How Time Flies

After more than eighteen months, many things happening in the Alfa field, but Sprint is still waiting for the commencement of work. Laszlo has the door panels lying at home and the engine and g'box are in the garage waiting for action. The starter motor and generator have been gone for revision but the revision man could not save them. So they will go in the exchange pool circuit.The Giulia has meanwhile seen it all in 2010. Firstly a big service and the brakes fully inspected and repaired. One of the front right cylinder has a tendency to hang with skew braking effect. Not desirable if you need to cross the Alps.After the service she rode like a charm and was ready for the Easter drive in the Betuwe.It was the big test for the 24th SCARB buitenlandrit to Milan. Where we would take part in the Alfa Centennial celebrations.I appreciate the Giulia even more after this fantastic cross Europe journey. What a wonderful little Alfa she is! Minor problems with the fuel supply. New pump and filter, by blowing the pipes have since done their job and everything went back to normal.2011 brought more focus on the Spider. Mille Miglia with a group of Alfa 916's and a P Boxster. My Spider can really keep up well with modern traffic and hummed as usual to go there.Some work had to be done since the end of 2010 season.During a Spider Tour in Limburg, someone (I will not name) rear ended the Spider. Perfectly repaired at the local bodyshop, new bumper and a new windshield.During the last trip in 2010 collapsed one of the intake manifold rubbers. Ordered a new set of solid machined manifolds from Alfaholics. Some problems arose with the sealing between carb and manifold gaskets. The paper gaskets showed to be insufficient. Brought the Spider to Erik Stevens in Puth for a service and to replace some steering balljoints, fix the manifold leakages and give it a tune up. Runs like a charm again and was also ready for the ride to Sirmione on Lake Garda. (More on the MM later...)On the way back, we had a scary moment when we had the rear break out suddenly at an exit to the A61 near Hockenheim. Nose into the guardrail, slightly damaged nose but nothing to worry about. Probably had the first rain in weeks had something to do with it?So now the spider has some more work to be done to.Hopefully now some time for the Sprint??

Giulietta: Separated engine & gearbox

Jan gave me some time ago a fantastic stainless steel parts cleaner, that only lacked degreasing fluid. Now that has arrived and last saturday we installed it all. The pump needed a new seal, which was found at Lemmen in Heythuijsen.
After connecting hoses and filling the hoses with fluid it started to run perfectly.
(as long as you tighten the hose clamps!)

Now my workshop was ready for dismantling and cleaning engine and gearbox parts. Jan lend me his little engine hoist again and we separated, after some persuasion, the engine from the gearbox.
Apparently the driveshaft stuck with its splines in the flywheel, which needed help from extra gravity (the manual stated that the 'box will separate normally under its own weight and its true!

Took the starter motor off.
Gearbox is awaiting a big degreasing job on the outside now. But I am curious how its internals will look. Should it need extra overhauling work?
It will need to be dismantled, but only after study of the manual!

The engine hangs now solely in the engine stand, and still I cannot crank the engine. It must be fully stuck and it will certainly need a rebuild.

next easter weekend I will start with taking out the remaining oil from the sump (if any) and start dismantling the exterior parts.

to be continued...

Giulietta: First Pics from the body shop

It seems the guys in the bodyshop are making good progress!
And the damages were not as dramatic as originally thought.
They put in a lot of delicate metal artistry to keep original shapes and sizes.


A- pillar rocker panel/floor



A-pillar and left side fender removed




Floor on driver side and left rocker panel cut out.




Front cross member can be seen. The whole front has been dismantled, steering arms and cross members are exposed. In the middle the bracket for the horn.

Giulietta: Up to a complete make-over

The Giulietta is on its way to the bodyshop in Hungary....

Its already some time ago I posted news, obviously due to lack of time. The business is taking most of the attention as is family life.
Anyway: status of the Giulietta resto is not yet extensively reported here and therefore some updates.
Dismantling is ongoing but very slow. Interior is partly dismantled. Engine and gearbox lifted from the car. and thats where we are right now. Hope to be able to prepare enough for it to go to hungary.

Plan is that it will be returned to its original colour of Bluette. Since the interior is grey with white cloth, I thought it to be the best combination, although a bit dull. Surpise is I found the front seats original covers being red vinyl with whote cloth. Would match so much better to the bluette. So I really contemplating this now.
At least there is a supplier for this upholstery in Italy. He makes full interiors available.

Giulietta Sprint WVJ750

But first there will be a lot of welding and refabrication of parts!

WVJ 750 ontmanteling

Project Guilia (7 )WE HAVE A DRIVE!

After fitting new rubber hoses front and rear, the beleeding did not proceed as easz as planned.
I purchased an eezybleed, but the cap on the reservoir did not lock well enough, spilling all fluid into the engine bay.
Therefore we turned to the oldfashioned way of pumping. Obviously some muck from the brakehoses was stuck in one wheel. Only after pushing real pressure on the system we seemed to have purged clots of rubber particles out of the system.
With that done, braking suddenly did not mean steering to the right anymore...
Its a very sweet driver now and running regularly for outings and errants when we get the chance.
Now it will require some cosmetic work, but thats not a hurry.
Look forward taking it out for easter to the Ardennes.
We'll be with the whole family in the car, ADAC roadside assistance pass in the pocket!

Project Giulia

My nice Giula from 1962 has been in storage since our departure to Sweden in 2002. So that is about 5 years. The white beauty has clearly been suffering of this long inactivity. Dry rubbers, some new minor under body corrosion and fully locked brakes.
Even though this is a 105 series Giulia, the first production year year has 101 Giulia Sprint brakes: drums front with three shoes and drums rear with two shoes.
The finned front drums are really a fine piece of aluminium machining with a steel liner on which the shoes rub off the speed of the car.
Each shoe has its own cilinder, which are all fully stuck.

After removing the drums (te rear one was so stuck, that it involved gigantic pullers) we found also the rear cilinders to be fully corroded.
As these are brakes and I did not trust the bore surface of the existing cilinders I decided to invest in new cilinders all round.

Ordered these at Alfa Stop (Tony Stevens). Certainly not cheap but specially made for this car.

Worked a week later on the brakes again and also found the brake linings that feed the front wheel cilinders to be dodgy. Also ordered new linings for those at AlfaStop.
Really encouraging that these parts are still available, as it keeps the cars original!

Now we have to wait for that order to arrive.
can't wait to get her on the road for a drive, but it will be some time....