1985 Alfa Romeo GTV6 (my first Alfa)

With as cold as it is I wouldn't want to mess with cleaning spray equipment.

For some reason I woke up Thursday morning thinking it was Friday morning and cleaned the entire garage in preparation for my usual saturdate with the eldest Hungarling (I figured the inch of paint dust on everything probably wouldn't be very good for him)

I didn't want to dirty stuff back up this (friday) morning by doing a bunch more grinding so I had to think of "clean" things to do...

First up: HF angle grinder reversal!

At $12 (with 20% off coupon) this angle grinder is officially cheaper than the wire whip that will be going on it

You REALLY don't have to take it this far apart. Just that bottom plastic cover would have sufficed, but it was just so much fun!

And there ya go! All I did was take the wire going to the left magnet and moved it to the right (and vice versa). Unfortunately I was away from my snap-ring pliers so I didn't have the guard put back on when I took the photo, but take it from me: It spins backwards

With the grinder out of the way, I cleared off a spot on my work bench to mother-flock the dash (that one's for you Ross )

I have a few cracks to fill first, but it's on the docket.

Good times.

mazdeuce wrote: With as cold as it is I wouldn't want to mess with cleaning spray equipment.

I'm with you on that one. I have a bit more degreasing to do near the bottom of the car before I start sanding there and dang if it's too cold to get my pretty little hands all wet (no, really. I'm putting it off as long as I can)

Part of the reason I brought the dash to the garage was to slow the body work a bit. I still want to make progress, but I want to be able to spray stuff on the bare metal too. I think 30deg is a bit too cold to do that yet

Its supposed to be 50 mid next week!!!

And you cheap brilliant bastard, I love your backwards grinder.

Woo-hoo! a high of 53 (and rainy) on Wednesday!

Here's hoping that trend continues

The backwards grinder is beyond words brilliant, but won't the wheel still try to unscrew itself?

Deuce: I think it will, but I'm hoping some permatex threadlocker'll work (it's what I have laying around)

In other news, I've accepted an offer for a job in Kuwait. What I'm reading about the country now tells me that no cars older than 10 years can be legally imported. That means if I'm going to drive this Alfa a second time, it's going to have to be soon. Real soon.

HR tells me that I can expect the visa process to take 4 to 8 weeks. So that gives me a bit of time. The manager out there tells me "it's more like 6-months...".

I guess what it boils down to is I need to quit with the loving affection of mouth to mouth, and start beating on this dead car's chest with my fist.

Here goes

The saturdate with the kiddo was a bust. He's been having listening issues lately so I was out to the garage by myself. I didn't get a whole lot done.

I did bring the dash inside to start the flocking, so here's some pictures of that:

I'm hoping this will keep me busy on the days when I need to do "clean work". When I get the dash installed I'm hoping to put in all the gauges, run wires, etc. On the "dirty days" I can still go to town on the paint

That dash is a mess though. I'm doing the best I can with the filler, but it's just got so darn much to fill! It might take me a couple tries to get it right.

Good times

Not going to try to store the car? Kuwait huh, that should be interesting! All the family going as well?

Yeah man. the whole famn damily is tagging along for this one.

Fellow forum member, and all around good guy, "M4ff3w" has generously offered to babysit the Alfa while I'm gone. We've gone over the Italian tune up procedures, and samples taken from his right foot show high concentrations of lead so it seems like a natural fit. I just need to think of a cheap way to get this car from the PNW to Austin (GRM Relay anyone?)

Time willing I'll beak that 3-liter down into its sub-components and sneak that into our household goods packout so I can keep the project going while I'm away

I'm looking at the list of what "needs" to be done, and I may JUST be able to pull this off. It's the bodywork that's going to be the big question mark on this one. But then again, I do have some vacation time I need to burn before I go...

Good times

At least things don't rust in Austin.

mazdeuce wrote: At least things don't rust in Austin.

Are you kidding? Alfa's come stock with rust, geographic location has nothing to do with it

(as I'm finding evidence of right now)

Here's the day's update. Just grinding on the tail of this beast and uncovering all sorts of stuff. Looks like I better order another can of bondo

I'm thinking this beast was either in an accident, had a lot of rust holes that someone patched with a welder, or.... shoot, I dunno!

I'll probably fill the rust hole on the drivers side of the hatch (first picture) with some kitty hair, and the rest'll just get buried under some body filler.

Good times

Alfa Romeo Factory Rust Repair! That was a several thousand lira option back in the day!

RossD wrote: Alfa Romeo Factory Rust Repair! That was a several thousand lira option back in the day!

I wish they had paid a bit more, or paid a bit earlier to catch a sober welder

(I kid, I cant really complain since I cant do any better and I'm not going to do anything to fix it )

I had an hour to sand on the dash today. I may have got a bit carried away when I was applying the filler.

Even still there are a few cavities in some of the larger filled areas. I might have to apply a little more and sand again.

good times

Bill, The etching primer will work well as shop coat if you don't get it into paint. As long as it doesn't sit out in the sun continuously that stuff will last years.

Don49 wrote: Bill, The etching primer will work well as shop coat if you don't get it into paint. As long as it doesn't sit out in the sun continuously that stuff will last years.

Thanks for the heads up. I did some googling about just leaving the primer on and the results were conflicting and vague. Maybe if I cant get it to paint I'll just slap it on good and thick. It couldn't be that much worse than what I took off of there right?

The morning progress:

The body filler is THICK in the back (junk on the trunk?) so things are taking a bit longer than normal to remove.

and of course more stuff under the paint:

Good times

Wow, Bill, that's some huge news, and huge move!! Congrats!

I'm also curious how well the padded dash filler works; I'll eventually be doing the same crack repairs. Added to my Amazon wishlist...

In reply to XLR99:

It works pretty well. I'd say it's just like bondo, but flexible. After I sanded I pushed on it a bit to see if it would move. It's not "soft" but it seems to allow movement without crumbling apart or letting go. I'm pretty happy with it in the end.

If you're going to do some flocking, I got my stuff from "flock it". I bought their mini-flocker kit with two bags of material. The instructions were simple, but really one can of glue was waaaaay more than I needed (I probably have 2/3rds left over). I also had about 7/8 of the second bag of material left over but wouldnt recommend trying to do it all with just one bag.

speaking of flocking, here's the pictures:

All in all it looks GREAT. Even with the two bald spots, I'm pretty happy. It's hard being thorough with black glue on a black dash when you have a deadline looming over you (can says the glue accepts material for 15 minutes, and I wasn't going to find out if there was a buffer zone or not).

Now I have to let this beast sit for 15 hours...

Good times

The day's progress:

I stopped a bit early to clean some dust out of the garage for Saturday, but I'm probably chewing through about 1/4" of material here. Most of it's body filler.

Good times.

Wow, the progress....

And man, I don't know if you can find a better friend than me. I mean, babysitting an Alfa? Oh the huge manatee!

She'll be in good hands. My Milano is the car I miss above all others.

Welllllll, the backwards angle grinder was kind of a hit and kind of a miss...

The wheel is abrasive as all gettup while it's spinning, but I think there are some cooling issues that have arisen as a result of the grinder's ccw rotation. After about 60-seconds of operation it gets pretty darn hot (even through the gloves) and starts smoking a bit. Do I care? Not even a little bit (but I am going move on to other ideas)

With that, I will say that a hand torque and blue threadlocker was enough to keep that wire wheel on there no problem (so a win there).

In the end I just went back to the Makita and knocked out a little section of the back end. Even with the little backwards spinning I did, the wheel showed signs of new life. Progress was fast for a while, but peetered down a bit towards the end.

I'm also running into a lot of body filler here too, and I cant figure out why to save my life. I ran my hand over the bare metal and don't feel any imperfections but still there's a good layer of the stuff on there

They probably put it on there just to mess with me

Good times