some dents needed knocking out and then it's off to the painter voor preparation and i can continue on the next welding project almost 200 hours spent in the bodywork on this sprint GT        |
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Last Edit: Oct 7, 2016 8:59:57 GMT by boxerman
PSST, I know my english is bad, but why don't yo try talking Dutch 
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Nice job!
Nice little rustbuckets these alfa's.
My father restores mostly Mercedes sl models for a living. His boss had one come in for some smaller rust patches on his 300 sl gullwing. Ended up as a 100k€ total restauration. Filler everywhere. Big dent on the corner of the roof where they just drilled holes for the filler to hold... American restoration work is not always done to a good standard...
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Darkspeed
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,880
Club RR Member Number: 39
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Those rear wing repairs take me back - The filler on my car around those sections was around 6mm thick as the welding was so bad - the lazy cretins that had replaced the rear wings before I bought it had cut the old panels off but only as far as 50mm before any spotwelded or seam welded seams and then just put on the new panel which they cut to overlap the old panel by 15mm and then welded it up so I had a new panel overlap welded to the old panel and then loaded with filler. I grew to dislike that car a little due to the idiots that had worked on it previously. My Berlina I just loved as it was untouched - old, tired and very rough around the edges had terrible paint but it was not bodged - same as the early 1.5ti Sud that I had plenty of rust but no prior bodges - I still like the old booted Sud - great car. Sorry for the nostalgia trip there - still get a bit misty when thoughts turn to Alfa's - and must resist thoughts about buying a 145 Cloverfleaf. I still think that the Coupes needs a darker colour to work with reflections in those flat panels to highlight the curves. I am still amused that the cars look at their best when the only parts that do not rust - the stainless steel bumpers - are removed. Go figure - stainless trim on a steel body that rusts in as you look at it! |
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This is a great project. At this moment i'm almost finished with a '63 Sprint GT. That car was accidentdamaged a long time ago en was not repaired in a good way. the crossmember where the enginemounts and front suspension attach, was in the wrong place, about 4cm to the left, 3cm to high and 2cm to far to the rear. we've send it away to be corrected on a jig after the shell was waterblasted. when it was straightened it returned to Holland and that's when i could start the bodywork. i've corrected the new innerwing, we had found a NOS Giulia super one, so the tophalf had to be corrected, repaired the radiatorbeam, let in a new frontvalance, replaced the right frontwing. both sills, repaired both Apillars, both the bottoms of the Bpillars, new rearwings and rear slampanel, both of those had to come off so i could hammer out the dents and the ripples in the bootfloor. the sparewheelwell is different for these very early bertones and unobtainable, but that could be saved. both front floorpans completely renewed and sections in the rear floorpans. the right door had to be welded on the edge where they previously created doorgaps with a grinder when the car was still damaged. the left door needed some sections in the top, the complete bottom 10cm and a section around the grip. then some dents needed knocking out and then it's off to the painter voor preparation and i can continue on the next welding project almost 200 hours spent in the bodywork on this sprint GT Wow fantastic restoration. 63's must be super rare nowadays.It seems the best way to fix a GT is strip it all apart and check the sills and floors. Please share a couple of pictures when its finished I#ll need to do similar repairs, luckily my car seems to never have had accident damage, just a lot of rust repaired poorly. |
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Today I checked out the annual Malta Classic concours d'elegance. Here's some highlights: This Ferrari was brought in as a highlight of the grandprix to be held on the weekend following the concours d'elegance   Beautiful Touring bodied Alfa from Italy   Retrorides own baguette racer  Mercury leadsled  |
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Last Edit: Oct 7, 2016 17:54:01 GMT by geoff115
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boxerman
Europe
I simply love Alfa boxers
Posts: 117
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This is a great project. At this moment i'm almost finished with a '63 Sprint GT. That car was accidentdamaged a long time ago en was not repaired in a good way. the crossmember where the enginemounts and front suspension attach, was in the wrong place, about 4cm to the left, 3cm to high and 2cm to far to the rear. we've send it away to be corrected on a jig after the shell was waterblasted. when it was straightened it returned to Holland and that's when i could start the bodywork. i've corrected the new innerwing, we had found a NOS Giulia super one, so the tophalf had to be corrected, repaired the radiatorbeam, let in a new frontvalance, replaced the right frontwing. both sills, repaired both Apillars, both the bottoms of the Bpillars, new rearwings and rear slampanel, both of those had to come off so i could hammer out the dents and the ripples in the bootfloor. the sparewheelwell is different for these very early bertones and unobtainable, but that could be saved. both front floorpans completely renewed and sections in the rear floorpans. the right door had to be welded on the edge where they previously created doorgaps with a grinder when the car was still damaged. the left door needed some sections in the top, the complete bottom 10cm and a section around the grip. then some dents needed knocking out and then it's off to the painter voor preparation and i can continue on the next welding project almost 200 hours spent in the bodywork on this sprint GT Wow fantastic restoration. 63's must be super rare nowadays.It seems the best way to fix a GT is strip it all apart and check the sills and floors. Please share a couple of pictures when its finished I#ll need to do similar repairs, luckily my car seems to never have had accident damage, just a lot of rust repaired poorly. that's always the best way. cut out everything suspicious i always prefer honoust rusted cars above a shiny turd. so much more work to do to correct bodges than to just repair rustdamage. my next project is a junior zagato that has been bodged up in the 80ies i think. the frontend is really not what it should be, i've spotted freaky weldlines i the innerwings, strange things on the outer panels etc etc next week it will return from the waterblasters so i'll investigate the damage done to it. luckily i will have really nice junior zagato to compare, and measure up to recreate the project last year i started my own business restoring cars, just so i would be sure to be able to deliver topquality work restoring old cars. my carheart is quite italian carbased, but there's also a very early type1 VW bus ambulance waiting for a complete restoration i will post some pictures of the finished '63 sprint GT. if you have any questions about your car, feel free to ask |
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PSST, I know my english is bad, but why don't yo try talking Dutch
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Very cool, do you have a website/facebook page etc? I like to follow proper restorations, there's always something to learn from pros. Good luck with your new venture, you seem to have experience with Italian cars. In my teens I restored (cal look) a 61 beetle, then was away from Malta so I didn't have a garage were to play with cars. Now I'm catching up, I refurbished the Mercedes mechanically and put air suspension and now I have more space and decided to get the Alfa, its my first Italian car, fairly different from the German cars I'm used to. Still its quite charming in the way its put together (except for the rust bit)
I do have a question about the floors. I'll send you a PM
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Oct 24, 2016 21:33:13 GMT
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Episode 2 is up...
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Dec 12, 2016 16:16:48 GMT
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Dec 13, 2016 22:27:57 GMT
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71 Alfa GT 1300 Junior
89 Alfa 75 3.0 V6 Veloce
89 Alfa 75 3.0 V6 America
2015 C220 estate Daily shunter
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lenso
Part of things
Posts: 430
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Dec 13, 2016 22:59:33 GMT
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b3nson
Part of things
Posts: 886 
Club RR Member Number: 22
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Dec 14, 2016 22:08:55 GMT
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Mmmmm pretty Alfa... Look's like a great project, will follow this just to torture myself that I'll probably never be able to afford one!
I do love the Alfaholic's versions of these, would definitely make it into my dream garage.
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'99 Fiat Coupe 20V Turbo
'08 Panda 100HP
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dikkehemaworst
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 1,636
Club RR Member Number: 16
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Sooooo. , the first Classic alfa on airbags 😊
Would be a nice mathing pair in your garage
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Dec 15, 2016 17:39:18 GMT
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That looks super clean, goood luck with the engine rebuild, is it a 1.6? I really like the stance too, its just a bit tricky since the sump is so close to the ground even at stock height! I don't have an engine yet but I have some leads about a local one. Thanks, yeah prices are getting out of hand, I got a bit lucky with this car as the parts that came with it made it worth it. The previous owner bought it from Classic Alfa and imported it. I'm going for the 'Alfaholics look' with out the over the top running gear, more of a mild tune and detail, maybe an LSD diff if I find one. Oh no, no airbags on this one, it handles too well to mess with suspension and I saw a picture of one dumped and it looked funny. I'm not posting many pictures not give away what will be in the videos, however I do have some 'bonus' pics which I'll show briefly in the next video |
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Dec 15, 2016 17:41:13 GMT
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That's awesome...hope the new owner makes a great project out of it |
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and black as I find it dulls out the cars lines.
