Shrink-wrapped for your protection? I’m not sure about that, but this 1973 Alfa Romeo GTV is listed for sale here on eBay with bidding currently at just over $4,000 with any reserve having been met. The car is located in New Milford, Connecticut, but is an Arizona-sourced car.
Based on this picture, which I presume is the car arriving from Arizona four years ago, the car has acquired some surface rust but little else since that point. The seller tells us that a famous cartoonist (“Phil F”, possibly Phil Frank?) owned the car but passed before completing the restoration of the car.
I hope someone grabs this one quick and stops the progression of the surface rust.
Most of the metal does appear solid, and the seller tells us that the car “…rolls on wheels with the suspension raised on wooden blocks.” Does that mean there are no springs installed? Yes, yes I believe it does based on the next picture.
As you can tell, you’ll have a lot of work to do inside the car, including removing the springs from the floorboards. Paperwork is included showing the four previous owners so you’ll have something to look over while the seats are at the upholstery shop.
This is one of the two 1962 cc DOHC four-cylinder engines that are included. We’re not told anything about their condition but perhaps the seller bought them not knowing anything more. If that doesn’t sound like a lot of engine, remember that this car only weighed 2,266 pounds when new. 134 horsepower (stock) could move a GTV along pretty darned well for the day, and there’s no shortage of aftermarket parts to make it go even quicker if you want to. Which begs the question — do you want to finish this project? Let us know in the comments!
Shrink wrap?? That’s a condom and I can only surmise that the guy was looking up the specs, saw the listing for disc brakes said STD all four wheels and mis-understood terribly!
On a serious note, I’m sorry to read that this may be Phil Frank’s car and that he’s passed away – he was a genuinely nice guy. I bought a Bentley Mark VI from him 20 or 25 years ago and drove it back to Portland from Sausalito.
I have a friend down here in Australia who owns a business devoted to Alfas. He is a university qualified engineer (1978) and his thesis was about photographing the engine combustion explosion. He only fixes and races Alfas. He has developed his own cam grinds and other bits & pieces (he also knows every point they rust). To lighten the valve mass for racing, he removes the valve shims and grinds the buckets flat. The tips of longer valves are then ground to give the required clearance with the cam shaft lobe. This adds extra revs for racing. If anyone wants to speak to him send me a message.
Also, my friend races a big turbo 1500 Alfsud that leaves everyone behind in the first lap until the gearbox disintegrates under the extra power.
DAVID6, in case you haven’t read it from anyone else here on Barn Finds (including BF admins! Hello?) This forum is not for people to sell items in the COMMENT section. You can legitimately submit your sale items to Barn Finds like everyone else. You seem to have a nice, variable collection of auto and auto parts. Let’s see some pics after listing them as a reader. PLEASE!
I did something similar with my Fiat 124 dohc engine. to lighten up the valve train, I did not grind the buckets or shims.
Instead, I replaced all the valve adjusting shims in the buckets with the thinnest adjusting shim available. Naturally this posed a problem insofar as far too much clearance. To solve that, I placed a dab of hard weld on the tip of each valve then gradually ground it off until the valve was the perfect length for the necessary clearance. worked a treat.
My ’04 VW R32 that I turbo’d will strip the teeth off of 4th gear so I dialed it back to 15psi (454 hp)
Looks a good prospect. $4000 must be about $10000 short of the reserve if everything is there.
I have had a couple of these and own 2 Duettos now. These are great cars and most parts are surprisingly cheap if you know where to look, but the only way to get one on the road from this condition is to either own others to use as puzzle box covers or to be an expert on Alfas. I have had and restored many Alfas and would not attempt to restore this without another one to use as a guide. It looks like a deal, but at the end of the day, you will spend far more than you would if you bought a $25k car and put another $20k into it. I would put the odds of the new owner putting this car back on the road at somewhere less than 50/50. Sad but true.
The excitement and anticipation of a great project for a low price are appealing.
Then the car arrives, and the magnitude of the task is overwhelming. It sits for a few years as the attraction wanes and dies, then back up for sale it goes.
The cycle repeats until the car is either parted out, or becomes valuable enough that someone is willing to take it on for more reason than just the love of the car and the desire to see it back on the road.
I don’t think this one is that valuable yet, if ever. As Skippy says, there are enough around that you can avoid the pain and hassle, for less money. But I hope someone does it anyway, for the fun of it.
This car sure is a basket case – Literally – but Alfa GTV’s are some of the fastest appreciating cars out there and quickly becoming the new, hot collectible. So if you know what your doing and can work on bringing this car back yourself it seems like an interesting prospect/project.
Don’t laugh at the shrink-wrap! I had my Boss 302 in between stages of restoration, (deadbeat body shops) and I put the body in it and it preserved it well, the car is now restored and it may have saved it from deterioration. I would post a picture of it in that state but BF never lets non-members do it.
Plastic wrap can protect in the right conditions but it can also trap moisture and cause unbelievable rust. Don’t ask me how I know…
Trapping moisture is what I would worry about
Yes my car was in a nice garage.
Having had a look at all the photos (some added to a separate gallery), that is about as rust-free as a GTV of that era ever is. Personally I think someone got a good deal at $5.2K. A good GTV is a delight to drive.
I’m actually the person who bought the car. Overall the car is in pretty good condition some dents and rot that weren’t in any pictures and some of those pictures were 10 years old but the car is solid. Sorting through all of the unmarked bags and boxes will be the worst of the restoration.
Let me know if you ever decide to sale it, otherwise good luck with getting it going!