Nice to have them inside though isn't it, and at least yours is in the back garden.
55 mile round trip to mine

That was obviously deigned by some Gen Z, Soy drinking Incel “engineer” that has a degree in media studies but cant get a job in the media so they got a job designing cars. They are also own every product Apple have ever produced but can’t even fathom out how to open the bonnet on they’re car becau...

Like this.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/265214345502 ... media=COPY

Do you ever use vacuum pumps to bleed brakes? Nope. Tried all sorts of different methods. Vacuum ones that you use at the nipple do work sometimes, the trouble with them is that they like to pull the air through the threads of the bleed nipple rather than keep airtight so it's a faff to remove the ...

With the cold snap the poor car is now out in the frost, not ideal but didn't have room for it at the unit with the recent Flaminia purchase. John though has insisted we take it up there and use what would have been space for his cars rather than have it sat outside, so this afternoon it's gone up t...

And no, there isn't a removable section above it...

Why are car designers hell bent on not giving a toss how they make things :evil: Take this newish VW, no please... take it! Why make the brake reservoir cap in a position so its tucked under the scuttle panel rather than just making it at the front of the bottle a few inches forward so at least a pr...

Yes mate, the bonnet had a deep chip out of it and cracks too so not in great shape, unlike now! Brought the car home this afternoon, still such a great car to drive. And no bad thing to look at either. Makes me more keen to make it even better. I'll order new front lower suspension arms and roll ba...

Overall I think the car looks incredibly better than it ever did, I even like the green colour now! Almost as a torquoise sheen to it, not nearly as dark a green as it looked now its all shiny. My only regret is not instructing them to do more, the colour match on the bonnet edge to the passenger do...

The accident damage though, again you'd be hard pressed to know anything had happened.
I've done a bit of painting but can hold my hands up that the professionals really are a step above.

Today it came back looking of so fresh and way better than it has for years.
The bonnet repair is invisible, you just wouldn't know it had been done.
The rear spoiler too looks smashing.

Along with the big ding in the rear quarter courtesy of the reversing kamikaze Renault of a few weeks ago I also asked the bodyshop to repaint the rear spoiler as it was all speckled with lacquer peel. The bonnet though had a big chip out of it above the passenger headlight opening (plastic bonnet r...

Had quite a few issues with screenwash lately, blocking stuff up as it turns to jelly. Fords have a little filter in the bottle where the pump sits, had to take several apart and clean the jelly out. Not sure if it's people using too rich a concentrate or what. Still never seems to stop it freezing ...

Well, as promised they called this afternoon to say it's done, and take payment of course! Dropping it off to me tomorrow..looking forward to seeing it again, hopefully all shiny . I must say although it was a pain for it to be damaged, the repait stage has been painless. They kept updating me via a...

Hope it comes back from the body shop looking great. That would be nice for you after all the hassle from a lousy driver. I backed into a Intergrale recently and it was most embarrassing to walk into the workshop and admit it. Glad i did though and got lucky as hit the tougher part of the Lancia wi...

Personally speaking I like the contrast with black panels to break up the colour, cars always seem to look better once the other bits and pieces go back on.

Looking great though, be a shame to fit carpets!

It's funny really, the original block was mostly grey but there were a few bare patches and I like to replace or protect the core plugs but couldn't find any grey Hammerite. I didn't fancy red or black so picked this colour, and it only occured to me that it looked like the old gold seal units after...

Surely it'll be better than when new, they didn't take this much care when building them!
Great stuff.

Yes, odd isn't it that the cast iron block was out of true. Guess the head could flex enough to follow the contour a bit but at least I know now I'm dealing with two flat surfaces! Checking the bearing clearances with plastigauge it's obvious to see why the piston isn't uniformal at the base of the ...

I did get the head and block back from the machine shop last week but have held off starting the rebuild, at least until I knew it would be needed! The head was pretty much bang on, one pass at a thousand of an inch was enough. The block however needed a few passes as one corner wasn't good enough, ...

OK, it's been 2 weeks since I posted. TBH not much has been done, I hadn't the inclination as the car has been in limbo since I came out of the local Post Office and saw this as I walked to the car. :oops: :cry: IMG_20221103_114944.jpg Now I can't comment too much on what happened as its still being...

Stunning work

Fabulous story, the 156 is a great car, still can see me getting another. Interesting about the LPG conversion too, used to be a popular thing but not so much nowadays. And yes, WAY more environmentally friendly to run that than a £40k electric car that takes years to offset the impact of building t...

Now there's a thing. The TS engine in the 145 was a peach and used hardly any oil, a CF1 motor. 156's I've had in the past have all liked a drop and were the newer cars, CF2 or CF3 motors I guess? Could Alfa have cocked it up on the later engines? My car is a CF2 indeed but a 2001 engine, a change o...

LooLooSud33Spider wrote: ↑

Wed Nov 02, 2022 10:53 pm

Cool. If you need any tech info just shout

Will do, thanks

The original block is stripped and away at the local machine shop with the head having a light skim to the face to ensure a nice seal. Replacement crankshaft cleaned and ready for fitting. I have a set of pistons from the donor spares engine that I'll be using hopefully, they have wider rings (3mm o...

I've started to strip and clean a few parts. The oil pump for instance. Thankfully there was no damage to it, a slight mark on the faceplate which was easy to block out and make flat again. The pick up gauze got cleaned thoroughly to flush out any debris but no be sure I decided to take apart the ga...

As promised, a comparison picture between an integrale piston and the GTV, as you can see the rings are much wider on the integrale in particular the oil control ring which is 4mm on the integrale and only 2mm on the GTV. Also there are no oil holes in the piston ring groove so not only is the capac...

There was a big clue in my list of cars in my signature below! The V6 was a development on the Aurelia deisgn still being a 60deg angle, so a proper V design unlike the later Fulvia narrow angle design. It did get more up to date front suspension over the Aurelias sliding pillar design which dated b...

Well, in the spirit of not buying anymore projects until I finish the Dedra, GTV and eventually the Flavia..... My new purchase! At least it was one out one in, the Clio has now gone to my lad Rob, that's him smiling at what a fool I am to let myself in for some more pain! Big thank you to Richard f...