Classic Alfa Forums

About time I started a thread on my project

I have had this car since 2007 when it was written off by Gary Walker from Bianco Auto Develpoments - It belonged to a customer of theirs and was on the way back from passing an MOT. Gary had a deer run out in front of him which he hit and then also swerved and hit a tree.
The car ended up in a salvage yard in Chichester and this is where I saved it from July 2007

The damage is mainly to the bonnet,o/s front wing,front panel,o/s door,o/s windscreen pillar and o/s/r 1/4 panel. The are also dents in the n/s front wing,roof and tailgate

The first time I saw this car was at NAD in 1996 where it won the Alfasud concours - it had only done 11000 miles and it was owned my a Mr Livingston

From the other history I have it seems that it sold to a Mr Payne in 1999 at 14000 miles and this is who owned it when it was written off having now done just under 33000 miles

During Mr Paynes ownership it won the NAD Alfasud concours again in 2000 and was used by Classic & Sports Car magazine for a feature in April 2002 and also by Autocar magazine in November 2000

My plan is a full restoration and to try to bring it back to concours condition again

I started stripping it car down 3 weeks ago and have taken a few more pictures along the way which I will post up during the week

Great find, so glad another one is being saved and not just broken up.

I'll be watching this well done for saving it

Nice to hear another car has survived, how is the front chassis leg/front crossmember area where most of the impact was?

Looks like a really nice example and well worth the effort to save it.

There are a few front chassis legs for sale at the moment, I seem to remember that Peter at Alfasud Parts might well have one or two and there was another on Ebay.co.uk recently in a buy it now listing if you need to find a replacement.

Looking forward to seeing your project progress.

Nice to see another tix sud being saved as there isn't many left now.
Look forward to the pics and progress .

this is the car you told me about at MITCAR this year isn't it gary?

i'll be following the rebuild with interest

should have the makings of a raer, low miles TiX

The chassis legs,inner wings and crossmember are all ok

The upper rail of the front panel is bent badly and the lower outer front panel is dented but I hope this will be ok and I will just need to renew the upper rail
The bulkhead panel under the battery/master cylinder had some surface rust and signs of being painted before but when stripped was in great condition

Yes Kev this is the same car we talked about

A few more pictures from the inside strip out - the floorpan is also in great condition with only the right front footwell showing any sign of having water in it - the sound deadening felt in the other 3 footwells is like new
Under the felt the round disc in the right front is rusty but the others are all good
It is no wonder that these rust as they seem to just be a round steel disc with no paint at all !!

Looks a good shell, good job you saved it mate
My floor had no metal discs like yours, just the original sound deadening material stuck straight over the floor openings!

I think Peter at Alfasud Parts may have a NOS top rail as I bought one a while back which was delivered to Peter along with some other stuff which was for his stock. I ultimately did not need the part and as far as I know Peter should still have it. He may also have a bonnet and some wings.

Hi Sam

I have already got a front panel upper rail (and a complete front panel if it comes to that)

Spent a while blasting the surface rust off the new panels - the dealer sticker on them was from 1979 so older than the car !!
I have also got a pair of wings and a bonnet + most of the other panels that I think I will need

I hope that when the front panel is pulled out that the damage to the lower bit will come back to the correct shape and just need the upper bit to be fitted
What I do need is one of the brackets that holds the front spoiler so that I can reshape my ones - anybody got one of these at all ??

I think Steve Parry had some of these brackets.

Good to hear you have found key parts. Some of them are getting quite hard/expensive to track down now, so well done for finding them. Looks like you are well on top of your project by the sound of things and on the way to having a great example of the series 3 ti to enjoy. Looking forward to seeing it at shows when you get it all done.

A few more pictures from the strip down

The windscreen surround is not so good mainly due to the accident - where the bonnet came back and hit the wiper spindle it has bent the panel there and also the damage to the right screen pillar has started to corrode
Luckily I have got a complete screen surround panel that I got an an alfa day years ago for £40 !! That was a good investment
The wing mounting rails are also not great but fairly normal I guess - I have removed the boxed outer panels and found this
No paint inside apart from that green/grey primer stuff and no wax at all so again no wonder they rust around here !!

Well lucky with than screen surround, I paid nearly four times that for a good section chopped out of a wreck
All the best with the restoration.

Expect to find major corrosion at the base of the 'A' pillar as yours externally looks worse than mine and my car has needed weeks of work on the R/H side pillar (see thread!), mine had the scuttle panel replace in 1991 but nothing was done with the corrosion underneath, just covered over

I will have a good look at the A pillars but they look not too bad on the outside where the wings sit - I have access to one of those endoscope things with a light on it so will look inside and also all the way along the inner sills etc.

Steve Parry has sold those front spoiler brackets already so still on the hunt for one to use as a pattern

So a few more pictures from the interior strip down

The instrument cluster fixings had 2 of the plastic screw fixings bits broken off which seemed a bit strange as the rest of the interior is in mint condition and all very original
I guess this must have been done when the column switch was renewed as the car has the later type of switch with the revised indicator cancel with the wire bits that touch on the steering wheel rather than the triangle plastic type
Also from the top of the door under the 1/4 light glass - why put a bit of foam sponge there ?? All this will do is hold the water with the results like this

that bit of sponge is mad mate isn't it!

the bracket you are missing, is it this one?

if it is just pm me your address and i'll stick it in a jiffy back to you

Hi Kev

Thanks for the offer but the bracket I need is the 5 that spot weld to the lower lip of the front panel - mine are all there but bent from the accident and it is not easy to see what shape they should be now !

A few pictures of under the passener front wing
Again no paint apart from the primer - the wing was stuck on with some black "goo" stuff and that seems to have trapped the water - it mostly stayed stuck to the wing but all down the A pillar has surface rust under it - also look at the lack of paint at the top where the wing and windscreen pillar meet - just the primer again
Wing rail not so bad this side but I will open it up and have a look inside

Another part I need is the wing rail closing panel for the drivers side - I thought I had 2 complete wing rails but soo far I have only found 3 out of the 4 bits !!

Gary, You wouldn't happen to have a sister would you?

Nice Sud btw

doesn't look in bad order by most cases gary, sure you've seen far worse too!

not sure what that little bracket was that i found, thought it was from an S3 front spoiler but you're right about them being welded on so can't be

good work so far gary that will be a nice car in the end.

Well done for saving this car Gary, structure looks very good, Alfa did like foam & sponge back in the day didn't they!

Not had much time this week but a few small jobs done

Spent longer than I thought it would take making the various holes in the new wing for the plastic trim fixings 3 oval holes and 3 squares to make
Also got the glass out of the tailgate and looks like this will need to be renewed - I knew it was dented but the corrosion under the screen rubber was a bit worse that I was hoping for
Also cleaned up the bottom of the rear panel which has a small hole in the middle where I guess the rear bumper has held the water - should be quite easy to make up a section repair that without the expense of a new panel I hope
That bracket is from a S3 Kev but it goes from the front wing to the plastic wheelarch trim but thanks for the offer and Welshy - not got a sister !

that's the bit gary, know where you mean now.

have you managed to source a bracket now? pretty sure i don't have any in our stores but will look next time i'm up there if needed


nice work on the fixing holes too, those were fiddly to do i bet

That is a very good and sound tailgate! I don't think you will find a used one that is better.

how about this then mate

Your doing a cracking job on your sud.
My tailgate was rusty under the window rubber as well but did toy with the idea of a fibreglass one but in the end repaired mine as it was the second tailgate I got hold of .