Scrapheap Challenge - Yet another Alfa

[911hillclimber]

But that would be an IVA Q plate. though an MX5 drive train would be good.

The MoT man will die if all the structural rust was not fixed.
Fix properly the rear wheel arches etc but you could leave the multitude of dents in them, all cosmetic. Continue the theme all round.

[misteralz]

Only if you're daft enough to declare it. Your average MoT tester isn't going to know.

[knapmann]

Drive train plans are still to come.... , no poxy 1600 for me!

[knapmann]

So one of the things I found in the car when it arrived was an original number plate. Armed with this and the chassis number I contacted the DVLA, I had been told that if they had any record of the car on their system that I should be able to get a V5 for it. Fortunately they did! They had basically no information about it, just that there was a car registered with the reg SVV 419K at some point in the 80s, and as such the car doesn't need re-registering with them I just had to provide a load of photos proving the existence of the car. Winner!





I was donated a rear panel off someone, it still needed work but was better than the one I had on the car which was rotten all along the bottom and smashed in on the LHS. I repaired the areas around the lights using some repair sections.





With this done I started to strip off the front end of the car, the front wings and front panel.





I also started to look out for a rear left wing panel. This is the one panel I knew I would have to spend money getting. These are not available reproduction, I would have to find an original cut off a car, somewhere abroad and convince then to ship it to me. This is not easy, the bolt on panels like doors and bonnets and even front wings etc are not that difficult to get if you are willing to pay for them, rear wings n the other hand have to be cut off a wrecked car, and after weeks of looking I had no luck finding one.



With the front outer panels removed I could take them inside for repairs. the LHS front wing needed a lot of repairs, The RHS one not as much.











The front cross member was totally rotten. I didnt even need to cut this out from the front ARB mounting points, it just crumbled out of place. I just cut it off and dumped it, Ill have to make one from scratch later...







With that, the easily removed panels have all been repaired. Now the difficult outside work begins...

[911hillclimber]

Really good progress, you have been busy!

I think there is a man in india who could straighten that wing easy, so there could be a man here to do the same? Old fashion panel beater type needed.

A 3 lite V6 Alfa engine would be nice...are they the Bussa type??

Great news too on the DVLA. They threw away a lot of the early records of many cars, now classics, but if bothered they will try to find details as in your case.

I was luck too some years ago, they even had some (not all) correspondence about my car from the late 80's and sent me copies.

Can't see you doing the shell out on the drive, so hope you can find space.

[Ian Gunney]

Definitely a big project - will ask some of my Alfa friends if they know of any bits and pieces for it.

[knapmann]

Definitely a big project - will ask some of my Alfa friends if they know of any bits and pieces for it.

Wow yes please do!

[chris68]

Looking forward to this thread ... Great looking car. Really like these early more angular Alfa models. Maybe because everything has gone so bloated and heavy these days. Refreshing that you're doing it on a budget too .

[knapmann]

So with those final removable panels done, its off outside I go,cutting and welding whenever it was dry. Im sure the neighbours loved the sight of me and my beautiful Alfa. As I cut away the rust piles of it would be crumbling all over my drive creating a huge brown patch after it later rained, lovely! many an hour was spend sweeping up the alfa deposits.

I started at the front, I had to totally rebuild both ARB mounting points and the whole lower areas of the LHS inner wing around where the battery tray was. I plan to put the battery in the boot going forwards to I hacked the original tray out and didnt replace it. None of these repairs involved buying any panels etc it was literally a piece at a time...















The front LHS frame rail had rotted out where it was double skinned







Some repairs around the boot and bonnet gutters etc





I got some angle iron from work to brace the shell before I hacked into the totally rotten sills





I started attacking the driver side front half of the sill/a-post/floor area with a plan to fix this and work backwards a section at a time. Probably not technically the way it "should" be done but its how I did it, I dont have the equipment like rotisserie or a cellette to do full sills at once, thats if the panels were even available, which they arent. You can only get repro outer sills for these, you have to fabricate inner and middle sills from scratch, and mine were 80% rotten.

The outer sills on the car were patched on "over sills" tacked on over the rotten original outers probably in the 80s. With them cut off the rotten middle sill can bee seen which was in no way any longer attached to the inner sill. With the middle sill cut out you can see the left overs of the inner sills.





I cut out all the rotten floor in the front foot well while I was at it. At this point I was thinking i'd best get a bigger bottle of Argon-5...

[Gary71]

Great work so far
What are you using for a reference shape for bits that have disappeared both sides? Like that ARB mount? End result looks good

[911hillclimber]

Floor and sills look like my '73T looked in 1988...

Great progress.
Your next doors must be very tolerant of all the cutting and grinding, I would have legal cases against me where I live today.

Nobody bothered me in 1988.

[knapmann]

Great work so far
What are you using for a reference shape for bits that have disappeared both sides? Like that ARB mount? End result looks good

Yes, reference points and shapes is that hardest thing about this project, when everything is rotten and you have to cut so much off it is very hard to know how to begin rebuiling areas and what shape they should be, especially as I have no other car to compare against or any experience in how it should look. This is larely why I was doing it section by section Id leave in some rust bits of metal just as a reference point to where new metal should align with etc It will end up rather imperfect with so many amateur repairs and the lack of genuine replacement panels etc. There is a certain element of just repairing one areas so that it fits the next repaired area, as long as they both fit together its not that obvious if its not perfect. Obviously externally visible panels I make more effort, areas that cannot be seen im less bothered about as long as they are solid. The main reference point for the ARB area is the ARB itself, the drivers side was still just about bolted into some rusty metal but this held the bar in position to rebuild the passenger side around. With that done I could cut out the rusty drivers side and rebuild that.

[Nige]

Cracking on well, you'll be done by the end of the month!

[knapmann]

Floor and sills look like my '73T looked in 1988...

Great progress.
Your next doors must be very tolerant of all the cutting and grinding, I would have legal cases against me where I live today.

Nobody bothered me in 1988.

I probably wasnt very popular, im sure the partied when I moved house last year!

[knapmann]

So it was time to start putting some metal back in.Lots of hammering and bending of sheet metal

Rebuilt the floor


Rebuilt the inner sill


Started to make the middle sill and cut open the back half of the rear sill.


Rebuilding the rear part of the inner sill


A completed inner and middle sill, I even dared to use the jacking point.


Started to look at the rear wing/arch.


Patching inside the wheel arch



Repairing the front edge of the wheel arch and the upper section of the inner arch.


Prepping for a repair patch


I invested in this, my first repair section!