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Alfamale's Fleet - Contains a distinct lack of Alfas


Alfamale

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I’ve been around here quite a while lurking and making the odd contribution where I felt I could contribute something but I have decided it’s probably time that I introduced to the fleet .

 

First up is my Lancia Delta HF4WD. This was my first restoration project and in my heart is my favourite. Underneath it is technically exactly like an 8v Integrale, although the engine is slightly detuned, putting out about 10bhp less than its wide-arched cousin. Of course I did want an Integrale but when this turned up as quite a wreck on eBay in autumn 2010 for just £650 I was having it.

 

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Since then it has quite a lot of work, welding and finally paint and whilst it is finished, there are still some bits that want doing. It needs the brake compensator replacing as well as a few cosmetic bits. It also has an annoying habit of backfiring around 3,000 rpm when you boot it and this will probably need specialist investigation at a Lancia specialist when my aching wallet will allow.

 

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Next to join the fleet was this ickle FIAT 500. It was previously used as an ornament in a restaurant in Holland before being advertised online. It was ridiculously cheap and was an ideal parts donor for the other Cinquecento I had at the time. When I got it however it turned out to be better than the project I had, as well as being an “Otto Bulloni” car which are quite rare as they were only produced that way for a short time in 1965. Whilst it looks rough in the pictures, all the welding underneath is now done and my local friendly painter is picking it up shortly to work on at his leisure.

 

I have decided this will be painted in dark blue as there are far too many red and white variants kicking about and want something different. I have also accumulated a choice of original engines to drop in so will decide which I prefer once I see what state they are in.

 

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Deciding I didn’t have enough work on I decided the time was right to add to the fleet, especially when Danterzza advertised his Clio Williams on here. A deal was struck and Nicole arrived in June last year. Since then, the inner wings and sills have been welded up and the brakes sorted as well as various other bits and bobs. Car is almost ready for an MOT once I can get the exhaust sorted out, it will then need attention from the afore mentioned car sprayer but that’s been put on a back burner because of…

 

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My old man knew the owner of this and he in turn knew I liked old cars. Would he liked to buy it he asked, my old man said probably and it went from there. It was never intended to be a keeper, it’s just needed a few bits doing and is now on sale to fund other projects. It runs an absolute dream and is really good fun to drive but cars lose their appeal to me once they are finished and I’m not really a VW man. Plus it is taking up valuable italia-shite real estate along with this:

BMW%202000_zpslx9v9cin.jpg

 

This is a long term business idea I am trying to get off the ground, which is importing classics from abroad. A brilliant strategy you will know at a time when £Sterling is worth bugger all. Anyway, I have found an honest and reliable ex-pat down in South Africa who goes out to look at cars in or arranges inspections, deals with the export paperwork and bungs them in a container to these fair shores.

 

This popped up on South African Gumtree at a ridiculously low price and so my man was hot out the blocks to go and have a look for me. Having already rejected a Lancia Fulvia and Mini Clubman GTS I knew he knew what to look for and when he pronounced this one sound a deal was struck using the wonderful media of WhatsApp for free international phone calls. Two months later it arrived here and is now ready for a light fettle before hopefully turning a profit later this summer.

 

It’s a 1969 BMW 2000 new class, the car that began BMW’s reputation for sporting saloons. It’s a big old beast and runs sweet. It’s going to need its rubber bushes refreshing and the brakes and clutch bleeding but other than that it is absolutely rock solid and thankfully won’t need the magic sparkly stick. Of course there is bound to be summat lurking we are yet to discover!

 

Thank you for indulging me. If you have read this far you deserve my greatest admiration and if you skipped to the end I hope you liked the pictures. In order to kick myself up the arse I intend to keep this thread up to date so that I can chart progress as we go on and hopefully provide some mild bemusement!

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That's a lovely Corrado!

For sale you say? I absolutely don't need one and have nowhere to put one so I'd be interested in hearing more...

 

 

Shameless self promotion: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/192214186075?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

 

Shitters discount will of course apply.

 

 

"It also has an annoying habit of backfiring around 3,000 rpm when you boot it"

 

Check the pressure at the fuel rail. I had the same thing with my Evo1 & it was a weak fuel pump. Rare as those HF4WD's.

 

 

I have a feeling it's a feeling issue and I think Tanc Barrett do an uprated pump I might give a go to. Cheers!

 

 

Y U no Alpha M8?

 

Here is a hilarious review by a few yanks who are blatantly unable to make anything of it.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vxXF-VUkv8

Had a Brera as my daily for a while and loved it but needed something bigger for towing. I'm on the look out for a 3.0 GTV6 in South Africa at the right price. Hopefully one will be along shortly.

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Get that williams done.

Get that williams done.

Get that williams done.

Get that williams done.

Get that williams done.

Get that williams done.

Get that williams done.

Get that williams done.

Get that williams done.

Get that williams done.

Get that williams done.

Get that williams done.

 

Plus put some photos up of what it looks like now, wish I would of got it sorted.

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No. It was originally registered in Norfolk, then has spent most of its life local in Sheffield, before having a brief sabbatical in Batley.

 

It's wrote to all the previous owners I could find from the DVLA form 888 request and the chap who owned it for 20+ years invited us round to his house and was an absolute gent, giving me some pictures and paperwork he had found as well as the missing spare key. Always worth sending out a few SAEs to the previous owners.

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Your HF reminds me of my Integrale - it was an early 8-valve example that looked very much like yours except for dark wheels and slightly flared w/arches, it was my daily driver 1997-99. 

 

It had the same odd sized headlamps & subtle style and was before they started fucking them up visually by plastering spoilers, extra plastic bits and huge wheels on them - all quite unnecessary on the road car. A lovely car - shame they ruined them.  

 

The original HF 4WD were only made for about a year before the first 8V Inte's took over so were extremely rare even back in the day, can't recall the last one I saw, did used to see a tidy HF Turbo (2WD) locally some years back but not recently.

 

From memory, they always got a bit slagged off for being neither one thing nor the other, ie: not an Integrale but more expensive and complex than the very capable 2WD HF Turbo but this was unfair IMO, they were a good car in their own right. The only real-world issue IIRC was the brakes were a bit lacking as they were those from the lower power 2WD version - they were OK for that but weren't really up to stopping the higher power 4WD however this is not exactly rocket science to sort if you feel the need. 

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..before they started fucking them up visually by plastering spoilers, extra plastic bits and huge wheels on them - all quite unnecessary on the road car. A lovely car - shame they ruined them.

They had to do this to homologate the components for rally use,

which entirely btw. was the single raison d'etre of the Integrales.

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  • 2 weeks later...

As promised here is Nicole as she stands now:

post-10228-0-43541500-1498421059_thumb.jpg

 

However, early today she looked like this:

post-10228-0-51212500-1498421117_thumb.jpg

 

It's been a job I have been putting off a while but today has finally seen me replace the brake master cylinder and the four callipers. All has gone well apart from I can't bleed the rear brakes. I'm guessing the brake bias compensator is not working so that will be the starting point when I next get a chance to play.

 

I have two brake bleeder appliances, one that draws a vacuum and one that pressurises the reservoir from a spare tyre. I have to say the vacuum one is a waste of time as air is drawn in around the bleed nipple no matter what plastic tubing I used. Pressurised one worked like a dream, on the fronts anyway... had a quick look and it doesn't look like replacement bias compensator units are easy to track down but here's hoping, anyone know if they had the same unit on the 19s?

 

I'm supposed to be attending a conference on Wednesday but was planning to sack that off and crack on with the car but the weather doesn't look good.

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  • 1 month later...

Working in the education sector means that August is a great time for "working from home" and cracking on with ones collection. However shite weather is limiting outdoor spannering.

 

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The FIAT 500 has been dispatched for paint, its with an old chap who is doing it more for the love than the money so I don't expect to see this back for a while. It's going to be painted in a dark blue original FIAT colour called Blu Scurro. This was the colour of my grandads in Italy when I was a nipper.

 

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As expected, the BMW 2000 is throwing up some surprises. The slave clutch cylinder makes a culinder look water tight so a new one is winging its way across the pond. The indicators are not working due to a poor earth connnection so that has been remided. It didn't have any door keys on arrival so our local locksmith is making new keys to fit the locks. A shout out at this point to H Harrolds in Sheffield who are a proper old school company, friendly, always willing to help and extremely knowledgeable about their field.

 

Plans are to crack on with Nicole the Clio Williams next week.

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  • 4 months later...

So it’s that time of the year when lazy news outlets put out year-end retrospectives rather than come up with original output and I’m delighted to say that I am no different.

 

 

It seems so long ago now, but at the beginning of August, the little 500 was strapped onto the back of my trailer and carted off to a friendly local sprayer who is doing a complete strip and repaint.

I last checked up on it at the end of October, but progress is slow as it’s a fill in job and the old lad has been quite busy. I’ll try and call in next week to see how he’s getting on.

IMG_2536.jpg

 

 

There has been quite a lot of progress with Nicole the Williams this year. I’ve pretty much replaced the entire braking system, new compensator, rear callipers and quite a few new brake lines have been installed. The exhaust is back on after some major fettling and the interior is all screwed down and finished.  

 

I just need to replace one of the rear seatbelts that has a tear in it. I managed to source an entire set in the correct blue colour for just £15 from a chap near hull who was clearing his garage out. I also scored a decent rear bumper for just £20 as mine has been cut to accommodate a larger exhaust at some point. The new one will go on prior to paint. 

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I couldn’t resist having the wheels refurbished and they look amazing although it wasn’t cheap.

 

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The BMW 2000 is still here. As predicted its needed much more work than originally predicted. After finally sourcing the correct clutch slave cylinder from a company called Jaymic (they couldn’t be more helpful and friendly, highly recommended,) for its MOT it needed new brake shoes, brake hoses and engine mounts. On top of this, the life expectancy for the gearbox can be measured in minutes as there are some seriously unpleasant noises emanating from its direction. It’s booked in for a gear box rebuild in January so once that’s done, and the DVLA process its registration, it will be up for sale.

 

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The Delta, I am ashamed to say has remained in its slumber all year; my brain tells me I should sell, but my heart is vetoing the idea. I promise it will get used more next year. There are a few niggling jobs to do but I need to bite the bullet and get them sorted.

 

And finally, the Corrado went off to pastures new. A chap from Kent bought it blind, heater matrix problem and all. I really liked driving that car and do miss it but on to the next as they say.

 

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An exciting project coming up is that as my parents are now spending a lot of time abroad in their run up to retirement, they have agreed that I can use some spare land at the side of their house to build a double garage/workshop. This will give me much more capacity to get things done as well as storage for two cars inside and probably one, maybe two outside. The groundworks and base should be done for the end of January, then will need to save some pennies before I can afford a garage to go on top.

 

Plans for 2018 are:

·        Register and sell the BMW 2000

·        Find something else in South Africa to replace it - hopefully something Alfa GTV shaped

·        MOT and respray the Williams

·        Finish the FIAT 500 and get it on the road

·        Actually use the Delta and take it to a few shows

 

Thanks for reading, and as they say around here at this time of year, ‘ave a good in!

 

 

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