Project Alfa Part Two

Last time we left the project with the engine rebuild completed, the body at Sprabake at Whitchurch and the various small parts away being powder coated and plated.

I had intended the project to be completed in twelve months if possible, which is not long for a complete restoration, but by co-ordinating all the different processes to run concurrently as much as possible, I could see no problem with this.

Towards the end of October '99 I spent a day at Sprabake with a heat gun in one hand and a scraper in the other removing the original underseal from the bottom of the car. This was a tedious job but had to be done, as the Italians had a habit of putting underseal onto bare metal, which can then rust away undetected, so it all had to come off.

It became obvious to me while I was there, that I made a bad choice as to where to take the body shell for repairing and painting. It had been there five months, and precious little work had been done to it but the bills were starting to mount up.

In order to speed things up a bit I had sent the doors to Nick Smith at Swallow engineering who has an identical car himself and could make and fit new door skins, and repair the door bottoms.

He did this quickly, to the right standard and the right price. He also promised that if I took him the body shell he would have it fully repaired and painted by Christmas, so I settled up with Sprabake and dragged it down to Nick's place at Basildon in Essex.

True to his word he had the car ready in time despite having to re-do a lot of the work, make complete new bonnet and boot skins, a new rear valence and back panel, and make and fit new outer sills. It's just a pity that people like Nick are so few and far between.

I collected it from his place between Christmas and new year, the best present I could have wished for. (see photo)

While the body had been away, I had been busy overhauling the running gear. The engine was finally back together and the gearbox needed very little work. These early four speed Giuliettas have what is known as a "tunnel case" gearbox with all the innards being fed in from one end. Parts for them are just about unobtainable so all that could be done was to strip it down, check the condition of everything and rebuild it with new bearings and oil seals. While it was dismantled we noticed that one of the spring loaded plungers that stops you selecting two gears at once was missing, so a new one had to be made, by using a later one ground to the correct length.

In the meantime, I had got the suspension ready for re-fitting. All the components had been sandblasted and powder coated, and were resplendent in their shiny black finish. All the outer ball joints were in excellent condition and as these are also adjustable for a small amount of wear they were put back with copious amounts of grease and new rubber boots. The inner fulcrum bushes of the wishbones, are not Silentblock bushes as is usually the case, but thin walled Glacier type bushes. I tried everywhere to get these but they are an obsolete size so I resorted to using the nearest Oilite bushes I could find, turning the outer diameter down to a press fit then reaming out the inner diameter.

All the rear suspension needed was new silentblock bushes in the "A" arm.

With no parts available for the back axle I decided to take a chance on its condition, so other than removing the inspection cover from the diff and having a good look inside and giving it all a good clean and paint and an oil change, that was all it got.

The brake drums were skimmed and the shoes re-lined, but before fitting them I spent some time lapping them into the drums, as to start with there was very little contact area. I did this by sliding the shoes around inside the drum which marked the linings where they made contact. Very gentle application of an angle grinder then removed the high spots and the process was repeated until contact was made over the whole length. Linings these days are asbestos free but I still wore a face-mask.

Fortunately new wheel cylinders are still available, so I fitted new ones all round. The master cylinder was sleaved and fitted with a new piston and seals by Mike at J&L Spares in Rochdale (01706 644201)

I made up new brake lines from "Cunifer" pipe, using the old pipes as patterns, and fitted new flexibles all round.

Refitting the engine and gearbox and all the suspension and brakes took about three weeks, using all the original nuts and bolts, which I had zinc plated. To help figure out where it all went, I had obtained copies of the original parts books. These are more useful than the workshop manual if you are doing a total rebuild as they show each part and sub assembly, and the better ones even identify the lengths and thread patterns of nuts and bolts. One of the things that Sprabake did right eventually was the wheels (although it took them three attempts) and I had these fitted with new Michelin radial tyres which have proved excellent in use. The car would have had Pirelli Cinturatos originally, but they no longer make them in this size. Michelin do an excellent range of tyres suitable for historic cars in most of the original patterns, whereas Pirelli only make a few and you literally have to get on a waiting list for them.

The radiator was checked for leaks and repainted using gloss black "two pack" paint to give it a really good finish. New hoses weren't available so I took the old ones down to my local car accessory shop and rummaged through their stocks until I found the nearest match.

The original carburettor is a twin choke downdraft Solex, which has a reputation for being difficult to set up and does not give very good performance. My own was in a very poor state so I decided to look for an alternative. In the end I opted for a Weber carb supplied by Eike Wellhausen at Chatsworth Motor Spares (01246 278633). This is a perfect fit on the manifold but Eike supplied the necessary adapter so that I could fit the original air filter. Unfortunately when I came to fit it, a boss on the float chamber clashed with the thermostat housing. I made up a 10mm thick aluminium spacer to raise the carb sufficient to clear, but then it was too high to fit the air filter under the bonnet. In the end I had to resort to grinding a bit off the boss, which was not used anyway, and fitting a thinner spacer which gave me about 1/4" clearance under the bonnet.

A new wiring loom was made up by John Middleton at Electrical Engineering Services, (01204 884383) using cotton braided wires as original, and the old loom as a pattern. I could have bought a new loom off the peg but in the past I have been very disappointed with them, so I let John make and fit my looms, and if they don't fit he can sort the job out himself.

I dismantled the seats which were trimmed in vinyl which had gone very stiff with age and had the shells sand blasted and powder coated after welding various cracks and splits.The covers were nailed to wooden strips held in place by tabs of metal bent over. I managed to reuse these after removing all the millions of nails and doing a few repairs. The foam cushions were a form of Dunlopillo made by Pirelli and had gone solid with age so new ones were made up out of a few layers of foam of various densities. I took the seats to A S Pickering in Bradford who re-covered them in "biscuit" Connolly hide with red piping. The rear part of the seat back is covered in perforated leather and the minimum quantity that Connolly will perforate is half a hide, so that's the amount I had to buy just to get two fairly small pieces! Ouch!

I made up new carpets and got Pickerings to bind them in red to match the seat piping.

The original windscreen was badly chipped and scratched but surprisingly Charles Pugh Glass had one in stock so I fitted this using new rubbers, which I got together with most of the other parts I needed from Centerline Alfa in Boulder Colorado. They also supplied a new black canvas hood, which I managed to fit after a lot of struggling. It's a nerve racking job as once you have made a cut or punched a hole you don't get a second chance.

I got the chroming done at a local place, which has since gone bust, and they made quite a good job of it considering they are normal commercial platers. I managed to knock out the dents in most of the parts but the back bumper, which had been demolished in the off loading incident, I left to my friend Jim Gibson, who with incredible skill performed a miracle on it and it is now as good as new.

In February, I received details of the Haynes Two Day Classic to be held over the weekend of 15-16th April so I decided to put my entry in, even though the car was still in a thousand pieces, and still missing some important parts. I find there is nothing better than a deadline to get a job finished in time. Only eight weeks to finish the car, get it running properly, get it inspected by the Local Vehicle Office who could then allocate a number to it, and get it taxed and insured. Could I do it in time? find out in part three.