Classic Alfa Forums

Glad you liked it.
I thought I ought to put a few photos up of it finished as it got you talking on the "puzzle post".

Took the Sud to work yesterday and fitted a new pair of rear shocks.
Had them for a while but hadn't got around to fitting them.
Nothing heavy just original spec.
Then took her for an MOT.
All good , so off for a blast in the sun.............. till I got caught in the lightning and following monsoon

A couple of weeks ago I took the Ronart for it's MoT last month and it passed with no advisories. I was then asked to drive it down to the Isle of Wight, which I did last week. It did the 150 miles A421, M40, A34, M3/M27,A337 route with no problems cruising easily at 60 - 70mph. It also did not overheat in the traffic queue through Lyndhurst. It did use about 30 litres of petrol though......
It is now tucked away in a garage on the IoW ready for summer jaunts.
I returned by train and they were all clean, on time........ and very relaxing! ( interestingly the train fare was £28 and my taxi from the station back to my car was £14, the car ferry £56, foot return £7.50. So the train was the cheapest cost per mile by far!)
I also had to take the Harley V-Rod and yesterday I was in this...... And on all three days I returned by train and was very impressed each time.

Nice one Phil, this should be on the puzzle post
Never seen a V- Rod being ridden on the road

Kegsti66 wrote:Nice one Phil, this should be on the puzzle post
Never seen a V- Rod being ridden on the road

Not surprised Re the V-Rod...... After an hour I was cold and it needed fuel, after two hours I was colder and aching in the arms and it needed fuel. After three hours I reached the ferry - Very cold, very aching in the top of my body and it needed more fuel ! It has a small tank, big engine and upright sitting position with forward controls and no fairing. Also it does not really like roundabouts so Milton Keynes was fun !!
But for loafing along in the sunshine for a few minutes in the IoW.... and then parking up it will be fine.....

Alfasixnut wrote:And on all three days I returned by train and was very impressed each time.

It's not a bad service down here (as there are many London-bound commuters to offend), but it can grind to a halt spectacularly - I've been stranded on my daily commute for several hours on 3 separate occasions in the last 12 months. We're getting into the trackside fire season now, time to get those hiking boots out again

my nearest train station is 10 miles away, and no bus route to talk of to get there so that's a car journey to start off with.
and the train station is only on a local line so requires a change within a half hour or so which means I rarely use them unless i'm collecting a car from away when I fancy an adventure and can't talk anyone into a lift

For a bit of variety yesterday I was working on this A fair bit of woodworking to do I think!

Well I have now stopped working at my "Big Shed" as my part time job has been finished, due to the sale of the company to BCA. That has meant moving all my stuff (Hence the sale of the 6C). The BGT V12 has now found a new home but I did get the front wheels refurbed and fitted to the B.

Had a lady bring a Kia in last Friday, a knocking noise when turning she says.
The drivers driveshaft was shot, told her to use it sparingly until a new shaft could be got. If she did have to use it then avoid full lock where possible and do not use any power on lock.

Brought the car back in today for the new shaft to be fitted. She asked me if the ball bearing she found under the car was anything off it?
Told her it looked like a driveshaft one but I couldn't see it being off her shaft as it was clean and rusty plus the shaft would most likely self destruct if the ball bearings had fallen out.


This is what I found!!
The ball bearing the lady found was indeed out of the outer CV joint!
Can't believe it didn't shatter before now, especially being a turbo diesel with all the low down torque.

Fair play to the lady Kev, she kept it mobile.

Kegsti66 wrote:Fair play to the lady Kev, she kept it mobile.

A woman who did what she was told. Whoops I said that out loud. Excellent mechanical empathy though to even notice a ball bearing on the drive - must have saved her a big bill just before Xmas.

Well I'm working on this classic. 63 Buick . I did the roof afew moths ago . Sorting the door and bonnet . As a bit of rust .Then hopefully respraying it in Feb .
If you guys are on fb .Check out my page and your see what you've been up to ,last year
https://www.facebook.com/jbcustompaintworks/
Cheers jb

Great looking Buick JB.
I love all those monster two door yanks with tons of chrome. They lend themselves well to dual tone paint work.

Cheers . It's got a large v8 too, 6.2 I think ? Sounds amazing

Oooh, I love metalflake!

I agree, American 2-door "full-size" cars look great. I prefer the early '70s Chrysler C-Bodies myself, like the '71 Chrysler 300. A 440 c.i. V8 (7.2 litres), a 727 Torqueflite to back it up and a 3.23 limited-slip... on crossplies

I was waiting for you to chime in he's getting the interior redone .I'll put the photos up when that's done

Looking forward to it

well, not just yesterday....but for the last few weeks......

bloody 159 blotted its' copybook on the sunday morning of ades' rally back in early December as some may remember, cambelt tensioner spring broke giving much slack to the belt itself with inevitable consequences

simple enough, it should have been. take cam housing off, replace damaged rocker arms, check for cylinder compression leakage through injector ports, new belt kit and start it up....na, not today thank you. that was a few weeks ago...


as it wasn't gonna be a simple fix I bought a cheap local 147 that turned up to save the rush to keep mobile, seems that owning 8 cars doesn't guarantee any of them being useful enough to get to work in!

left it alone for a week or so to let it sulk, teach it who was boss etc

a chance encounter with a Vauxhall specialist in Lincoln where I bought a bonnet fro the imp and talking about the cars woes and the error code for swirl flaps and he suggested that it could well be why it isn't starting still, so off with the inlet manifold....now, as easy as that sounds it's anything but! to get the manifold off requires the high pressure fuel pump to come off, the manifold studs sit behind the pump, of course to take the pump off requires the cambelt off again...which means engine mounts off again....

so the manifold finally comes off and the swirl flaps are just about visible through the gunk, well 3 of them...1 has long since departed, presumably gorged by the engine some time back by the looks of the build up of crud on the bare spindle!

it was a wonder the car ran as well as it did before, let alone ran at all. the inlet ports which should of course be a couple of inches diameter you'd have struggled to get your little finger in, manifold internals much the same, MAP sensor buried under inches of gunk, god knows what it was reading!

an inch or so of crud got craped out before it all went in the parts cleaning tank...
swirl flaps removed for good measure and all built back up...still no starting

a chat with Tom about possibilities, cam and crank sensor i'd thought about and seemed a likely culprit so I ordered both sensors.

as a final check to make sure I wasn't missing anything I checked the cam timing again. now, as those who've done jtd engine belts will know there is only a pulley on the exhaust cam and the inlet cam is driven by a pair of gears at the opposite end inside the cam housing. i'd checked and double checked the cam timing, even resorting to buying the proper alignment tools and of course all was well. however i'd not checked the inlet cam as being on a pair of gears they must surely be ok? the timing pin wouldn't go into the locater in the inlet cam! not the easiest thing to access either, but it wasn't in line. actually took a further 7 teeth forwards rotation of the cambelt before the mark lines up....at last!

so off with the cam housing again, getting the hang of it by now, and the checks made again. sure enough the inlet cam was out of alignment by about 45 degrees!!

picture here shows the gears inside the cam housing
but how had they moved, jumped teeth? surely they will be on a keyway.....nope! flat faced mating up against the end of the camshafts, not even on a taper let alone any dowel or keyway! gears removed, lock cams in posisiiotn then torque back up.

refit everything and once fuel pressure restored it purred into life

thank you!!!


so, nearly a month after giving up on me it was going again.
celebrated with giving it a wash

Swirl flaps......pain the rectum, or worse your engine. Had them blanked off on the (cough) beemer.

What a mission kev think I'll stick to bodywork

Spacenut wrote:Looking forward to it

Here's his other car in candy apple wine red. 58 ranchero

Johnboy wrote:What a mission kev think I'll stick to bodywork

I agree.
Glad you got it sorted Kev, so just to clarify, the cam had moved from the gear so that even though the "cogs" were meshed , the timing was out?

JB like the 'ute. Did you spray it? I have never worked with custom paints like candy or flake but like the effect.
Nearest i ever got was doing my missus's nails.

Kegsti66 wrote:

Johnboy wrote:What a mission kev think I'll stick to bodywork

JB like the 'ute. Did you spray it? I have never worked with custom paints like candy or flake but like the effect.
Nearest i ever got was doing my missus's nails.

Sadly I didn't spray this .He imported it like that. But I've sprayed candys flakes pearls. but flap paint which is the work of the devil .is Crazy paint .But very cool .

I'll be spraying the Buick next month in a Matt Metallic silver . Did a test and it looks great
Here's the mystery machine I did the end of 2015 . All paint no stickers

Nice one. That took some sorting. I have never had the creative ideas.
Giving me a design to copy is one thing but as I once said in a thread on here, I wouldn't have a good vision for inventing a scheme for car etc. That is why I appreciate the schemes people come up with.
This took me ages to mask and paint and look how simple it looks

some cracking work there you two I can only dream of being so proficient with the paint guns in time

to clarify kieth, yes either the gears had slipped on either cam or they'd jumped a few teeth. to jump a few teethe though they'd have had to pull apart a bit, but not beyond doubt. most likely though with the lack of any kind of locking mechanism besides friction then either one or both cam gears slipped.
the one driven gear from the exhaust cam that is driven by the belt was fine, lined up with the marks and the cam alignment itself with the timing pin was fine, just somewhere after that things slipped.

I blame myself for not checking it thoroughly first off. I saw how everything was working and assumed it impossible for the gears to jump/slip. assuming that they were securely fastened was my mistake. not checking the timing pin alignment was my second mistake. never too wise to learn from your mistakes...check and double check the basics first!

Kegsti66 wrote:Nice one. That took some sorting. I have never had the creative ideas.
Giving me a design to copy is one thing but as I once said in a thread on here, I wouldn't have a good vision for inventing a scheme for car etc. That is why I appreciate the schemes people come up with.
This took me ages to mask and paint and look how simple it looks

The mystery machine nearly killed me
Checkout these two for masking and back masking . The Austin powers ski is mine .Loads of work on both

Kev . Great work on the engine . For me every days a school day and never take things for granted.Glad it's sorted tho

Yes, a lot of time spent there. I take it you used base coats, then a final clear to bury the edge lines.
The really hard part is the joints of removable panels, and which side of the fine line tape you spray up to, isn't it? When I did that car the stripe also had to go into scoop. Easy to look at and pick fault with but as the car is hand built sometimes measuring accurately "looks" wrong. The scoop is actually wonky, as is the shape of the roof !!

Yes all 2k base coat . Both skis where silver base then with mine candy red and cobalt blue and pearl white . Then lots of clear . I was getting very ocd about getting the stripes right . Which most people wouldnt even notice
Great job you did on the car tho .Looks stunning

Well tomorrow I'll be working on a p5 rover v8 coupe . Bottom of the doors are starting to go ,plus a couple of other bits . Lovely classic tho.

Cheers, the 250 TDF was used in the "Love bug" Herbie film in the '70s.
Rover P5 coupe is another fav of mine.
I grew up with one on my walk to school in teal blue with a grey roof. loved it.
Sadly, after the old boy gave up driving I watched it slowly die in a half opened garage