S1 sud resto "a bit more fettling"

[sudboy1490]

Hi guys, my first thread on classicalfaforum Just thought i'd load a few photo's of the work iv been doing to the sud over the past few days. Unfortunately i had some issues with the engine that needed sorting, so while its been out and away for repair i set to and did some improvements. The bottom arms had some signs of rust as i hadn't done them during the resto, i actually had a perfect pair i had already done but they turned out to be off a 33 so slightly shorter, i swapped them back out for the originals but didn't have time to fettle them properly at the time! So this week i took em back to bare metal and removed the strengthening plates, a friend then welded some new ones on for me. Got them all painted up and back on the car this weekend after getting the engine back in last weekend. Also put my snazzy air filter sticker on, thanks to kev "spot on mate" she's all ready for mitcar

[junior]

Wow, the engine bay looks like you could eat your dinner off it. Looks great.

Who did your exhaust as that looks a very good job as well ?

Good luck with it all.

[Veesix75]

Agreed, looks great, and underneath.

[Spacenut]

Man that is gorgeous!

Cool number plate too - Department of Work and Pensions

Lauren

[Kegsti66]

Hi Col,
Really looking forward to meeting up at MITCAR this year and seeing your cars, however many you can bring.
Love you brake discs they look really smart and glad you got the engine sorted.

[Alfasam]

I think the "DWP" prefix may show the car was first registered in the County of Worcestershire under the old system.
The Worcestershire dealers in the mid to late 1970's were:
- Jack Humphries & Co in Kidderminster
- North Worcestershire Motors in Stourbridge
- Avia Garage in Stoulton near Worcester
Quite possibly one of these was the supplying dealer

[sudboy1490]

Hi Junior its just a standard exhaust i bought off the interweb and yeah i put as much effort into the engine bay as i did the rest of the car, i had to really, as being white anything not detailed would stand out a mile!

Thanks veesix it was a lot of hours work and am glad its finished, i wont be doing another anytime soon lol

Yeah Lauren not a bad reg is it and sam its a Jack Humphries car sold to a P.W Jones on the 4/01/78. The 2nd owner was called Derek Humphries who bought it from Kidderminster Motors on 10/04/79 with 5,729 miles on the clock. He owned it for almost 30yrs and came to see it at ripon classic last year where i was showing it for the first time after restoring it, we sat and had a beer together chatting all things alfasud a great day!!

Keith thats going to be a fantastic day

col

[NEG]

Smashing! If this is the standard of car going to MITCR then I may not go! I'll be too embarrassed to turn up in mine LOL.

[sud_1.5ti]

GREAT!

[Alfasam]

Looking good and ready to show underneath and in the engine room!

Like the use of the original spring wire clips for the various hoses. If you don't mind me asking are these the originals re plated, or have you found a source of replica items?

I have the same problem as you with the front leading arms of my 78 Sud Super which is currently being restored - even though it has just 29,000 miles on the clock, and half of those were done by me only using the car in summer before it got put into storage for 20 years. Obviously, the arms are poorly protected from corrosion and have a design fault in so much as there is an in-built rust trap where the spot welded reinforcing plates turn the corner at the base of the arm.

I too purchased replacement arms which luckily seem to be exactly the same length as the originals, but have come across another problem as they utilise a different type of bush at the front end. The Super bush (and the ones I can see in the photos of your car) both have two small oval shaped holes in them to increase compliance. The replacement arms I got hold of use a harder solid bush which I think may be for the late model Green Cloverleaf Ti and Sprint which were initially fitted with those odd size Michelin low profile tyres. I am not sure how these arms/bushes will affect the handling and noise transmission characteristics if fitted to the Super, so am somewhat wary of using them. At the moment the plan is to re make and re weld new thicker reinforcing plates onto the front of the original Super arms, much as you have as the arms both look otherwise sound having been media blasted clean.

It would be interesting to know if anyone else on the Forum has any experience of using later type front leading arms on the standard saloon cars as I would imagine there are very few if any NOS arms of the correct type out there, plus I have never come across the bushes with the holes in being offered for sale.

[Gary Orchard]

I am fairly sure all of the Series 3 cars had the bush with no holes in - not just the TI models

When the rear arm of the front suspension was changed under recall campaign the bush were the 2 arms meet together was the type with no holes in where the pre modification rear arm had the bush with the holes in so you will be fine in my opinion

The front arms on my TIx have been repaired today - got the local metal supplier to bend the edge up - drilled out the old spot welds and then fitted the new plates

[sudboy1490]

nice job that gary, looks very original i just had mine welded right round for added strength and to stop any moisture getting between the plates and causing any corrosion.

I bought those hose clips off the internet sam, they were silver so i had them dipped with a load of other stuff to get the gold colour..