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The £400 Alfa GT

2K views 26 replies 10 participants last post by  warniegt 
#1 ·
Last week the wife gave me the call I have always really been expecting if I'm honest, as she drives my GT to work every day, that she has damaged the car!!!!

She manage to pull the front bumper half off, but still managed to get to sainsbury's to get a bottle of wine despite this inconvenience..:scratchchin: anyway I needed a front and back bumper if I'm honest anyway so this just this has brought the job forward a few months.

Such is my luck I couldn't find a front bumper locally but did come across an Alfa GT for sale listed under the parts section of gumtree. A 1.9JTD on a 54 plate in metalic grey, 133k and with jetfins fitted!!! for just £650 :rotate:The idea was that I could swap the wheels over and use the front and rear bumpers from it, plus any other parts that were worth taking off. I'd then scrap it.

So off I went today on the 160 mile round trip only to turn up and find the wheels changed to 16" 147 wheels with the wrong offset and 4 brand new ditch finders..

After a lot of messing around I thought sod it I might as well buy it and got him down to £400 as the car had MOT until May which gave me a few more options. It has the yellow/sand colour leather, winter pack and has had head work, plus cambelt, waterpump etc last July at a cost of £1500.

Faults so far are:

Radio keeps popping out
Cruise control is faulty
O/S driveshaft shakes the car big time!
Thermostat is broke but I still got 49.5mpg on the way back despite sitting on the M5 for long periods which is alien to me after living with the 3.2..
Drivers seat needs repairing and the heated seat switch is broke
Past MOT's tell me that rust has been an issue underneath
Interior is scruffy but should come up ok hopefully.

Good points

It looks as though it has all the kit, bose, heated seats cruise and there's a sensor on the front window which I presume would be for auto light/wipers?
Body work is good and should have a good shine when worked on.
Engine seems to pull ok
No sign of accident damage

That's it so far as I've just parked it up and come inside as it's dark now. I'm now weighing up exactly what to do with it but will know more tomorrow when I can have a proper poke around it.

It needs the right wheels, driveshaft sorting and thermostat replacing first and foremost so I'll need to cost those up and then decide what route to go down.

Also the car was once owned by someone in the Bristol Alfa owners club and had a private reg of F19 OXY..

I'll add some pics tomorrow :happy:
 
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#3 ·
I've had the dreaded phone calls from Mrs. V.

Reversed into a car " It wasn't there when I first looked" and " He said he'd watch me out, when I hit the other car he walked off"

Two within a month, she was taken off my cars insurance. Priceless.

Sounds like the worst thing is it'll be a good donor car :thumbup:
 
#4 ·
And they still insist that they are the better drivers despite not having a clue where all 4 corners of the car are..I could go on I really could, especially now :soapbox:

As for the car, like you say the worst case is a donor car or doing the work only to have something major go and be left with an expensive donor car!

I have a mate who is handy with the spanners, so I might go down the 'trading up' route if he's up for it and want's to go halves :scratchchin:
 
#6 ·
That's a great find there. Also it points a very large finger at one of the advantages of the 3.2 GT having identical bodywork to a standard GT.....far better parts supply compared to a 147 or 156 GTA.
 
#8 · (Edited)
*A 1.9JTD on a 54 plate in metalic grey, 133k
*Past MOT's tell me that rust has been an issue underneath
The above points are reason enough to rob any spares, then discard the rest before you become attached to something you'll sadly later regret saving.
A £400 GT with past repairs to a rusty floorpan are likely to be ongoing and making mechanical repairs somewhat pointless, I sold my GT recently for this reason after yet more welding for the MOT...friends can't believe it when I told them as it looked pretty decent on first glance.
I'd had the cambelt done after a belt failure and new suspension all round in recent times as well as a few subtle modifications...the realisation that everything I was doing was attached to a floorpan made of cornflakes was fairly disappointing to put it mildly...

:grumpy:
 
#11 · (Edited)
Had time to have a better look now and a bit of a clean up, especially the interior which was shocking. It's now looking presentable but would need a clay, polish and wax if I did sell it on.

At first glance it looks as thought it will need a new driveshaft joint £20 delivered, or a second hand driveshaft for around £35-40. The thermostat will be done as well plus an minor service of filters and oil. The aircon pump has seized and it has had a shorter belt put on by the looks of it to eliminate it completely.

A new aircon pump can be had for £49.99 but I don't think I'll be bothering with that yet, if at all.

Labour will be free as my mate is coming in with me, so unless we find something else wrong (probably) then we'll be doing the work and selling it on, hopefully for a small profit so we can buy something else and hopefully 'trade up'.

If not then I'll break it and store what parts that are maybe useful to my 3.2 in my garage and hopefully break even with the rest.

As for my bumpers, well I've found a good rear in the right colour for £65 so I just need a front now...

A couple of questions..

The wheels as you can see are from a 147. The offset is wrong but could I use spacers as the tyres are new and although only 16" they are not in bad condition?

If anyone has any wheels for sale, preferably with tyres then please let me know!

Also what is this sensor for in the front window? and is it just missing a cover?

Glass Windshield Vehicle Vehicle door Auto part
 
#16 ·
It is worth more in parts, but that would be a major headache stripping it and selling everything on. But on the other hand it may lead to the wife getting fed up and leaving me :thumbu p:
 
#13 ·
These rusty floorpans are a bit of a worry. .

It seems they can look pretty solid underbeath but some poking around reveals the rot.

Mines an 07 and has been undersealed twice in the 2 years I have owned it so "should" be ok..

Its a worry though...especially as my example represents a fair investement on go faster and handle better bits.

Fingers crossed it doesn't become an issue for a while yet.
 
#14 ·
This has crossed my mind too... Had it re-sealed by Loz and crew in March 2015 on my first visit over there... Top up parts with a brush and tin of underseal every oil change, but still might get another coat on my next visit over there....

I have a back-up plan mind... If the GT ever has to go, buy a 2.4 JTD 156 Sportwagon for a few hundred quid and learn to weld :thumbup:
 
#20 · (Edited)
Unfortunately my 'handy with the spanners' mate has had to drop out so the GT will be broken up for spares.

Such a shame as only last year it had £1500 worth of work done on the engine including cambelt and water pump.

If anyone wants to make me an offer as it is then feel free but they would have to be in excess of £700 as it's worth double that and more in parts. Must admit though I'm not looking forward to breaking it but it looks as though I will have no option as I don't have the skills to do the work myself.

If any of you are in need of anything then just let me know.
 
#21 ·
If you don't have the skills to do the work yourself (and tools?) then you'll struggle to break it up for spares, barring interior bits. Most of the value of the parts are tied up in the engine/gearbox.
 
#24 ·
Do you think so?

Every few hours I keep changing my mind ! May have some 17" 3.2 GT wheels for it now, which will improve the look no end. But that still leaves me with the driveshaft to sort and I have no idea about cost for that one.

I'll make some calls tomorrow and take it from there I think.
 
#25 ·
Yeah I've done it, breaking cars up is hard work and not pleasant. Easier to fix them for sure. I would suggest getting a local specialist to give it a healthcheck and then go from there. The historic rust could either have been fixed properly in which case it won't be a problem for 5+ years or it might have just been patched for MOT purposes in which case it'll come back soonish.

Driveshaft is gonna be 1 or 1.5hrs labour, a litre of gear oil plus the shaft itself. Not a horrifically costly job if thats all it needs.
 
#27 ·
Car now sold for £490! Lack of time, skills and it would be taking away funds that were needed for other things promted the decision after my brother-in-law wanted to take it on.

I reckon a good car can be made from it easily for less than a grand all in, and lets be honest with that interior the colour and the right wheels it would look like a £2-3k car all day long.

So I'm back to needing a front bumper preferably in gabbiano blue 693met after securing a rear bumper last week. So please if anyone knows of one for sale then please, please let me know:thumbup:

Cheers
 
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