Classic Alfa Forums

Cool
Should be do for Crimbo then

Johnboy wrote:Cool
Should be do for Crimbo then

no problem with that prediction mate.....as long as you don't say which Christmas

well it will properly be done before mine

Great shed / workshop Kev.
Will he mind all the mess and noise ?

Kegsti66 wrote:Great shed / workshop Kev.
Will he mind all the mess and noise ?

we built this little one for me to do the car in mate, raised the roof by an extra 2 foot to make some headroom.
I've done cars at jims' place before but as you say, it makes a huge mess. this one is set out on its own so i'm free to make as much dust and mess as I like

when it's done I can move it into the big shed to do the refitting.



JB.....you beat others to say that I guess

had the day to myself today, watched a bit of tv but the itch to get out and do something took over.

went for a ride in the 33 which helped, what a great car they are

was gonna start stripping the engine down but then spotted the heater box which needs a refurb as a lot of it is seized and most is very grubby after 25+ years of use
there is all sorts of linkages and levers, this little vacuum operated one looks a bit clogged!
the main heat control rod was rusted solid where it was trying to move at this set of bevel gears
it had resulted in a broken plastic turning vane as the control arms had probably been forced at some point. I extended one of the flaps to make the locating flap longer so it fitted into an unbroken section, smallest bit of welding i'll do on the car I guess

now it's all free moving it's quite an elaborate way of doing things.
the long rod with the UJ's on it turns the bevel gears, which moves the lower heat control flap. the opposite side of that flap is connected to a longer guide with another set of quadrant gears which operates the top heat control flap and also a tap on the heater matrix itself. so not only do the flaps alter the air-flow but the water to the matrix is blocked off. all in one movement!

this is them open....
and closed....
I've some more cleaning to do before it all goes back together plus some greasing to the moving parts. i'll also have to release the UJ section form the rusty rod as it needs to be separated to make refitting much easier as that part goes through the dash

JB.....you beat others to say that I guess

Your not wrong ! Especially with Chris

Looks like a great place to work on the grale

plan for this week was to crack on with the welding.
unfortunately I've been so distracted sorting all manner of other things that I've hardly had chance to do anything at all

so now the car is up on it's various platforms I could finally get stuck in

wing off revealed that the A pillar is remarkably good so that's a result. needs a small repair to the side profile near the strut top but the underside will need further repairs, but I knew about that so no big deal.
with the outer sill opened up the damage was clear, all the corrosion had allowed the central sill to be twisted and pushed up which just made more corrosion letting in the moisture. all looked as wavy as the north sea!
the first weld

there'll be a few more to come yet

this little bracket is supposed to be a jacking point, poor thing needs some reinforcement
next a little trip to town as yet again I was unprepared enough to not have the steels ready

the bottom edge I was gonna repair to make a return edge to mount the sill but in the end I just ground the lot off and started again
been a mixed week so far, loads done but to all kinds of other stuff.

my 33 went this afternoon to its new owner so that's another question mark of what to do with it gone

done a couple of runs up to the unit checking stuff and collecting parts.

tomorrow I hope to get a few hours on the 'grale and actually make it look like I've done something!

central sill repaired at the front end
the rear end chassis section where the suspension tie rod mounts was in pretty poor shape, looked to be reasonably solid above it but up to it had all but disappeared.
on having a poke above it though some more rot was found so nothing for it but to chop out the whole mounting after carefully measuring where it went !
a repair plate was made up and the suspension mount got the remains of the chassis rail taken off it, then the 2 were joined together off the car so I could get some good welds to it
after making sure it was in the right place the plate got welded back to the car.
i'll brace it in a few extra places that it didn't originally have before boxing it all in
this is the corner where I've a new step/arch to fit so still a fair bit to do before the sill can go on

Christmas is over, there's only so much time you can dedicate to TV at this time of year, so went down to the car to have a few hours on the n/s rear arch that needed changing.

I'd got a decent used complete arch section to use so cut the original one out right back to the door seal flange and to the inner arch flange on the inside, which turns out is better than i'd thought and will be useable to some extent.
whilst the sill was open I repaired the central sill portion there above where i'd done the chassis repairs

after a bit of jiggling and chopping out in found a decent position keeping alignment decent all round.

the seal flange was spot welded in place, rest got the good old mig
the inner part lined up just nice against the original flange so that simply got seam welded

i'd already sanded it back to bare metal befiore fitting so the remaining pitted metal got a dose of rust inhibitor, soild metal still but won't hurt to have a little extra protection
once all welds were ground back it got a coat of zinc primer just to protect it whilst the work is ongoing.

pretty much ready now for the outer sill to go on and close that side in.

At this rate Kev, we know what you will be coming to MITCAR in !!
Top man

got myself a bargain in the post today.
as I mentioned a while back i'll be changing the wipers over to a proper RHD set-up by fitting a rust-free scuttle panel off an HF turbo
I have the wiper motor & linkages but the guy wanted what I considered a fortune for a pair of used wiper arms, about £40 I seem to remember.
i'll easily find some for a few quid I thought......

so after a month or two of asking everywhere that was breaking delta's I came to the conclusion that it wasn't gonna be easy, got me thinking i'd have to chop the original arms and weld them back round the right way (wrong configuration is easy to spot below on the old LHD ones).....said i'm tight

but last week up popped a new old stock, genuine lancia wiper arm for £6-95 + £3 P&P.........and he had 2

clicked the buy it now sharpish, before they disappeared.

seller even refunded one of the postage rather than charge me twice, not all sellers do that nowadays on ebay, top man

so a pair of brand new ones for under £20, and I won't have to sand & paint them, bargain!!



easily pleased some times

Now that's a result. Little fish are sweet as the saying goes.

What a result !! Nice one.
Don't you just love it when that happens.

turned out just great guys, love a bargain.

just got a used headlight which wasn't so cheap, but they're nearly as hard to find in the original set-up as sud ones!
evo style ones sure, in fact I've got a brand new set still in the walkers lancia box but I prefer the original one big one small look

Yeah we love bargain still can't believe how fast this is coming together your be doing Scandinavian flick's in no time

should make a bit more progress over the next week or two mate, fulvia ready for the rebuild now and parts scheduled for week on Saturday so got a few hours spare to get some work done.

with it being so local to me, literally 3 mins up the road, I'll be able to do a few evenings in the week once things settle down and especially once the clocks change

All sounds good Kev

got the central section repaired on weds in the little time I had spare, plus tidied all the old metal off the jacking point and welded that in place.

today I managed to finally get the outer sill fixed in place.

the top joint has a joggled finish on the new sill so that was fitted under the original sill which leaves a nice channel to weld into.
i'd been pointed to a better way of holding the 2 edges together using cleco fasteners. simply drill a hole through both panels then insert the cleco fitting using the special tool, which when you release it the 2 halves get pulled tightly together
bottom lip was spot welded all along it's edge with a few token tack welds behind where there was a little overlap behind.
rear section around the jacking point and suspension mount, once tidied and sealed it'll look better
a protective coating of etch primer will keep things ok until it's bodywork time
just got the front end to seal in but a bit more work around the wheel arch area too, then the back end needs capping in before going up into the strut tower....a bit of a start to the welding but loads more to do
with upcoming projects though i'll not get too much time on it, not as much as i'd hope to get but once spring comes i'll be able to do a few hours after work with it being close to home.....unless circumstances change....

Excellent progress Kev.
Suspension and jacking point you fabricated has come out really good.

after saying i'd get some progress i'm still struggling along with getting tied down with other stuff, and wimping out due to the near freezing conditions this week

other stuff coming on over the next few weeks may well halt progress on the car for a while now so may be the last update for a bit.

had a few hours this evening so made up a few little patches to repair the remaining rear door step where it'd disappeared
front end at the bottom of the A post wasn't it bad order at all but whilst there I replaced the bottom to make sure it has a chance to last

Kev, Don't call it wimping out or you will make many of us feel guilty.

Its just the resting time of the year................. Unlike the sunny ones which are the relaxing times of the year.

I notice that Anglia Car Auctions have a Delta Turbo and an Integrale in their January Classic Car Auction catalogue, amongst a whole host of other very nice machinery

had an hour to kill tonight so with progress on the car looking like being slim to none over the next 3 months or so I set about taking the headlights apart, now I've got some new/very good headlights to complete the full set

at the moment there is a mixture of broken, even missing lenses and poor reflectors
the front covers came off easily enough, 4 allen key bolts per side and only 1 was remotely stiff so no issues yet

uncovered the parts washer which wasn't as buried as usual!

I use paraffin in mine, mainly because I'm too tight to buy the proper degreaser......well only because I'm too tight actually. it does a great job though and isn't harmful to any plastics or alloys so is equally at home cleaning pistons as these headlight backing plates with the plastic fittings
whilst at it I cleaned up a few gearbox and engine parts that had been lying around, mostly covered in years of grime
one engine mounting plate revealed that under the dust and filth it has actually rotted out! needs a bit cutting out and welding in, shouldn't be too much of an issue, lovely thick steel is a pleasure to weld
as I said, I've now got enough decent lights to make a good set. even managed to find one NOS item that was rejected for a loose glass which I'll bond back in sometime

mixed bag of tasks this afternoon, the fulvia restoration is at the stage where there is little more to do to the shell so I popped down to see Jim to catch up on a few bits and see the integrale

after sorting through all the catch up stuff and making plans to sell his fulvia coupe......as tempted as I am to buy it I just haven't the time/funds to dedicate to it...... I took the steering column off the 'grale so evaluate the possibility of fitting what I hope will be a remedy for the slow rate steering compared to the LHD cars quick rack.....more on that later...

knew I'd got a ton of stuff to do at home so as tempted as I was to get grinding I resisted, settling for changing the drivers rear door which although not a disaster condition wise I picked up a much better one some time ago.
the underside of the black door is much better, hardly anything to do but the colour change
the old red one had a few holes on the outer skin and underside
after not seeing the old girl for a few weeks I've well and truly got the itch again to get stuck in, shame that i'm gonna be too busy over the next couple of months to do much at all. at least by the time I get back to it the weather will have improved

managed to get myself another front end this week, the one I got before was for an HF turbo not an integrale, there was quite a few differences that could have been overcome but it would have been a fair amount of work

I had tried everywhere to get a new one but none are available, this one popped up and I had to have it
as you can see, it is in much better condition than mine!
corners need small repairs where all deltas rot out but the rest is very solid, should make repairing the front end much simpler

while I was down there and had a couple of hours spare I set to on the drivers side sill

pretty crusty with evidence of previous repairs and that the floor has been pushed up when trying to jack the car up
with the outer sill cut away the poor state of the central sill and floor section is plain to see, why the floor/sill edge had been going upwards instead of the whole car!
the rear section nearest the suspension arm mount had had a patch laid over a rusted section, probably a cheap fix to gain an mot at some point, rust between the layers an obvious sign that it was never a long term solution..
the section then got cut right back to the main floor section which thankfully appears solid, resisted the urge to get the welder struck up as I'd only have to carry on going once started....
next time I'm down there I'll clean things up properly and fit the floor to sill piece and repair the corrode central section. probably won't be until after Easter now though, busy period coming up

Result on the front section Kev . A lot of work there chap. But it is moving along well. You keep saying that's all I'm going to get done for weeks. Then the next post . Just popped up and welded this bit good man

A little bit of teasing inspiration for you mate,

"Just" the polishing to do, I can't wait!