Classic Alfa Forums

Hello everybody,

Today appeared to be an extraordinarily sunny day, so I had to take my Alfa out. Otherwise I'm keeping it in a garage during winter. After taking of these photos I remembered that I should start to look after some nice wheels for summer, I'm open for good proposals!

The Sprint looks great in the snow there, guessing you don't get slated roads in Winter here like the UK seems hell bent on spreading everywhere when the temperature gets anywhere near freezing?
I'm an original wheel fan so no use on that front, sure there will be loads of advice coming on that front

Hi Petteri, we had a really sunny here too and I decided to get my Alfasud out. Unfortunately the battery was completely flat, doh! I prefer the original pepperpots myself although the Revolutions looked good with a Zender kit I often think..,

Hi petteri
Great photos and location raining here in Margate UK . A lot of guys in Europe fit the ronals . Nice looking wheels too. I'm sure petrolhead with be along ,trying to sell you some of his after market alloys

Evening, got some 14 x 6 revolutions polished rim and powdered coated graphite grey will post some pics tomorrow , refurbished by Shrew , Liam; follow the link


/www.classicalfaforum.co.uk/forum/downlo ... &mode=view

They do look good Liam, lovely colour choice, and i have to say that the 14's will suit the Zender kit very well i think.

Thank you for your suggestions, I had not even think Revolutions earlier but they could indeed suit with Zender kit

I had a zender sprint, in black, with just 13" revolution rfx's on, and that looked good, but the 14's such as liams would look way better again.

I've been away for while but now I'm back again! I lost a little bit motivation when I realized that gearbox will need repair. Earlier I had thought that the combination of worn gear lever bushing and tired clutch master cylinder is causing gear changing problems but after repairing these gear change was still bad. And yes, it is indeed that too famous crunchy 2nd gear. Not even Redline MT-90 oil helped, I suppose it should be best stuff for gearboxes?

By the way, which parts usually goes bad in this 2nd gear case? Do I need just new synchro rings and gaskets or is there other parts too like bearings or gearbox lever mechanism parts that should be changed?

Furthermore, cleaning and adjusting carburetors went somehow wrong. The car goes nicely for about 20 km's but then car looses power totally. Stopping and letting engine cool down helps and car will go again approx. 20km's. I was thinking that it may be some gunk that was left inside carbs and clogs some narrow channel when the engine is hot enough. But could be something else like ignition?

Does someone have similar experiences that after a 10-20km's drive car looses power?

Anyways, these little things are part of the hobby.

Meanwhile I have done some inspection under the Zender kit. Of course with little surprises though it could have been much worse. Mostly surface rust. Only bad place was in front of left rear wheel, inner mud guard. There was also some rust a left sill between rear fender and sill joint and below sill. Surprisingly right side was totally rust free, so I did not even take a photo of that side.

I also took off left front fender, because I have to repair a little rusted area in engine room which goes to under the fender (second photo, sorry for the bad pic!). Furthermore, there was some rust behind the fender (you know, there is supporting structure behind the fender, at door side which is used for bolt attaching from inside) so I think it is good idea to remove right one too. Rust was still just on surface, so good time to clean all. That place had rusted because there was no rust protection stuff att all. Of course the place is impossible to reach with any spray or other tool so quite understandable.


I tagged rusty places with red arrows. Only honestly bad place was inner rear wheel arch. What really worries me is that now I like the look of the car much more without all the plastics and bumbers...


I had opened the rust place during winter but I had no possibilities to weld back then so I just sprayed some rust protection paint + black spray over the revealed russian "quality" steel .


Like the rust place above, under the bonnet, I had also inspected rust of the rear mud guard earlier. I just took the the photo after painting over revealed steel. But the rust really looked that small back then..

By the way, note the idiotic design there. Water drain is above joint, so water will "nicely" flow thru the joint inside the sills...


...But when I really started removing bad steel it finally looked like this. Positive is that rust was still inside. Exterior steel had not rusted there alhough I think rust could have spreaded there sooner or later. As you see there is some red paint, and that's not mine but this place has been repaired already in the past, perhaps just removal of surface rust back then. I have to anyway open the joint between floor pan and rear fender to clean all the rust. Is the fender just spot welded, so I can drill the spots open?


And finally evidence that what ever happens, in the end restoring old Alfa is fun! (I'm lying on the floor)

PS about the wheels, I was thinking these: http://www.ntmwheels.com/en/product/l037/

...but just planning, first things first!

The thing i liked about the Revolution wheels, was you can slacken the front hub nuts with the wheels still on!

alfadave wrote:The thing i liked about the Revolution wheels, was you can slacken the front hub nuts with the wheels still on!

Hahaa, folks really want Revolutions under this car! No worries, I haven't forgot them from the option list!

I'm currently considering these:

1. NTM 037
2. Revolutions (especially good looking with similar colour scheme that 88liam had in previous message)
3. Rota Wheels: https://www.18racing.com/products/rota- ... polish-lip
4. Ronal A1 (maybe not best option since et25 is wrong and old Ronals may have problems like cracking etc.)

Good to hear you've found your mojo again, it is very easy to get disheartened when unexpected issues arise.
Just be thankful that the rust doesn't appear too bad, that's a good result!
Please keep the thread going, we all like to see progress to give us inspiration to keep going. I know all too well how sould destroying it can become.

P.S. I do like the look of the Sprint without the bodykit too

Just to prove that at least something has happened. I know, I'm slow... on the other hand I needed to replace surprisingly large area from sills. rust had went quite furher inside the sills than outside. I had basically replaced lower part of the sills, repaired small area under door rubber seal, replaced lower part of the inside "membrane" and replaced casing/beam between rear wheel arch and B-pillar! I've been too busy to photo all what I've been doing but at least couple of teaser shots

I've also taken the engine out and gearbox is now in service. I had a dream of installing quaife LSD same time but it seems that this is sold out everywhere.

Finally something more relaxing, new 3D printed pieces. Inner door handle inserts and clips for zender kit
This is sort of special printing, composite material which is very strong.

Some status update. "Little" welding work was in the end far away little but now Sprint is in paintshop.
Even dog was wondering that will it ever be a car again... ...but some relief can be seen when fitting the very last things, bonnet and wings, before taking the car to paintshop.

More photos:
https://fi.pinterest.com/petterinyh/my- ... t-project/

Good work! I have garage envy!

NEG wrote:Good work! I have garage envy!

Me to

Hello all for a very long time!
Sprint project expanded quite a lot and therefore took much more time than I could ever imagine. But finally last monday was the day that Alfa got approved MOT
Now there is 15" 5-spoke ACT wheels on car - I think they do fit pretty well with Zender kit and so I choose to use these.
I also tried Ronal A1 wheels. I know that most people probably prefer looks or the Ronals but for some reason I do like those ACTs myself. And those were wrapped on good tires already when I purchased them unlike Ronals which would desperately need new tyres so maybe I'm just lazy
Basically I changed everything broken/worn out or refurbished them. Would be easier to list what I did repair/replace that what wasn't done. Modifications are as follows:
- ANSA exhaust manifold and rear silencer
- Alfa 33 16V front brakes
- Alfa 33 1.7 QV rear springs (little bit stiffer and lower than standard springs)
- Yellow Koni shocks at rear
- I didn't install the rear spoiler. I think car looks better without that and furthermore rear visibility improved.
- Changed wiring for the light in boot. Now it works when I open the boot lid - no more operated by head lights
I created new wiring and installed hidden switch connected to heated rear window switch.

There is still some work to do, right now car is on paint shop for repairing one panel which has defect on base coat or something. Wheel angles need to be adjusted properly and paint needs more polishing.

I also did a very stupid mistake during figuring out starting up problems. All started from that that I had installed distributor 180° in wrong position and of course car did not start up. Because there wasn't much fuel smell, firstly I checked if the new NOS fuel pump works so removed the fuel cap and also added more fuel in tank. And next morning (car still not starting up) I looked the car and thought that perhaps it is a good idea to start morning by washing all garage dust of.

Well, very same day I found out distributor problem but I was soon wondering why engine doesn't run very well. It took a couple of days until I noticed that fuel cap on the table and soon calculated 1+1 that there water had went in the fuel tank. And it was a lot of (see the different coloured layer on bottom of the container): Unfortunately some rust had already formed on a new tank (I was lucky to find NOS ricambi originali tank to replace the rotten old tank). I did clean the tank from water-fuel mess by removing the tank but unfortunately yesterday I noticed some rust on a transparent fuel filter (installed that filter right after this incident). So I'm afraid I have to take the tank of and clean it somehow, not just sure how to do it right.
I was planning to fill it with 10% phosphoric acid (I was used that with smaller parts with good results) for overnight - then next day empty the tank, put some nuts in and give a proper shake - then fill it again with acid for one night and perhaps that could clean the tank. Anyone, any opinions/ experiences?

Well done, the Sprint looks fantastic. Nice and sharp and full credit to you. All that hard work has payed off and some nice upgrades as well.
Personally, I would stick with the 5-spoke ACT wheels. I think they suit the car and as it has the Zender kit, the optional wheels would have been 5 spoke.
Thanks for taking the time to share and update us on your project