[105]

This junior has been sitting in a storage for 18 years underneath 2 BMW's, now we finally have the time to restore it. 18 years ago it used to drive but now the clutch lever was sheared through and with no working battery we decided not to attempt starting it(should be more exciting when it does). It was restored by the PO, new rocker wheel arch and repair sections. We drove it down from the Netherlands and started by giving it a good scrub, yes BMW's also leak.

As you can see there are some very interesting bodge jobs and very thick filler on parts of the body. The sill in the rear seems to be riveted I guess sand blasting will reveal wether it is actually welded on.

 

[105]

Really struggled to get the cylinder head of tried the traditional cranking it over to pop it off and knocking it with a mallet, needless to say it didn't bodge. In the end I strapped the bottom of the block to the crane and pulled the head using the crane.

 

[105]

At that beautiful stage where we have to start cleaning the bodywork for to reveal the damage. Started taking of the sound deadening and underseal today, its slow going but with some persuasion it does come off. I tried using a heat gun and scraper which works fine but leaves quite a lot of residue, using a chisel and mallet seemed quicker and cleaner.

So thats underway and hopefully tomorrow most of the sound deadening will be off, then I'll need to look into the underseal.

As for stripping the paint I was either going to use acid dipping(the company in holland actually uses and alkaline bath don't know if this is standard) or sand blasting just here in hanover. I'll get some quotes this week and hopefully I'll be able to make up my mind.

 

[105]

Hey here are some more pictures of the rust damage, project is starting to look quite daunting. Guess its time to find a good welder(probably looking at getting a 160a mig) and put it up on a rotisserie.

 

[105]

Update

Went to the Local alfa parts dealer Del Priore, intially the plan was just to take a look and get some prices of parts(to reference with eBay). However I couldn't resist the urge to pick up some replacement parts we needed anyway, so with a boot of beautiful metal I drove back home.

Imediately pulled the car out of the garage the spare tire tub went in without to much hassle just need to straighten the boot floor a little. The radiator support looks like it should slot right in once the old one is removed jut need to figure out the mounting for the stabilizer bar. But when I got round to the front right repair section I was a little confused the jack point slot didn't math and it seemed far to wide. Initially I thought I just placed it to high but it really is to wide.

Later that day I found out that the store had actually given me the left rear repair panel, no hassle its only a 10 minute drive. I might actually keep it because there is a rust spot in this corner as well for 40 euros it might not be worth trying to make something my self.

I think i will need to remove the rear clip, there seems to be a lot of rust on the inner wheel arch and poor repair jobs on both sides, mainly just doubled up material lots of filler and rivets. Can't quite figure out where all the spot welds are just yet, seem to find more every time I look, main area of concern is the boot lip. Is it welded on both the vertical and horizontal surfaces? Anyway still have time to figure this out need to put some cross braces in the doors before I start taking off the panels.

Spent good chunk of the last 2 days cleaning rubber most of it is in pretty good nick so we've decided to reuse it instead of buying new. As an added bonus we got all the windows out without damaging the rubber little grease and a length of thin cord(and a lott of muscle) did the trick. I've been washing them in water with a little dish soap, occasionally using petrol for where the PO's bodyshop had used obscene amounts of sealant to try and waterproof it. General consensus on the site seems to be that glycerine is the save way when in comes to conditioning your rubber. Coated everything nice and thick, really gives it that fresh out of the factory look and sticking things in plastic bags for when we need them.

 

[105]

Been a while

Work has been slow recently, been busy sourcing parts and equipment. Sandblasting cabinet came in a couple of days ago, means plenty there is plenty of work cleaning all the parts. We started with a Silicon Carbide but can't seem to get the right results, it might be a lack of pressure at the continuos flow rate of the compressor. However I had also ordered some very fine glass beads, these are proving incredibly useful especially on aluminium. In the beginning we had problems with the glass clogging in the nozzle but after installing a water trap we've had no more problems.

The webers are completely cleaned and the parts ready to be electroplated, we decided to clean up all the bolts and give them some fresh protection. Bought new bearings of eBay for the throttle spindle but not quite sure wether I should fit them, the old one have a lot of play side to side. I was wondering if this is necessary and thats why the springs were installed.

As I am sure many of you have discovered both my webers had one broken choke valve lifter, this was however an easy fix. I assume they are copper because a couple of minutes on a soldering iron and some adjusting with some tweezers and both the lifter tabs were soldered to the gears(note: the gear can be tapped out from the back with a punch also when soldering make sure the mating surfaces are clean). I'll take some pictures when the whole thing is reassembled.

We've decided the left rear panel is beyond repair, the PO's restoration was so crude a lot of the decent panels got dented during the repair. Note the use of rivets, inch thick bondo, fibreglass and the occasional weld.

As for the right, this was done quite professional. However I am not keen on the overlapping metal, all the panels had flanges put in them and were seam welded. I think in one or two spots its actually three layers thick. I think the best thing would be to cut or grind out the weld and cut off the excess material. Then with the help of some butt welding clamps I have underway I should be able to put it all back together.

 

[105]

Been a while continued

Luckily I managed to find a decent replacement for the left side in the Netherlands, it's not perfect but by salvaging some parts from the old panel and using a new tall repair corner it should work fine. It's also a bonus that it has half of the backside.

And finally the crown piece of my garage so far, a new welding setup. We have spent a long tome looking for the right machine and missed some good ones on the way but this is certainly one hell of a machine. I specifically wanted something that would work on both 230v and 400v, don't know how long we'll be in germany and I'd like to be able to use the machine everywhere. It was in good condition except for some muck in on the transformers unfortunately no bottle but I hear 10L should last me a while so bought a new one.
At the moment I'm running the left over 1mm wire but thinking about buyings some 0.8mm for the sheet metal. Have been playing around with it for a bit and have no doubts that it won't let me down(that can't be said for my lack of experience).

 

[Super1600]

Hey well done so far, and thankfully you have both the right attitude and patience to do it right. I am sure with some skill and lots of hard work, plus money it will come up looking just great.

I am sure glad that my 1750 GTV isn't quite so rusty (I think ) as yours but like you, I too have started collecting new metal to replace all the rusty bits. Long way to go though.

Make sure you keep posting progress, its good for all of us tackling such projects but hopefully also for you to receive moral support and help, if needed.

All the best with the restoration, oh and btw I have family (cousins/uncle) who live not too far away from you, over near Bielefeld,Detmold/Lage area.

 

[105]

Last Post of the "Summer"

Thanks for the support, I think we were a caught a little of guard by the extend of the as well. It really is more like an archeological dig. Well summer is nearing its end and likely the work will slowdown from here until the weather gets better. Still disassembling I'm afraid, it will be a a big step when the first parts go back on. With the rust damage and poor repairs done to the rear clip we felt it needed to be removed so we could clean up underneath. The one upside of the shoddy repairs is that they opted to only do a few welds which meant most of the panels came of without to much trouble. Because we are putting a new scuttle panel and sills on we had some leeway with separating the wings from the body.

Another reason for removing the clip is to make it easier to remove all lap welded panels so we can butt weld them once the wing is back on the car. But aside from some corrosion near the window sill at least this collection of panels seems to be in good condition.

 

[105]

Last Post of the "Summer"

A last week the steel came in, with the amount of bodywork that needs doing we decided to make a rotisserie for the car and had some sheet metal shipped along. The total came to about a 270 euro's with shipping which we felt was quite reasonable, they swapped some pieces in the order so more is coming(at least we got some free steel).

We decided to weld in the braces for the doors first these should give enough support to allow us to remove the sills. There are also a further two more braces that will be mounted from the rear wheel arches to the front wheel arches for which the steel is still underway.

I'll upload a plan for the rotisserie later but its basically the same as: 1750GTV105.44 http://www.alfabb.com/bb/forums/gt-1965-1974/170260-1968-1750-gtv-race-car-build-2.html
Thanks for the idea.
With the main carrying beam running through the front grill into the transmission tunnel, with the load being supported on the front wishbone mount and the rear trunion mounts. Halfway there is also a support on the gearbox mount, this mainly to prevent bending of the beam under the car and will not bear any considerable load.

This also means the chassis will be tied into the structure thus becoming load bearing which means we only have to worry about the short distance between the mounting points and the stands. Before we ordered the steel I had calculated the different amounts of bending we would get for the various steel profiles, in the end we opted for a nice big 80mm square stock with a 2mm wall thickness which should be ample. For the stands and mounting points we opted for a smaller 60mm seeing as these both span smaller distances. Well the calculations all add up but I think the achilles heel in this plan is my welding with no previous experience I hope my welding will have enough structural strength.

So far the welding for the panels has been good although I feel a smaller wire size would give me a tidier and smaller weld with less to clean up. Going through the shielding gas a little quicker then expected and its only running at 8l/min.
However for welding the rotisserie I feel I havent quite managed to get the results I want.

Although the weld appears to be strong holding my weight and resisting abuse by mallet, I am not getting the penetration I am looking for. The machine is maxed out at amperage 10B wire speed 2,75 for any fellow powertec owners. Currently its running on 240V which is single phase here in europe, I am pretty sure this means its only using one of three transformers. This being a 400V 250A 3 phase unit with 3 transformers, this probably means its only running on 1/3 capacity 75A. This seems low considering I still get decent results, I'll have a little fiddle around this week to see if I can put in a 400v socket by the kitchen.

 

[PSk]

Good work.

Best way to deal with rust, is to what you are doing and just roll your sleaves up and get in there and cut it out. If you think too long you will scare yourself .

Pete

 

[105]

Well, I am busy again. Have finally settled in after the move to the Netherlands, its time to start work on the alfa again. Hoping this thread will boost the motivation for finishing the project and make me step it up a notch. I'll introduce everyone to the home of our alfa. Finding a garage in the Netherlands is by no means easy, let alone one that can fit an out of hand restoration project.

Upside it does fit, down side it is still not on 4 wheels and there is not to much work or storage space.

The workbench, looking at possibly installing a compressor under then bench and building a noise deadening box around it.

This studio next to the garage is really useful as storage, and as a warm insulated work area. Another big bonus is that this being a modern house with a big fancy stove there is 380V in the kitchen, which being a mechanic sounded like excellent welding. So now with some extra cabling we have excellent welding setup in the garage. Which means great welds.

And apparently gymnastics to celebrate this new found ability to weld.

 

[105]

One year later and the rotisserie is finished, well almost. Very pleased, the steel frame is holding up the shell without any creaking and the alfa can easily be rotated with one hand. Need to fine tune the centre of gravity, figure out how to hold it still when I work on it and order the wheels. Any experience with wheels need to figure out if I want nylon or rubber? Here is an overload of pictures.

I thought I would add some pictures that I know would have helped me a lot when I was figuring out how to build a rotisserie.

 

[105]

Por-15??

I've recently ordered a lead based paint, here in the Netherlands its called lood menie, I believe red oxide in English. It has an orange/red tint because of the lead oxide it contains, which apparently helps dispel of any moisture(it is actually pretty illegal because of high toxicity). It's used for all sorts of industrial applications and I was hoping to use it on the alfa. However after receiving the paint I discovered it is not paintable with 2K paint systems, which really cuts down my paint job options. So I was wondering if POR-15 is my next best option, I think it is rather expensive. If I order it is it worth getting a Topcoat, POR-15 is not intended to be used on its own??

 

[105]

Made a big step today, the first repair patch was welded on. It is really only bucket in the ocean, and considering it took a good chunk of 3 afternoons, very labour intensive (many a search on the laptop for donor shells turned up empty over tea breaks, so the work went on). However I am hoping, experience wil speed things up.
Naturally the 1st patch I made did not fit properly and left me wondering how to replicate a more accurate panel. I wanted to minimize the amount of sperate patches I needed, however just 1 piece proved to difficult.

And the 1st attempt

And the formers that allowed met to get somewhat closer to the required form, minus loads of hammering cursing and nasty welds. Of wich I have no pictures partly because my camera ran out of battery and mostly to protect my pride.

I covered the finished patch right up, no more rust here! Hopefully I can show you the other side before the weekend.

 

[PSk]

Practice makes perfect.

Sometimes it is simply easy to make a complex shape out of multiple pieces. Once finished nobody will know.

Also get yourself a good hammer. My favourite has a round flat surface on one side and a chisel type point on the other (great for stretching).
Pete

 

[pancho]

Kudos to you 105 for tackling such a labour intensive project - I think a lot of people cringed when they saw the rust you car has/had. Having a good working space certainly helps.

With the rott, you can perhaps drill a good sized series of holes into the rotating cylindrical section and put a bolt/pin through it to stop it spinning.

 

[105]

I am looking at buying some panel beating hammers, but they are hard to come by second hand here in the Netherlands, new they cost a fortune(I would like a decent set). I'll definitely keep an eye out for the hammer you are describing, really struggling with shrinking at the moment as you can see from the first repair patch.

Pancho, I am still a little shocked by the rust every time I see the car, I figure at least I don't have to worry about screwing up the shell. As for your advise on the rotisserie it is probably the route I'll end up taking, however it would be nice to find a way to secure it at any desired angle. I was thinking of maybe using a vernier scale, like on calipers.

1

2

3

Well that was easy, now I need to find the seat rail and put the mount back on.

 

[105]

The vectra that got in the way

So its been a while, a lot of things keeping me away from the alfa, normal christmas obligation, holidaying in the Alps and then a new car for my grandma. Got a good deal on it but the engine was rattling quite a lot, quite a common problem on opel vectra's but it allowed me to drive the price down. Oh yeah quite a mission getting it into a single garage with an alfa in it. Pictures came out a little blurry

Rotisserie came in handy again. Not the most comfortable work space especially with -5 and snow, but still better then outside. Wanted to replace the timing chain on the vectra, but quickly discovered while disassembling that the PO just forgot to tighten up one of the guides properly turning this into a cheap fix. Anyway granny happy back to the Alfa.

Was getting a bit annoyed, project just isn't moving along, difficult working in such a cramped space, constantly moving stuff around. So broke out the angle grinder and removed some floor.

Nice easy piece to fabricate, hopefully I can get it welded in this week. Time to dig up some weld through primer.

 

[Vytas]

*bump*
Looks like a great project. Nice rotisserie too!