2000 GT Veloce Repairs.

[Balfa]

Couldn't sleep as I was thinking about painting the new boot lid tomorrow. So here are some images going back to late last year hopefully picking up nearing the end of the body repairs.




Here is that fibreglass bootlid that I ordered from England along with a boot floor and doors that I never ended up using. A costly lesson.

[Balfa]

Fits well enough holding the bloody thing down





This is the battery relocation kit I used to put a dry cell battery in the boot.

[Balfa]

As a lot of you guys know, getting the gaps on the doors right is problematic. We fitting the doors constantly throughout the process and it would seem that the doors would change size everytime we fitted them!


I no longer wanted an antennae sticking out from the boot so I decided to fill in the hole. I have now installed a powered antennae that hides under the dash.


When the car was finally painted, I spent around 2 days straight just trying to get the door gaps right and closing nicely. I spent a lot of time on the alfabb forums researching and now have a better understanding of the nuances of the hinges.

I also went through 2 sets of door rubbers from classic alfa and a set from alfaholics before finding some really good rubbers from clark rubber. I've used two varieties of rubbers from clark rubber which look fine and seal well. If you want pictures of the rubbers I ended up using give me a yell.


This picture reminds me that I need to polish up the door latches one day.

[Balfa]

Can't remember if I posted this before. Steering unit reconditioned by Luke Clayton


Indicator and light switch was cleaned up by Luke as well. Since then my light switch has been playing up again. I've read on alfabb that all 105's should have a relay on the light switch to prevent the contacts spoiling. Also your headlights shine a bit brighter.

So Luke if you end up reading this - I might need to talk to you about this


More parts from classic...including seat belts.

[Balfa]

Hard to tell from this picture but this is the lip that runs around boot. We fabricated and replaced most of it and then used Belzona super metal for a smooth finish.


These seats I bought years ago in the hopes of using them. They just fit


Creating the holes for the upright pedals.


I think this was stone guarding under the car.

[Balfa]

Using minimum filler on the body to smooth the lines. This process took about 2 weeks (2 days off), 3 of us sanding constantly. Redoing things if they weren't right.
My hands were raw after this.






The roof was fairly smooth but still took a lot of work.

[Balfa]

This might look like a lot of filler but this was all sanded back. You can see the guide coat still.



Sand and sand again.

[Balfa]

I really didn't have the feel for the finer parts of sanding and shaping the body. Experienced body workers could run their hands over the panels and feel bumps that I couldn't even notice.


At this point I've that keen to see paint go on anything. I swear there would be some days I couldn't wait for the car to be finished and was prepared to sell the bloody thing as is or just throw parts on it anyhow.

I'd also have this inner 'Pancho' voice, tormenting me, saying that thing he says in his threads - something like "Do it once...do it properly". Apologies to Pancho if you ever read this, your level of work and patience was something that I aspire to.



Looking at this pic I'm tempted to consider replacing the bonnet with a light weight aluminum one...one day.

[Balfa]

Just an indication of the work put into the car up to this point.
This was a typical week for myself and my partner. We would work in Canberra 5 days, I would be reading the forums, ordering parts and thinking about what I need to do on my car. We would then drive straight after work Friday afternoon to Sydney where my car was.

I would then work on my car for two days then drive back to Canberra Sunday night - repeat for around 2 years. I don't know how my partner put up with it

I would also use my 4 weeks holidays to spend working on the car - all but Christmas day. Plus all public holidays etc.




Shaping the rear quarters took a few goes


Finally ready for hifill

[Balfa]

I remember this because it was the end of a long preparation process. I think this was around midnight new years eve 2014/2015...can this be right, has it been that long since I posted?
Just checked the date on the photo and its right 




Anyway we ended up staying up most of the night priming the body. The body took at least 5 coats of primer. Could have been more, I need to check with the spray painter.

[Balfa]

[Balfa]

Just when I thought I'd never touch sand paper again...I see guide coat being applied #$@$@#


Skipping over a lot more sanding of primer...here is the floor pan. I decided to apply dynamat to the entire floor, the firewall and the inner door skins. It's damn heavy so I didn't go with the 534728423 different types of dynamat they want you to apply.


Yes I've modded the seat mounts to accommodate the Bride seats. I'm hoping all new seats these days have a standard mounting set up so if I wanted to change seats I won't need to create new mounting points?


And now onto the doors.

[Balfa]

New wiring loom


This reminds me when I put in a new carpet kit, I want to sort out all the small electrical bits in the car that I haven't yet connected. E.g. the rear demister etc.

I'm really disappointed with how the fuel tank has turned out. I totally cleaned up the tank to bare metal, coated with rust protector then I thought I'd try stone guard on it. Now its looking grubby and the stone guard is coming off in some areas. Any suggestions on the best way to have a long lasting paint job on the tank that looks good?





I knew this booster was shot. Probably needed rekitting so I took it into a brake specialist and they reconditioned it. Wasn't cheap...but then I struggle to think of anything I've done on the car where I've said "Hey that was cheaper than I thought."

[Balfa]

Putting the engine back together. No mods done except for the lighter flywheel at this stage.

I had planned to bring the car back to Canberra and get the performed rebuild with Luke.


To be honest, we struggled putting things back. For example the brake lines were a b$tch and was nearly the straw that broke my back.
We didn't know how the brake lines ran, I spent hours on the alfabb forums looking at diagrams.
The brake cylinder needed replacing.
The clutch cylinders needed replacing.
Some of the brake lines broke.
One of the lines went missing.
We sprayed brake fluid on the bonnet causing bubbling. We had to repaint it.
When we put the bonnet back on, we chipped one of the edges. We had to repaint it again - all of it - you don't just repaint small areas as this is noticeable. The clear alone was in the hundreds of dollars per litre from memory.
I was ready to put my foot through the door of the car.



Now that I have that out of my system...moving on...fitting the stainless steel exhaust system from alfaholics.

[Balfa]

The original dellortos and some old k&n filters.


Bonnet 2.0


It's hard to tell with my crappy pics, but the paint has a lot of pearl in it so it changes hue depending on the light and angle.

My stripes are darker than the rest of the paint but at certain angles it looks lighter...looks great when you see it in person.


More raw fingers.