1967 Alfa GT Junior 1300
Discussion
Having read through numerous readers car threads I thought it was about time to contribute. It will also hopefully serve as a useful record for myself in the future when I’m trying to remember what the hell I’ve done and why...
Having previously owned a modified 1600 GT junior (2l engine, wide arches etc.) I knew that this time around I wanted a scalina with standard arches – the rest I was flexible on as it could be changed later.
I spotted this car for sale in Fife so after a 20min call with the owner and a flick through the few hundreds of restoration photos sent across I decided it was worth the cost of a flight to go see it in person.
Obviously significant time and money had been spent on restoring the car with a significant folder of invoices so a we agreed a price and I had my transport home sorted!
The car has had some of the big ticket items having already been sorted having undergone:
Bare metal body restoration
Rebuilt 1750 engine
Rebuilt gearbox
Rebuilt back axle
Initially I thought it was a bit of a shame that the original 1300 5th gear & final drive ratio had been kept given the larger engine however having now driven it I’m no longer so sure. I do want to fit a LSD but I may well keep the current ratios as it makes the car feel significantly faster whilst still being acceptable on the motorway. The car came with a spare 1750 gearbox which gives me the option of swapping to the taller 5th over or converting to a hydraulic clutch at a later date should I wish.
The 7hr drive home went without any real comment – heavy rain from Tebay services until I got home at least proved that the car was water tight.
The long drive did give me the opportunity to start making a list of bits that I wanted to sort/do in the near term though (most I was aware of before purchase):
Sort the ticking tacho cable
Fuelling/timing need setting up properly
Fix non-working heater fan
Swap to inertia reel seat belts
Replace indicator cancelling spring
Swap to electric fan
Add a hidden lighter socket for charging phones etc.
Sort the various little rattles
Re-apply cavity wax / floor wax
Try and reduce the play in the steering box
Spin on filter conversion
I’ve already booked the car in with Dave at Mek Motorsport to sort the fuelling so will try and get some these items sorted before the visit (electric fan and tacho cable being the obvious targets).
Not many photos due to the poor weather but the obligatory petrol station shot and Scotland/England border before the heavy rain started.
Having previously owned a modified 1600 GT junior (2l engine, wide arches etc.) I knew that this time around I wanted a scalina with standard arches – the rest I was flexible on as it could be changed later.
I spotted this car for sale in Fife so after a 20min call with the owner and a flick through the few hundreds of restoration photos sent across I decided it was worth the cost of a flight to go see it in person.
Obviously significant time and money had been spent on restoring the car with a significant folder of invoices so a we agreed a price and I had my transport home sorted!
The car has had some of the big ticket items having already been sorted having undergone:
Bare metal body restoration
Rebuilt 1750 engine
Rebuilt gearbox
Rebuilt back axle
Initially I thought it was a bit of a shame that the original 1300 5th gear & final drive ratio had been kept given the larger engine however having now driven it I’m no longer so sure. I do want to fit a LSD but I may well keep the current ratios as it makes the car feel significantly faster whilst still being acceptable on the motorway. The car came with a spare 1750 gearbox which gives me the option of swapping to the taller 5th over or converting to a hydraulic clutch at a later date should I wish.
The 7hr drive home went without any real comment – heavy rain from Tebay services until I got home at least proved that the car was water tight.
The long drive did give me the opportunity to start making a list of bits that I wanted to sort/do in the near term though (most I was aware of before purchase):
Sort the ticking tacho cable
Fuelling/timing need setting up properly
Fix non-working heater fan
Swap to inertia reel seat belts
Replace indicator cancelling spring
Swap to electric fan
Add a hidden lighter socket for charging phones etc.
Sort the various little rattles
Re-apply cavity wax / floor wax
Try and reduce the play in the steering box
Spin on filter conversion
I’ve already booked the car in with Dave at Mek Motorsport to sort the fuelling so will try and get some these items sorted before the visit (electric fan and tacho cable being the obvious targets).
Not many photos due to the poor weather but the obligatory petrol station shot and Scotland/England border before the heavy rain started.
Edited by nfcf on Friday 5th July 08:53
Lovely car, congrats OP they still look superb even today - great piece of design 
My father has a '68 1300 GT Junior which has the higher rear arches, I notice your car is also on an F reg but has the lower rear arches, was wondering if there was some set 'change over point' in time where they stopped fitting those?
My father has a '68 1300 GT Junior which has the higher rear arches, I notice your car is also on an F reg but has the lower rear arches, was wondering if there was some set 'change over point' in time where they stopped fitting those?
What a lovely thing! I did spot this one in the classifieds, really nice! The Scalino looks so good in white. Looking forward to more updates.
I also picked up my car from Scotland and drove it back, it’s a great way to get fully aquatinted with the car! Glad you made it back without issue
I also had the ticking needles on my Giulia, it can be down to a burnt out grounding strap that goes from the gearbox to the chassis. That’s what was causing mine to tick anyhow!
I also picked up my car from Scotland and drove it back, it’s a great way to get fully aquatinted with the car! Glad you made it back without issue
I also had the ticking needles on my Giulia, it can be down to a burnt out grounding strap that goes from the gearbox to the chassis. That’s what was causing mine to tick anyhow!
Edited by MTW on Monday 7th August 09:12
85Carrera said:
I do like these. Should have bought one when they were £10-15k 
I should have as well! The only consolation is that with the increase in values is cars like these are now worth saving rather than being left to rot.Northbrook said:
That looks lovely!
Thanks!Little Bob said:
Christ yes.
Love these little things, getting pricey now.
Lovely car OP, watching with interest.
Sometimes a bargain does appear - this one was under £24k. I did go have a look and whilst it had some issues that needed sorting the body work looked sound. I suspect if the owner had sorted the interior out with new carpets it would have attracted more interest.Love these little things, getting pricey now.
Lovely car OP, watching with interest.
bumskins said:
Lovely car, congrats OP they still look superb even today - great piece of design
My father has a '68 1300 GT Junior which has the higher rear arches, I notice your car is also on an F reg but has the lower rear arches, was wondering if there was some set 'change over point' in time where they stopped fitting those?
This car was registered 22nd September 1967 and I believe the high arches came in for 1968 along with the fitment of a brake servo.My father has a '68 1300 GT Junior which has the higher rear arches, I notice your car is also on an F reg but has the lower rear arches, was wondering if there was some set 'change over point' in time where they stopped fitting those?
MTW said:
What a lovely thing! I did spot this one in the classifieds, really nice! The Scalino looks so good in white. Looking forward to more updates.
I also picked up my car from Scotland and drove it back, it’s a great way to get fully aquatinted with the car! Glad you made it back without issue
I also had the ticking needles on my Giulia, it can be down to a burnt out grounding strap that goes from the gearbox to the chassis. That’s what was causing mine to tick anyhow!
Looks like the I picked up the car from almost the same place - car was only ~20mins away from Dundee and the last MOT was from CP. I also picked up my car from Scotland and drove it back, it’s a great way to get fully aquatinted with the car! Glad you made it back without issue
I also had the ticking needles on my Giulia, it can be down to a burnt out grounding strap that goes from the gearbox to the chassis. That’s what was causing mine to tick anyhow!
The long drive home definitely helps builds your confidence in using the car as you should have found any niggles by the time you get back.
I suspect the tacho tick is the cable so I shall be using some of this on it but if it doesn't sort it I'll have a look at the grounding strap
Retro_Jim said:
Lovely car OP, there was a company that refurb these steering boxes in Coventry if I recall who quoted me £250 for a rebuild (in 2021). I can find their details if you're interested?
Thanks. I am hoping it just needs a quick adjustment to sort it. I'd appreciate the name though as I am not far from Coventry and if it does need a rebuild at that sort of price it be a no-brainer.Edited by nfcf on Friday 5th July 08:54
Mudgey said:
Oh man, that is a lovely looking thing! How does it look under the bonnet?
As it arrived made to look very close to original - even down to green fuel hoses:With the first batch of parts having arrived I got to work sorting a few of the niggles. First up was the heater fan as I thought I'd need to drop the heater box (turns out you don't) I wanted to get this done now as I was going to drain coolant to fit the electric fan anyway. The bottom half of the heater is held on 4 clips 2 are easily accessible, 1 is tricky and the last is an absolute b
ds for access being hidden behind the scuttle drain hose and a coolant hose for the heater box as well as the outlets pipes leading to the dash vents. Once removed it looks something like this (fan already removed for bench testing): I think this may also be the source of an irritating rattle when you rev the car so tweaks where made - firstly the mesh over the foot vent was loose and was only held in place by the metal plate pushing down on it. The mesh doesn't look like the original and had a tendency to try and pop out the groove so a dab of tiger seal in the corners holds in firmly in place and should hopefully stop any rattle (if it was actually the source). I can always remove the tiger seal and clean up the box if I find the correct mesh to replace this one with.
With a couple small strips of velcro to the plate to hopefully dampen any other possible sources of rattles and with the new fan installed it was ready to go back in the car.
Next up was removing the mechanical fan and installing an electric one. Mechanically fans (where no clutch is present) typically take 5-10hp to run at high rpms and at around ~£130 (plus coolant) it must be one of the cheapest improvements per hp for old NA cars.
I decided to use a revotec inline thermostat and a 10in spal pusher fan as I've used similar in the past without issue. IMO the revotec kit offers a couple advantages to most the other inline kits I've seen:
- The switching temperature is adjustable.
- A thermostat doesn't have to be screwed into the adapter so there is one less joint to potentially leak!
Failed to get any in progress pictures as I was pressed for time with the car needing to be readied for a dyno session to sort out the fuelling. Even with the pusher fan sat infront of the rad you wouldn't notice it unless the bonnet was up
I had also planned to change the air filter before the dyno session as the current one has been "persuaded" to fit around the after market exhaust and won't be helping with air flow to the carbs
However the filter I ordered seems to foul the inner wing and after much back and forth with the supplier checking different possible causes (including modification of the filter bracket with a grinder...) they offered to take it back for a refund which is top service!
As part of trying to get the filter to fit I swapped the engine mounts as they are know to sag over time and the engine can end up sitting lower. It is worth checking for on any 105 Alfa as over a large compression the sagging mount can cause the mechanical fan to contact the shroud and the fan can then fail as I found out on my first one.
The intake side engine mount is a walk in the park - A jack under the sump (with a bit of wood to protect it) lifts the engine enough for the mount to slip of the studs and the new one to be installed. If you are struggling to fit the new engine mount a couple more pumps on the jack is probably required as it may require slightly more room. Sadly the same can't be said for the exhaust side with the earlier cartridge filter engines as one of the nuts has very poor access an no direct line of sight for normal socket extensions. Ideally you'd remove the assembly but as I didn't have a new gasket handy I just about managed to get to it with a flex drive.
Intake side with the mount removed
Exhaust side is a bit more fun to access the stud/nut but it did eventually come off
Swapped the leads to my more modern spare set and put the intake back on and the car is ready to go on the dyno.
Edited by nfcf on Friday 5th July 09:08
Car spent a morning last week on the dyno - first run made 124 which I was quite pleased with but after Dave worked on it for a while he go it up to 131 but more importantly it was making an extra 15lbf at 3000rpm. Didn't bother with a graph as I will be taking the car back at a later date to tweak it further once I've worked out what I'm doing about the intake. Apparently the stock over engine inlet is quite restrictive (no surprise given the 4 90deg turns and several expansions and contractions!) so changes to the inlet may require a little tweaking of the fuelling to get the most out of it. I'll so be taking a cam cover gasket with me so we can tweak the cam angles and see if there is any more to come out of it.
After I got back from the dyno I decided to finally sort the non-cancelling indicator. After removing the steering column cover it became apparent that the spring hadn't been fitted properly. No chance that would ever do anything!
Spring is meant to wrap around the steering column so that as the steering wheel is turned it pull the spring slightly taunt popping the indicator back to centre. Occasionally it can fail to work as with years of use the steering column gets rubbed smooth causing there to be insufficient friction to pull the indicator back.
Next I moved onto getting a modern cigarette lighter socket installed so that I can power a satnav or phone. Thankfully there was a convenient hole in a bracket going to the heat controls can I could use to hold it in place out of sight.
Final job for now was to sort out the seat belts. The car came with static 3 point belts which aren't great to use - all the hassle of needing to be adjusted like a harness but no where near the support. I ordered some belts from Retrobelt from the US as unlike the Securon stuff the reel can be installed at any angle and still work. I found on my previous car that as the shoulder point is slightly behind the reel mounting point the belt would twist going into the reel causing it to occasionally jam. With these belts the reel can point slightly backwards sort the twisting issue nicely. They also look better with aviation style buckles which a nice extra
All that was left to do was give a car a good clean ready to go down to CarFest
Final picture nicely shows the issue with the early dash - the fuel / oil pressure gauge normally only useful for spotting planes going for an overtake!
After I got back from the dyno I decided to finally sort the non-cancelling indicator. After removing the steering column cover it became apparent that the spring hadn't been fitted properly. No chance that would ever do anything!
Spring is meant to wrap around the steering column so that as the steering wheel is turned it pull the spring slightly taunt popping the indicator back to centre. Occasionally it can fail to work as with years of use the steering column gets rubbed smooth causing there to be insufficient friction to pull the indicator back.
Next I moved onto getting a modern cigarette lighter socket installed so that I can power a satnav or phone. Thankfully there was a convenient hole in a bracket going to the heat controls can I could use to hold it in place out of sight.
Final job for now was to sort out the seat belts. The car came with static 3 point belts which aren't great to use - all the hassle of needing to be adjusted like a harness but no where near the support. I ordered some belts from Retrobelt from the US as unlike the Securon stuff the reel can be installed at any angle and still work. I found on my previous car that as the shoulder point is slightly behind the reel mounting point the belt would twist going into the reel causing it to occasionally jam. With these belts the reel can point slightly backwards sort the twisting issue nicely. They also look better with aviation style buckles which a nice extra
All that was left to do was give a car a good clean ready to go down to CarFest
Final picture nicely shows the issue with the early dash - the fuel / oil pressure gauge normally only useful for spotting planes going for an overtake!
Edited by nfcf on Friday 5th July 09:13
This looks very interesting. What a lovely looking example! My step-father had a later GT Junior 1600 in white for a few years when I was growing up in the 1970's...these things stay with you!
I have the ticking tacho on my 105 car, plus the non-cancelling indicators.
Funny enough though there is absolutely no play in the steering and it hasn't been touched for 130k miles as far as I can tell from the history.
There is, however, a significant clatter over small road imperfections at low speeds...sounds like either steering or front anti-roll bar links, but I have never got to the bottom of it.
I have the ticking tacho on my 105 car, plus the non-cancelling indicators.
Funny enough though there is absolutely no play in the steering and it hasn't been touched for 130k miles as far as I can tell from the history.
There is, however, a significant clatter over small road imperfections at low speeds...sounds like either steering or front anti-roll bar links, but I have never got to the bottom of it.
MTW said:
Great updates! The electric fan conversion is something on my to-do list as well as the engine mounts, so helpful to see some information on that!
Save yourself some headache when doing then mounts and buy a gasket for the oil filter if you have the earlier canister type. Otherwise it is a really straight forward job provided no fasteners are seized.courty said:
This looks very interesting. What a lovely looking example! My step-father had a later GT Junior 1600 in white for a few years when I was growing up in the 1970's...these things stay with you!
I have the ticking tacho on my 105 car, plus the non-cancelling indicators.
Funny enough though there is absolutely no play in the steering and it hasn't been touched for 130k miles as far as I can tell from the history.
There is, however, a significant clatter over small road imperfections at low speeds...sounds like either steering or front anti-roll bar links, but I have never got to the bottom of it.
Sadly the ticking isn't completely gone so further fiddling will be required. I'll probably buy a new cable next time I have to order parts and swap it over in the winter. I have the ticking tacho on my 105 car, plus the non-cancelling indicators.
Funny enough though there is absolutely no play in the steering and it hasn't been touched for 130k miles as far as I can tell from the history.
There is, however, a significant clatter over small road imperfections at low speeds...sounds like either steering or front anti-roll bar links, but I have never got to the bottom of it.
Jhonno said:
Lovely work! Be interesting to see what you get out of it with a proper inlet and a play with cam timing.
Won't be massive gains (probably around 135) but if it improves the low down torque further I'll be happy. Some day I may splash out and get the head ported to try and get a bit more out of it. If I had no budget restrictions it would get a set of 82mm pistons and liners as well but that would be pricey!Great story, thanks for sharing. Do you have any pictures of the restoration it had? What was the first one you had like and how was it different?
I'm interested in buying a Alfa 105 but I can't justify the budget to buy a restored one (40-60K?) so I was thinking about trying to find one that needs some cosmetic / mechanical loving (15-25k) and getting stuck in with the welder. Parts availability looks quite good and panel prices similar to 70/80s Ford reproductions. I.E not cheap, but not re-mortgage territory.
Looking around, the normal areas that seem to suffer are the 3 part sills, around the windscreen area, front valance, floors, wings... Basically the whole car.
South African cars might have faired better but they always seem, errrm, quite molested and I guess they are never worth as much as a UK car.
There was one in Cardiff that I just missed for £22k that looked OK from the photos (SA import 4 years ago), another ropey ish one went on C&C auction for £18k a few days back. I get the feeling I will be looking for a long time to find something in budget but also within my skill level to repair to a reasonable standard.
I have been hooked since one parked next to me at a car show in February;
I'm interested in buying a Alfa 105 but I can't justify the budget to buy a restored one (40-60K?) so I was thinking about trying to find one that needs some cosmetic / mechanical loving (15-25k) and getting stuck in with the welder. Parts availability looks quite good and panel prices similar to 70/80s Ford reproductions. I.E not cheap, but not re-mortgage territory.
Looking around, the normal areas that seem to suffer are the 3 part sills, around the windscreen area, front valance, floors, wings... Basically the whole car.
South African cars might have faired better but they always seem, errrm, quite molested and I guess they are never worth as much as a UK car.
There was one in Cardiff that I just missed for £22k that looked OK from the photos (SA import 4 years ago), another ropey ish one went on C&C auction for £18k a few days back. I get the feeling I will be looking for a long time to find something in budget but also within my skill level to repair to a reasonable standard.
I have been hooked since one parked next to me at a car show in February;
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