2000 GT Veloce Repairs.

[Balfa]

dynmat on the doors. Just that little bit add's a fair bit of weight.

The black stuff is the rust converter/protector.

[Balfa]

Gaps and alignment around the doors...seriously took us days.


Some rust repairs in the engine bay. Ended up cutting out the rust. welding in a new piece then a plate over top of that.

[Balfa]

This is that same repair with the plate over top of it.

Yep, its not pretty but we've added some strength.
Back to the doors.

We wanted to get the gaps just right or close enough. ended up extending all the neighboring panels to ensure better/correct gaps.

[Balfa]

A pic of the door lip repairs that the door skin rests on.

[Balfa]

These last 4 pics I got sent while I was at work today. Priming the engine bay. Starting to see progress.



Anyone in Sydney who wants to help putting it together?
On another note, I met a Luke C. while dropping off my steering unit to him. A very knowledgeable and nice guy and I look forward to using his services once my car is back on the road and I need to do some engine mods.

[Balfa]

A question for anyone please - since repairing my doors I've come to realise how little side protection my car has. What are the options for adding a little side protection without going to a cage or half cage?

I know I could possibly add a intrusion bar in the door but considering the doors are only held by a small hinge this probably wont help. What about a bar running diagonally from the B pillar to the front floor?

[Colin Byrne]

engine bay looks great!, amazing what a bit of etch primer does for morale! (that's why I've been spraying mine as i go)

as for side protection, it it's going to be a road car, any sort of external bar work will be very intrusive when getting in/out of the car
As for fitting something in the door i've never done it but done correctly i think could add some safety.  As you said the hinges aren't massive however you might be surprised to hear that, in my accident, the passenger door was completely destroyed but the hinges didn't fail, the weak point of the door is the catch.  but even with these weaker assemblies,  you do have one thing going for you, the door is bigger than the hole from the outside in, good in a car, not so good in a plane (think it was the DC10?). 

Anyway with that in mind a well placed bar inside the door could probably help

[tjb0274]

Wow - lots more work there!  Engine bay is looking nice with the primer... Can't remember if you've said earlier in the thread - what colour are you going to paint the car?

[Balfa]

Thanks Colin, I didn't think about how the doors overlap. P.s. I enjoy the updates to your wordpress blog, keep them coming

tjb0274 - I've been thinking long and hard about the colour and am open to ideas. I've bounced from the original silver colour, to alfa red to a cherry red.

At the moment I'm favouring a deep dark silver. I'm going to talk to the spray painter over the weekend so I might get back with some photos of test colours and if I understand enough - the type of paint we will be using etc.

[Balfa]

It has been a while since I've posted - not sure if anyone wondered what ever happened to my resto job

So much has happened since I last updated, so many highs....and oh so many lows. But my car is back on the road and I'm loving doing the finishing touches.

I will post some dodgy photos off my phone after this post. If you want a full set of photos, or care - then give me a yell and I will spend some time uploading them.

Long story short:
- I eventually finished off all the metal repairs. You will recall I went to bare metal.
- 3 people spent just 12 days (10-12 hrs a day) just on shaping the body and the lines. We minimised the amount of bondo required and therefore spent days getting it rights.
- Painted the car
- Paint half the car again because I put some scratches in some panels and we didn't want to leave lines so we ended up repainting half the car again. This was costly. Just the paint and clear alone was expensive...
- Engine had a complete performance rebuild (way too many new parts and work to list) - Thanks Luke Clayton.
- Gear box was rebuilt again thanks Luke.
- Engine was dyno'ed @ ~180 BHP (110 kw at the wheel). Yes the car pulls and pulls
- Installed a sound system.
- Got a few scratches in the paint....dammit. Will have to learn to live with this. It's inevitable.
- and a multitude of other things.

Things I need to do:
- Fit carpet.
- Tidy up the wiring.
- Eventually get someone to redo the hood liner. I tried doing the hood liner myself and while I did an 'okay job' I haven't gone to all this effort for an 'okay job'.
- Eventually look at my suspension.
- Tidy/clean up the multitude of parts I didn't clean up in my eagerness to put the car back together.

Things I have learnt:
- Fibreglass panels are hard to fit well. I've just had to buy a new boot lid as my fibreglass one never fitted well.
- I massively underestimated the cost to restore a car. Everything but my engine, gearbox and media blast was done with friends, family and my own bare hands. I did a quick mental calculation of some of the bills and I'm glad I've hidden them from my partner - she would kill me.
- There are many things I would like to do again i.e. do better now that I know.

During the last stages of the repairs, I thought I'd go through it ever again. But now the worst of it's over I do feel tempted to find another project. I actually want to take a welding or metal fabrication course during my spare time....

I still wake up at around 3am thinking about things I still need to do on the car and go out to the garage to do it. That list of things to do is getting shorter...I hope.

[Balfa]

Remember these photos don't do the paint justice. I will take more recent one's, including more of my engine sound system etc. But not of my hoodliner and carpet






F'n boot lid! Will post new pics of the new boot lid after I get it painted tomorrow.

[Balfa]

Feel free to criticise the choice of paint...tyres etc. But keep in mind:
- I'm never selling the car.
- It is only for me and for me to drive, as long as I like it
- But happy to take on advice

[Balfa]

If you want me to post the rest of the photos of the repairs. Give me a yell.
The best thing about having a hand in most of the restoration is that I know no shortcut was taken with the body or the paint (The carpet and hoodliner excepted.) - I think the body will outlast me.
The engine...speaks for itself. Literally you can hear it a few streets away

[Craig_m67]

Please post the pics and tell the story like it was.. Restoring a car is really expensive, hard work and bloody emotional! I for one would love to hear it all, heartache, mistakes and all.

If it's back on the road you've already succeeded, the fettling can and will go on for years.
So bloody well done!

[Balfa]

Thanks Craig. I'm definitely at the final stage although I'm constantly pulling off parts to refit or clean them up.

Plenty of mistakes and emotion which I will share. Not sure how my partner put up with all the stress over the last 3-4 years

I will start posting the pics tomorrow after I fit the new boot