Congratulations! You won this item.

[Lacquer Peel]

Great effort and it's such a bonny car. How much have you sunk into it?

[Sheefag]

 

 

 

Sir, I salute your courage, your strength, your indefatigability,

[crapcarcollector]

Great effort and it's such a bonny car. How much have you sunk into it?

Genuinely, I dare not add it up. I do know I could have bought a nice runner with what ive spent. Could I have bought a late phase 2 with new belts, clutch, exhaust and fully sorted? Doubt it

 

 

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[DeeJay]

 

That looks a nice place to be.

[crapcarcollector]

 

That looks a nice place to be.

 

It's a beautiful place to be.

 

 

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[HH-R]

Nice. These look GR9.

[fatharris]

Well done mate, she looks a beauty and you can be properly proud of that!

 

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[eddyramrod]

http://autoshite.com/topic/22408-swoopy-saab-swopsale-situation/

 

You can now look for the next one, you say? 

[stripped fred]

I was expecting you to say the replacement engine was borked. Glad it turned out OK in the end. Well done!

[Brodders]

That looks lovely. Nice work on getting it sorted out against all odds. I always do a double take whenever I see one of these as they are stunning, especially the later ones on the same style of alloys as yours.

 

Well done again, I hope it serves you well.

[billyboy406v6]

Well done for not listening to all the excellent advice from the garage ! What do skilled mechanics know ? Nice of Mrs CCC to say she wants it, just to make you feel better !

[dome]

Good effort! These are beautiful cars

[crapcarcollector]

I was expecting you to say the replacement engine was borked. Glad it turned out OK in the end. Well done!

I had that in the back of my mind throughout the whole job. I even put off starting it for like 2 weeks with pitiful excuses.

 

Luckily, it's a good 'un.

 

 

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[crapcarcollector]

Well done for not listening to all the excellent advice from the garage ! What do skilled mechanics know ? Nice of Mrs CCC to say she wants it, just to make you feel better !

I can't get anywhere near it!

 

She off to work in it tomorrow!

 

 

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[crapcarcollector]

Been running this for a while now with no dramas, except for one small detail. The heater is shit, like properly asthmatic. I'm getting no air out of the vents at all.

 

So yesterday I took the scuttle panel off to check for any blockages -none. Took the glovebox out and footwell trim, recurculation flap operates as it should, and the fan blows like a trooper.

 

I then checked the flaps on the other side and they operate correctly too.

 

At an absolute loss, my mate came over with a borascope and fed that into the heaterbox to look what was going on. The heater matrix is stuffed full of what looks like pine needles. Blocking airflow from one side to another.

 

I've tried blowing it out with an airline (reverse flow) nothing.

 

I've tried taping the vents up and blowing it out with a rapid tyre inflator tank (fucking hell, I thought it was going to blow the windscreen out). Nothing.

 

I'm stuck now. Anyone have any bright ideas?

 

In typical Alfa fashion the car was built around this bit. It's a dash out out job, and try to get to the water and air con lines on the bulkhead behind the engine which has zero room behind it.

 

I want to use this thing all year round, but if I can't keep it demisted it's a bit pointless really!

 

Sorry no pics of the shenanigans, although typically the apprentice did get their jeans blown down with the tyre inflator. I'll try harder next time!

 

 

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[dean36014]

having just done the dash out bit on an old citroen you have my sympathies. Would hate to do it on something more modern with complicated electronics.

[chodweaver]

Can you get the pipe and crevice tool of a decent vacuum cleaner up the intake side pipework to the point where it will clean the matrix?

 

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[carlo]

Sorry about the latest problem, but a great thread to catch up on which I missed first time!

[crapcarcollector]

Can you get the pipe and crevice tool of a decent vacuum cleaner up the intake side pipework to the point where it will clean the matrix?

 

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Yeah I did shove a Henry Hoover up the hole when I took the blower out. Sadly, nothing. That's why I tried blowing with a tyre inflator up the foot vents.

 

I'm slowly coming to terms with having to take the dash out.

 

Question is should I try to obtain a complete heater unit beforehand so if I run into issues I have bits around me?

 

I'd have thought if I pulled it to bits it should all clean up once I'm in there. What I don't want to do is pull it to bits, discover I need X then the thing is in a million bits while I try to track down a breaker.

 

Also the gearbox whines. So I might sort that too at the same time......

 

 

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[chodweaver]

Hmm. From knowing how fiddly it can get just cleaning up the fins in a rad that you can touch with your nose, I think you're probably right to jump in for a strip down. And have spares already to hand too. Even if you don't need them this time, they can go on the shelf for when you do. Or the next owner does. This is Autoshite aft trawl.

[They_all_do_that_sir]

The one comfort in all this is the fact these will be proper classics (as they rightly should be) in the not too distant future. You'll not lose £ on it in the long-term, especially if it stays as well looked after.

 

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[Mr_Bo11ox]

Great story!!!!! And such a familiar one. Even when you do friggin shitloads of graft yourself on a car bought cheap with loads of problems, you can still miraculously end up out of pocket even if you use up infinite amounts of your own 'free' labour. How does this happen? I don't know, but if and when it does, you can be sure that whatever you are working on can be legitimately classified as SHITE.

[DodgeRover]

If you can see the needles with the inspection camera could you get a snakey grab thing in and wriggle it about a bit to loosen then before extracting with the Henry? Actually if you attached a piece of 15mm plumbing poly pipe to the Henry you would get flexibility together with enough suction to pull most things loose?

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

 

 

Everyone knows the best breakfast is a Bloody Mary, a large espresso, several cigarettes and a coughing fit.

 

 

 

Genuine LOLage here. 

[vulgalour]

I feel better about my own misadventures for reading this, really puts it into perspective.

[groovylee]

these are GR9 cars!  i had one int he same spec, sans spoiler.  best car i ever owned, and i should never have sold it.  one question - are they 17" teledial wheels? if they are, they command a decent premium.  the 16s fir ok, but they need spacers on the rear as the offset is different and they sit too far in the arches.

 

good buyerage mate

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

I worked for an Alfa dealer when these arrived. Organised the launch do (Summer 1995) and the two cars were late. The boss went to Milan to collect the LHD Spider as there were no RHD ones anywhere and a truck delivered a red GTV to Alfa GB in Slough just up the road an hour before everyone arrived - I believe SGT Taplow hold the world record for a valet and PDI.

 

But the event went down a storm. We had a line up of classics including a Montreal and an SZ, plus three 1979 T plate Series 2 Alfasuds in red, white and green. Took about 20 orders as well.

 

21 years ago now.   

[crapcarcollector]

I've just ordered a complete heater assembly off the bay. It was on for £75, offered £60 as a what the hell, seller came back with £65, so I bit.

 

 

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[crapcarcollector]

As per News 24 thread, I've collected a Gearbox for this today for £80, local to me and made a new contact in the world of second hand Alfa bits. He has a Black Alfa Spider with Red Leather interior that the missus has taken a shine to. He thinks he may sell in the new year so we have asked to go back if he genuinely does want to sell....

 

Also, the new complete heater box/matrix/blower has arrived. So I've taken all these goodies to the garage. Heater I will fit next week (Dash out job), I'm not particularly looking forward to it, but I have a bit of time off work and the non existent heater ruins the car so I'm just going to go for it. 

 

The Gearbox I've just bought will be going off to a specialist for the once over, I plan to change that in Feb. 

 

I'll take some pictures and write up next week of the Dash removal and see how we go. (Tuesday). 

 

Also whilst I was the there today No1 son came with me to get his Yaris MOT'd (straightforward pass, no advisories), but the roffle Streetwise is parked up there awaiting it's fate. Some of you may remember I won this last year from RuffGeezer of this parish and passed it to No1 son when he was learning to drive. His mother borrowed it from him and between them they never checked the coolant level and you can guess the rest.

 

Anyway, we put a battery on it, and it fire straight up in half a revolution. Sounds as sweet as a nut. I've no idea what to do with this car. The HG is borked, so as soon as  the stat opens it boils water like it's going out of fashion, but the car itself is clean and tidy (few differ marks and dints) and it had a new clutch kit by me less than 500 miles ago. Infant its lucky if its done 500 miles in the last year. 

 

I don't need it, its way too good for scrap, and deserves to live on, but its going to need a HG, and an MOT (and some front tyres at least) 

 

Anyone have any thoughts on it? 

 

 

[crapcarcollector]

It’s been a while but the GTV continues to give Stirling service. In the last year I’ve had the Gearbox that I’ve bought reconditioned by a specialist and have fitted that. It’s transformed the car from a whining old wretch into something that is silky smooth and lovely and quiet.

Wish I’d done that job earlier rather than suffering with a borked gearbox for nearly 2 years.

The complete heater assembly has been changed. That was no fun whatsoever. Dash out completely. 3 days I’m never getting back. Again though it transformed the comfort in the car.

Anyway, I managed to get a bootlid in the right shade of silver. Mine has a stupid Aero Spoiler on it that (I think) ruins the lines of the car. Most of the Alfa boys would disagree with me though.

I’ve swapped that over today. And the match is perfect. Well happy for £25 and I will even happier when I sell the spoiler with boot lid for a bit more than that!

Also (because she good like that) her indoors has managed to find me a set of genuine 17inch teledials wheels for less than the price of a kidney. I won’t say how much because you can get a working car for Billy From Cannock for less, but much cheaper than the Alfa lickers would rape you for. They come in a couple of weeks so I’ll update pictures and such Not then.

 

 

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