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1971 Alfa Romeo GTV Restoration

Posted by Chris Dykes

My first glimpse of a 1971 Alfa Romeo GTV was 22 years ago, in a junkyard, and the sight was not far enough away from what I see right now in my garage. Some friends and I had made the trip across town to the only junkyard we knew of that had a supply of foreign cars. I was looking for a piece of bumper trim for my Alfa Spider, and my friend was looking for a Scirocco door handle.  My experience with Alfa coupes was limited to the then current Alfetta GT, to which I found my convertible preferable. But there in the junkyard I saw the shell of a proper GTV, and I knew that as good as the Italians were with a convertible, they could do even more given a top to work with. I was struck by the proportions, by how delicate arches framed the cockpit, and by that character line that runs the length of the body, starting where the hood meets the grille and then disappearing into nothing at the rear fender.  That GTV was missing everything, but propped up on metal rails to allow easy access to parts predators, it had a presence the other cannibalized carcasses didn’t.

Ten years after that junkyard excursion, I bought a 1971 GTV from a man in Wichita who was moving overseas and was liquidating his Alfa collection. I had no shortage myself, as I still had my Spider, and was driving a GTV-6, but I had rationalized that if a guy can afford one Alfa, he can afford three. My GTV was red with a black interior, but had been repainted and restored at about 75% effort. The engine bay was still the original green, and the dash had been capped rather than repaired properly. I drove it, fixed it, drove it, and parked it, and went on to more expensive cars.

But the more expensive cars never made me happy. A black M3 with black windows was as serious a performer as could be, but was simply too sinister. A Boxster, while fantastic to drive, carried too much societal weight – when I saw other guys in Boxsters, I didn’t want to look like them. And any moron with enough money can buy a Boxster. It takes a special moron to have an old Alfa.

So I sold the Germans. Part of the proceeds went into mutual funds, and the rest went into my Alfa GTV resuscitation fund. I’d never restored a car before, but figured I could do the grunt work if I left the professional jobs to the guys with the tools and experience. I began disassembly of the GTV, which had gathered enough scratches and oil leaks to justify a job done right. Aware of the financial folly of my undertaking, I took some consolation in the classified ads for GTVs, which began to surpass those of the Spider in price. Usually when the top goes down the price goes up, but GTVs seem to buck that rule.

Recently, looking at the difference in how I managed my proceeds from my sale of the Germans, the Alfa fund doesn’t look like such a bad investment. Maybe I should have given it more? A very sharp GTV sold at a Gooding auction this summer for $44,000, or ten times what I paid for mine.

Yesterday I retrieved my GTV from a six month stay at a paint shop. It’s no longer red and green, but silver throughout, which highlights those lines in an unobtrusive way. Sitting in my garage next to my rebuilt engine and shelves and shelves of parts, it’s in the same state of disassembly the junkyard car was in. I wonder if it’s still there. I need a door handle.