My first (for all intents and purposes) GTV-6 (long post)
Posted: Tue Sep 04, 2007 10:34 pm
Hello folks,
This is not [nearly] my first time visiting this site. I just bought a 1982 Balocco GTV-6, sight unseen, on Ebay. I did the once before, flew to NY, and had to give the car to a local Alfa club in Memphis after she gave way resoundingly.
You'd think I'd have learned my lesson, wouldn't you? Apparently not.
Let me explain my motivation as I explained it a couple of days or so ago to my racing blog:
"The purchase was driven by sentimentalism (don't you hate those kind of
sappy people). My father owned a 1984 silver, Alfa Romeo GTV-6. The
smell of the car still resides within my memory, and my father, being
the impeccable man that he was, kept this vehicle in immaculate
condition. His GTV-6, which was Silver with blue leather and included a finished hardwood steering wheel and an absolutely stunning, dark maple shifting nob, was a masterpiece in style that very much matched my father's own style. It was, on the one hand, complicated, but powerful, while at the same time refined and reserved in its delivery, saving it's most dramatic statements for the proper moment, leaving behind an indelible impression. That was my father and his Alfa.
We took many day trips together in it (just as we had in his
Fiat 124 sports coupe w/mag wheels). Being in the car with my father,
who loved to drive (picture driving hat and driving gloves) was the
only "real" time we had together. Alone. Just the two of us. He was an
important government man (as was my mother for that matter - smile) and my parents traveled a great deal doing the government's business. It was in those true moments - perhaps on some winding road through
the California foothills, or through its redwood forests, or following
the setting sun on its majestic coastline - that we silently bonded.
My father's Alfa Romeo GTV-6 disintregated with his home and our family's beloved 17yo cat in the Oakland Hills fire of 1991. Luckily my parents were in Napa for the day (lucky in the sense they were not trapped in the wildfire, one of the the worst urban wildfires in American
history), but they came home to nothing, not a single home remained standing on one of Oakland's most remarkable streets. The fire had been so hot that there was no record of his car whatsoever, the firefighters later surmised that the neighborhood was virtually incinerated at a temperature probably higher than 2000 degrees f.
People died in this fire, I believe 18 people. And while my parents
lost everything, every single thing they worked a lifetime to proudly collect (my mother's first editions, for example), they were lucky not to lose the most precious gift they had left - life; others had not been so lucky.
My father oversaw the rebuilding of his house, and was just moving back
in when he died, on the virtual 4-year anniversary of the fire in 1995
at 79 years of age.
I am not rich, by any stetch, but I am now in a position where I can
try to memorialize my fatrher a bit in restoring (from the ground up)
this 1982 Alfa Romeo GTV-6 special edition (#251 out of 350 total, I
think). It needs restoration, and I'm going to paint it silver (smile)
and hopefully in a year or so it will be ready for a memorable trip or
two of its own.
Here's the Alfa I am going to restore (which I have been the proud
owner of for about 45 minutes):
http://tinyurl.com/2ncbs2
Thanks for letting me share my happy moment."
Now, of course, I have to go see what I have gotten myself into. I read or re-read (since I had read quite a bit the last time I did this) quite a bit on the necessary upgrades, from the belt tensioner to 164s cams to an upgraded cooling motor. I'm making a list.
I am a long time fan of Italian machinery, I currently own a '98 Ducati ST2 and also a '04 Ducati 749s (both with signifigant aftermarket upgrades). And while I have taken the ST2 apart and put it back together (everythhing but the engine - smile), I am not all that comfortable doing some of the bigger projects that hopefully this car will prove to be a good candidate for.
I am interested in what anyone might think about the car in question from the same Ebay peek I had.
I did a carcheck on the vehicle as well another background check at about a $35 cost. The records exist between 1992 and 2000, with one final entry in 2007, all for passing the smog test, no failures. There were no title changes and from what I can tell talking to the owner, this was a government siezure. It appears the Alfa had not been run for quite a few years, but the seller swears it runs like a champ.
Do you all think I'm safe riding her back to the Bay Area?
Do you thing a $10k to 15k investment is erealistic for a ground-up restoration, including minor engine improvements like porting and so on?
Anyway, that's my [long] story, and I look forward to any help at all that the members might be inclined to offer as the restoration project moves forward.
Thanks.
David. B
This is not [nearly] my first time visiting this site. I just bought a 1982 Balocco GTV-6, sight unseen, on Ebay. I did the once before, flew to NY, and had to give the car to a local Alfa club in Memphis after she gave way resoundingly.
You'd think I'd have learned my lesson, wouldn't you? Apparently not.
Let me explain my motivation as I explained it a couple of days or so ago to my racing blog:
"The purchase was driven by sentimentalism (don't you hate those kind of
sappy people). My father owned a 1984 silver, Alfa Romeo GTV-6. The
smell of the car still resides within my memory, and my father, being
the impeccable man that he was, kept this vehicle in immaculate
condition. His GTV-6, which was Silver with blue leather and included a finished hardwood steering wheel and an absolutely stunning, dark maple shifting nob, was a masterpiece in style that very much matched my father's own style. It was, on the one hand, complicated, but powerful, while at the same time refined and reserved in its delivery, saving it's most dramatic statements for the proper moment, leaving behind an indelible impression. That was my father and his Alfa.
We took many day trips together in it (just as we had in his
Fiat 124 sports coupe w/mag wheels). Being in the car with my father,
who loved to drive (picture driving hat and driving gloves) was the
only "real" time we had together. Alone. Just the two of us. He was an
important government man (as was my mother for that matter - smile) and my parents traveled a great deal doing the government's business. It was in those true moments - perhaps on some winding road through
the California foothills, or through its redwood forests, or following
the setting sun on its majestic coastline - that we silently bonded.
My father's Alfa Romeo GTV-6 disintregated with his home and our family's beloved 17yo cat in the Oakland Hills fire of 1991. Luckily my parents were in Napa for the day (lucky in the sense they were not trapped in the wildfire, one of the the worst urban wildfires in American
history), but they came home to nothing, not a single home remained standing on one of Oakland's most remarkable streets. The fire had been so hot that there was no record of his car whatsoever, the firefighters later surmised that the neighborhood was virtually incinerated at a temperature probably higher than 2000 degrees f.
People died in this fire, I believe 18 people. And while my parents
lost everything, every single thing they worked a lifetime to proudly collect (my mother's first editions, for example), they were lucky not to lose the most precious gift they had left - life; others had not been so lucky.
My father oversaw the rebuilding of his house, and was just moving back
in when he died, on the virtual 4-year anniversary of the fire in 1995
at 79 years of age.
I am not rich, by any stetch, but I am now in a position where I can
try to memorialize my fatrher a bit in restoring (from the ground up)
this 1982 Alfa Romeo GTV-6 special edition (#251 out of 350 total, I
think). It needs restoration, and I'm going to paint it silver (smile)
and hopefully in a year or so it will be ready for a memorable trip or
two of its own.
Here's the Alfa I am going to restore (which I have been the proud
owner of for about 45 minutes):
http://tinyurl.com/2ncbs2
Thanks for letting me share my happy moment."
Now, of course, I have to go see what I have gotten myself into. I read or re-read (since I had read quite a bit the last time I did this) quite a bit on the necessary upgrades, from the belt tensioner to 164s cams to an upgraded cooling motor. I'm making a list.
I am a long time fan of Italian machinery, I currently own a '98 Ducati ST2 and also a '04 Ducati 749s (both with signifigant aftermarket upgrades). And while I have taken the ST2 apart and put it back together (everythhing but the engine - smile), I am not all that comfortable doing some of the bigger projects that hopefully this car will prove to be a good candidate for.
I am interested in what anyone might think about the car in question from the same Ebay peek I had.
I did a carcheck on the vehicle as well another background check at about a $35 cost. The records exist between 1992 and 2000, with one final entry in 2007, all for passing the smog test, no failures. There were no title changes and from what I can tell talking to the owner, this was a government siezure. It appears the Alfa had not been run for quite a few years, but the seller swears it runs like a champ.
Do you all think I'm safe riding her back to the Bay Area?
Do you thing a $10k to 15k investment is erealistic for a ground-up restoration, including minor engine improvements like porting and so on?
Anyway, that's my [long] story, and I look forward to any help at all that the members might be inclined to offer as the restoration project moves forward.
Thanks.
David. B
I told him I need to work towards goals in life otherwise what's the point... 