Picked up another Sud - this time a sedan

[evanbottcher]

Oops - another Sud followed me home. This time it's a 1974 sedan, dragged out of a shed in the country. All the sills, arches, and windscreen pillars are all sound and rust-free. One door is rubbish, and the worst is a bad respray on the roof is all peeled and surface rusted underneath. The interior is half decent, a little bit 'personalised' by it's handyman former owner but still quite nice.

(hmm can't upload photos - getting an error "Could not upload attachment to ./files/159_777910145c54cf1f9d832ab104fd9a6f.")

IMG_2940 by Evan Bottcher, on Flickr

IMG_4280 by Evan Bottcher, on Flickr

We're checking it over mechanically, then it'll get some paintwork done and hopefully straight onto the road. I love the metallic brown.

[alfasuddriver]

Looks like a nice find, I've not seen that colour before, suits the car. Can we gave a pic of the 70's interior?

[Johnboy]

Nice find indeed

[vecchioalfa]

Nice car mate, nice to see another early car being unearthed

[Greencloverleaf pat]

Nice car and I like the colour on that early car really suits it.

[Crank]

So is this a really early four speed car ? I have not seen that colour before either.

[evanbottcher]

The colour is not original - it was originally biancospino (white), resprayed I think in the 80s. It's a nice period metallic brown - not sure if it's the same metallic brown that came out on the later sedans or not. The engine bay interior is all sprayed in a sickly pale green, apparently the owner was going to paint the whole car in that colour but never got around to it - very glad he didn't!

It is a really early 1.2 four speed car, but the engine and gearbox has been swapped for a 1.5 single carb with a five speed box. I'm going to collect the original four-speed box which he's stored, and put it away just in case I ever want to set it back to original. Not too many of these early sedans left here in Australia I'm pretty sure.

Our 75 Twinspark was written off two weeks ago (I was crashed into from behind while stopped in traffic!) - so this car might get pressed into immediate service as an occasional daily driver!

I'll take some photos of the interior once I clear out all the spare parts that I collected with the car. Some of the vinyl is original. The dash is from a series 1 Sud Ti, I will be looking for an original dash in time, and the original rubber mats were replaced with carpet.

[Mufasa]

Oops - another Sud followed me home.

Love it!!!

[evanbottcher]

Yesterday we got the car back from the painter, having repaired one front guard (wing), one door, the boot, and the peeling and surface rusted roof. It's no concours job but it looks tidy and neatly preserved as this will be a very regularly driven car.

[evanbottcher]

I forgot to post the 'before shots' - the roof had been badly repaired many years ago and the paint was lifted leaving bare metal underneath and allowing surface rust to take hold. This has all been stripped and treated with deoxidene before being re-painted. The door and boot had taken a tap each, as well as the right front guard. All fixed now.

[evanbottcher]

Now to get the car running well and pass the roadworthy check required here. The previous owner had the car for 35-odd years and was a bit of a handyman and tinkerer. The car is in remarkably excellent clean condition. It was only taken off the road in 2012. The engine bay was re-sprayed in the past in a icky green - this colour was a planned respray for the whole car so I'm glad that didn't happen!

Even after a couple of years of inaction the car started immediately... then poured fuel everywhere from a failed fuel pump. That was fixed, a brake caliper bolted back together, and a brake and clutch bleed and the car drives around beautifully.

It has a 1.5 engine and 5-speed gearbox that was swapped in many years ago from a wrecked Alfa sprint.

[evanbottcher]

A couple of shots of the interior as-is. The original dash has been swapped for a really nice restored Ti dash. What's the chance of finding an original RHD black sedan dash?

[dralf1965]

That looks superb now, a nice car to save.
I think you can polish out the cloudiness in your instrument dials, use very very fine cutting paste, solvol auto sol, or one of the specialist plastic products that autoglym and others are selling to clear cloudinesss and oxidation from current cars plastic headlights, go carefully though.

[alfachris]

Nice well done for saving it