After a very long sleep, this cool-looking 1970 Alfa Romeo GTV 1750 105 Series has been given a new lease on life
Alan Mumford admits to coming from a Ford family – his dad owned the dealership in Blayney, NSW, for decades and Alan had no great urge to get into Alfas. That is until this example with a close and personal history was waved under his nose.
The story goes back a long way, when the car was owned by friends of Alan and his partner Deborah, namely Paul and Marg Bush. Paul had bought it around 1979 and was only the second owner.
Move on a few years and he and Alan are at a barbecue when Alan said if ever Paul decided to sell the Alfa he would appreciate first refusal.
Alan moves to Brisbane and the topic was never raised again. Until a fateful phone call. Paul has serious health issues and as a result has decided to make some changes, including moving on the Alfa – did Alan still want the car?
“Mate, that was 30 years ago,” was Alan’s initial response, “It’s probably a pile of rust by now.
“He said no, it had been in an air-conditioned garage.
“I asked for some photos. It was going to need painting, but it was absolutely original – the whole car was complete. It had been sitting in the garage for over 25 years. I said alright and we shipped it up here.
“His wife was in tears when it left – they were married in that car. They called it Alfie.”
Paul has since passed away, but he did get to see it almost complete.
“When it arrived, I thought this is a big job and I may have bitten off more than I could chew,” Alan admits.
“Luckily a mate and I had a workshop where we could start on it. It must have been driving like a pig when they parked it up as all the rubber bushes were shot.
“The exhaust and driveshaft would have been banging around, so we replaced all of that.
“When we took the sender unit out of the tank – it still had half a tank of fuel and it was like jelly. And the sender unit was encrusted.”
On the mechanical front, the car had a lot to offer. Buried in a box of papers for the GTV was a list of work that had been done to the engine, which effectively meant it was fresh. Also, the gearbox seemed to be just fine.
Before going too far, Alan dropped a little oil down the cylinders and turned over the engine without firing it, to ensure it was not seized. It was fine and later proved to have good compression.
With one major headache avoided, it was time to attend to fuel, cooling and brake systems, most of which was replaced. An exception was the pair of carburettors, which were sent out for a rebuild.
The brake calipers and master cylinder were refreshed locally, while a new set of Brembo discs was sourced from Classic Alfa in England. Incredibly, it was cheaper to buy from them rather than a local source.
The original Armstrong dampers were still in place and, unsurprisingly, well past their use-by date. They were replaced along with pretty much every bush under the car.
With the basics sorted, the real concern was the true state of the body, which was stripped back to bare metal, with the engine left in place.
“Those cars had a real problem with rust,” explains Alan. “But a mate of mine who is a panel beater said he couldn’t believe how good it was. He said most of them turn up full of rust.
“There were a few sections that had previous repairs. Other than that there were two sections where we put new metal in – behind the front wheels where the mud had sat.”
One issue was the sunroof.
“A lot of cars of that era had those little pop-up sunroofs. I would prefer not have it, but decided to leave it as it’s a period fitting. Plus I felt that if you welded it up, no matter how good you are there was a fair chance you would see it,” says Alan.
As you might expect, the interior was tired and stripped out.
The dash was sent off to the Dash Doctor in Melbourne, which Alan says did a great job that looks factory.
Meanwhile the material for the seats was sourced in England and fitted locally, along with the roof lining.
A couple of little upgrades were fitted, including inertia reel seatbelts in the front, an upgraded alternator, plus halo-style headlamps.
While the original wheels have been kept, they were replaced with a European made set of rims.
Alan also decided to fit the rear bumper and leave the front off for a cleaner look.
“I wasn’t interested in it being concours or anything like that,” he says. “It needed to be a nice, tidy, good car that was drivable and had everything working.
“If you go concours, you’ll be scared to drive it. Done the way mine is, if it gets a bit of dirt or mud – so be it.”
Though it may not be concours, the car looks sensational while sounding and driving the way they should.
You’d like to think Paul, the previous owner, would be very pleased.