My new shitbox arrived on a flatbed this afternoon, and I'm pretty excited about it. I know I've let myself into a world of pain, but hey, the preparation is half the fun.
Behold, the Scuderia Shitbox Mario Speedwagon III, a 1983 Alfasud Ti......
More pics...
I'm curious as to whether anyone knows the car from it's past life. I gather there aren't too many of these out there? Obviously it came from SA, but apparently it's been sitting at a Hawthorn Alfa specialist for quite a few years.
It used to be red, if that's a help. It's had an excellent respray in the silver (an excellent choice in my opinion, I think this is the best colour for these cars), but the interior bodywork (under the carpets) is still red. I thought this model came with red carpets, but maybe the PO that resprayed it decided to go with black carpets instead?
It's not as good as it may look in pics, and it's going to take a fair bit of work to get it to RWC standard, let-alone rally standard. The brakes will need a good going-over, there is a little bit of rust (but bugger all for a sud), and there are a few electrical issues to be dealt with.
All-in-all though, I'm extremely happy with it. I've wanted this particular model of Sud since they first came out, and this one seems like a good honest one. The engine and gearbox seem to be in excellent condition, and the ratty interior trim bits are not a major concern to me at all. It's an excellent sud for under $1000, and I'm confident it will handle the Aussie outback with aplomb.
I'll report back once I've had a good going over of the car, to see what needs doing. I'll be taking my extra-long notepad....
That's awesome!
Make sure you buy it back and run it in the 6 hr.
Quote from: Frank Musco on July 30, 2012, 04:10:13 PM
That's awesome!
Make sure you buy it back and run it in the 6 hr.
second that !!
awesome price for a half decent Sud.
(
i've a soft spot for Suds, it was my first Alfa)
You're right Sheldon - it looks way too good in the photos to be a shitbox. I reckon there may be a small queue of people in the UK ready to turn you a small profit right now at that purchase price.
Frank, Sheldon has seen the light, looks like a good example,. Sheldon , Colin Thomas is the man you need he knows all that needs to be known about these cars.
With any luck you & Evan could have a breeding pair.
Quote from: Paul Gulliver on July 30, 2012, 08:59:12 PM
With any luck you & Evan could have a breeding pair.
I just choked and port went up my nose :o
There were 500 twin carb Suds bought to Australia in 83, half were silver, the other half were red, 2 sneeked in with the 'illegal' 105 horse power motor, they were black and couldn't be registed, the Australian Suds had 95 horses, they had red carpets, first thing to do is weld up the cracked chassis rails, i wonder what happened to the two black ones?, i heard one ended up at Nareen, Colin.
Quote from: colcol on July 31, 2012, 12:19:19 AM
There were 500 twin carb Suds bought to Australia in 83, half were silver, the other half were red, 2 sneeked in with the 'illegal' 105 horse power motor, they were black and couldn't be registed, the Australian Suds had 95 horses, they had red carpets, first thing to do is weld up the cracked chassis rails, i wonder what happened to the two black ones?, i heard one ended up at Nareen, Colin.
Ah-ha. That's interesting, thanks Col. So why the story about the "250"? (I just posted on the thread about 'the 250' while you were posting this). That's a bummer they only had 95 horsies, am I going to have to rip the engine out of a 33 to put in this (or are they 95 as well, these boxers confuse me, too many versions)?
Why was the 105hp engine illegal?
Yes, it will definitely need some welding to be done around the front end, and not only the chassis rails. Luckily, my brother-in-law has just learnt to weld, and is looking for lots of practise. Boy, have I got the project for that....
I'm guessing that this one had completely knackered red carpet and Ti seats, and was replaced with easier to find black carpet, and red vinyl instead of Ti inserts (shame I just missed your ebay sale Col....).
Read that other post Sheldon and all I can say is you love this car too much already for it to become a disposable shitbox. I've only ever owned one Sud in my life, a 1976 Ti when I lived in NZ and even then I only owned it for 3 months. Which was very lucky as it was a UK import and very soon after I sold it I believe the rust started to show. The reg was IQ9896 or something like that - Dot Louie bought it off me; if you belonged to the Alfa club in NZ you would probably know of her and her extended family.
But I digress - despite owning it for such a short time I do recall it was a fantastic little car perfectly suited to the winding roads around Auckland. But for the trip to Freemantle via Uluru? Mmm....not so sure.
Wheels magazine road tested an example the last of the imported Sud Tis in 1983, which they described as one of a batch of 250 Ti QVs imported that year. It had the 77kw (or 105bhp) motor.
This is consistent with most forum threads on the subject, Colin's reference to 500 of the 95bhp (and the two 'illegally-engined' examples) is the first I've heard of of read about - sounds a bit 'urban-mythish' to me Colin ;)
Delighted you've picked this up for the rally Sheldon. Is it too early to start the post-rally bidding?
aggie57 - I knew Dot well, lovely lady, been a life member of the club for years. She kept sending me recipes and sewing patterns for publication in the club magazine when I was editor, tested my patience & diplomacy skills somewhat....
I thought the 95 vs 105HP argument related to unleaded petrol and emmisions ?
In 1991 I bought a series three Sprint QV (build date 85,compliance '88).
I always thought is was only 95HP due to the use of unleaded petrol and some emissions malarky.
There wasn't any real difference that we could pick in power delivery/speed between it and a mates 105HP Sud (and we tried a lot on the Brindabella back roads!). I preferred the Sprint, cos it's a Sprint... and they're just cooler (ask all the chicks).
It was put out to pasture working perfectly (Alfamotive, Peter) in 2002 when the chassis rail cracks became far too apparent (significant camber). 1x Clutch, 1 x gearbox (compression lock up), few valves (over rev) a front wheel bearing and a water pump. Not bad for 400,000klm of balls out redline every, single day motoring. Didn't rust much either (factory rust, sorted early :) .
I loved that car.
... get all cracks welded (starting with those under the coolant overflow).
Might be worth putting/constucintg the OEM chassis brace used in the 33 for the same problem.
Nope, definitely spec differences between the two motors and both were offered in most markets in various Sud/Sprint models. I can't recall the detail changes though, if memory serves there were different valves and/or camshafts, colcol could probably provide more detail here.
The extra 10bhp was often disputed as being less than that, although looking at your own comparison between Sprint and Sud the additional weight of the latter would also have an effect on performance.
My history shows a preference for the Sud over the Sprint but I love them both. Peter Brock was a big fan too (we had so much in common ;D)
Sorry for the thread hijack Sheldon, look forward to your updates.
i wonder what happened to the two black ones?,
Does this mean mine is one of the two, is plated 1983?
There were 2 versions of the 1.5 twin carb boxer motor, 95 h.p. and 103,5 h.p., [but refered to as 105 h.p.], now the differences were the carby jetting, cylinder heads and camshafts and ignition, exhaust plumbing, and other things i don't know about, the 105 h.p. didn't run as clean as the 95 h.p., and failed to meet our pollution rules in 1983, about a year later Australia changed the emmision standards to the same as the Swedish, to try and cut out all these special builds for Australia, and it was easy to adapt the Swedish rules as they were close to ours, then the newly released 33 single carb was replaced by the 33 GCL with 95 h.p. and the 33 TI with 103.5 h.p., Colin.
It's alright, I've fallen out of love with it again....... (bloody Alfas)
Lesson learnt for today - If a deal on an Alfasud sounds too good to be true, then it definitely is.
I bought this one off ebay, but I did have the chance to have a quick inspection of it before bidding, too quick as it turned out. I found some rust when I did so, but very little, and in reasonably accessible spots, so wasn't too worried, even though the angel on my shoulder kept repeating the well-known refrain "if you can see this rust, imagine what you can't see..." I should have listened, instead I listened to the devil on my other shoulder who kept saying "come on, just $10 more, press 'bid', come on".
Took out the battery and battery tray today to find this..... Was going to take out the heater box but was too depressed by this stage, so will do that tomorrow, but it looks like I'll see more of the same unfortunately. I'm absolutely gutted, I gotta say. I was so happy yesterday.....
I'm at a bit of a crossroads now, with a few options.
1). Bite the bullet and get it fixed (fixed well, but ugly) for the rally, while convincing myself that this constitutes a fix for 'safety', so anything I have to pay doesn't count towards the $1000 limit.
2). Cut my losses, sell the car for parts.
3). Keep the car as a project, spend some time and money to get it fixed really well, and retreat into the warm and comforting bosom of the transaxle cars for a shitbox ride.
Any advice or commiserations accepted here.
Ahhhh (empathetic)
I've been exactly here before. We fixed it. Firewall is double sided. Aluminum spacers down low where the steering rack bolts on. I seem to remember foam in ours that burnt out during welding. For some stupid reason we put it back too.
Engine out, battery out, ignition out, heater out, rack off (to pub) ;D
Weld it up cheap and start again!!
What are the front sills like, behind the front guard or the rear arches, rear roof, tailgate.. strut bearings
.. I'm not helping, sorry :(
Quote from: Craig_m67 on August 01, 2012, 12:49:03 AM
What are the front sills like, behind the front guard or the rear arches, rear roof, tailgate.. strut bearings
.. I'm not helping, sorry :(
S'all good. Going by the findings today I'm gonna need to have a really good check around the car, obviously.
Before this lovely discovery I'd had a good look around the tailgate and boot area, and the sunroof, and couldn't see anything there. Sills could be interesting, they could make the decision pretty easy....
Haven't even had a chance to jack it up and have a look underneath yet, looking forward to that (I'm worried it will fold in half if I jack up the front). Stay tuned to this thread, it could be used in future years in psychiatry classes as an example of 'One Man's Complete and Utter Mental Breakdown!!'.
One bit of good news... My missus is not into cars at all, and has so far resisted all attempts by me to get her into an Alfa. When I took this off the truck yesterday, and moved it into the driveway, she came out to inspect it, saying that she could hear it from the other end of the house, even though she was using a dremel and had industrial-spec earmuffs on!! (It's not overly loud BTW, but does sound f^()!n good). And she fell in love with the shape too, even suggesting that it could be her car, instead of the rally car. When she came home today and wondered why I was so depressed, and I told her about the rust I'd found, she said "well, why don't you just keep it and fix it"!! So I've got a tiny bit of leeway with the 'too many cars in the driveway' problem, which makes any decision slightly easier I suppose!
QuoteMy missus is not into cars
Really???
Your missus (of all missuses) is not into cars??? Wow, patient lady! :D
Really feel for you and what you've found, always devastating to uncover horrors like that.
Still, it seems there's some chance of a positive outlook here. If it's any consolation, my wife isn't really big on cars either so I took something of a risk when we were vehicle shopping a few years back by forfeiting the chance to negotiate on price & instead told the dealer we'd take the Land Rover if he threw in the Sud TiQ sitting in the corner of the yard. My wife raised her eyebrows, checked out the Sud, and took an immediate shine to it. Deal done. She still describes it as the most fun car she has ever owned and would have another in a heartbeat. Pass that on.
Oh, and Marco Fazio at Centro Documentazione Alfa Romeo reckoned mine was a 105bhp model. I guess neither he nor Wheels magazine have Colin's sources ;D
Look on the bright side. If you drop the engine out to fix that firewall, it'll be a lot easier to fix the front calipers and fit a new handbrake cable! :P
Quote from: Evan Bottcher on August 01, 2012, 12:03:39 PM
Look on the bright side. If you drop the engine out to fix that firewall, it'll be a lot easier to fix the front calipers and fit a new handbrake cable! :P
That had crossed my mind!! Will make changing the waterpump and cambelt a lot easier too.
Sheldon blank off the water pump and fit an electric one, much better