Early GTV6

[GG105]

Wow! Some conflicting information but a dam good read, the truth lies in there somewhere!
John, I do not know what rust may or may not lurk underneath there, but from your shots that would have to be one of the best condition GTV6 split dashes I have ever seen, maybe I am too used to all of the 1982 1983 GTV 2.0s I have purchased, we all know the state some of them get too, after 10 owners and the last one driving it to death
Kartone, love that first photo, what a time warp!

One thing that interested me in all the comments was that of UK spec GTV6s, some brought here, I have always wondered and still waiting for someone to shed the light......
My 1985 GTV6 is factory black, nero metallic, sort of a gunmetal in the full light and changes to a darker black as the light fades, seen plenty of them in photos overseas, but never of one in Australia, it is Australian complianced not a private import, please do not get this confused with the 1982 1983 2.0 Strada Gunmetal colour, it is not that, close but not, do I have the only factory black complete dash in Australia?

When I purchased it in Sydney, the owner had changed his mind about a restoration after pulling the motor out, it had a registration sticker from Victoria, so I would assume it came from Victoria but it could have been sold in any state I guess, it has the cream Recaro interior not the black, my experience with GTV6 complete dash models in Australia is they are either red, white or silver in colour, anyone with information? Could this be a UK spec as someone mentioned?

VeeSix, I have been wasting time surfing info on GTV6s and came across this '85 Special Edition called the Black Jack, that I'd never heard of. It seems to fit the description of your car? An enquiry of Marco Fazio might reveal. Here is a link.

http://www.webalice.it/alexdalex/officialwebsite/gtv6bj.html

Regards
John

[VeeSix]

Thankyou John, yes that looks to be the colour, obviously mine is right hand drive, came with standard wheels and cloth cream Recaros not leather, but thankyou for your effort John 

[GG105]

Hi again everyone.

After getting my 85 GTV6 back on the road with its reskinned dash and rebuilt gearbox, we turned our attention to the split dash.

I mentioned in one of my earlier posts that this car has some mechanical issues. It really is a car in two parts, it is unmolested in originality terms, standard springs, bars, shocks etc., excellent paint, the body has two minor rust spots and has never had any accidents, great interior, however......The mechanical condition of the car is totally at odds with its appearance.

In short, it's a mess. The engine bay is filthy, showing signs of bodged or no maintenance, the cams and lifters are stuffed, 20mm play in the nsf tie rod end!!! all vacuum hoses are stuffed as are all suspension bushes and it leaks oil everywhere and I mean everywhere.

What to do? since I already have a now excellent example of the more desirable Isostatic 85 model.

So, we've decided to first throughly clean the engine and underside and then run the car and find out where all the oil leaks are coming from. Then, we are going to remove the engine, drop the sump, remove the heads and assess it. if i'm lucky replacing the cams and lifters will be enough and we can service the radiator, replace all of the vacuum lines, injection hoses, tidy up the wiring, etc.,  Rear end also needs some attention, but nothing major at this stage.

This is really a mechanical restoration, it seems silly but not so much when I remember that when I first started playing around with 105s they were much younger than this car at nearly 32 years old.

Regards
John

[GG105]

The '85 has its reskinned dash and sunvisors installed, gearbox is rebuilt and with the front hubs cleaned and rotors skimmed is now driving beautifully.

We have pulled the engine out of the Split Dash and pressure washed the underside and cleaned the engine bay. It is amazingly rust free with just a small spot in the drivers door that I knew about when I bought it. The heads have been removed to reveal this:



My engineer has never seen anything like it. We couldn't believe the car ran well, didn't overheat and hadn't blown a head gasket!!. Most of the sludge is where the head gasket separated and the steel part between the cylinders has corroded and fallen into the water passages. Amazingly, the liners aren't rusty and the bores are good. We think the car must have been sitting for a good while, whoever "serviced" it didn't show it much love.

The plan is to clean it up and, have the cams rebuilt and new lifters, drop the sump and have a look, water pump seems ok. The tensioner oiler has been blocked off so that's ok. Hopefully the bottom end will be good.

I have located the correct cam covers and will hydroblast them and the plenum before it goes back together. Then we have to clean the radiator, put a larger condenser in, sort the wiring and so on...

John

[Scott Farquharson]

Yes, I still have the Dulux car.

It was the press car.  Ray took it back to Canberra after the press duties were completed to prepare for Bathurst 82.

History of the car here:  www.duluxalfa.com

Frank Porter co drove with Ray in 85 and 86.

As far as I can tell only the 3 GTV6's ever raced (including the reshelled Luigi car)

The Gulson car - 82 press car
The Network Alfa Car - Group E, Network Alfa 84 Bathurst, Yellow livery, Toy Shop, Bond, Rooklyn, Sports Sedan, written off
Luigi Car - Bond, crashed, reshelled, bond, porter, harrison

[aggie57]

Yes, I still have the Dulux car.

It was the press car.  Ray took it back to Canberra after the press duties were completed to prepare for Bathurst 82.

History of the car here:  www.sandmcustom.com/dulux/

Frank Porter co drove with Ray in 85 and 86.

As far as I can tell only the 3 GTV6's ever raced (including the reshelled Luigi car)

The Gulson car - 82 press car
The Network Alfa Car - Group E, Network Alfa 84 Bathurst, Yellow livery, Toy Shop, Bond, Rooklyn, Sports Sedan, written off
Luigi Car - Bond, crashed, reshelled, bond, porter, harrison

Hi Scott - was the car also raced in NZ over one summer in ANZ colours?  Certainly it was a Gulson car; I have a photo somewhere back in Melbourne.

[GG105]

Thanks Scott.

If I read the chassis nos correctly your car was built in January 1982, no 269? My car was built in February 82, no 26. This may mean there aren't actually 757 between your car and mine. I think the numbers restart from zero each month, so the two may actually be very close.

I'm assuming all of these 35 split dash cars were built and imported as a batch? Can any other owners out there supply chassis nos?

John

[GG105]

My previous post is incorrect, I believe that the Dulux car is the 269th RHD car built in 1981, hence the 1269 chassis no. My car was built in February 82 and is the 26th RHD built in 82.

All are to UK specs, hence the lack of Australian compliance. How ARA managed to register them all as 2 litre cars is a mystery.

John

[David Mills]

Thanks Scott.

If I read the chassis nos correctly your car was built in January 1982, no 269? My car was built in February 82, no 26. This may mean there aren't actually 757 between your car and mine. I think the numbers restart from zero each month, so the two may actually be very close.

I'm assuming all of these 35 split dash cars were built and imported as a batch? Can any other owners out there supply chassis nos?

John

Re my old car referred to in post #5, the engine no. I have on record as AR01646004147.  Don't have a note of chassis no.

Cheers

[Sheldon McIntosh]

Hi Scott - was the car also raced in NZ over one summer in ANZ colours?  Certainly it was a Gulson car; I have a photo somewhere back in Melbourne.

This one?

[Sheldon McIntosh]

It's in this video from about 2:40 on.....     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iw4gprKTbjo

[GG105]

Happy New Year everyone.

An update on progress with the split dash GTV6. As so often happens, this has developed into a mechanical restoration. You've seen the condition of the inside of the engine in an earlier post. Despite the mess the bores and bearings were good. The cams and lifters were stuffed, so they have been attended to and the heads have been serviced. I bought a full gasket kit and all the oil seals have also been replaced. New water pump, injector service and all of the injector and vacuum hoses have been replaced. I have not been able to locate replacements for the original braided vacuum hoses, so have resorted to black silicone.

Wiring was a mess, just look at the earlier engine bay photo. The heater had been bypassed and there was no heater tap. We are dealing with this, so we can get the heater and a/c operable. Its difficult to believe that a car with such a good body and interior could be such a mess mechanically. The engine is now back together with hydroblasted cam covers and plenum. I have a new AAV, time switch, pressure regulator, expansion tank and the washer bottle has been cleaned as best I can. I have sourced replacement decals for the air filter and washer bottle. The engine bay has been thoroughly cleaned.

The car needed new inner tie rod ends, a saga in itself in respect of the nearside one. While we were there we rebuilt the gearbox and I sourced a repo original style rear muffler and tail pipe. We are adding relays to the window and wiper circuits. The front and rear suspension has been cleaned up and selectively repainted.

The engine is in, we are waiting for some hard to get minor parts and this part of the refresh will be complete. Here are a couple of photos.




The underside is not nearly as well finished as my 85, which had glossy red paint all over.

John

[GG105]

My apologies for the size of the photos, in future I will resize them.

[VeeSix]

Fantastic effort 

[GG105]

Getting closer to having it finished. The engine bay is nearly done, I need to chase down the correct Romablok hose clamps. I have new decals for the washer bottle and airbox. I need the two covers for the firewall junction boxes and a correct working inertia switch. Can anyone help with these? New ignition leads and dissy cap have been ordered. The wiring was a mess, it has all been cleaned up. The heater tap is installed and the speakers replaced with less obtrusive ones. We will instal relays for the wipers and windows. We are going to put the tacho where it is supposed to be, in front of the driver



The gearbox has been rebuilt, together with the front suspension. We have replaced the rear muffler with one from EB Spares, its not quite the same as the original but fairly close.


The original Campagnolo wheels have been repainted (the later cars have Speedlines which are different) and the correct 195x60x15 tyres will be installed. After that we will deal with the rust bubble in the drivers door and patch in the spare tyre well and shoot some colour inside the wheel arches and underside of the spare tyre well. It isn't a concours car, but it should look and drive well when it is finished.

John