Another Sprint owning new member

[NEG]

Hi all, another new member signing in. I’ve driven Alfa’s since the late 1970’s and my first was a 1.5 Sud Ti that was driven hard, lovely car! Currently we have two Alfa’s that have great sentimental value a GTV6 from 1984 and a just-back-on-the-road 1350 Sprint Veloce from 1983.

I’m the second owner of the GTV6 but it’s been a none-runner for about 15 years. The Sprint belongs to my Wife and has been a long drawn out 18 year renovation project! We bought it back in 1987 and it already had repair work done on it! After running it for 10years the dreaded tin rot had well and truly set in so I decided it was worth the effort to get the body sorted so I stripped it down and got a local body shop to do the work.

Half way though the rebuild we started a family and moved house! The rebuild was put on hold until earlier this year when we decided something should be done about it so I contacted a local garage who had good reviews renovating other classic cars and asked them to do the rebuild.

Before the pick up date I mistakingly thought I could get the engine started, I turned the car over by hand all seemed OK but what I hadn’t figured on where the activities of mice over the years….at some point the little devils had taken a liking to one cam belt!

The car started and then started making a very loud clack clack clack sound. The cam belt had jumped and #3 piston had hit a valve snapping it off. Somehow the broken valve stem embedded itself into the piston top square on causing minimal damage to the head and valve seat!

This little lesson cost me more than we had budgeted for and once the rebuild was fully under way we went a little mad and the cost spiraled somewhat! Anyhow, she’s back on the road, engine rebuilt, new clutch and bearing, carbs, brakes, master cylinders, servo and wheels etc all overhauled….I also had to drop the fuel tank, clean it and the pickup plus replace all the fuel hoses, quite a messy job as everything was clogged up.

A of Alfa have just replaced the o/s front hub bearing which was making a heck of a noise (well done Paul!) and all I have left to do for now is fit some trim parts and sort out the rattling gear leaver! I have a 33 replacement to try…

Once my bank balance has recovered I’ll turn my attention to the GTV6…..Some Pics:

Stripping @1997ish!


Rot in the usual places:




Repairs underway, we also had the sills replaced at the time…





Valve meets piston!

[alfasuddriver]

Looks like a good job there, you've been up against it with having to do both the bodywork and engine. Not many of these lovelies left though so good to see another one saved!

[alfachris]

Welcome to the forum any pics of it finished?
Paul as a good I know him as into 155's as well.

[Kegsti66]

Welcome to the club mate.
Nice history with your cars
GTV6 as well, nice .

[KevJTD]

nice piston meets valve shot

great looking car, welcome aboard

[PETROLHEAD]

Thats how to start a membership off NEG,

Straight into a good thread, no messin!

Welcome to the forum mate, enjoy

[NEG]

Cheers guys, I don't have any decent photo's of her finished...if the weather clears up i'll see if I can grab some.

[vecchioalfa]

Nice to see another member on here, well done

[NEG]

Managed to grab some shots of the car while I cleaned some stuff from the Garage.

There's still some trim items to finish off and I need to fit the 33 gear linkage...she'll never be up to concours standard but as long as she's 'clean' and runs I'll be happy!

[markalfa83]

That's a very nice Sprint

[alfachris]

Looks nice bet it was nice driving sgain after all the years it had been off the road

[vecchioalfa]

Looks nice mate

[KevJTD]

very nice sprint

[Spacenut]

Very nice indeed - loving your work!

I had a valve come off its stem once - hammered its way clean through the piston crown and I found it in the sump. Kept the piston as a souvenier

Lauren

[Alfasixnut]

I do like red Sprints - and yours is looking very good!

[Bluesuit]

Your patience has rewarded you, looks very nice - though I see you have that age old problem of bumpers and trim going grey - lots of autoglym needed there

[PETROLHEAD]

Plasbak is the method of choice for me with faded trim.

Clean it right back with soapy solution and fine scotchbrite, mask up, and spray.

It wont fade again and looks great!

[Alfasam]

Very nice 1350 Sprint, and in the best colour too! A fairly rare model now I think it is true to say. Love the alloys they fitted to this model which I always preferred to the more common telephone dial design - they still look sporty and sophisticated even after 30 years. Great to see the car being appreciated and restored by such a dedicated Alfisti.

[NEG]

A TIP: Don't use your Sud as a garage storage shelf! Certainly not for 18 years!

She went in for some remedial work on Monday and with luck will be ready and looking good by the end of the week…nothing major required just a tidy up, hopefully looking her best for Duxford and Suds in the Sun…

[Spacenut]

Suds and Sprints look so tough with the bumpers removed

It's going to look fabulous when its done.

Lauren

[NEG]

Didn’t drive the Sprint much last year as attention was taken up by the x1/9, but thought I’d better make an effort and get her MOT’d and back on the road. So on impulse I decided to Insure her and get one done...bit of a panic 20 mins before my ‘slot’ I found the screen washers weren’t working. The water in the bottle had turned to slime and the motor couldn’t pull it through and promptly overheated and seized! Much flushing and cussing later and wiring the motor backwards got it turning and eventually working. She passed but on the understanding I fixed a fuel leak from the rear near the tank. Seems there is a very fine hole in the metal pipe that runs along the left hand seam of the tank. Drat I’ll have to drop it to fix it. Also noted was the flexible lines I’d replaced just three years ago where swelling and starting to crack...beware guys of modern fuels and incompatible fuel hoses....

[Kegsti66]

Good result. Nice to get a fresh MOT.
Nice that your MOT tester cut you a bit of slack on the fuel leak and didn't just say "fail".
Enjoy the summer.

[NEG]

Fixed the leak today, pin hole in the pipe. Only had to lower the near side of the tank to get at it. Easy fix I just cut a slightly longer rubber fuel hose and pushed it further up the pipe so it covered the hole and secured it with a couple of pipe clips. No excuse now, I need to insure and tax it and get driving!

[Mufasa]

Good man!

[mj2k]

I was just about to reply and say 'hi and welcome from another newby', then noticed this thread dates back to 2014

Lovely looking Sprint, is the gtv6 project still ongoing too?

[NEG]

GTV6? Ah yes....that is a tale in itself...I do have a thread running about it...let’s just say resumption of on going works is close to starting up again!

[NEG]

Oil and filter change for the Sprint today ahead of a possible (weather dependant) trip to the AROC Cotswold day on the 16th. Noticed the oil warning light wasn’t working, sender ok, dash out and bulb ok, hmmm. Years ago I’d repaired the PCB as it was cracked and broken on the left hand connector. Seems one of my solder bridge fixes had parted company with the PCB trace. Bridged it again but this time used a piece of solder braid to strengthen the repair, not pretty but the bulb now works!

[Spacenut]

Good work!

I once resoldered a cracked PCB in a TV remote control after someone sat on it. I had to do the same sort of thing, stripped some tinned copper wire to make the bridge and then had to scrape off the protective varnish from each end of the track... Let's just say I won't be taking on any jobs like that in the future

[NEG]

Adjusted the valve clearances yesterday after noticing she was making a bit of a ‘clack clack clack’ noise after the run out to the NAD at Bicester....sure enough all the gaps where too large. However, thinking about it over night I may have adjusted them too tight. I adjusted the gaps so the largest feeler gauge would not fit but the lower gauge would. IE, inlet .35 to .4mm and the exhaust .45 to .5mm

Should I open them up a touch to allow the upper tolerance feeler gauge to fit? I guess the exhaust is the more critical.....

[NEG]

In the end I've left them and they seem to be OK.

I checked the carb balance today and found them slightly out and discovered that I still had about 15deg of throttle movement to go before WOT IE: foot to the floor and the butterflies had 15deg or so of rotation to go! I adjusted the accelerator pedal stop which seemed too far out to get the full movement, should add a bit of pep to the car!

Also did a compression test as I've bought a new gauge...

Cyl 1 = 178psi
Cyl 2 = 162psi
Cyl 3 = 175psi
Cyl 4 = 165psi

Interesting the banks are different but all within 10% of each other.