[alfa] GTV-6 Inspection and deferred maintenance ( long)

["Mike Nakamura" <mike_nakamura@xxxxxxx>]

Joe:

The seller would have to give you about $5000 and the car for you to make it
right. Pre-acquisition assessment is the most important aspect of buying
(IMHO). 

Carefully read the GTV-6 site including forums about the issues you noticed.

GTV-6's do not pencil out (unless you factor in fun). If you enjoy working
on the car, great, but you may actually prefer driving it. When in doubt,
wait. Keep looking and when you see the right example, jump on it.

Rust and paint are unknowns especially in the Chicago (salt) belt.
Mechanical items are less risky since we know the cost of parts and the
approximate time required to R & R. I'm not sure if someone has ever started
fixing a minor rust "spot" and found the damage confined to the area where
visible symptoms originally surfaced.

I bought a 1984 GTV-6 in March of this year from the original owner. Zero
crash damage and original paint. He kept the car in good condition and
replaced items like bushings, donuts, clutch, calipers, rotors, tensioner,
water pump, and the like as needed. The car had over 225k when I bought it
but drove very solid. The car came with hand-written logs for the last 9
years. The engine was rebuilt (including heads) at about 195k. The paint is
glossy and has fewer than expected chips for the mileage. The only interior
flaws are slight sun damage on top of dash and where the seat belt crosses
the driver seat the PO placed heavy tape to prevent the usual damage. The
tape looks okay and eliminated damage to the seat and belt. Everything
except the AC works including the windshield washers, clock, and manual
sliding sun roof. This car's owner was the antithetical DPO. I intended to
change the timing belt at about 230,000 miles as it was changed at about
200k. Came with 205/55 X15 Dunlop SP 5000 all season tires on Panasport 6 X
15 wheels.

This is a very good example of a 20 year old car. I've run 5 track events
since purchased and have about 3k miles on the car. I've had
Ferrari-Maserati of Seattle perform pre-track inspections and the
maintenance (except the battery). 

Here is what has been done to the car with a few dates interspersed to show
relative timing of work and track days.

March 31, 2004: Take delivery
April 22: Install Optima Red Battery (purchased at Costco)
Install Porterfield R4S pads (purchased directly from Porterfield).
New alternator belt
Replace master brake cylinder, new fluid. 
Clean and repair rear brake lights for intermittent operation
LOF
June 17: NWARC Bremerton track event after above
June 22: Ferrari-Maserati of Seattle Pacific Raceway track day
Replace two missing exhaust hangers 
Change to Motul brake fluid (fade at first two track events)
Synthetic transaxle fluid
Replace radiator cap
New master brake cylinder (warranty replacement)
July 11: NWARC Pacific Raceways event (brake fade no longer a problem, but
blew bypass water pump hose at turn 5a)
Steve Schaffer lent me his van and trailer to get car home
Replace bypass hoses (did this one myself, big whoop)
Replace timing belt
Replace water pump
Replace tensioner
Replace thermostat
Replace heater hoses
Adjust 5 intake and 6 exhaust valves
Replace cam seals
Check and set ignition timing
Replace one spark plug
Replace one Bosch connector
LOF
Replace upper transaxle bushing
Replace shift linkage bushing
Replace left rear caliper (with rebuilt)
Replace left transaxle output seal and bearing
Replace all brake pads with new R4S due to left rear fouled with brake fluid
and some chunking (purchased new pads directly from Porterfield).
Replace all flexible brake lines with stainless braided lines (rear line
bulging) 
Flush brake system with fresh Motul
Remove rear muffler so I can take to Performance Coatings for ceramic
application (effort to reduce heat at rear caliper). Cost $ 100 for coating
entire muffler and pipe
Install rear muffler
205/55 X 15 SO-3 Tires (Costco)
Sept. 10: NWARC Pacific Raceways event
Sept. 23: ESPN Russell Pacific Raceway event

Still to do:

Right transaxle output seal and bearing
O2 sensor is weak
Desperately needs new radio (but down on priority list) 
Driver window motor / linkage needs cleaning and or adjustment / replacement
AC Compressor (want to install parallel flow condenser and change to 134a
next spring)
Syncros need replacement when clutch goes.

Without the track day participation, I could have eliminated the SO-3 tires,
Porterfield pads, Motul, and delayed much of the other stuff. OTOH, it's
good I was going to the events and had the car carefully inspected so I knew
about all of the issues. I think it is best to fix stuff fairly soon after
diagnosis so the deferred maintenance does not get too daunting.

Bottom line is that even overlooking the SO-3 tires, I spent (checkbook
mechanic) more on getting the car "nearly right" than I spent acquiring the
car. Keep in mind that I purchased a very good example from a pretty
meticulous owner and paid accordingly for a "premium" example. This car does
not drip or use any oil (ZERO consumption). I believe I got a fair deal and
expected much (but not all) of the work I've had done.

The cost of this car is only justified by the fact that I enjoy it. For
sure, it makes no sense from a logical dollars and cents transportation
point of view.  

Mike Nakamura
Fall City WA
84 GTV-6, 91 Spider Veloce, 94 164 LS, 02 Dakota
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