Practically Classics Forum

Got a little done over bank holiday.


First on the 75

Still not got my ham fisted wedged bush out yet, going to hire a blowtorch and heat the casting, got a few other jobs like removing the bolts on the shafts coming out of gearbox to replace the seals that will need head and stuck solid at mo.

Tarting stuff really as it was off the car I wire brushed the exhaust, welded back together where I cut it with the gassless, kurust'd it (I know most ort comes form inside but it had alot o surface rust too) and sprayed it with silver high temp paint.






Going to take the side skirts off and clean up and paint the sills and jacking points and also touch up the areas of waxoyl that need it under the floor of boot etc.

Looks like its going to end up being a unplanned mild resto

Finally did a bit on the MGB.

The fillers that you need to weld in under the rubber bumper front indicators for the conversion to chrome where missing fromt he kit. So after a bit of searching I got hold of some, so as it was so wet on Sunday, and with the 75 being outside, I snuck in the garage and went to weld them onto the stripped and zinc coated wings.

But they where WAY out! The curves where in the wrong place , terrible quality! I had to cut the welds on them and flatten them only to spend my time reforming them to fit better! Should have made them myself in first place!





All welded in from behind so I only need tiny bit of filler and coated in high copper weld through primer.

Tadaaaaaaaaaaaa

http://s879.photobucket.com/albums/ab35 ... 9-1338.jpg

Done it at last! New Alfa 75 bellhousing bush in!

Taking all the great advice on here etc (many thanks all!) I grabbed my little gassless welder and got under the car and welded around the very outside of the bush that is metal from the inside of the housing where it was sitting half way in.

A few taps with a chisel and a hammer and it slid right out!!




Result! But I now had to get the new one in without balls it up again!

Its now I realised my schoolboy error fromt he first time! I had not removed the two metal plates that fit on the mounting brackets either side. One these are off they give a recess that allow you to line the bush up straight!

I had already frozen the new bush so set about heating the ali bell housing with a handhled blowtorch, which I did not thing would be powerfull enough, but it was and the new bush slid right in!

About 30 seconds later it had expanded in the head of the housing and was rock solid, only to get better as it completely thawed.



Easy when you know how eh!

As I had done well I though quit while the going is good and went of to play with my little girl. But not before having a little look around to see what else needs doing before it all goes back in.

I have ordered a new handbrake cable as the old one is tired and I cannot see a easier time for me to do it. Also I need a new clutch pipe made up.

I noticed a crack in the linkage mounting point on one side so as the welder was out I quickly zapped it


I am goign to wire brush the areas of flaky underseal and kurust and re seal before it all goes back in as well.

One thing tho I noticed was this wire and Im not sure I remember remvoing it

Goes into here


Anybody know?

Bloody gutted its not up and running with the sun out and clear roads!

75nut wrote: Bloody gutted its not up and running with the sun out and clear roads!

Ah Haa! you are soo rite, M8

Worked this weekend so have a day 'in lieu' Mondays. Drove out of Newcastle along the old Military road, dropped into Hexham - shopping TESCO - out and up the back road to Slayley [stopped for a spot of lunch], down again to Corbridge and back along the dual A69 and over then to Dinnington/Ncl airport - TESCO '5P off' Petrol - & Home

Buried the Needle!!


.... Its a screammerr.

alfaSleep

I always thought they where a great looking little car, love the rims, done any work on it, what are they 1.3?

Well as the weather was good I decided to pop in office and check everything was ok and then sneaked back home to make some more progress on the 75.

I had made the decision to make the most of it being up in the air and off the road and the fact that Im waiting on some parts to complete the work underneath.

I knew the arches where rotten under the bodylit as Alex Jupe had sent me photos when he did some work on it before, but I told him to leave it as I would sort. Well 2 years later I though I should get on with it! I already had 2 new rear arches all packed up in the garage I bought for the black LHD 75 I have.

So I undid all the screws and fittings holding the side skirts and drilled out the rivets holding the arch covers. The bolts snapped on the bumper fittings and one fitting came off the bumper so more fiddling needed there. The rear bumper still did not want to come off tho as sealant had been used along the supporting bar that the bumpers sits on. But just took a bit of heaving and was off.

Once it was all off I power cleaned everything to get a better look.

So the passenger arch is completely fried on the rear half with the inner arch also needing repair.



There is also a little at the leading edge of the rear wheel arch at the bottom of the door opening



So I start cutting well within the line of where the new panel fits to have a look how far the rot goes back



Lot of fab work needed in bottom corner



With only a small amount of rot on lower front corner I'll do the arch in two sections and keep the as much of the good original metal a pssobile and avoid cutting intot he door recess.



I marked up where I am cutting. I plan on cutting in as many straight sections as I can so I can joggle the edge easily and get it sitting flush and plug weld.





Onto the driver arch

Only a small amount of rot on arch itself.



Alot more on the front edge tho by door so alot of fabbing also needed here



Sills look good with just a bit of surface rust. I plan to wire brush, kurust and stone chip these along with jacking points





With the bumper off I had a look at the rear end and found a major bodge on the driver rear corner. I was looking for rot under the rear lights and there was some bubbling so I whipped the light cluster out. I could see wavy paint and bubbling all over the shop. Rust and filler!




Pretty much this whole corner has to go, so if anyone knows of car that is being parted out tha tis solid here plese le tme know otherwise I am going to have to fab this also, luckly its mostly flat surfaces.

Also major rot by bumper brackets on the very bottom corner. Again this has to all be cut out and fabbed, but its all straight surfaces again so should not be too hard.

So all in all this is getting very involved and is now defo a mini resto! No idea how I will match the paint as I dont know what colour the guy resprayed it! Il try some alfa colours from spray cans and see if I can match.

So as a word of waring when buying cars you can polish a turd as a month ago if you remember it looked like this

75nut wrote:I always thought they where a great looking little car, love the rims, done any work on it, what are they 1.3?

Renault CLIO 1100 engine is fitted [international link up with Renault/Proton] D4F SOHC16V

The CoilPack is $h1te.... so that went into the skip

& a ClioIII Coil - no fixed leads - and HiPower silicon custom leads fitted.


I have revised the Induction, from the WeezGaspa 'factory fit' to a little more capable

+ modded the AirBox to get a good flow in [Std Factor sourced paperA/F..as they breath fine!] from behind the lower grille.



Exhaust dropped off <at last> so I talked the OH into believing SSteel was a good saving for the future... . Full CatBack with fglass cells, mandrel bent and no baffles.



MrSavvy now sounds like a helicopter starting up when I nail it...........

Yrr Alfa would still leave me for dead & have time to stop for flowers ..... luvinn the updates

alfaSleep

Thats mint mate!! Clio engine eh, never new that! Wonder if a 1.4 turbo would fit?

Another sunny day so I could not stay in the office yet, the draw of cutting and welding was to much, s sneaked off early again!

I decided to focus on one arch and not flit around.

Out with the wire brush first to make sure I was going back to really solid metal and prep it for welding.



Then on with copper weld thru primer all over



I decided to weld in sections as there a quite a few curves in different directions on the inner arch.
I also left lots of metal so I can trim back and work it into shape.







Lower section needed work


All got another coat of weld thru and then seam sealer.



Did no spend too much time grdnign the welds back as they will not be seen with the outer arch in place

That was it for today my little girl ordered me in to play.

I will give it all a coat of hammerite and stone chip then waxoyl in the areas that a not the contact areas for the outer arch to weld to

Got a bit done on Friday, weekend was no go mate had a suprise party and was my job to keep him bus yin pubs all day, and then on Sunday I promised my little girl no tinkering so I could play barbies all day lol !

First got some hammerite over the seam sealer and areas of the inner arch that will not be welded to. So its had , zinc, seam sealer and hammerite so should give a good level of protection going forward.



I then started cutting the repair panel into sections, checked line up and scored the areas and trimmmed back





I joggled the car panel ( I did joggle the reapir panel but in trial fit I found the step was not deep enough so I needed to do it other way round to get ti to sit flush. I would butt weld but my gassless loves to burn through thin metal and as the join is sealed in behind the inner arch there shouldnot be any danger of crud getting in the join unless the inner arch fails again) and cleaned back the join area and added loads more weld through zinc again.




I also a this point coated the inner area of the repair panels in more zinc and then red oxide and then hammerite excluding just the weld areas, again to ensure protection is good.

So while that was drying I attached the corner rot to have a look how far it goes






Goes through all layers as you can see right through to boot floor.
So I need to make up a new corner for the boot floor and then start repair outward to the final skin. But its all fairly straighforward flat panels.

So back to the arch, the paint had dryed so I just added more zinc to welding areas after I punched the holes for plug welding.
I added plenty so I would have a good strong fit but reduce the warping of seam welding. THis way I could plug weld to the jodgled edge of the original bodywork.
Also it would mean less filler as I can grind the top off and high plug weld leaving a flush surface easier than dressing a seam weld.
I drilled holes where the outer was going to weld to the inner to replicate the spot welds on the original.





All welded in ready for a grind over with a flap wheel. But as I ran out of time at this point, and wire. I just coated in zinc again and covered the car to keep off any damp.

First look before lead loading (I want to add as little filler as possible as its porous so will lead the edges and over the plug welds first to ensure no pin holes) it looks pretty flush




Hope to get this arch finished in the week, but I can grind or weld after 6 as agreed with our neighbours as we are in a small complex of 3 barns conversions

Got a bit more done yesterday

First welded in the last outer arch pieces



Then leaded the edges to cover any pin holes and blend the repair.



Skimmed wih filler after filing back the lead (wearing a mask of course!) and covered in zinc then red oxide



Then a random can of red to cover it as the primer is porous and I dont want any moisture. I will go back and fettle it a little more to get sanding marks out etc with some filler primer etc ready for the proper paint job. But only up the the point hte bodykit covers, I think I am going to stone chip the section under the bodykit for extra protect aka Kristian.



But as those are quiet jobs I will crack on with welding and cutting the rest for the moment.

While paint was drying I took a look at the other light cluster area as they was seom bubbling on the corner

Oh dear someone seems to have built the corner out of filler, I took out about an inch!



So more fabbing and sizzling!

So after I did this on Sat rectifinying the big gouge I added to the MX5 nose cone-




I could get onto this -


Finished off the passenger arch at the bottom,zinc sprayed ans seam sealed ready for more paint. I did not over grind down her eas its behind the bodykit so I tihnk my time was better served elsewhere like taking a look that the light fitting area -




At this point my wife decided she was going out for the afternoon and night, so I had to pack up and look after my little girl.
The following afternoon it rained so I went inot the garage to sort the rear bumper as the fitting bolts had snappe don removal. I did not want to spend hours drilling out and re tapping , so I decided to cut them out and weld in captive bolts.
So used some nice thick box steel and drilled the holes and cut out tabs

Welded in the bolts from rear

Cut out the old section

And welded in the new

Repeat 4 times and coat in zinc then stone chip


Should make it nice and easy to whip on and off again, not of cours eif I dont rectify the obvious ball up in this pic, 100 Alfa75 pionts if you can spot it (oh and Im not taking about my felt tip line :rasb: ) -