Classic Alfa Forums

I'm sure most of you already know the story of my Sud...

To cut a long story short, I'll create this thread by putting down the facts, so here goes:

1 - Kev put me up to it and I found one luckily
2 - It was abandoned outside an electricians shop because they couldnt get it going
3 - Car had issued papers to get scrapped, so I paid the owner the amount he would get for scrapping it and bought it
4 - Went to tow the car home, found out that it had diesel in the tank rather than petrol, so towed it 200metres to the petrol station, filled it up, fired it up and drove home.

Soon after, I started looking for panels and focusing on the bad areas of the car

The engine was no good, so had to swap it with a good one I had.
Engine removal revealed other goodies

By that time it had been long enough, so I thought I'd start fixing some stuff before the restoration could begin.

Changed the rear hatch to a good enough used one I bought from Mark in UK, changed the front bonnet to a perfect condition used one I found locally, and rebuilt the front calipers while I was at it, so I could pass it through MOT and tax it

Then, just when I was about to start using it - already used it at a trip we had we the club and I was trying to fix the suspension- I got rear ended by a butcher's truck (literally)... putting my poor SUD in a TOTAL LOSS status from the insurance company...

I asked for the car to be listed as "Salvage" so they paid me 400 euros for the damage and if I wanted I could pay the rest to get it fixed if possible

Took it to my friends Mario's body shop, where we started to fix it and fix it good this time...

A donor Sud was most welcome, although a 4 door S2, the parts I needed were there.

New rear spoiler from Jan as well as some front lights
Rear hatch from donor Sud
Rear end from donor Sud
Wheel arch repair kits from UK
Front doors from old stock locally before they threw everything for scrap metal

Removing the paint and stripping the car, would you believe it ? I found some more issues with it :p

Some more pictures here....

Two years after the crash it started to show some actual progress

2 front wings added to the new parts, galvanized reproduction ones from Italy

Doors, wings, rear hatch, rear spoiler, front bonnet to be painted today

Rest of the car to be painted on Thursday

A lot of work Chris , but it will be worth it when it's done. Another Sud saved

nice to see the sud getting some more of your precious time again mate

you know it was all worth it though, don't you?

i can only take the blame for the inspiration, not for the feeling of not giving in......you had that already mate

Hey chris,
Good to see her coming back together again!!!
Good luck!
Jan

Hi Chris

It's good to see the return.

I remember when it was crashed

Nice one glad it was saved .

Thanks guys, much appreciated

For those of you who dont know me/we havent met, you should know that I have the worst possible timing in the history of mankind !

Might be pissing about for 2 years going nowhere, and then all of a sudden, I find myself in the middle of various big projects
I blame Mario for the Sud, coz it took him long enough to decide it was about time he painted it for me
Bout bloody time too, took him 2 years to make the decision. Still... it was in his shop nice and dry... maybe he liked looking at it

My biggest issue now with the Sud would be the process of putting it back together...
Cant remember what goes where and I will need some bolts and nuts for sure.

Speaking of which ... does anyone know where I can get those secure clipping nuts which are used to bolt the front wings on ?
Also, are the door hinge bolts the cone type allen key ones like the Sprint ? or Hex ?

later suds had hex bolt heads for the door hinges, early ones had the tapered/allen key type ones. guess that if your hinge brackets have a flat or concave mount will tell which you need


http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Captive-Cage- ... 1c4a38a81f

S3 sud door hinges

Hi Chris,
Only joined the club September so didn't know your Sud.
Great to see you have saved the old girl.
Good to know she is finally getting the love she deserves, poor thing has had a hard time in the past.
Well done.
Keith.

Hi chris,
My resto of the the series III took me 6 years and she is running.
So don't worry mate.
I took a lot of pictures. Let me know what you need.
Cheers jan

sud_1.5ti wrote:Hi chris,
My resto of the the series III took me 6 years and she is running.
So don't worry mate.
I took a lot of pictures. Let me know what you need.
Cheers jan

15 years and counting !!!

Nice work Chris - a real labour of love. We've all been there

Hope you kept the original alloys - they're off a Fiat, right?

Looks like the build is getting to the exciting part, looking foward to more updates.

Lauren

PS - nice registration, by the way. Are all Cypriot plates so concise?

Good to see this project making progress

Here is a picture of the wing mounting captive nuts and the door hinge bolts The captive nuts were still available new from Alfa - came in a packet of 10 but not too expensive when I last ordered them - they are used in a few other places in the Sud as well - rear wiper motor fixing,inner door armrest fixing

The door hinge bolts are just a standard 13mm head bolt

Pefrect thanks you guys

Lauren, number plates here used to be 2 letters and 3 numbers - not using the 0 where doesnt need to be used.
From 1990 onwards its 3 letters 3 numbers,
so I've got the following plates on my cars:

SS 51
SD 43
QJ 122
UB 220
UJ 47
XE 17
AAJ 448
KLR 186

and currently started a bidding system so the car I just bought might be: MY V6
...if I'm lucky :p


Regarding the SUD, some good news, some bad news and some interesting news !!!

Good news

Bad News:



Someone forgot to close up those holes from a different version of the SUD. This is getting off again and painted again tomorrow without the holes of the trim.
Interesting news ? :

Well whats interesting to know is that the new galvanized aftermarket wings that are currently in the market, are 5mm shorter than the genuine ones
Neither I or Mario noticed this when test fitting the panels on the car prior to painting them.
Now that we were fitting the doors and wings etc, the front right wing would not align to the edge of the bonnet.
If you pushed it forward to match, the gap between it and the drivers door was massive.
So I left that with Mario to play with the door and wing and split the difference so its not that noticeable.

Not a tragedy, but good thing to have in mind in case you are buying aftermarket front wings

Looking very nice mate

Black. Fantastic!

paint job looks great mate, shame about the holes

Black is the way forward . Looks great

Just because its yours Chris,

Its poo!

Mario wants his bumps bumping a bit more into a lump!

Terrible paint, the panels are crap, you should stick to Sprints, leave the proper cars to us blokes!

Hows that for a pep talk?


Now stop whining about a little hole and a few millimetres, and get the best car you own sorted.

Ok mate

Best car I ever owned in my life is the 1.5 Sprint S3 !

The Sud is ok, but will never be as good as a Sprint :p


Seriously though, I've owned this car for a while now, but I never actually drove it with no issues needed to get sorted.
It was either the brakes, or the suspension, or the engine etc etc....

It will show... otherwise I'll sell it in UK :p

I know a certain bloke with lots of single car sheds that need filling up