1980 Alfasud Sprint barnfind

[reijnaje2]

I started a thread already on "the other" forum (and even longer ago I started one on a Dutch Alfa Forum), so for some the next pictures might come as a deja vu.

Once upon a time ... a long long time ago, a friend of mine bought a Sprint which had been sitting in a barn for over 15 years (parked there due to a broken cambelt) ... after a good start he abandoned the project ... after paying only rent for the garage box he used (well nothing more then few bricks piled together and some concrete plates for a roof) and not seeing anything in return we decided it would be best if I would take it off his hands ... this is what I found

[reijnaje2]

In total it has now been off the road for 17 years ...

While my firend had the car I already did some welding on the car: when I got it it all looked pretty solid:

[KevJTD]

those pics look familiar

welcome on board matey

[reijnaje2]

The axles where already removed and since I don't want to do things twice, putting the rusted axles back and removing again later was not an option. I decided to bring the stuff to my house (about 1 hour drive from the old shed) and blast them clean. After that I sprayed them with an epoxy primer and gave them a nice black finish after which I installed new bushes:

[reijnaje2]

Newly galvanised nuts and bolts:

[reijnaje2]

Don't you just love working with clean parts? ... I do!

[reijnaje2]

Then it was time to put them on the car again!

[reijnaje2]

Then it was time to go there 1 last time and collect the car, had great help from my dad and son as you can see

[Johnboy]

Welcome to the mad house
Great work so far, I remember this too. Well your in the right place . Good luck with the resto

[reijnaje2]

I guess this is about where my friend gave up. A small whole cut in the sill ... it didn't look that good so time to hurry!





Then first rebuild the floor and inner sill to get some structure in it again:


[/quote]




And there she goes:

[reijnaje2]

Some new bits of steel go on:

[reijnaje2]

As said it looked all quite good ... does that mean no rust? Of course not, hey it's an old Alfa!









So some new pieces cut:




And added a personal touch of strength:

[reijnaje2]

Some rust primer:


Other side was about the same, after welding and rust primer it looked like this:



Then some stonechip coating:

[reijnaje2]

On the right side there now was a nice closed sill. Left side was still OK and since I want to keep the water out I closed the holes which hold the chrome trim in place:

[reijnaje2]

Put the fenders back on and started work on the engine bay.

First cleaned it a bit:



Then some more and sprayed some rust preventing primer on:



Then topped it off with filler and a nice coat of Alfa Rosso (color code AR530):

[reijnaje2]

This is about where I am now with the car. Sorry for the many pictures (some are huge and take long to load I think) . Since I have a busy job, nice wife, 3 little kids in the age of 4 , 2 and 1 (yes a nice wife ) and a house to maintain work is a bit slow on the car so your computers can all get some rest again.

[alfachris]

Looks good mate welcome

[Alfasixnut]

Great work - thanks for sharing.
Looking forward to following the completion.

[AlfaCorseChris]

Watching old Alfas coming back to life never gets old

Good work man

Keep us updated

[Mufasa]

Fantastic work-love it!

[vecchioalfa]

Nice to see another sprint being saved, well done

[PETROLHEAD]

great to see the thread here mate, and well done on the work so far,

coming together nicely!

[GTV]

impressive

[reijnaje2]

Unfortunately there was no pedal box when I got the car. I butchered some 33's in the past so hoped I could use one of those pedal boxes. I compared the steering wheel bracket to see if it comes close .... Well it doesn't



So searched (and found) a Sud one and made it nice and shiny again:

[reijnaje2]

Also cleaned some other parts for the car.

Before:


After:


Steering box (only a "after" picture this time):

[vecchioalfa]

Nice one, coming together nicely....