GT Junior Rebuild Thread

[rcollie]

First ever topic in this lounge!

I got this via ebay from Classic Alfa in December 2011. Funnily enough they had bought it as part of small job lot from Mclennans in Loanhead (Edinburgh) a couple of years before, so it ended up travelling the length of the country twice. It's originally from Essex but came to Edinburgh in the early nineties. It sat unused at Mclennans from about 2000 onwards, not sure exactly why but I think it was due to unpaid bills. It was orignally white, it was yellow for quite a while and was painted red when it came up to Edinburgh. A chap in Glasgow actually knows quite a bit about the car during it's Edinburgh period, the work done to it and about it's colourful owner.

Pictures of the car on arrival:-

After spending several months get the 'workshop' ready with fresh paint and new tools I got it stripped down to a rolling shell:-

[rcollie]

First phase was the underside of the roof as there was a lot of surface corrosion under the headlining. It's painted with POR15 as it shouldn't see any direct sunlight.

Next I moved onto the rear windows:-

It was at this point I discovered die grinders and tungsten carbide bits

More to follow.

[Johnboy]

Hi
Looking great so far chap just a bit more to do

[stuartieboy]

Looking good! I really like these Juniors. Saying that, there's not much I don't like, Alfa-wise.....

[AlfaCorseChris]

Always wanted to see the process of rebuilding this car !

Its a stunning little beast

[rcollie]

Some more.

Next phase was to sort the lip around the front and rear screens. I didn't look bad on the outside but I was concerned rust had started between the spot welds so I decided to cut of the the outter side of the lip which would allow me to de-rust properly. It was about this time that I bought this:-

http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/produ ... andblaster

Next was to tackle the boot floor, this is the before:-

[PETROLHEAD]

Nice work, glad to see it coming on from when i last saw it mate.

Keep the momentum, it will be fabulous.

cheers

shrew

[KevJTD]

great thread, nice to see a different alfa build than a sud/sprint etc.

feeling like i'm jumping the gun here, but............is the spare wheel well available as a new panel?

[rcollie]

great thread, nice to see a different alfa build than a sud/sprint etc.

feeling like i'm jumping the gun here, but............is the spare wheel well available as a new panel?

It is and it will make an appearance shortly!

Thats the beauty of doing one of these compareded to a Sud or Sprint, you can pretty much buy anything although it ain't that cheap. You can even choose between steel, fibre glass or aluminium.

[rcollie]

The replacement boot floor panel is a bit of a nightmare. When it arrives it isn't a fully formed panel, the side and rear edges are not formed, you need to trim and form it yourself. Also it's really made to suit the later cars and to fit in mine I had to add some metal and reform the shape around the wheel arches as they are a completely different shape. I made a full size template out of cardboard, transferred that to 12mm MDF and then clamped the MDF to the panel to form the lips. Sounds simple but there was much fitting, removing and adjusting until I was happy. Even after it was welded in it still wasn't right but I will come back to that later. Here's a piccy of the offending item getting the centre brace from the old panel fitted, it was weirdly rust free - maybe the heat of the exhaust protected it?

Before I cut out the old panel I thought it would be a good idea to remove the panel the supports the rear seat and forms the parcel shelf as it would give better access and it had some heavy corrosion along the back edge that would be tricky to fix in situ:-

Many, many spot welds.

rust clearly visible on the underside of the parcel shelf. This is half off the bottom lip of the rear windscreen.

Repairs started, cut of the the bottom edge and seam welded it so it can't happen again.

[Jube]

Great project and car.

Do you plan to keep her completely standard or are modifications/upgrades on the cards?

[rcollie]

Nice work, glad to see it coming on from when i last saw it mate.

Keep the momentum, it will be fabulous.

cheers

shrew

Hi Shrew,

It stalled until September last year but I have worked on it regularly since then and I now have a rough program that should see it being put back together next year but probably not really being used fully until the following spring summer.

[rcollie]

Great project and car.

Do you plan to keep her completely standard or are modifications/upgrades on the cards?

Plan is keep a standard appearance but improved where it counts.

I have got an early 1750 engine which will let me keep a standard looking engine bay - cannister air filter, replica dynamo (alternator that looks like a dynamo) cross over air filter and dipstick on the correct side. However inside the engine I would like it balanced and with a lightenend flywheel and crankshaft pulley. Some serious head work with fast road cams. A nice Alfaholics stainless exhaust. Modern ignition.

For the suspension I will have one of thehandling kits from either Classic Alfa or Alfaholics, but nothing to hardcore and I'm not planning to polybush it as I think that makes it to hard for everyday use.

Brakes will at the very least be changed to the 1750/2000 spec but I would like to put a pair of the 4 pot cailipers on the front. I will be sticking to the single circuit, single servo though. Rears will probably stay standard.

Wheels not sure about yet but probably replica GTA. The front grill will probably need to be replica GTA as most of mine is missing and there are no reproduction Junior grill bars at the moment.

Paint is going back to original Hawthorn White - Bianco Spino. interior black vinyl GT Junior seats unless I can stretch to a couple of GTA buckets. Still undecided about the floor covering, originally black rubber but I think I might put in a carpet set.

The big question over bumpers is still to be decided but I'm leaning towards fitting them.

[rcollie]

Once the rusty old floor was out I had to repair the bottoms of the inner wheel arches:-

Drivers side was so far gone I have had to guess the shape based on what was left and a friend's 2000 GTV until I can get a look at another car of the same age.

Passenger side was still all there.

With the boot floor out I decided to take out the top part of the box section between the wheels so I could remove any rust that might be hiding under it, as it happens it was pretty clean inside:-

Everything blasted and primed.

Panel back in place.

[rcollie]

Rear panel stripped/blasted:-

Parcel shelf/Rear seat support back in:-

Boot floor in, primed and seam sealed so time to test fit the fuel. Doh! It doesn't sit all the way down onto the supporting lip.

After a phone call to Classic Alfa they confirmed them some adjustment is required to get the tank to fit. Some serious bodgery required and now it fits. Would have been much neater and easier if I had tested it before I welded the panel into the car

Rear windscreen scuttle repair panel in place:-

And finally how it looks today, not finished paint by the way just a temporary protective coat from an aerosol:-

[KevJTD]

nice work

the panels seem to make it a lot easier but still need fettling, still better than not having any at all though!

am often tempted by a bertie but when i look at the repair panel prices i think twice....

[Toad of Toad Hall]

Looks good, impressed with how well the sand blaster has worked.

Does remind me I really should go and get my GT Junior, it's up in a friends garage in Sheffield, only been there since 1996, it'll get done one day !

[KevJTD]

Looks good, impressed with how well the sand blaster has worked.

Does remind me I really should go and get my GT Junior, it's up in a friends garage in Sheffield, only been there since 1996, it'll get done one day !

well if you get to the point where you can't be bothered.....sheffield isn't too far from me

[PETROLHEAD]

marvellous work there Collie, as Kev says, its great to see a rebuild other than us daft boxer lot!

The availability of the panels is excellent for an alfa, but again, i repeat Kev, boy they know how to charge for them don't they.


Itd be great to be able to get all this stuff for our ageing suds, but, if it means that they become gold mines like 105's/ GT's i'll be happy to keep tin snipping for now! ha ha!!

[Jube]

Great project and car.

Do you plan to keep her completely standard or are modifications/upgrades on the cards?

Plan is keep a standard appearance but improved where it counts.

I have got an early 1750 engine which will let me keep a standard looking engine bay - cannister air filter, replica dynamo (alternator that looks like a dynamo) cross over air filter and dipstick on the correct side. However inside the engine I would like it balanced and with a lightenend flywheel and crankshaft pulley. Some serious head work with fast road cams. A nice Alfaholics stainless exhaust. Modern ignition.

For the suspension I will have one of thehandling kits from either Classic Alfa or Alfaholics, but nothing to hardcore and I'm not planning to polybush it as I think that makes it to hard for everyday use.

Brakes will at the very least be changed to the 1750/2000 spec but I would like to put a pair of the 4 pot cailipers on the front. I will be sticking to the single circuit, single servo though. Rears will probably stay standard.

Wheels not sure about yet but probably replica GTA. The front grill will probably need to be replica GTA as most of mine is missing and there are no reproduction Junior grill bars at the moment.

Paint is going back to original Hawthorn White - Bianco Spino. interior black vinyl GT Junior seats unless I can stretch to a couple of GTA buckets. Still undecided about the floor covering, originally black rubber but I think I might put in a carpet set.

The big question over bumpers is still to be decided but I'm leaning towards fitting them.

Sounds fab, have you given any thought to the Alfa 75 TS engine conversion - becoming a popular upgrade and a relatively easy 170 bhp to be had?

What front brakes did you have in mind - Alfaholics 4 pots or from another make or model of car?

Have to say I favour the bumperless look but that's just my personal taste.

[rcollie]

Sounds fab, have you given any thought to the Alfa 75 TS engine conversion - becoming a popular upgrade and a relatively easy 170 bhp to be had?

What front brakes did you have in mind - Alfaholics 4 pots or from another make or model of car?

Have to say I favour the bumperless look but that's just my personal taste.

No TS conversion for me, thought about it but really want it to look standard in under the bonnect. Funnily enough it actaully has a 75 sourced 1.8 engine fitted at the moment but not a TS .

Alfaholic's 4 pots, I'm no engineer so I need something that I can just bolt on.

I like the bumberless look but it will be much more of a sleeper with them Long way to go before I need to make my mind up about this one.

Mig welder died lastnight, gas solenoid isn't activating and the wire feed seems a little slow. It is a 24 years old though.

[rcollie]

It's true that panel supply is great for these cars, a lot of cars that would be scrapped are restorable including this one. I don't think the prices are all that bad though when you actually see the quality of them. The six panels I have just fitted to repair the cill on one side have all gone on with the minimum of 'adjustment'.

I'm really impressed with the original design in this area, the A and B pillars fly through and weld to the side of the middle cill rather than just sitting on the top of the cill structure.

Remains of the bottom of the A pillar after shot blasting, still a bit more to be cut away.

Shot from the inside shows the bracing I put in to maintain the door alignment.

Remains of the bottom of the B pillar.

Both A pillar repair pieces in place.

Inner and middle cills in and B pillar repair piece. Some scruffy welding here because part way through my trust old welder dieded again and I bit th ebullet and bought a new one. It took me a few hours to get to grips with the settings on the new one.

Outer cill is now on but no picture yet.

[PETROLHEAD]

welder did well at 24 years old eh! ha ha!

good progress again mate, spot on!

[Spacenut]

Some fantastic quality repair work going on here - looks great!

I do like the 105 series Alfas (Montreals mostly), they certainly have style.

I can't quite make out the wheels on the original photos - are they Campagnolo turbines?

[rcollie]

welder did well at 24 years old eh! ha ha!

good progress again mate, spot on!

Not bad for a SIP, they have such a bad rep. Mine had earned quite a few campaign medals. I think I will be able to get it going again so I can flog it on ebay.

[rcollie]

Some fantastic quality repair work going on here - looks great!

I do like the 105 series Alfas (Montreals mostly), they certainly have style.

I can't quite make out the wheels on the original photos - are they Campagnolo turbines?

The wheels are called 'Mille Miglia', they have a '1000' embossed on the hub caps.

[Spacenut]

Some fantastic quality repair work going on here - looks great!

I do like the 105 series Alfas (Montreals mostly), they certainly have style.

I can't quite make out the wheels on the original photos - are they Campagnolo turbines?

The wheels are called 'Mille Miglia', they have a '1000' embossed on the hub caps.

Hmm, not heard of them before. But I see they still make alloy wheels, if spindly-looking 17" 5-spokes is your thing

Lauren

[Alfasixnut]

Good work going on here!

[rcollie]

I've had a bit of time off the car to do some major work in the Garden, but got started again this week. I've begun work on the other sill now, starting with the A post. I removed a small section of the sill structure here and found it actually has 3 outer sills at the moment

This is the first sign of previous bodgery I have found so far, the other side was just the one panel that looked original. What's your personal best in terms of layers of outer sills?

[Johnboy]

wow three , why do people do this ? Just lazy I guess at least your sorting it and know it's done rite