Took me two years just working on it when I could.

 

Yes that's brillant - I will most certainly do the same with my wiring - taking one step at a time.



As for taking 2 years - I'm planning on taking only a few months. I have a schedule to keep!

 

Not to sound snarky, but I think the one thing you can plan on, is that all will not go to plan.

That said, if you are doing this yourself, and it's your first time doing so, rushing through it will likely come back to bite you. I'd strongly encourage taking literally hundreds of photos and spending a healthy chunk of time cataloging them for future reference when putting things back together. Put stuff in baggies, label things, etc... Don't assume "oh, I'll remember where that goes" because 4 years from now you won't. Ask me how I know!! Don't think of it as stripping, think of it as your first step in your rebuild.

 

the one thing you can plan on, is that all will not go to plan.

This is definitely the most important thing in planning a restoration.

It also depends on the starting point, meaning the condition of the car. Things can be extremely rusty/stuck and unwilling to come off.

Next is the question what your desired goal is for the car. I wanted to use all original parts (the ones that don't impose a safety risk after all those years, that is). So it took a while to get some things off without damaging them.

It took me and my father about a year I think, working one or two days every week. If you go at it full time it'll go faster because you're in a constant flow.

Oh and when we were done we didn't quite have a bare shell yet. The body underwent pyrolysis to burn all the paint and other crap off. After that it was a completely bare piece of art.

Since you're asking this question I'm guessing you don't have much experience. And I think others in here might have a lot of experience. Also something to consider.

 

Very good advice Trich, cheers. The wiring makes me the most anxious - what I'm finding is that so many nuts and bolts arent original and the filth of everything gets me down

 

Yes, the wiring is a bit of a bear. But again, take your time, take photos, and label. I mounted mine on a big sheet of wood as I knew I was going to rebuild it, but even mounting on something like this just to help keep things all straight isn't a bad idea. Enjoy the process.

 

Ok. Take a deep breath.

Starting with a freshly delivered 1960 2000, mostly assembled, but some parts in boxes, and others missing entirely, it required eighteen months to win “Best of Marque” at last year’s Concorso. I was working alone, but jobbed out the body work and some of the interior.

My point is not to brag, it’s to assert that a two-year start to finish total resto is possible, working solo. It comes down to a) knowing your car type, b) methodology, and c) doing SOMETHING every day.

My strip-down started with setting up baker’s racks with numerous plastic tubs, pre-marked by system, ie: hydraulics, front chassis, driveline, electrics, etc. I rarely bag-and-tag because I know every part that fits a 102. As I remove things, they get tossed into the pre-labeled bins. Fasteners and generic hardware all go into a bin for later cleaning and plating, as required.

Step two was to jack up the car and scratch-build a rotisserie under it, bolting it to the front lower A-arm mounting holes and the rear T-bar mounts. Of course, building it in place required removing the front and rear suspension, but that’s a quick, if dirty, job

A note... You will want a good compressor and range of air tools. This equipment reduces the time and labor significantly.

I recommend buying everything you know you will need immediately. Buy a new wiring harness from Lionel Velez. He is NOT the cheapest. There is a reason.

Write down a work plan so you can arrange sub contractors early. Around here, interior shops were ALL booked six to nine months out.

Find the BEST body shop you can. This is not where you try to scrimp.

Having said all that, once I started building the rotisserie, it required one week to strip the entire car and have everything in bins or sitting in the baker’s racks. Speed is one reason I don’t bag-and-tag, but I did take a lot of pictures. Which way is the regulator mounted is far more important than where it goes.

I rarely did eight-hour days, but I did a lot of four hour days.

 

If you do not take your time cataloguing every thing and photographing and labeling the photographs during disassembly the easiest way to reassemble will be to have another correct car to look at. Of coarse there is always debate as to what is correct.

Ken

 

A 102-2000 is a simple car, but a 105/115 GT is not much more so.

As photos are now digital, it’s a fairly easy job to take quick snaps with a phone and do a nightly dump. My computer automatically dumps them into folders with the date taken as the name.

With only a week to strip a car, I had about six or seven daily folders, so it was easy enough to find what I was looking for in the rare times I needed a reference.

I later took more photos as I dismantled sub-systems so I could refer to tiny details during reassembly, such as does the grease zerk go at the front or rear on the lower suspension trunnions. These folders got individual names by subsystem.

I definitely recommend taking snaps of dash and console wiring before you unplug everything.

 

About 1/1000th of the time it takes to put it back together
Pete

 

As you have probably seen on my post it has taken me a couple of weeks. I have been working on it for at least 2-3 every day, sometimes much more. However I have spent the majority of the time cleaning, repairing, cleaning, blasting, cleaning, painting, cleaning, and labelling the stuff I have stripped off. Could have been much quicker if I had just focused purely in stripping. It depends on your priorities I guess. My theory is all that cleaning etc has to be done at some stage so doing at least some of it as you strip stuff at least provides you a bit of variety in your days work. If you have small garage I would advise taking it slowly and thoroughly sorting and carefully putting into storage as you go.

 

Thanks NZRossi - goodluck to us both!

 

I generally do not clean as I go, although I usually spend enough time inspecting a component to determine if a replacement must be found, or if the original can be saved. I make a hand written list of what needs sourcing, toss the old stuff into the pre-labeled bins, and move on.

NEVER throw anything away.

I very much agree that breaking the tedium helps to keep up the momentum. So, I’ll flit from area to area, stripping and inspecting. However, some things benefit from a production line mentality, so for me it’s best to strip first, clean later. When I reported that it took a week to strip the entire car, I think it was actually a few days less. Some things had already been removed during its long-term storage, so I figured a week for a fully assembled car. Part-time work.

Since the 102 is gone, I’ve picked up a 115 Spider and a 116 GT. Both are now fully operational, just needing a series of details attended as we go. I’ve not yet figured out to sort and store the spares for three different-model Alfa’s, plus a Monty engine waiting to be rebuilt.

 

At home or in East LA?

 

Back in the mid 80's I used to work with a guy that had a beautiful Trans Am lookalike to the Smokey and Bandit car, except faster and with different wheels and tires. He took it back east for training (Wash DC) and the last weekend he was there someone stole it. They found it less than two weeks later. Well, they found the shell. Everything, and I mean everything, was missing from the shell. No insurance - too many speeding tickets. So yes, your car can be stripped in a week or two.?

 

That was handy. Now he just needs them to clean, rebuild each part and give them back to him + help him assemble

Pete

 

Don, id love to see pics of your rotisserie or hear how you made it. I know I will need one for my spider.
Peter

 

It has taken me about forty hours so far stripping my GTV, and I expect another ten or so getting the rest of the suspension and running gear off once she's on her cart. This includes taking copious pictures and labeling many ziplock baggies full of fasteners.

 

It takes my team of 2 young bucks five days to strip a 105: 80 man-hours.

Day one: engine/transmission, exhaust, front suspension, steering box.

Day two: diff, rear suspension, brake hardware and lines, gas tank.

Day three: windshields, interior, finish stripping engine bay and trunk.

Day four: exterior trim, headlights, taillights, wire harness.

Day five: catch up anything from the previous four days, final clean up, organize into bins, tag etc.

These guys have done this many times. They've got written procedures, all the right tools and most importantly a lift and the space to do the work and store the parts.

The first time we did this, it probably took a couple months...

 

It takes my team of 2 young bucks five days to strip a 105: 80 man-hours.

AKA "pirañas"

 

Waste of time bagging and labeling fasteners.

First of all, you'll want to clean them in a big vibrating tumbler full of nasty chemicals. Then, you send them all off as a batch to a plater, mostly for "black zinc" coating. You can't do that in baggie quantities. You'll be sending the whole lot at once.

Then, when they return, you'll clear the dining room table. At one end are about 10 plastic bins with smallish dividers, some of them movable to allow for long bolts. Label a series of bins "4mm screws and bolts", then "5mm screws" and another "5mm bolts", and so on up through 12mm.

Then, a bin labeled "small nuts". You'll sort your 3, 4, 5, and 6mm nuts into this one.
Another labeled "large nuts". This is for 8+. On a 102-2000 there are two pitches for 8mm, and 3 for 10 and 12 mm.

So on for washers - flat, washer lock, etc.

I use a paint pen to label both ends of the bins in bright colors.

Bagging stuff is a WASTE OF TIME.

 

I'm getting my Datsun restored at a shop and they had this done and I was trying to figure out how they were going to sort all the nuts and bolts and know where everything goes but now I understand how they're most likely going to do it.

 

A 102 Spider is a simpler car than a 105 coupe. 1 week solo work on the 102. Lotsa fancy creature comforts on a 105.

 

I agree that bagging stuff is a waste of time. You can’t really clean it one bag at a time (I load up the tumbler). And you certainly can’t give the plater stuff like that. Photographs are your friend. 3x5 card with explanation of weird hardware (take a photo of the hardware with the 3x5 card).

 

When I got my first GTV a few years ago, I was pretty much a novice. I had that thing stripped down to a rolling shell pretty quickly. I needed the help of a few friends to remove the drivetrain though, but it took us an afternoon. Most of the hard part is corrosion. When you get stuck on one badly rusted bolt or screw, it can take HOURS just to remove one part!

The rear end can be dropped as a complete assembly, shocks, control arms, trunnion and all, fairly easily. I actually have not worked on the front end yet, but it shouldn't be so bad.

I run a small car rental operation and try and do most of the work on all my cars, so after working on a modern BMW, this Alfa is like a piece of cake (well, mechanically......otherwise I kinda prefer working on newer cars, as all the interior bits and trim literally just pop in like lego)

 

It is not the time so much to take it apart, but taking pictures labeling and bagging the parts to remember were they go is critical. Time, patience and skill level to put it back together again is where the time goes as well. Sometimes just finding the picture, you swear that you took and or the baggie that your part is in, is also time consuming. The bagging of parts is super important, take it from another restorer and former technician! Good luck

 

Hey thanks everybody for your input that really useful. I havent decided whether to get all the fastners restored yet but I'm guess if I do I'll know where to come for advice.

I'll start a new thread on dismantling the Alfa where I will seek advice as I go.

My biggest challenge will be doing all of this in a single car garage so I may need to stop at the suspension and then contract that out.

 

It’s been a week....Reckon you could have been half done by now...

 

Point taken - so Ive made a start - carbs, radiator, horns, relays, coil, distributor, radiator reserve and fuel filter all out - so progress of a sort

 

Unfortunately, there’s really no effective replacement for experience. Fortunately, Alfa’s tend to be well engineered, and consistent in methodology.

It can take a day or two to sort out the 50 lbs of random fasteners and brackets that just came back from the plater and/or powder coater. Still, the time spent here will be less than the time to bag and tag, and THEN clean and replate everything one bag at a time, not to say impossibly expensive.

It’s a rare moment that I can’t walk to my shelves of clean, plated, and sorted hardware and fail to quickly locate what I need.

You develop a knack for glancing at a nut or bolt and recognizing the pitch.

by the way, my strong position on this assumes that a total strip down will NOT be followed by reassembly using crusty, head-banged, vaguely stripped fasteners and brackets. Very bad economy of effort.

 

What does the plating process consist of - is this basically a new coating applied to all the parts?
Thanks!