I stand at the crossroad, patchwork Duetto

[Craig_m67]

Help.. motivate me

I simply don't have enough time to do everything; family, work, reno house, restore Duetto.  This car... a car that i lovingly bought back on our return to Aust. from the UK..  has sat accumulating dust and additional microns of rust for 12 months now, whilst I piss away money on the the odd obvious shiny thing from Alfaholics & ClassicAlfa etc.. less than 48hours of eastcoast gumball (Melb-Bris) have redlined her lovingly renewed 2L Nord (thanks Scott).

QLD rego was denied due to surface rust on the floor (okay several holes, might be structural, i've lost weight.. who can tell!)



It's not (really) a matter of money.. more a case of time management and me wanting to be involved in her rebirth. 
I've sourced OEM panels to replace anything with a dent, rust or hysterical welding (all floors, nose, that arch, the boot).
I've a twinspark awaiting carrillo rods, schmick pistons and a ported head with ITBs

Today, I stand at the crossroads of total paint removal. 

Complete dip immersion (Alkaline) by Redistrip in NSW (est. A$3K) or a professional mediablast for the chasssis and dip anything that bolts off by PJs here in Brisbane.. it's about twice as much for the redistrip ($not an issue), more a logistical get it to Sydney thing.  Some people hate dipping, personally i like the idea of converting all rust in the many seams back to a metal (?) and etch coating the #uck out of anything that was joined.

I'm reaching out to the Brisbane Alfisti.. i've a twinspark to rebuild, a body to dip/blast, weld and paint.. where are you
or perhaps you can recommend something else to procrastinate upon.. local upholstery.. sinful red leather (i'm going maseratti sky blue.. sorry 514 red)



yes i've had too many reds tonight.. it's 2012 OP planning budget time at work

[Sheldon McIntosh]

Leave it as it is.  I reckon it looks great with that patina, set off beautifully by those magnificent wheels, and topped off fittingly with the glass of red.

Fix any rust, but try to keep the original paint.  Just my opinion, and I'm sure not what you want to hear, and bound to be out of step with every other 105 fanatic, but I just love original paint, even if especially if it's faded, makes the car look well-loved.

[pancho]

Aghhh the slippery slope begins. Good luck Craig and stick to your plan. Whatever that may be.

[Craig_m67]

... there's nothing original about the 3 colours red (nine actual coats.. i've counted them, 1/16 deep inch in some parts) she has seen in the last 44 years.  great film btw, although i suspect there is more betty blue in her at the moment.

no plan here.. i reaching out !!
(did you find a twinspark yet?)

[pancho]

You'd laugh but I have everything sitting on the bench to build an awesome TS motor - except a good block....still looking.

Get yourself an excel spreadsheet as well as the idea of what you want to end up with, then have a few more glasses of red. Find the bits you need to replace and do some reading on the forums for each stage of the project to try catch as many issues as possible. Once you strip the paint it can get pricey very quickly as what lurks under the paint can either be ok or fargen rooted. Dipping is apparently great at removing everything but realistically how can you clean it all 100% and then get etch into the inside of every nook cranny and internal metal box section within the frame ect. Blasting or hand stripping might be a better idea. At least you can paint strip it yourself and then blast the remainder of the paint that you can't strip easily.

Just allow at least 30k for body, paint and interior, then perhaps another 15k for motor gb and rear end. And that's probably conservative and hopeful the body is in a good state. If it's not in the budget then maybe just repair the rust and drive the hell out of it now.

Fail to plan, plan to fail. You should know that Craig!

I thought you had a duetto?

[Evan Bottcher]

Looks like a Duetto to me... nice pic, btw.  Glad there's no can of xxxx.

[pancho]

Sorry, I should say round tail (graduate) is that what they call a s1 duetto?

[Craig_m67]

Yes, it's an original Australian delivered '66 Duetto (aka S1, Roundtail, Graduate, osso) = build number 57 i think 

You'd laugh but I have everything sitting on the bench to build an awesome TS motor - except a good block....still looking.

I is the king of iterative planning and have several excel spreadsheets for the donk and body.  Twinspark engine R&D seems to be maturing at the moment (AlfaBB) so i am concentrating on the body to ensure i don't miss anything later.  I bought the twinspark when it popped up on eBay... squirreled it away for later.  I really want the smoothness of ITBs and mappable ignition and yes carbs will be an easier fit.

What's a 2L nord worth, anybody want one (exAlfetta).. as i've nowhere to store it once pulled .. and if i was going to store anything it'd be an original 1.6 (swapsie?)

[ItalCarGuy]

Don't tempt me with another block to litter my garage floor! I have five in there already and that is after selling four!
Well I think you have already met Adrian from my body shop though I might have scared him away from 105 series Alfas! And I have kept my car there way too long so he has wised up and I think it would need to be a well funded project to go through as my dribs and drabs payments must be annoying!

Cameron at Automotion is pretty wised up on twinsparks, last time I talked to him there was one going into his Giulia. Soda Blasting is a gentle way of removing the paint, then get the rusty bits blasted with walnuts or something, then cut all the bad bits out, etc.

Pancho scares me with his numbers but I am not going the rotiserie way with mine so the final cost will be alot less than that. My goal is a rust free, bog free, straight, well painted car, that I can drive the snot out of!  Bodywork is by far the most expensive part, but gives you good peace of mind knowing what is under the paint. \

If I had your car, I'd leave the engine and engine bay for later, get the rest of the body sorted and enjoy for a while, then go back and sort the driveline. The 2L in it is pretty strong isnt it?

Good luck with it Scott and get it happening soon. '66 is a good year!

[AikenDrum105]

If I had your car, I'd leave the engine and engine bay for later, get the rest of the body sorted and enjoy for a while, then go back and sort the driveline. The 2L in it is pretty strong isnt it?

If anyone wants a tight 2L alfetta->105 convo engine with low miles ready to go - this is it - I can supply rebuild pics

Good luck with it Scott and get it happening soon. '66 is a good year!

Him Craig, Me Scott   '66 is a fantastic year !


Craig - did you end up having a chat with Vyvian at 105 Factory / Art On Wheels here in Melb - he might be the best person I can think of to recommend an approach

At a guess,  to Dip & Strip & Convert with 100% confidence,  you'd need to have the 2 outer sills removed (and the chassis braced with some box or angle while they're off)  or at least good access cut into them, the rear seat/shelf taken off, and the chassis rails opened up a little more than the 2-3 little holes they have to drain at the moment - just to be sure of good contact on everything.

Maybe have it soda / media / walnut blasted first - then go over it and see how solid everything is with all the gunk off - if the core is ok - seal it all back up and get stuck into welding the floors and nose in,  if it's toast - open her up and get dippin... (how lewd ! )

Great shot btw -  commuted 40km a day in that car for the years I had her - never tired of admiring the lines when walking up to the car - even with all that patina    I remember a guy at work asking me "you going to fix her up, or is that just how you roll..."   hahahaha

Stop resting the bonnet back on the nose

Cheers,

[ItalCarGuy]

Him Craig, Me Scott   '66 is a fantastic year !

Oh yeah, I do that alot. Worked with people for years and still can't remember their names!

[pancho]

I'd love a duetto.

I think after the GT build I'll kick off a duetto build. So keep your excellent project updated Craig and I can live your wins and hopefully not too many losses.

[EZEE]

After seeing the photos posted by Pancho of what she does/could look like doesn't that inspire you enough? tidying her up or redoing the lot - - - either way she will be beautiful......sorry mate I can not offer much technical help so trying to give you some emotional inspiration. Looks like some of the guys here have offered some ideas already.

Not to mention these are getting rarer and rarer.....

I have one in a similar state that I intend to start soonish - I probably will hand it over to some one though due to lack of time and ability so is that an answer?

Good luck either way

Emmanuel

[LaStregaNera]

Don't dip it - there's aluminium spacers buried in the rails where the steering box and idler box bolt on - they have a habit of disolving when dipped. Can also cause issues where seam sealer was used when the car was built.
Don't soda blast it - there's starting to be paint adhesion issues in more than a few cars that were soda blasted - the painter still has to go over the entire car and key the surface anyway after the repairs are done with soda, and proper prep is proving hard for some.

A competent media blaster can sand blast and epoxy prime the shell for you with out warping it - there's a Mob out at Caboulture/burpengary that i'm planning on using after i finish the obvious stuff on my car that have done a number of cars and panels for a mate of mine who's a painter (i'm also doing a chemical strip at home on the bulk of the car to make sure i haven't missed anything) - once it's blasted (sand - which keys the surface very nicely) and epoxied, it can basically sit indefinitly - this what *alot* of high end resto joints do ( have a poke around at some of the Vintage Custom threads on the BB). Then with it in epoxy, you do your repairs, knock it as straight as you can, hit the repairs with epoxy and then off to paint.

Ben

[ItalCarGuy]

Good point on the soda blast. My doors, bonnet, boot were done this way, but we still had to spend a lot of time making sure there was no residue and resanding everything. I only did it on the big surfaces and it was reassuring to know there was no chance of panelwarp. It is all in the prep, I got in trouble a few times for touching bare metal and was lectured about the oils in my skin!