[Joppa]

Well I guess this is step one. Seeing what I'm up for and where to start. After a weekend of cleaning and vacuuming, overall it appears to be a very good base to start with, and it helps being able to ask my uncle questions about it since his owned since '72. It has 72000 miles on the clock (has imperial gauges in metric Australia??), has a variable wiper control knob (installed by my uncle) instead of the cigarette lighter (I'll put the cigarette lighter back in for sure), a remote button (inside the glove box) to open the boot lid. Being a RHD makes it a pain otherwise.

I installed a battery, and the door courtesy lights worked, and that's it's. Everything else was is dead haha. Slowly you can get things working, so it just needs some loving and all should be fine.

You can see the crack in the dash in one of the photos. Shame but still not too bad. Vinyl seems a bit brittle, and inner foam is perhaps a bit sagged, but the body is quite good.

 

[Joppa]

One more pic

 

[ITALCAROZ]

if it were my car i'd focus on getting it running and put it on club rego. then you can enjoy it for a while plus get your head around what needs to be done.

just my 2c worth.

cheers Ian

 

[alfa2go]

Lovely original car in a rare colour! Let me know if you are chasing anything and I might be able to point you in the right direction.

 

[Joppa]

if it were my car i'd focus on getting it running and put it on club rego. then you can enjoy it for a while plus get your head around what needs to be done.

just my 2c worth.

cheers Ian

That was my initial intension, but it's just that the paint really needs attention. See photos below. Bottom parts aren't so bad, but everything on top has started rusting underneath. Brakes are all seized, as is the clutch. No electrics except the door light, so will did a little deeper and see how far I need to go.

 

[Joppa]

Lovely original car in a rare colour! Let me know if you are chasing anything and I might be able to point you in the right direction.

Thanks mate appreciate it, I can already see I'll need a list of things that I'm sure won't be that easy to obtain? The colour has really grown on me, especially when I can see the paint in decent condition, it really does looks quite vibrant. Have already obtained the paint code for it so I'm set now

 

[pescara]

Hi mate,

I will leave the paint like that for the moment. I think just the outer rocker is rusty, the rest is "rat" car.
I don't think the structure is gone. You can easily check with a visual control of the reinforcements under the floors. Check also the inner rockers, but the vertical side under the floors. Look at the jack points and front floors.

Look at the reserve wheel area and the link part under the water radiator.

It depends of your budget of course, but if you want to do the paint, you will make an overhaul restoration with BIG job, time and money. Around 30000 US$ for parts is the basis amount for a nice and complete restoration on this model. So, keep your money for the other work you have to do to drive the car. Now, if you have the budget (+ workforce), go in !

Take a lot of pictures, ask a lot of questions, you will have help from BB members.

Me and others can help you for all info details and tricks for the work.

30 years in the alfa engine... my 2 cents.
Good luck for your nice project !!

 

[Joppa]

I had a good pock around, especially underneath, sills, spare wheel area and under the radiator support. The section where the wiper arms mechanism go seems OK, if rust is present it’ll be minor I dare say (unless it’s just the tip of an iceberg). Sills have rust (looks far worst in the photo’s due to the Fertan) , but outer only, in 3 places, it all appears to be fairly rust free otherwise, and quite straight.

Rotisserie or not to rotisserie? Only if I really really have to and will try to avoid at all cost. I’ve made quite high and sturdy stands to support the chassis for other cars, so that will be my preference as long as I don’t need to do much welding underneath. A rotisserie would be absolutely awesome I could imagine, but I would have to make a frame, for a very low truss type garage, and the restoration would become endless. I reckon most of you know that 

I need to get the carpet out to check the floors. Wow!! I’ve never worked on a car that has screws securing the carpet. And so many pieces too. It’s a different car that’s for sure. I’m use to Japanese and Australian cars, although have owned 4 FIATs also which were refurbished at different stages. Though compared to the Alfa these were quite conventional designs.

However, I do want the freshened up look as I can’t leave it as it is, even though it’s so original and rat rod-ish . I have some savings which should cover the majority of the costs involved, and am able to do most of the work myself (well as much as possible anyway). I’ll re-use what I can without going for the concourse look, but I do indent to keep this quite standard. Anything rubber has to go it seems. I’ve seen some fantastic restorations on this forum, one has been going for a decade (mind you it’s just incredible) and I know how easily time gets away. I had a FIAT 124CC for 20yrs, tried the full resto thing but the money/time just wasn’t there. I didn’t go so far with the other cars and they were on the road in 6 months, car after car whilst the 124 just sat there, occasionally soaking the much needed funds.

 

[Joppa]

More pics

 

[Joppa]

I also thought to try the engine out and see if I could get it fired up. I actually wasn’t going to bother, it’ll be rebuilt regardless, but with a little liquid courage and tinkering time with the mates, out came the jerry can for the mower, some fuel hose and a spare battery ��. The oil was very clean, radiator was still full of water (very little ethylene glycol remained however), removed the plugs and added some oil to the plug holes, and eventually got the starter working to spin the engine around for a bit.

After a few cranks it did start to catch. It was sputtering and would barely run for more than a few seconds. The garage filled with smoke, blew a few holes in the header pipe, and pissed fuel everywhere. Yeah well we eventually had a fire (blankets and fire extinguisher on hand), we lost some eyebrows, smothered the fire (no damage or anything) but was super happy it at least started. I was in my element, has been over 20yrs since playing with cars and this was just awesome. Lights in the dash started coming on (didn’t for the first few hours) and wipers even worked after using the switches for a bit.

Brakes are locked solid, as is the clutch. Reservoirs are full of brake fluid so sounds like some challenging times ahead, and looking forward to it.

PS Under the water washer bag seems a little rusty, but feels solid. You can see my uncle tried to stop something with the black paint. Still want to have a closer look there.

 

[ITALCAROZ]

hi Joppa,

you have found an absolute gem there. it looks incredibly straight and not too much rust. it will come up a treat with new paint. just a warning, the brakes with the 2 boosters are a pain. really looking forward to seeing more of this.

cheers Ian

 

[Joppa]

hi Joppa,

you have found an absolute gem there. it looks incredibly straight and not too much rust. it will come up a treat with new paint. just a warning, the brakes with the 2 boosters are a pain. really looking forward to seeing more of this.

cheers Ian

Thanks mate, the more I dig the more I realize how lucky I am with this thing, so far so good. Funny you mentioned the boosters. My uncle always had problems with the brakes since almost new. When he sore I was rebuilding these he said I'm crazy. He's not as nostalgic as I am with this (seeing it at a different perspective I guess), and said I should be changing these to something else because I'm simply going to regret it. Not very comforting since he did over 70000 miles in it. So now I'm a little worried as I've already bought a lot of parts for it. I was really wanting to keep this original but now I'm thinking of the Alfaholics kit with no boosters, or something like that?. Or just persist perhaps and see what I'm in for?

 

[Joppa]

Well the strip down has progressed somewhat and now I can see how far it needs to go. Removing one thing seems to always require the removal of something else first, and away we go  I must say everything has come apart quite easily and I haven’t had to lose the plot just yet  So far, I’ve only had to endure seized bolts in the exhaust system, but everything else has been quite easy so far (touch wood).

After removing the radiator, I can see the water had turned into something unnatural looking, but surprisingly didn’t hurt the aluminium what-so-ever!! Really was surprised with that, my first impression was not good, though you can imagine my relief when everything covered in this stuff cleaned up so well. Gearbox was next. Since I stripped the exhaust bolts, out came the sabre saw to deal with the header pipe. I did not for a second expect the sabre saw to cut through both pipes with such ease. I didn’t even get a chance to grab the saw and I broke the blade as it smashed head first into the concrete. It was tobacco paper thing! Removed a million things underneath and took plenty of photos, but the gearbox slid out without a fight as did the tail shaft.

The head bolts didn’t cause any grief either, and with a couple of taps with a rubber mallet the head shuffled and lifted nicely. I had my mouth guard in, dukes up, excepting a fight, but was it not to be.

It’s been very unusual to me having so many bolts in the car that are kind of loose. Well not loose but a 3/8th or 1/4 drives seems sufficient. Nothing has been gorilla tight so far.

With the gearbox out and head off, I had a mate one side of the car and me the other side, and using an old bench press bar and some rope, we just lifted the block out of the engine bay

 

[Joppa]

Bores are quite good, about 2.5 thou piston to bore clearance and the lip is quite minor. I’d be very reluctant to re-use the pistons anyway but will see how we go. Getting the liners out may need a threaded rod and snug fitting base plate of sort. I’m sure you guys are aware. It’s soaking at the moment with some 50/50 (acetone and ATF) so hopefully when the time comes it’ll play nicely.

Cams and such also look very good indeed. But will get whatever is needed, looks like everything is available which is awesome.

 

[Joppa]

Floor seems excellent so far. There’s spray glue everywhere but the paint is still intact. Those strange looking seats belt are for the baby seat that was cramped in the boot (along with everything else, not a kitchen sink but the s-trap, taps, piping etc etc just full!!). This baby seat was for my uncles first born, my cousin is now 44yrs old!)

 

[Joppa]

Just some more pics.

Yes that is rust on the parcel shelf. Just in the middle of no-where, but it's just surface rust. Here and there I have founds this so far, in odd places where the paint was perhaps pierced at some stage?

Steering wheel has lost some varnish between the 1 and 3 o'clock position, but luckily that's it. Was originally covered in leather (by my uncle who lost the wood appeal over the years) so that would have been it's saving grace I'd say.

Oh and I've seen talk about whether the steering box was originally paint black or not. Well I can confirm mine was definitely painted black. Although not of high quality and didn't seem primed, but it was painted. The idler, interestingly enough, was not painted. But I guess the exhaust may have have some explaining to do...perhaps?

 

[Joppa]

Shame about the rubber mat in the boot. It looked great but just shattered into a million pieces. There was no way I could have savaged it. You could barely lift the edge and a chunk would snap off. As brittle as brittle can be and shattered like glass. You can even rub it into a powder...real shame.

Fuel tank was not very good at all. Was looking terrible inside and the bottom was crushed in also. The sender unit copped it to. But I've already bought these from Classic Alfa, and although the tank is missing the drain plug, it seems to be a good match and well made. It was a pain getting out, so I'm sure getting in will suck even more.

I have no idea why the picture was flipped over?

You can see the floors are pretty good, but the paint has come off in area's like in the pic shown leaving a rust stain (but rubs off). But still I have had no Fiat that had floors like this! I'm a fan of the Eastwood and PPC products, so have bought something for the floors later on.

You can see there's no cigarette lighter. That's a switch to control the wipers. My uncle was a non-smoker so swapped this out very early. The cigarette lighter is going back in however!!! Not that I'd smoke in the car, but it's pretty awesome to have (strange looking thing, doesn't look very safe?)

 

[Joppa]

Just some more photos during the strip down. The chrome stripping looked very daunting at first, but I took my time and used kitten gloves, and I noticed you just need to follow a certain order then all is well. Once I learnt on one side, the other side came out a lot quicker.

 

[Joppa]

If anyone has any idea why the photos seem to spin in a random fashion, please let me know.

I have no idea what I'm doing

 

[Joppa]

Found a broken clutch spring, which explains the floppy pedal feel. Classic Alfa to the rescue.

The clutch cylinder is jammed solid. I spent hours on this thing and simply had no success. I eventually had to take it in to a specialist and was deemed beyond repair (or not worth it).

Boosters are out, and also the brake master cylinder which was seized also. But I managed to get bits moving, sprayed plenty WD40 and left standing up in a vice to soak. About 20mins later, I herd a "twang" and the sound of pieces hitting the garage wall!!! So the master cylinder is now apart, but I'm not sure if the order is correct or not? I'll get to this later down the track.