12/1983 Alfasud ti QV Barn find (kinda)

[Mike]

Yes the cable had stretched.  I adjusted it right up and the handbrake gave me nothing.  But of course, it could just be pad gap I guess and or stuffed callipers.  so my apporach is to start with new good parts and go from there..may get no where but that will be somewhere.....

[colcol]

And the good news is......a new cable is even harder to put on than a used one, this is a job that will seriously make you angry, even more so than the clutch slave cylinder circlip, Colin.

[Mike]

Precisely why I am paying someone else to do it!!

[Mike]

Well it has been a while and I thought it was time for an update. 

I got some time of xmas to get into the new shed, so much nicer to be working on the flat with a roof over my head.

After struggling to get a pair of new struts for anything less than highway robbery, I found a solution in the UK.  I picked up lower springs and rebuilt struts with koni inserts, and koni red for the rear.  I have installed the koni yellows on the front and reds on the rear.  While I was at it I sandblasted all components and repainted them in matt black, I also purchased new strut seals (if anyone knows where I can find new flat needle roller bearings let me know!).  So the suspension looks rather nice and shiny. The springs I will hold off on until after I go over the pits, just don't want to have to have the discussion.

Oh...I found compressing the springs in the sud a freaking nightmare with my shitty spring compressors.  Any tricks?  Took ages and in a 40 deg day...the sweat was flowing I can tell you!  I was sooo tempted to throw the lowered springs in for this reason alone!
I then turned my attention to the rust in the drivers floor.  There is a seam just under the drivers feet that looked worse for wear, so I ground off the sound deadner for a closer look.  Sure enough, water has sat in the footwell, soaked into the spot welded flange and just sat there and flogged out the joint through crevice corrosion.  So I set to work and cut out the offending section.  I then cutr a section out of a spare Alfetta door I had (rusted out at the bottom before people worry about me wasting good pasts).  The steer was goof and a tad thicker than the floor material.  I then welded this in over the cutout section top and bottom, using the stop start tack weld approach.  Worked a treat.

I then rust converted the area to be super safe, etch primered the area, and gave it a top coat.  I then sikoflexed the joint top and bottom, followed by paint on sound deadner top and bottom.  If it ever rusts there again, I'll eat my hat....well...maybe.

I've now dropped the car in to have the front callipers and handbrake cable installed, front left tyre slow leak sorted, wheel allignment, and a check over for road worthyness.

I got a little worried when I set out under permit for the garage, smoke was blowing out the tail pipe and it was running rough, which was odd as it had had such a smooth idel in the past.  I zipped back home fearing the worth, popped the hood, and started to pull spark plugs to locate the offending cylinder.  As luck would have it I pulled the first lead off the dizzy and looked inside the lead....to find the lead had pulled up the plug so far it was no longer sparking, indeed pulling it off did not change the idle.  Bingo!  woohoo!  So back in the car I got and off I drove. 

I can not begin to explain how much fun it was to be driving it after almost 12 months since I pulled it out of that barn.  It cackled and popped, revved freely and surprisingly strongly, and just reminded me why I love classic Alfa's.  It was just plain simple good fun....something mostly missing frmo todays rides.

It's fair to say I got a little carried away with the resto on the sud, whilst not over the top, I just wanted all parts purchased to be new old stock and of high quality where ever possible, and was focussed on experiencing what the factory intended, at least initially, and off course I have other plans to come like restoring the rims etc, but ok, that's just labour...and badges...and caps...and paint....and consumables...haha...

I'm looking forward to having her come home and once over the pits, heading to the hills and track days for some pure fun.  It will soon be in good company, as it is about to be joined by a Lancia Delta integrale Evo2, and a Fiat 128 3P that I've been restoring with a mate.  Will be interesting to see which one gets the most use.

I'll pop a photo up when I get a chance, probably after I have some nice new shiny club plates!

[Mike]

A couple of pics of current status, excuse the thick layer of dust on her, I was busy having the shed built and all the toys sat in various hidey holes gathering dust, a few still do :-).

Pics are of the koni supension and uprated springs (and a pic of the car they came from for ride height reference), some NOS parts I gathered, many others....oh which reminds me, I just picked up a NOS drivers mirror and installed it, I was very pleased about that as it took a while to hunt down. 

[Mike]

The last couple.  Funny, I usually take more pics of the progress, but have just been flat out, so lots of work done, but no pics to show it it would seem!  Oh well, proof will be in the pudding.

[Fetta GTV]

Great progress, looks great.
Good luck with the rego, looks like it should pass no problems.
Will the Evo2 and Fiat fit? She'd looks like it's filling up fast

[Mike]

Haha, she fits 12 at a pinch or 9 comfortably.  Two parts cars in there also, so no issue with space.  Think turbo delta, Integrale and 128 will tuck in and that will be it, a life time of projects!

Sud, 128, Integrale and twincharge all in process of registration...don't know what possessed me to do them all at same time...and then Integrale in March.  Been a long time since I had an Italian road registered, I miss it a lot.

[amichie]

Hi Mike

For the thrust bearings in the Struts I measured mine and found they are a standard size needle roller thrust bearing 55mm X 78mm. I got a pair off ebay for $20.

Andrew

[Mike]

Good to know, thanks!  Still waiting for car back from mechanic, killing me.

[Mike]

The sud has passed the road worthy :-).  One small glitch, the car has been registered with a 'g' instead of a 6 on the vin number it's whole life...and just to make it slightly more annoying, two zeros were missed off the engine number also...awesome, now we wait for a licence inspector to come check the number to ensure nothing underhand.  Imagine trying to get insurance to cover you if something went wrong....

Other than that annoyance, we decided not to install the lower spring set I got, was going to make the car way to low for comfortable road use.  Instead found a set of springs that will take 20 or so mm out of ride height which I hope will be a good compromise...if not, back in with stock springs.  That's matched to Koni yellow on front and red on rear.  Bit unsure what would be best adjustment setting for shocks, so have set up in middle setting, suck it and see.

Refurbished front inboard disks have been installed and new handbrake cable, while at it, installed a new clutch since and slave, it just made sense to do it at same time.

Steering wrack boots had split so replaced them at same time, wrack inspected ok.

Made up bushes for top of front struts as the struts are from earlier sud and did not match strut tower bush, which I was not expecting.  Always something!

Soooo close....!

[colcol]

The earlier Sud front strut was apparently a better design, the later struts had a lot of cornering stresses go through the damper and with the force going through them caused the Spica dampers to leak....after about 3 weeks, this design carried on to the 33, the fix was to fit Koni's, mostly done under warranty.
The Sud/33 steering racks are prone to seizing up, due to the ingress of water, even when the boots are ok, our Sud's steering rack was cactus after 2 years from new, it was replaced by a 33 that had done a few hundred kilometres before being written off, the last steering rack i reconditioned, i put boating grease in the rack, as it can cope better with water, it is made by Valvoline and is blue in colour, the steering rack bearing should also be replaced with a sealed, not open bearing.
You know a steering rack is seized up, when through corners, rather than one small turn of the wheel, you keep having to put your shoulder into it with little corrections as it is seized up and lost its feel, just jack the front up and see how hard or easy it is to turn the wheel.
Sud and 33 rack boots are still available through the spare parts specialists, Colin.

[Mike]

Rack boots are on.  One of the Koni shocks on the front seems to be underperforming ( great, was told they were rebuilt ).  Add it to the list...do I have to send them to Koni or can others do them?

The good news is I now have the paperwork and the transport department has the correct numbers, so come Monday, I'm driving home in a sud :-)

[amichie]

I believe Koni's are serviced in Melbourne at toperformance.

[Mike]

Thanks!

She is now registered, had a fun drive home, nice after about 12 months of mucking around. 

Think the tyres may have flat spotted from years of sitting in the one spot, could of little things, but all in all, a lot of fun.  I've forgotten how entertaining 60km/hr can be in small engine car. 

I guess the big question is, is it as fun as I remembered from 20+years ago?  Yes mostly.  I drove home in traffic, the few corners I got to myself is where it showed it's go cart like qualities, then it was seriously fun.  It just loves corners, but as others have said, it does lean into corners a bit more than todays cars, but I think that just adds to the appeal, you feel involved.  I was also surprised that 105hp actually feels like a good amoutn of power, I guess with sub 900Kg you don't need much.  It makes all the right noises and revving it out is just good fun.

Now to enjoy it! 

Sorry about the pics, it rained on the car on the way home so the 6+months of dust from the shed + rain was not ideal :-).  I'll start to detail things like bumpers etc over the next while, just keep tidying things up now.