My New Track Hack: Project Alfa

[Smity42]

Got the roof lining out (f*cking c*nt of a job that was, f*cking italians) but theres still some foam up there I didn't get time to remove. Never mind.

Also vacummed all the cr*p off the floor so all ready for dry icing tomorrow.

Lots and Lots of rust . Well, its only a handful of spots really, but those spots are all BAD. . Nothing a Grinder and Welder can't solve.

[Beelzebub89]

Awesome to see it moving quickly Martin Look forward to seeing this progress more. looks great so far

[R32 Zilla]

These things are great. We had an Alfetta sedan which had all the same running gear as the GTV. It use to steer, handle and sound very nice.

[Smity42]

Sound deadener removal today. Big thanks to Dave and Kyle for helping out

I bought 15kg of pellets and a 5kg block. It wasn't enough pellets , but that didn't really matter as it didn't work very well anyway.

Some, such as the stuff on the trans tunnel, practically fell off after hitting it with the ice:

Other stuff was more stubborn, the ice doing practically nothing at all, and we resorted to the chisel and hammer method:

But then Dave cracked out his heat gun, and this worked MUCH better, heat it up and just scrape it off with a paint scraper. This section was done with the heat gun:

So we have decided that Italian sound deadener is much more susceptible to heat than cold.

I'll have to clean off the rest of the gunk with wax and grease remover or something.

Edited April 26, 2010 by Smity42

[SABBAi]

Looks Good McFly. I'll have to come and take a look see.

[Beelzebub89]

Get some prepsol or something Martin should clear up any wax/grease fairly easily.

[R33_Dude]

I'm currently piecing together a alfa 75 for the same kind of deal.

Heres a present for you:

http://www.alfabb.com/bb/forums/engine-con...le-project.html

Read the whole thread. The guy lives just down the road for me, last time I had a chat he was complaining about how the silicon joiners on the throttle body kept blowing off...

...

...

Under 30psi+ of boost.

[Smity42]

McFly

I'm currently piecing together a alfa 75 for the same kind of deal.

Heres a present for you:

http://www.alfabb.com/bb/forums/engine-con...le-project.html

Read the whole thread. The guy lives just down the road for me, last time I had a chat he was complaining about how the silicon joiners on the throttle body kept blowing off...

...

...

Under 30psi+ of boost.

Wow 66 pages, that should keep me entertained for a while at work . Thanks.

Small update from the weekend:

Unfortunately, despite having a long weekend, I didn't get a lot of time to work on the Alfa . I did try a number of different solvents for cleaning the remainder of the sound deadener off, and yes Colin, wax & grease remover works best. Kero also works OK, but you need to use a lot of it (or a lot of elbow grease). I cleaned off probably over half of it before I ran out of wax & grease remover.

I've also been playing with the headlights. The reflectors on mine were all rusted and sh*t, and finding replacements is a dog. But I found on an alfa forum a way that you can cut them up and then use them as 'buckets' for fitting standard 146mm headlight inserts into. Certain brands fit better than others, the brand that fits best I have ordered from down south for $12 each. Bargain. I've cut up my lights and hit them with killrust, I'll put up pics of the finished product once I get the inserts.

I also started to fit race seats, but then the chuck on my drill gave out . I'll need to replace it this weekend.

[R33_Dude]

Also for alfa parts I would recommend the Alfa Romeo Owners Club Victoria forums: http://www.alfaclubvic.org.au/forum/

Good guys all in all and its a tight knit community. For the most part everyone is out to help everyone else with whatever it is that needs doing. On a downside alfa owners tend to be touchy about the whole "original car" and restoration thing, so heads up be careful what you say. I said that I was putting lightweight rims on my alfa for track days and some guy exploded at me...

Anyway I might make up a thread on my 75 but progress is far slower than this. It's a club day / motorkhana car. Its my bit of fun before I step back into a R34.

[Beelzebub89]

http://octane.ie/forum/showthread.php?t=32946&page=14

Just sayin like...

[Ten Four]

^Damn....

[GTS4WD]

yeah, thats cool.. 147 sports sedan

Good luck with the project man.

Great to see something a little more different in Australia

Edited May 7, 2010 by GTS4WD

[Smity42]

Also for alfa parts I would recommend the Alfa Romeo Owners Club Victoria forums: http://www.alfaclubvic.org.au/forum/

Good guys all in all and its a tight knit community. For the most part everyone is out to help everyone else with whatever it is that needs doing. On a downside alfa owners tend to be touchy about the whole "original car" and restoration thing, so heads up be careful what you say. I said that I was putting lightweight rims on my alfa for track days and some guy exploded at me...

Thanks mang, I'm all over it.

Anyway I might make up a thread on my 75 but progress is far slower than this. It's a club day / motorkhana car. Its my bit of fun before I step back into a R34.

Progress is only fast(ish) at the moment because I don't have to spend big money yet

http://octane.ie/forum/showthread.php?t=32946&page=14

Just sayin like...

That is awesome, but no.

yeah, thats cool.. 147 sports sedan

Good luck with the project man.

Great to see something a little more different in Australia

Thanks man.

[Smity42]

Weekend Progress (not likely to get anything done today):

Another relatively unproductive weekend. I finished cleaning all the sound deadener off the interior. Then I decided to remove all the bumpers, side skirts etc, and proceeded to find more rust

Wasted some money on a steering wheel and boss kit:

It has pimpin red stitching:

I've got an Alfa Romeo horn button on the way too . Hopefully this setup doesn't push the wheel too far forward, it seems to be an inch or so longer than the stock wheel:

And these are my new headlights. Basically the old reflector forms a 'bucket' with all the right mounting hardware, and the insert presses into it:

And for those wondering what engine is going in, BEHOLD:

[Ten Four]

Omg love you

Still, no bashing of the old Alfa engine?

[R33_Dude]

*cough* put a rotary in *cough*

Seriously though its not much work to put a 13B into a transaxle alfa. The idea with my 75 is if the engine lets go I pull it out and put a rotary or a SR20DET in there. Preferably the bridgeported N/A ITB 13B I have sitting in my old mans shed...

For those who don't know with the transaxle setup all you really need is the engine sitting at the right height on custom mounts and then the drive shaft connects straight to the crank (basically...).

Problems then arise with breaking the gearbox/diff/axles. But theres ways and means around that

Suspension wise what do you think you will go with? I reckon I will run with koni yellows for a while before switching to a full RSracing coilover setup. Its a company in the US when I win tattslotto

(as seen here:

http://www.alfabb.com/bb/forums/milano-75-...t-review-2.html

and

http://www.alfaromeo-performanceparts.com/...oduct=COME20LD1 )

Hellishly expensive but absolutely definitive.

[LANDSCRIBBLE]

awsome project car man, looking forward to how it turns out

[Smity42]

*cough* put a rotary in *cough*

No

Suspension wise what do you think you will go with? I reckon I will run with koni yellows for a while before switching to a full RSracing coilover setup. Its a company in the US when I win tattslotto

(as seen here:

http://www.alfabb.com/bb/forums/milano-75-...t-review-2.html

and

http://www.alfaromeo-performanceparts.com/...oduct=COME20LD1 )

Hellishly expensive but absolutely definitive.

I'll probably run bilsteins.

[Smity42]

Update:

Didn't get anything done this weekend , But I did get some cool sh*t.

First, I got my alfa horn button

Sexy.

Also, got my fibreglass bonnet:

Its pretty cool, has all the reo moulded in fibreglass as well:

Only down side is it has dodgy home-made looking plates for bonnet pins in, but I can replace them with better ones:

Trial fitted it on top of the stock bonnet for funsies:

[Smity42]

Update:

Another weekend with not much time to do anything

I did get sick of cheap POS drills dying on me, so I went and bought this:

Relegating this hunk of cr*p to the bin:

I also scored some good drill bits off ebay cheap:

So I finally got around to test mounting a seat. Ignore all the pen marks and extra holes, I re-used some metal I already had for mounting these seats on R31 rails:

Mounted in car and with steering wheel:

Unfortunately, it seems like even with the rails adjusted all the way back, the seat is still a bit too far forward . I'm going to try another set that puts the seat further back compared to the rails, but I don't think I'll get more than an inch or so out of doing that. If that's not enough, I'll have to get more creative.

Edited May 23, 2010 by Smity42