Classic Alfa Forums

Veesix75 wrote:Great work as usual Kev, now racing’s over I’ll have a ride over and have a look at the integrale. I bet you can’t wait to get it built up and running. Last bit of mild weather to paint it and winter to build it up ?

Give us a few weeks and I'll be starting to look at building it up mate so do come along for a gander

Kegsti66 wrote:Great stuff Kev, that little minx is fighting you all the way with her rust spots, and as always, you step up and deal with it.

Certainly seems never ending it trying to stick a knife in my back mate, that's for sure


Actually broke my no work on a Sunday rule this afternoon, need to press on over the next couple of weeks and get the rest of the panels painted before the inevitable cold weather arrives..handily the MotoGP was from Japan so caught all that early morning


The door I'd dug the filler out of to find some rust spots got spot blasted now that I could use some dry grit!
You can usually get the spots out with the knotted wheel but sometimes the little dark spots are too deep and digging them out with the grinder loses too much good metal. The hand held spot blaster does a great job at getting rid of any dots of rust.



With that done all the little leftover dents and knocks could start to be redone, kind of think this door has had some damage at some point as the forward edge had been welded, not for rust I don't think but for a knock.



The rear hatch got sanded down and the repairs I'd previously done got filled, thankfully nothing untoward was found!

The front door that I repaired the bottom on I'd sanded down last Wednesday which is now about ready for primer


I also made a start on the drivers wing which only has a couple of small dents to sort so with a bit of luck if I get Wednesday off I'll be close to getting stuff ready for primer.
Quite a list of panels to paint so space will again be cramped.
2 front wings,
drivers front & rear doors,
bonnet,
hatchback,
bonnet and hatch hinges,
2 bonnet vents plus any other little bit I have forgotten about...

Finally got everything prepped for primer today, all laid out ready to go up there Wednesday afternoon and one last panel wipe then primer.
That will just leave the 2 rear plastic vents and the 2 bumpers to do...

Primered it all on Wednesday, went up last night for a couple of hours then up there early today on a day's holiday off work to get the paint on. Just about got in time as was a dry and bright but not overly warm day, loads of gas used on the heaters!


Hatch needed a new location point making for the bump stop in the corner which has come out ok, most of the repairs will be hidden still
Bonnet got some dust in it but should flat out ok, passenger wing that had all the repairs has come out well though.

Bonnet vents are actually alloy not plastic, a few hinges etc got done also.


Hoping to get up there Sunday to flat and polish the panels.
I'll then aim to get the door frames and weather strips painted satin black on Wednesday, assuming I can find all the weather strips!

Stirling work my friend.
The panels look real nice and you should be proud of yourself.
She is going to look great when all back together.

Thanks very much again mate, very much appreciate all your help in getting me to this stage where I can just about manage to make a decent stab at things. Paying a fortune for someone else to paint stuff always put a dampener on things, being able to do it myself opens up a world of opportunities.

Having just chatted to a friend about the hassles he had painting his car (twice) it also can save you a lot of grief and hassle.

Looking great despite the red colour ! I still get lots of complains about the Beige of mine .

It is actually a much darker red than comes through on the digital pictures , looks more orange on here!

Had a search for the weather strips this afternoon up in the loft after deciding they weren't in the shed.

Having looked all over I found them neatly bundled together for each door taped up with the relevant seals etc, can't recall being so organised when I stripped them

Then realised I needed the window guides that go between the 1/4 lights and the main glass as they'll need doing too. Found the rears fairly easily but could I buggery find the fronts, spent a good half hour looking for them. Resorted to looking back through pictures to see if they were still on the car when it went to Jims to see if they got stripped here at home or not....then noticed the front doors have full width glass so no 1/4 light runners


Did find my front bumper up in the loft though, thought it must be up there

Had a good few hours up at the unit this afternoon to flat and polish up the panels, happy with the results

Wasn't too bad on the orange peel front other than the bonnet which strangely should have been easier to get a nice flat finish!

Advantage to doing the doors on the stands rather than on the car is the underside and ends etc can be painted.

Great finish. Well done.

Nice work kev .your getting pretty handy with gun now respect looks great

The last pic is more the red I was expecting Kev. Who says the camera never lies.

Sud 145 wrote:The last pic is more the red I was expecting Kev. Who says the camera never lies.

Amazing how crap the camera is at picking up red mate!
I'll try a pic with the camera next time instead of my phone..

This is the hatchback that I flatted and polished this afternoon, looks almost pink! Hope it's a few more years before it turns

Yesterday afternoon I set about prepping the door frames for paint as they need to be black.
Of course to make things match that means the weather strips also need doing along with the rear doors window runners.
The gutter trim looked like it was a dark grey but after looking at original pictures they appear black like the other parts so I prepped them too.
The front bumper also had some metal grilles either side of the number plate which looked cruddy so they joined the satin black party.

The passenger window guide I had to chop about a bit as the bottom few inches were rotten and the centre bracket missing, of course that was the only passenger one I had yet I have 3 drivers ones!
I used the top section off the drivers side one which handily flipped the centre bracket to the correct side then welded the bottom bracket on. Handily it all fits to the door, best to check this before painting!


All painted today with my little miniature spray gun, a real nice tip to get one, cheers JB

Yeah there great little guns and crazy cheap too!
With the red .try taking a photo out side if sunny .mite help. Nothing wrong with a pink grale tho

Got all the panels moved over to the bigger unit now, satin black sections done.

Took a few pictures with a regular camera which have come out a bit more representative of the correct colour, just for you Tony
Best place to store the bonnet I figured was back on the car! at least I can say I've started to put it back together!

At least it doesn't look pink!

with everything stored out of the way the last remaining jobs are the plastics, the front bumper had been lacquered at some point on the top section which was peeling badly.
Being plastic I was a bit worried about damaging it so tried to rub it down by hand, boredom soon set in so the DA sander with a 320 pad speeded things up a bit. Bottom half was just straight colour so just needed a light sand down.


The rear bumper was pretty good so sanded down fairly easily although it did reveal that the black section had worn through in places...

Yes, I know the bumpers look pink, they have indeed faded!!

As the black section was in poor shape I thought I may as well do them in satin black like the other bits, at least it'll kind of match!

I'll give the black a few days to harden off then do the red sections along with the rear quarter vents....hopefully the last bits to paint besides a few bits on the engine.

Wow Kev, looking really crisp and sharp now.
The contrast of the fresh black against the red is wonderful.
Top work.

Hi Kev.

Are you enjoying the painting or is it more a means to an end as there is so much preparation to get a high standard?

Cheers guys, glad you are liking it, makes it worth pressing on

The painting bit I do actually quire enjoy, the preparation though is tiresome as I'm sure Keith will agree with.
It's like building a house, if the foundations aren't right you'll not get the results.
I don't spend as much time on it as I should really but enough so the paint sticks! The 2 pack filler primer is a real short cut, fills up minor imperfections and scratches that are left by the coarser papers, no need to flat everything back with fine wet & dry, just prime over the bits you've rubbed down with 240 grit and it fills it in for you!

This for me though is getting to the best part of a restoration, when you can start putting things back on it really starts to feel like you've achieved something. Up to know it's backward steps all the time, just creating more and more work..

Just when I thought the painted sections were all in hand....

Went up into the loft to find the door seals and window glass in readiness for fitting and building up the rear doors...on looking through boxes of stuff I cam across 2 plastic grilles, wasn't sure what they were until it dawned on me, foglight blanks for the front bumper, they'll need painting. Have got some new foglights, can't recall now if the bumper had the blanks or lights..
Then another box revealed another task, door mirrors!
The plastic outer covers are in a right state, faded and paint chipped off.
Had to have an hour down the shed to strip them all down

So that's more plastic stuff needing red paint!

As timings went well with Terrys' Moggy then a space to paint the bumpers this morning fell into place just right.
Of course the fact I'd also found the door mirror covers plus the front fog light covers to do added to the workload.

All went well though.

Got carried away with the rear 1/4 air vents though, at least they won't need flatting much!

All masking off, looking good if I say so myself, pleased I painted the black now.


Task will soon start to figure out where everything goes!

Everything moved around now, Moggy gone from little spray unit to be replaced by Tims' Sud and the Y10 for the winter, which will be over soon!

With a bit of space now in the big unit (Robs' Imp is up there now too...) it was at last time to start putting stuff back on.
The rear doors were a good place to start, less likely to get damaged if they're bolted to the car than laid on trestles.
There is a seal that fits all around the doors rather than to the car itself, glad I fitted them before putting the door on as very fiddly to get back in the groove.

Locks etc then were found so the doors were ready to go on.
As I'm up there on my own a method needed to be thought up to try and fit them without damage.

Solution was to use a long stud in the top mounting point hole, feed the door hinge down the stud then latch the door on the first saftey catch. This held the door in place so the correct bolts could be fiited then remove the stud.

Happy to say the doors went on without drama.

Then had the task of sorting out the check straps and fitting them, wish I'd taken more care on labelling stuff up!
The rear door window seals have now been given a good clean to get all the moss out, windows cleaned ready for fitting the lot in next time.
At least it's now going the right way..

As always very inspiring. The speed at which the activities take place is amazing. I wonder how you do that, you have a family as well, right?

Not with the intent to hijack your interesting thread here but how do you throroughly clean the windows of grease, debris, stuck window seal rubber etcetera without polishing the factory original marking away? Especially for the rear hatch window with the heating lines on it.

Keep up the speed and excellent progress, cheers

For the glass I just used a bucket of warm soapy water, used car wash shampoo this time. A small household foam/scouring pad for cleaning, a worn one is best. Don't go too mad with the scouring side as it will scratch the glass but is enough to remove the filth that had gathered up at the glass edges where the moss had been.
For the old glue from stickers etc I used some thinners on a rag.
For rear windows with the heating element it's important to be careful, the element strips are easily damaged. To help avoid this always clean it in straight lines along the elements strips, rather than across them. Used to see quite a few broken lines that were in the arc of where someone had wiped a wet window, probably a ring the culprit so I blame women

Thanks for the nice words, and yes, I do have a family....but nothing is without its costs.

Keep up the good work Kev! A little incentive: https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/top ... &t=1778143

NEG wrote:Keep up the good work Kev! A little incentive: https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/top ... &t=1778143

Hopefully next year there'll be a few rides out, just for the fun mate

Went up to Cadwell this afternoon for their last event this year, end of season Rally.
Got chilly by 4PM when the Sun went down so nipped across to the unit as it's only a 10 minute drive across the back lanes from there, 145 territory.

Had a couple of hours fitting the rear door windows with the freshly painted guides etc, glad I decided to paint all the parts now rather than have odd coloured parts. Love red against black.

Busy now sorting parts in the shed ready to fit the rear suspension.
Driveshafts are getting new boots and packed with fresh grease.
Hubs are ready painted with new bearings, arms all cleaned and painted.

I welded a large nut to the rear tracking adjuster arms before painting, the usual method of mole grips or stillsons to rotate the bar makes a mess, the nut will allow a 24mm spanner to do the job simpler. I did actually get very lucky on these adjuster arms picking them up off ebay for about £20, they were already cleaned and greased with new bushes pressed in each end. Each new bush would have cost me that and there are 4!

Hopefully Wednesday I'll be able to fit the powder coated rear diff carrier, rear diff which has had an oil change, driveshafts and hubs with new arms and bushes. Basically I'm trying to make some space in the shed so I can get on with the engine