Alfa Home | Engine Rebuild | Engine Mods | HPV-1 | Dyno | Suspension | Interior | Track Time | Repairs
Brakes - The brakes on my car were a mess. The '69 GTV marked the first year of the dual circuit brakes and the associated dual brake boosters that seemingly take up the entire right rear portion of the engine compartment. At the time of purchase, my car was devoid of the boosters and more importantly the dual circuit system. The PO explained to me that dual circuits are not desirable on the track because if you lose the front brakes while trail braking in a corner,
the rears will lock up and spin you off the track. When I heard this statement, I thought to myself "Yeah, THAT makes sense. I'd certainly rather lose ALL my brakes and rely on a concrete wall, or tree to stop my car, rather than lose
half my brakes and risk spinning off the track." Well, actually my exact thoughts were a little more..um...colorful than that, but since kids might be reading this, it's probably better that I stick with the PG version.
The first order of business after buying the car was to replace the brake pads and reroute the brake lines to resurrect the dual circuits. I also had all the calipers rebuilt and sent the master cylinder to White Post Restorations to have it resleeved and rebuilt. At this time I also fixed the handbrake which was MIA.
The other repair resulted from another bastardized repair job performed by a previous owner. Someone had removed the switch that signals the driver when one of the brake circuits had failed and replaced it with a poorly soldered plug. While driving down a steep hill, the plug blew and left me with nothing but the handbrake (this is the only possible failure point that affects both brake circuits). Fortunately it worked rather well and I was able to stop the car before I ran the stop sign and entered a busy cross street. Unfortunately the plug had a very odd thread size, so I was unable to find anything off the shelf. I finally broke down and paid a machine shop to fabricate a suitable replacement.
Engine - In addition to the complete rebuild outlined elsewhere in this Web site, I have also replaced the starter, radiator, and water pump.
Interior - The interior still needs a lot of work, but thus far I have replaced the seats with Sparcos, patched a few holes in the floor, replaced the sound deadening with Dynamat, installed carpeting from Re-Originals, a new heater valve and ventilation fan. My old heater valve was...well, missing. At some point in the car's life, someone had cut off a broken heater valve and connected the coolant hose straight to the heater core -- and I thought the car was always so warm inside because of a lack of insulation over the exhaust.
Suspension - In addition to the springs, shocks and bushings described on the Suspension page, I have replaced the ball joints and the old trunion with a used part in perfect shape. My old unit was missing the washers that help laterally locate the trunion to the body. This resulted in a little walking from the rear end and imprecise handling.
Miscellaneous - In addition to the above items, I have also replaced the speedometer cable, clutch slave cylinder, and a broken headlight bucket and several other minor things which I have intentionally blocked from my memory.
the rears will lock up and spin you off the track. When I heard this statement, I thought to myself "Yeah, THAT makes sense. I'd certainly rather lose ALL my brakes and rely on a concrete wall, or tree to stop my car, rather than lose
half my brakes and risk spinning off the track." Well, actually my exact thoughts were a little more..um...colorful than that, but since kids might be reading this, it's probably better that I stick with the PG version.
The first order of business after buying the car was to replace the brake pads and reroute the brake lines to resurrect the dual circuits. I also had all the calipers rebuilt and sent the master cylinder to White Post Restorations to have it resleeved and rebuilt. At this time I also fixed the handbrake which was MIA.
The other repair resulted from another bastardized repair job performed by a previous owner. Someone had removed the switch that signals the driver when one of the brake circuits had failed and replaced it with a poorly soldered plug. While driving down a steep hill, the plug blew and left me with nothing but the handbrake (this is the only possible failure point that affects both brake circuits). Fortunately it worked rather well and I was able to stop the car before I ran the stop sign and entered a busy cross street. Unfortunately the plug had a very odd thread size, so I was unable to find anything off the shelf. I finally broke down and paid a machine shop to fabricate a suitable replacement.
Engine - In addition to the complete rebuild outlined elsewhere in this Web site, I have also replaced the starter, radiator, and water pump.
Interior - The interior still needs a lot of work, but thus far I have replaced the seats with Sparcos, patched a few holes in the floor, replaced the sound deadening with Dynamat, installed carpeting from Re-Originals, a new heater valve and ventilation fan. My old heater valve was...well, missing. At some point in the car's life, someone had cut off a broken heater valve and connected the coolant hose straight to the heater core -- and I thought the car was always so warm inside because of a lack of insulation over the exhaust.
Suspension - In addition to the springs, shocks and bushings described on the Suspension page, I have replaced the ball joints and the old trunion with a used part in perfect shape. My old unit was missing the washers that help laterally locate the trunion to the body. This resulted in a little walking from the rear end and imprecise handling.
Miscellaneous - In addition to the above items, I have also replaced the speedometer cable, clutch slave cylinder, and a broken headlight bucket and several other minor things which I have intentionally blocked from my memory.
