Our very own "barn find"...

[Evan Bottcher]

More former sins revealed – an ugly repair around the left-hand front shock mount.  The mount itself is also cracked and has been repaired.  Does anyone know if the mount is being reproduced?

[Evan Bottcher]

A little before and after.

[Evan Bottcher]

Suspension is all off, and the body is sitting on dolly.  A big rust repair was required in the front left inner arch behind the shocker mount.  The radiator cross member box section is now in place and lots of little repairs done to the front upper nose where it has poorly repaired before.

A couple more photos at: http://alfa.bottch.com/2011/03/1750-gtv-march-2011-2/

[Evan Bottcher]

The body shell has gone to the blasters – to have the engine bay, radiator crossmember, and wheel-arches cleaned up.  A replacement front left shock mount was welded in, promptly supplied by Manning Motors.  The only progress to show here is the bonnet, stripped and a some cracks welded up.  The frame has been re-sealed to the skin.

I collected all the front suspension arms, and rear axle and trailing arms and brought them home.  Forty years of built up grime on the diff housing is quite difficult to move with degreaser and a stiff brush, but I'm getting there.  I've ordered all the parts to renew all the front and rear suspension – bushes, tie rods, bearings, seals etc.

[pancho]

Evan, the project looks like it's progressing well.

Can you tell us where you got the chassis blasted and what media was used ?

Who is performing the panel work for you ?

[Evan Bottcher]

Here's a big update of about 3-4 weeks work done.  I missed one weekend, then went to Sam's workshop last week but forgot my camera and the iPhone just wouldn't cut it.

The highlights:

* There's some awkward rot in the right hand guard, so we decided to get a new one.
* Because this has to be done, we decided to change over the whole front panel, and the panel above the radiator which had previously been poorly repaired.
* I've sourced a couple of very very good doors (thanks Phil!)
* Blasting was done around the engine bay and radiator crossmember, and under the front and rear guards.
* Rear arch repair sections have been done.
* Repairs have been done to the rear side window sills.
* Front left-hand shocker bracket replaced.
* A fix made to a previous poor repair on the passenger seat bracket.
* Left-hand outer sill is almost done.

So I'm going to have some excess panels – the front valance I originally bought, RH front guard repair section, and possibly door skins.  Hopefully they will come in handy for someone.

More photos here: http://alfa.bottch.com/2011/04/1750-gtv-april-2011/

[pep105]

Hey Evan,
Looks like your cars progressing well.
I met Sam at the restoration night recently we had a bit of a yarn about restos and your car did come up
while we were viewing the Pino Verde 1750 on the hoist at Ettore's workshop.

Seems like its in good hands - Keep the updates coming.

I know what you mean about iphones, all the images of my rear side window sill repairs were taken on my iphone.
Shame as the repair sections were fabricated by hand from of all things camry door skins   (at least they are useful for something)

Keep on truckin

Cheers
Pep

[Evan Bottcher]

Hey Pep,

Yep it's great to see the car coming together.  Still a lot to do - replacement front panel and RH guard, replacement boot floor and wheel well, rear panel.  It's all fresh metal, I've deliberately gone the path of replacing panels where possible rather than lots of little repairs.  I hope it pays off in the long run.

Having said that - there's plenty of little patches being done too...  Perhaps this wasn't the best candidate for resto, but it's ours and it's going to be great when it's done.

cheers,
Evan.

[Evan Bottcher]

The doors I sourced are very good.  A couple of minor repairs done previously, which Sam will improve on, but almost certainly not needing to use the skins we purchased.

The left side panels are all repaired and in primer.  That's front and rear lower guard patch sections, outer sill, and the repair on the rear side window ledge.  There was an aerial hole on the left guard which Sam filled as well.  It's fantastic to see this all coming together again.

[pancho]

Looking great Evan!

Not long now till she's home!!!

[Evan Bottcher]

I've spent quite a bit of time trying to clean the diff casing - 40 years of oil, grease, and road grime is pretty well baked on there.  Degreaser, scraping with a screwdriver, various brushes, and the pressure sprayer have got it to this stage.  There's no longer very much actual greasy build up on the casing, but there's some seriously hard black build-up.  It doesn't seem keen to shift.  Any suggestions?  Wire brush?

[aggie57]

Maybe someone has painted the diff in the past or it could be overspray?  I'd say unlikely to be burnt on oil if the diff is still working (!).  If it is paint of some sort there's no harm in using paint stripper on it.

I have had great success with Deoxidine on alloy castings in the past to clean them up as well.  Works a treat, washes off with water.  

[pancho]

Depending on the quality job you want Evan. My advice would be a . if you want to rebuild it then pull it apart and take the casing for blasting/acid dipping or b. if you want to keep it together and just put it back into the car then tape it up in the areas you want to keep as is and then get it blasted with plastic bead. Nothing like blasting stuff to get rid of crap.

if you don't want to spend much or cannot move the diff then perhaps spray it with some serious chemicals from a industrial engineering shop - they'll be able to tell you what works. The gerni it off in the morning. Make sure you don't get any seeping into the diff area or it could cause chaos later on.

[Gary Pearce]

Use paint stripper on the alloy Evan. It works a treat at removing old grease etc.

[Davidm1600]

Gary is that paint stripper for removing paint from wood etc, or are we talking of automotive paint stripper?  Two different entities afterall.   Where can you find and what is Deoxidine and what safety precautions are needed?  I only ask as I will be comencing strip down of the 1600 I have got for my Giulia Super after Easter, with a huge thanks to Scott Murray.