Rewind back to the beginning

This blog will follow the progress of the restoration of our 1967 Alfa Romeo Giulia Sprint Veloce (GTV), which actually began several years ago, but has been on the back burner for a while due to other projects, both mechanical and non-mechanical. The car is for my wife Chela, hence "Chela's Alfa". I started to chronicle the work on the car on my website, which for technical reasons not worth going in to I no longer have the ability to update. You can find these posts at http://www.cowpokeracing.com by clicking on the "Alfaville" link. To recap however, here is the history of the car as far as I know.

I've always been a fan of Alfa Romeos, especially the models built from the late 50s to the late 60s. The early Giulias have always been favorites and I've always wanted to own one. In 2002 we were lucky enough to find one on Craigslist here in they Bay Area. We could barely get it to run, much less drive, and it was in need of lots of love but the price was right and we pounced on it. As the owner of several vintage cars I decided that this car would be for my wife and that we'd restore it together. We towed the car home and that day I managed to get it to run enough to drive it around the block, but it was clear that the car needed a thorough and complete restoration and so we parked it and began the long process of disassembling it. Over the next year or two I removed the engine and most of the interior, putting it all in boxes in storage, awaiting the day when we'd finally be able to give it the attention that it deserved.

It's now nearly 7 years later, and we've finally started working on the car seriously. The body needs lots of attention, with the front end having some rust and poorly repaired damage. None of this is a surprise for a car that is 42 years old. I am hoping that my plasma cutter and Mig welder will help me in repairing and replacing bad sections of metal, but I've got a lot of learning to do along the way.

The body shell is now on a dolly and is close to having all of its mechanical and trim pieces removed. I'm still not sure exactly what method I'll use to remove the paint, but it needs to be taken down to bare metal. Based on what I've seen so far, I will be using a combination of abrasive discs, paint stripper, and perhaps grit blasting (more on that later). I've taken the major engine components (crank, head and block) to my local Italian machine shop to have them prepared for the overhaul, but it's the body that will occupy most of the time and effort. After all, engines are easy to rebuild. Bodies, on the other hand, require much more skill.

We're going to try to make sure to chronicle the entire process with photos, as hard as that is when you're up to your elbows in grease and paint dust, so our intention is to post pictures along with the narration we will be providing. I'm hoping to update the blog every Sunday with the latest news.

Ciao!