Working on my Cars – Page 8

November 5, 2009

D&S #1: My Sprint Speciale acquisition Story

Update 11/5/2009: I am participating in the NaNoWriMo this month, a 50,000 word novel written in 30 days. I’ve written about 5000 as of writing this, I started on the afternoon of the 2nd so I have a day of catch-up to do. My participation there means I will have less words to add to Giuliettas.com. In addition to that I purchased a years supply of real honest-to-god web hosting so I have a learning curve ahead of me figuring out how to have the blog stay as it is but the pages with registers and histories and all that expand and be easier to navigate.

In light of the above, and considering I am going to be back on the SS full time once the Fiat is finished and the 69 GTV is daily driveable, both of which are days away from happening, I am going to rerun a lot of the posts about the my Sprint Speciale to remind the reader of how I got it and what I’ve done so far. I think 7 people read this post the first time around so it will be new to most of you. Enjoy!

Original post from April 2008. My first blog post ever! Why give up a perfectly doable 1972 GTV project and undertake a very challenging Giulietta SS project? There are lots of reasons that have nothing to do with common sense, among them: the persistent desire to own and drive an SS, the ever increasing value of SS’s making the prospect of buying one in the future ever more remote, the desire to accomplish a challenging long-term project; any of these is answer enough. If you ask yourself though, as I did: “What classic sports car project, that is not a pipe-dream given my financial circumstances, do I REALLY want to spend money and time on, own long term, and drive?” The answer should inform your hobby as it did mine. Life is short, too short to work on a car you are not extremely excited about. Whatever car is the answer to the question above is the car you should be after. For me it is, and has been for the last 8 years, the Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint Speciale.

Period advertising shot. I suppose I’ll have to dapper it up when I drive mine.

Continue reading “D&S #1: My Sprint Speciale acquisition Story”

November 3, 2009

Fiat Fresh-up four: Phew!

Fiat 124 sport sedan engine transplant is moving right along -and if the 69% hp increase all indications point to it seeing is realized, it will probably finally live up to the ‘Sport’ in its name. Fiat enthusiast Csaba Vandor in Texas came through with a big box of parts that I needed and Friday was the day I was set to start. As usual I didn’t have a detailed plan, or much of an idea of the hurdles I’d be jumping, but I knew that it took starting the race for the hurdles to appear.

First step after the starting gun goes off? Remove the 1438 bell housing and install the twin cam bell housing.

Here’s the transmission after I removed the 1438 bell housing. I was expecting the bell housing to put up a fight but it just came right off once the 7 nuts were removed.

Continue reading “Fiat Fresh-up four: Phew!”

November 2, 2009

GTV go over: gauging my progress

Dare I go into the needless tasks I’ve been performing on the GTV? I’m supposed to just make the wipers work and here I am with the gauges apart. Well, I actually like the challenges that lurk behind the cloudy glass of a gauge set and I am waiting to take possession of a used wiper motor and heater valve so why not? I tied one end of the rope securely and tossed the other into the dark depths, lit the light on my miners helmet and descended.

Come on, if you had the power to make these nice and clear and functional and well, just better you would do it too wouldn’t you?

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October 28, 2009

Jaan’s write up of fixing the Sprint

I was checking out if Jaan made an update to his fantastic website Eddins Moto and what should I find but a pretty in depth write-up of what he did to my Sprint the week before the California Melee. Check it out here. You have to scroll down some, but you’ll find it starting with the picture I posted below. The attention he gave it must have worked because I’ve been driving it to work every day without any trouble -well, a headlight burned out recently, but that’s not really trouble.

Sprint hanging around the shop waiting for some attention.

October 25, 2009

69 GTV go over: creature comforts coming together

If you’ve been following this thread you know I have the dash out of the GTV and an aim to make the car somewhat pleasurable to drive in the coming cold months. In this spirit I decided to remove the heater unit and clean it up. The wires to the fan motor were disconnected so I had a fear that, like the wiper motor, a PO discovered the motor was frozen with rust and simply unplugged it.

Removing the heater is easy enough, it is held by 4 8mm nuts that thread onto studs under the dash bulkhead that also act as grounding points for the dash and heater circuits. Once these nuts are removed you have to disconnect the heater hoses and either disconnect it from or bring it out together with the heater control sliders and cables.

You can see here that I decided to bring the control cables out with the heater unit. You can also see that the foam gasket that seals the heater intake against the bulkhead is pretty rotten. I’ll replace this with some weatherstripping meant for camper shell to truck bed edge sealing. Also note the cosy nest in here.

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October 22, 2009

GTV and Fiat: pleasing two mistresses…

I am making progress towards simplification, but some of these simplifying measures are turning out to be quite complex -the Fiat engine swap for example. I mentioned recently that I bought an 1800 TC out of a late 70’s 124 Spider to put in the Sedan. Last weekend I took possession of said engine after an hour and a half helping easing it out of the Spider -a tip for all you aspiring 1800 TC removalists, drop the steering centerlink so the flywheel can clear it! Suddenly I have a somewhat long, but not really very expensive list of Fiat parts to procure if I want this engine to fall into place. I think I have a package deal coming together so maybe this wont be so bad. I guess I’ll be the FIAT 124 twin cam in a pushrod car swap expert in a week or two.

Hard to believe how much engine you can get for $250. This thing sounded and ran good with no smoke, is clean and not much bigger (they basically share a block) than the pushrod motor it’s going to replace. Note fancy wrinkle finish on the belt cover. I like.

Continue reading “GTV and Fiat: pleasing two mistresses…”

October 15, 2009

69 GTV go over: trying to make the wipers work…

I had a kind of disagreement with the Mrs recently. It rained like crazy on Tuesday and Wednesday and I had to use our modern car (BMW, aka: her car) to get to work, which leaves her asking a friend for a ride, because the Sprint doesn’t have working wipers, the GTV doesn’t have working wipers (or reg), the Fiat isn’t running, the SS is in a million pieces and, well, you get the idea. I promised that the highest priority for me would be getting a car together to drive to work that was appropriate for all weather. I’d rather not drive the Sprint in the rain anyway, so the GTV is the logical choice for this sort of daily duty.

What I figured would be a blown fuse has morphed in to a full restoration project. Sigh.

The wiper motor lives under this cowl. They say it’s a good idea to remove these occasionally to clear leaves out. I wonder what I’ll find?

Continue reading “69 GTV go over: trying to make the wipers work…”

October 13, 2009

Fiat Fresh-up part 3: path of least resistance…

Sometimes I am reminded of how always in the Odyssey Athena with the frequently flashing eyes is giving help, good omens and occasional back rubs. Last Saturday (as in three days ago) I was at the ARA All Italian day in Alameda and what should I spy but a Fiat Spider with a note on the windshield saying something along the lines of “1800 Engine for sale, hear it run!” Well, the owner was on hand, I heard it run, monies to the tune of $250 were required to take ownership of said engine, with certain parts removal caveats of course, and I blinked twice, summoned my check book and bought it. Athena never showed, with flashing eyes, to have her maidens give me a rub down with finest oil, but things were definitely right in my pagan world.

What led me to such extremes? Why the change of heart from a polish and go with a few new parts on the 1438? Please find herewith pictures of what I found when the Fiat’s humble engine was opened up.

This had been staring me in the face since early May. Pretty grimy, but then again it is an oil and water cooled engine that gets really hot. Note how clean the outside of this engine is compared to the inside.

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October 7, 2009

SS 00121 Engine #2: Clean up and assembly

After 9 months in gestation, this baby is going back together. I have been stumbling over parts to this engine (main caps here, front cover there, toe stubbed on crank under rag) while treadng the circuitous detour paths paved by the Sprint, Berlina, TI, Fiat, Multipla, and GTV and it is time to get it together before any of it’s parts disappear.

I’ve been throwing in one part for this rebuild with every Centerline order and, with a few exceptions, I think I have everything required to get this thing together.

This engine had been sitting in the corner until the Sprint engine came off the stand, at which point it went back on. Refreshing the 2 liter for the TI meant it came back off. A couple of weeks ago in a fit of working against entropy, I got it back on the stand, gathered up all the parts I had stumbled over in the last 9 months and made the practical decision to put it together soon. Practical becasue a: it’s hard to loose engine parts that are assembled with foot pounds and sealer/glue to a very large heavy object and b: if I have nice shiny three thousand dollar engine waiting to go in the SS I might be more motivated. Continue reading “SS 00121 Engine #2: Clean up and assembly”

October 3, 2009

69 GTV go over: Getting it roadworthy

Finally I am somewhat done with the TI, it being for sale and all, and can get on to the next thing, getting the GTV roadworthy so I can find out if it’s capable of being my winter car this year. It fires right up and runs okay, has strong brakes and clutch, most of the lights etc work and the interior is not embarrassing so I am confident it will be able to fill that role admirably. It lost all it’s coolant through the water pump last month so I at least know I have to tackle that, and the flexible mounts for the carbs were so badly cracked that if I pushed down on the carbs while it was running it would lean out so much it would die. Both easy enough to remedy with a phone call and a few days later the receiving of a box from Centerline via UPS with brand new replacement parts.

To get the water pump out it’s easiest to just pull the coolant overflow bottle, radiator, alternator and anything else in the way. I spotted this silver thing in the greasy bowels of the engine compartment.

Continue reading “69 GTV go over: Getting it roadworthy”