Giulietta Berlina restoration

[Il Vecchio]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Andrew Some progress but no pictures. My family and I went to Italy for two weeks and I got somewhat inspired by going to the Alfa museum (a surreal experience), but saw zero old Alfas on the road. The museum has the funny orange/pink Giulietta Berlina that's in a number of Alfa books, and it's in fabulous condition, if not a color I would pick. My fave car was the 103 FWD prototype (750cc transverse twincam), abandoned in favor of the 105 Giulia. Many Giulia details on it, and you can see that the bodywork is a prototype. So cool. Got the front and rear brakes all off the car. The shoes and drums all look good, but all six wheels cylinders are utterly frozen. I am soaking them, and will apply some heat, per Conrad Stevenson's suggestion, to see if I can get the pistons out. I broke on front wheel cylinder through stupidity on removing the drum (got the shoe cocked sideways), and I find the LR brake pipe on the axle has a preexisting kink in it, so I'll have to make a new one or find a replacement. Also, the short S pipe from the brake MC to the union just above it is also kinked, so I'll probably be making one of those too. Still waiting for trans seals (ordered them for the second time last week) so I can reinstall the trans. Clutch is in and driveshaft, etc., are sitting and waiting. Freed up the parking brake mechanism by using Jaan Hjorth's trick of suspending the cable from the rafters and dribbling oil down the cable housing for a week. Freed it up nicely and now I have mechanical brakes, if not hydraulic brakes. Did the same with the column shift cable, and it's nice and smooth now. Andrew

[Andrew]

No chance in hell of this car being ready for Monterey, not do I wish to pull interminable all-nighters to make it so. Sorry. Maybe some other year or decade.

Further update. Conrad's tip re heat to get the wheel cylinders apart was just the thing. A hand-held propane torch did the trick, and all six pistons came out readily. Now to clean, hone, install seals, etc.

Andrew

[Il Vecchio]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Andrew No chance in hell of this car being ready for Monterey, not do I wish to pull interminable all-nighters to make it so. Sorry. Maybe some other year or decade....Andrew

[Andrew]

Hooray. Conrad's heat tip got the six wheel cylinders to expand enough to easily release the pistons, and the insides don't look bad at all. Some cleanup, and new seals thanks to Craig Morningstar, and back on the brakes will go. Dennis at Norman Racing welded up the cracked area of the RF lower wheel cylinder (my fault), and the brake shoes all look excellent. All the shoe adjusters and squareness adjuster are free and OK, so I think things should go back together reasonably well.

I have to make up a couple brake hard lines, but I'm assured that's a good idea on 52-year-old brake pipes, and not that big a deal. And thanks to papajam for a rear brake hose. Kind of amazing that four-cylinder Alfas from 1955 to 1995 all use the same brake hoses.

Andrew

[PSk]

Subscribed.

Pete

[Andrew]

No brake progress as I get my GTV ready for a Thunderhill driver's school in two weeks and work on my, GASP, Explorer, sorting its brakes. And my friend's Miata's clutch hydraulics.

I did get the pedal box rubber cover and clutch stop from Terry Rushbrook and they look great.

Finally got all the trans seals from Jon Norman and Bearing Engineering. Got the front one in fine, but the old side one for the shifter shaft I buggered trying to get it out, so hanging my head in shame, I handed the trans and the remaining seals to Conrad Stevenson to sort when he has a few minutes free from SSes. It'll probably involve pulling off the rear case to punch the seal out, then change the output shaft seal. I don't have the right wrench to get the output flange nut off; it's the right size, but too thick and won't fit down onto the nut flats well.

Assuming Conrad is successful, next step is to install the trans and driveshaft stuff. Then brakes, then exhaust, then drive, I hope.

Andrew

[Andrew]

More progress, but still not pics as out computer gave up and I haven't installed the photo program on the new one yet.

Got the trans fully installed, with all clutch and shift linkage hooked up and adjusted, and all seems to be OK. Also installed donut and driveshaft, checking that pinion nut is tight. Pedal box is in, and I torqued the front cap on the brake MC, but have not installed it yet. Starter is in too.

Shifter feels much better than before. New Dentax in the gearbox, and clean, greased bushings and shift cable seem to help. I even got two NOS shifter rod bushings on ebay, and installed one of them where needed. Clutch is functional but the proof of the pudding will be in the eating when I fire the car up and see how it all works.

Now to clean up all the brake wheel cylinders and rebuild them, then install. The bend of few new brake pipes, install the new hoses, reassemble, bleed, and see if I have brakes. Are we into 2010 yet? Will post pics when computer comes back to life or I can face dealing with out Mac. Off to Thunderhill today in my GTV for a BMW track school.

Andrew

[Andrew]

Back from Thunderhill, and finally some pics of the Berlina.

1. Trans happily back from Conrad Stevenson's shop with new shifter shaft and output shaft oil seals, plus a new rear bearing. Proud to display Conrad's business card.
2. Trans roughly back in place, hoisted up from my chest. Youch.
3. Sprint exhaust I bought on ebay some time ago, even before I had the Berlina, and will have to lengthen to make fit. But it should be OK.
4. Trans, driveshaft, shifter rod and cable, clutch rods, and everything else back in place.
5. Rear of driveshaft bolted up to the pinion flange, with grody diff partly visible. Spider lends emotional support in the background.

Andrew

[rcess]

Andrew,

Your pictures look very familiar to me, since I spent a fair amount of time underneath my '60 Berlina last week. I have a question concerning your second picture. At the back of the oil pan the oil drain plug is located in the same location as on my car, but what is that to the left of oil drain?

I never have been able to figure out why the Berlina's oil drain is located at the back of the pan, because when the cross member is installed it blocks access to the drain plug, and the only way I can drain the oil is to remove the cross member.

The previous owner of my car (in Rome) evidently became nervous by the Berlina's lack of a water temperature gauge, so he installed a later model Alfa gauge that simply laid in the glove box. This was easy to do, since the intake manifold has the threaded hole for the temperature sender which, for the Berlina, simply contains a plug. I have since, with the aid of a bracket from J. C. Whitney, relocated the gauge to below the dash. Not original, but peace of mind!

[Andrew]

I don't know on the two plugs at the back of the pan. I assumed one was a plug for where an oil temp sender would go on a model higher up the price chain. Yes, same problem with the cross member getting in the way of the drain plug, though it's only a couple minutes to remove the cross member. In fact, when I got this car it lacked that cross member, and the clutch cover. Thanks to 750/101 list members I got both.

I plan to install a water gauge of some type too. Makes me too nervous not to know. I may also install a tach somewhere too. Those are projects for much down the road.

Andrew

[Andrew]

Just for fun, compare the fully-installed-trans picture above with the pre-removal picture from basically the same angle on p. 2.

Andrew

[Andrew]

Finally some brake progress. Over the past couple days, I cleaned up and rebuilt all six wheel cylinders, cleaned up the backing plates, etc., cleaned the drums, and pulled the pedal box back out so I could attached the brake MC; I couldn't get access to insert the cotter pin in the MC shaft clevis pin. The cylinders were in better condition than I had reasons to expect. Once I got them apart with some heat, the pistons had only light corrosion, and the cylinders had just attendant corrosion from the steel pistons, with basically no pitting at all. Seal kits came from Centerline.

Some pics. First is all the wheel cylinders, cleaned and rebuilt and ready to reinstall. Second is one LF brake backing plate, ready to reassemble. Finally is the LR brake drum, which was not aluminum colored before I started scraping and wire-brushing it. They're not perfect now, but it's a lot better. The LF drum was silver over blue over red primer. At least now it's natural aluminum.

Still have to put it all together and make two new brake pipes. My first attempt at a brake pipe came to an end when the ebay flaring tool I bought broke on the first use. Quality tools.

Andrew

[Andrew]

Small update. Front wheel cylinders and shoes are back in, and pipes and hoses are all hooked up. Hubs cleaned and lubed, and wheel bearings installed and set. Rear wheel cylinders to go in next. Do the sliding rear wheel cylinders need some lube where they slide on the backing plate? The factory shop manual doesn't say to, but it seems to me someone told me to do that.

Pics:
1. Biggest brakes on earth for a 50 HP car?
2. How the wheels and tires look now. Soon off to the sandblaster, and a set of Pirelli P3s.
3 and 4. Not strictly Alfa, but still very cool: What is going to be eating into my quality Giulietta Berlina time over the coming months: Bought this 68 Ford Cortina DeLuxe today. I had arranged the deal with the seller in LA ahead of time, and flew to LAX this AM, where he picked me up and I checked out the car. Being satisfied with it, I drove it home just now, 412 miles from Gardena to Berkeley at 65 MPH, averaging 32 MPG from its single-carb Kent 1600. Not bad. I'm a sucker for 60s European sedans of all stripes. This is a one-owner car, sold new at Bill Stroppe Ford in Long Beach, still with its original plates. Got lots of attaboys and thumbs-ups on the drive home on 5, 99, 120, 205, and 580.

Andrew

[101/105guy]

That is a sweet Cortuna !!

[Andrew]

Got the brakes all in and adjusted, and the drums on. Hooked up the parking brake.

This car has the early metal axle straps, and both were broken. Amazingly, all four screws holding the strap and axle bump stop came out without any trouble. It's not this car isn't rusty, but it's selectively rust. Knock wood, but I've had no trouble getting hardware off the body on this car. I say that now, but I haven't tried getting the bumpers off yet.

Pictures:
1. To prove my point, here's a picture the right front jack point and outrigger, and bottom of the right front door. Nasty.
2. Yet look at this; this is the right axle strap mount area. Under the grease/dirt crud, there's perfect original steel, complete with welding discoloration still visible from the nutplates for the bolts to hold the bump stop and rebound strap.
3. Old axle strap. Anyone want a pair of these as patterns? I'm going with canvas.
4. LF brake drum, hose, MC in the background.
5. My "interior." This is the Terry Rushbrook pedal curtain. Best part of the interior.
6. Brake pipes I have to make up. Both rear axle pipes and the short pipe that goes from the MC to the distribution block right above it. (in the next post)

Andrew