Category: Working on my Cars

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Suspension #2: Rear axle locating triangle

The differential and axle assembly has to be able move around freely as the rear suspension absorbs bumps and loading changes caused during cornering and braking.  This travel in the axle has to be limited so that the wheels can’t come into contact with the body in any loading condition.  To accomplish this the axle assembly is attached to the body by a rear triangle at its center and a pair of trailing arms at either end.   These pivot together as a sort of 3 dimensional four-bar linkage through the center of the massive ball joint that connects the triangle to a boss nearly equidistant from the two rear wheels on the axle. The ball joint is the fulcrum of a teeter-totter between the two rear wheels.  With respect to each other and this point when one goes up, the other goes down.  This motion is softened with respect to the body by springs that are dampened by shock absorbers and the travel at either end is limited by canvas straps.  The entire assembly is isolated from the rest of the car by rubber bushings.

The ball joint pin is a taper fit into the boss it goes in on the axle housing.  Removing the triangle from the rear axle required heat and a ball joint separating tool commonly called a pickle fork.  The pickle fork works by acting as a wedge between the axle housing boss and the triangle.  I first scraped as much grease as I could off the boss to avoid a fire and to minimize stinky fumes, then heated the boss up, once it was hot I used a big hammer on the end of the pickle fork and the ball joint popped out of the taper. 

A lot of road grime attaches itself to everything on the underside of the car and the axle locating triangle is no exception.

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Bodywork #3: That dent in the corner

Warning:  I don’t have any training at what I am attempting here, this is all new territory for me, so use this as a guide at your own risk! 

I decided I could take on this dent in the corner without much trouble.  I made some measurements and found that the mounting face for the tail light bases had been pushed in about an inch in compared to the same face on the other side.  This is the  not so obvious effect of the dent on the edge.  The metal in this corner is still very sound so I don’t want to cut anything out that I don’t have to.  Secondary to this dent is the shallow dent, right in the seam about a foot to the left of the corner dent.  This will need straightening and shrinking.

I’m not sure how this dent happened, it’s very high and narrow and at an odd angle to the car.

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Bodywork #2: Cutting corners

The scariest part of the bodywork for me is the drivers side headlight area.  The metal has been stretched like ‘wizards sleeve’ to quote Borat, the mounting surface for the headlight bucket is gone and the edge is ragged.  Once I decided I wasn’t going to try and tackle this job myself, I thought about what I could do while working on other stuff.  I didn’t really want to take the whole car anywhere but I needed professional help with this.  I talked to the owner of a restoration shop in Washington when he was picking up a friends car to get some rust repair done.   “What do you think about me cutting out the corner of my car with the messed up headlight and just sending that part of the car to you?”  I asked.  “Sure.”  Was his reply.  If this goes well, I may cut other chunks off to send to him. 

The extent of the damage is hard to see in this picture, though the headlight bucket mounting ring is obviously absent.

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Brakes #2: Rear backing plates

The rear brake plates on an SS are the same as those on a Sprint Veloce. The gas tank capacity on these cars was increased by growing it in the direction of the differential so that it effectively surrounds the aluminum differential housing. To accommodate this, the emergency brake actuators had to be relocated so that they were in front of the rear axle assembly. Many other parts besides these backing plates changed, but I will go into those changes later when I talk about the emergency brake assembly as a whole. Important to the backing plates is that the new emergency brake actuation was via a single cable that was pulled from the center through a perch, and each end of the cable was secured to the backing plate by a welded on bracket.

My SS was missing the correct backing plates but Alfa Parts Exchange, a local Alfa wrecker, had a set still attached to a Veloce rear end. I bought all the emergency brake parts they had. One of the brackets on the backing plate was broken off but included and had to be welded, and both had major rust pitting. I spent an hour and blasted the plates to remove as much rust as possible. One of my friends at my shop was doing some welding so I had him weld the broken bracket back into place while he was at it. After the repair I painted them with POR 15, followed by a primer then a coat of epoxy based appliance paint.

The plate on the left is a standard Giulietta part and the plate on the right is the modified Veloce part.

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D&S #4: One piece at a time

I have been gathering parts and trying to work on the SS, an hour a day 5 days a week since I got it 4 months ago. The surprise addition of a well-bought 1958 Giulietta Sprint Veloce in the middle of February rendered any significant expenditure on the SS impossible for at least 6 months and tied up most of my hobby time for a few weeks while I made it roadworthy for the Snowball rally. In early January I had decided that professional help was required and was planning to take the SS body to the media blasters once the weather cleared then to have the rust repaired. In the meantime I rolled the body into a corner and began what I have been calling my ‘one part at a time’ strategy. Everyday I picked part after part from the pile of crusty bits and processed them.

An assortment of finished and partially finished parts.  If you keep at it it doesn’t take long to build an impressive pile.

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D&S #3: Taking the SS apart

By the time I got a loft built to store all the parts and allow me to spread out I had formed a plan of attack for the car. I would strip it completely, put the body on a dolly and start removing paint and undercoating, preparing it for welding, bodywork and paint. If I didn’t feel like working in the body I’d work on cleaning and repairing small parts.

I started with the gauges and tail lights. I thought it would go quickly and I’d have a small box of parts to clean paint and set aside before I pulled out the rear end or front suspension. After a week of working about an hour and a half a day the pile of parts I removed was large and getting larger. By the time I was down to just what the car was sitting on I felt better about my purchase.

You can see the dash is still populated with lots of stuff besides the gauges including the ashtray frame and beaver-tail switches.

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