Hi guys
Am buying this 2001 V6 monza low km for parts or a possible repair. The nose was damaged in an accident including deformation of the front of the engine/'chassis' rails. Assuming the front of the car is still all square.See pics. Was wondering what a panel beater would quote to fix the rails.
cheers CC
"Haven't you already got enough unfinished projects" I can hear your wife echoing . . . . . ;D ;D ;D
Seriously though, The damage as long as all damage is forward of the sub-frame/steering & suspension mounting area so there shouldn't be much issue getting it sorted. You'd be amazed at what panel beaters can achieve, it's all a matter of cost.
That will be kinked behind the powertrain mounts, "easy"* fix on a rack if you have a donor front cut, there are designated splice points to choose from depending on severity of damage. Look at eLearn for the methodology. If it's like the 147 you don't need a V6 donor.
* Relatively easy in the sense of a modern built car with excellent factory tolerances and no apparent compounding of damage (ie, not T-boned or shunted as well).
thanks guys. Now... to make more room in the garage : )
Hi Guys
Can someone recommend a good panel beater for either Canberra, Sydney of the south coast of nsw. Someone with experience with recent Alfas especially the 156 would be ideal.
The car is on the south coast of nsw and as im originally from nsw, currently in Brisbane, I'd rather spend the $2200 to truck it to Brisbane, on local repairs and air fares.
Why can't it be tacked together to drive north on a NSW UVP?
Ahhhh, have you seen the angle of the front left wheel?
But it should only cost $400-600 to get it shipped to Brissy on a car carrier.
Just out of curiosity, HAVE you gotten your other 156 finished yet? ;)
FWIW, Thatchams gave 32 hours for similar repairs to a Frenchie, if you added 10% and work d with used parts it's probably a $6K repair to fully pre-damage condition.
ship it off to that Polish bloke who rebuilt the BMW...
Lithuanian? :)
Ahh yes. My mistake. But he did look a bit like a plumber!
(No offence to any Polish members out there...)
was hoping for a closer workshop than Poland :).
Hi Baz the first 156 is in the home garage, have ordered parts from UK : )
The strategy for this posts car is either as a parts donor or to put back on the road.
As a parts donor, to strip and then scrap or
Take to a recommended repairer, have the panel beating done, supply or I put on replacement/missing nose componentry, then drive back to qld..
Its such a nice example I would prefer to do the 2nd.. probably should do the first..
Will hopefully speak to an alfa panel beater in the next fortnight.
Poor bloke would need a proper holiday after the forum members had finished flogging him on all their projects.
It doesn't need an Alfa specialist, just someone with a proper bench, traditional welding skills and Euro experience. You could do it "the Arthur way" by cutting it open, working the metal and closing the panels again, but it's easier in a country like this to make use of a good donor front cut. The driveline will need to come out, which is a good time to deal with the starter motor!
"why are we doing this again"....... ;D
..."Hey, Siri!" :P
Making something once more usable and durable - it's a good antidote to the nihilistic wasteland of consumerism that's served up in appealing packages. :)
Oi ! Speaka da bluddy lingo will ya ! ???
;D ;D
Quote from: bazzbazz on April 18, 2018, 08:56:59 PM
Oi ! Speaka da bluddy lingo will ya ! ???
;D ;D
Nah, I'm with the bender.. Might be a mouthful.. Butt ah, and other homophobic entendre provided in good spirit... it's the whole reason why sooty isn't landfill, yet ;D
Yes, it really gets me when RRR is hijacked and/or trivialised.
The nonsense I see on my dearest person's FB feed where cottagey, homestead-ey, arty-crafty shite is touted as practical repurposing is worse - unhelpful because it's rendering materials un-recyclable in the longer term; this really grates. But so long as we keep condemning cars because of a few small issues, I feel it's important to show how there's another way to approach the vehicle life cycle.
This looks like an ideal opportunity to quote a great American president! with some liberties taken : )
"We choose to go to the moon (nsw)... (interrupted by applause) we choose to go to NSW in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others too." (the back deck, front stairs, the not running ute and last but most loved car, my other, first! 156!).
Parts from the Alfaworkshop in the UK ordered sunday evening arrived at the front door Brisbane Thursday morning 10am. A new harmonic balancer and a SKF timing belt kit. For Alfa1.
Am working out logistics on where to have the panel work done. Sydney Canberra or Brisbane.
While you're doing the belts did you order a new water pump too? Don't forget the leak at the water pump transfer pipe we noticed last time i was there.
yep, sitting in the box.
Quote from: cc on April 19, 2018, 04:17:21 PM
This looks like an ideal opportunity to quote a great American president! with some liberties taken : )
You mean you're going to talk about border security, trade wars and Making Alfas Great Again?
Does Crumplefrontskin start and run, as it is presently sited?
The quote is JFK. The rego sticker on Alfa2! is 5 years old and the engine is running and will need a service.
Ha... Crumplefrontskin... That's brilliant
I'm all Bevis and butthead now
After sending several pics to a bodywoork shop in Brisbane a qoute minimum was $5000.
I'm curious - were you expecting to hear much less?
no, am a newbie in regard to bodywork costs CB. A lot of the appeal of the project is learning 'new stuff!' Am scheduled to collect the car in the last fortnight of June. A family member got a quote to have it brought up to Brisbane; $2200. Partly to dissuade me from the project..: unsuccessfully : )
To hire a tray back and trailer & do it myself, is about $1100.
am thinking to do the rebuild over a couple of years. Am wondering if the sub frame has telegraphed the front crash impact through the six (or is it eight) bolts that attach it to the body..into the body causing deformation around the bolts : (
Have attached a pic of alfa1 as found at the wreckers. Was like finding a pearl in an oyster.
Also when I snuck her in at an Ormiston show when i wasnt an aroca member.
Where is the car being picked up from?
My son got a Golf GTi picked up from Melb and brought up on a commercial car carrier to Brisbane all for about $650. That was about 3 years ago, surely prices haven't risen that much?
It may be more expensive for Alfa2 being a non starter and on the south coast of nsw and not in a capital city. Could you direct email me with the name of the carrier please Baz.
South Coast NSW? Wollongong area close enough?
Try these guys - https://www.carcarriers.com.au/car-carrying/ (https://www.carcarriers.com.au/car-carrying/)
thanks
I'd seriously suggest your cheapest option is to try getting it mobile (enough to make QLD safely) on a permit.
The DIY towing caper is dangerous if you're not thoroughly experienced, fatigue and loading practices are the big risks.
Go down with a mate and iLoad or Trafic van full of stuff you know you need, plus a few bits you might need, a million cable ties, baling wire, cordless kit, tyre inflator, porta-power, sledgie, truck grade ratchet straps, rechargeable torches etc etc and you should be under control. Beyond that, shonk it with angle iron, stuff from Bunnies, whatever you need to make it safe at 80km/h. Then share the drive back, rotating pilots between van and Alfa.
Just buy this and save yourself the hassle... you can drive it home too
https://www.carsales.com.au/private/details/Alfa-Romeo-156-2003/SSE-AD-5401213/?Cr=1
Don't you just HATE IT when that happens, no matter how good a bargain you've just bought is, something even better will always pop up 5 minutes after you have handed over the cash! >:(
So whats cheaper, a decent full respray or the previously discussed rebuild?
I mean after you have repaired the front end ($$$$) it's still gonna need a respray of some sort as well?
Man o man - I want that.
Same colour, engine and trans as my first, but dearly departed, 156. Put the original teledials back on and remove that awful fake rear diffuser and it would be perfect!
I note however that its almost exactly the same mileage as mine when it went up in smoke ... and I'm guessing it hasn't had the cambelt/water pump changed either. So I wouldn't risk driving it anywhere til I knew that had been sorted.
Why do I have the sudden urge to hug my Fire Extinguisher tightly !! :o
;D
Well, you can let go of the extinguisher now, someone else has apparently bought it... (Not me! Not into 156s.)
Well after a long period of not much happening with this car, am heading down to the nsw south coast from sydney in a hired ute and trailer to bring back alfa2 next weekend. Parking it in the rural outskirts of sydney for 3 months before the next leg to Brisbane. Its to be parked under sufferance in Sydney with family members..
The first step which I may do in Sydney will be to remove the engine and determine if the car really is an unrepairable write off. If so the 100,000km 2.5L engine will be kept and sadly the rest go to parts and the scrap metal dealer. Being such a low km car, its otherwise in fine condition..
Should be fun. A specialist alfa garage here in Bris has responded to my advertisement in the qld club magazine and invited me to take what I need off the front of a 156 they have parked up and earmarked for the wreckers. : )
Glad to see that wreck being put to use finally.
Quote from: cc
Well after a long period of not much happening with this car, am heading down to the nsw south coast from sydney in a hired ute and trailer to bring back alfa2 next weekend.
Did this happen? If not, I'm eyeballing a Citroën panel up your way and wondering if a biscuit was tempting.
Retrieval to Sydney went ok. A six hour drive up the nsw coast from Bega.
The car was driven onto the hire trailer. Which was a bit trepidatious as its been parked up for 5 years.
So need to replace a few things on the engine.
Im in Brisbane so there will be a few more trips to Sydney prior to the last leg to Brisbane.
May remove the engine down there first.
Time to start accumulating parts!
Have you got that french thing under the covers finished yet?
i can just imagine your missus, "what another project, why do we need another one, haven't you got better things to do!!!" ;D ;D ;D
(Bless her heart) :)
offsprings 504 taking a rest in the garage.
Have been looking in eper (accessed from the fiatforum) for more info on alfa2 repairs.The attached pic shows engine 'rails' that can be replaced
prices are pretty reasonable.
That's normal modern construction. The detail you're possibly less familiar with is that you usually pull the chassis with the damaged rails still attached, to make sure everything behind your cut line is on the dot. Most rails will have three possible factory repair locations - at the back (full replacement), partway along (what some people call a "short cut") and then a very small portion right at the front.
Elearn details the locations and methods applicable.
Quote from: cc on July 08, 2018, 08:48:24 AM
prices are pretty reasonable.
Have you actually got any quotes on the prices, or are you going by whats on ePer?
reasonable on eper! which is a bit out of date and probably a trade price..
Am going to be v lucky to find a donor vehicle for the 'rails' so I will price the parts ex europe.
Then disassemble the front of the car.
Get a quote from a panel beater on installing the new rails' only.
To ensure once its repaired all is square.
Then re assemble it at home.
Perhaps another price/quote to do all welding and the panel re assembly. Then put the engine back in myself.
Here's to the generosity of strangers. :)
Front framing cut will interchange, eper confirms it. Rad support might need a couple of rivnuts or some brackets deleting/carrying over. Note to cc, it's quite weighty for solo handling.
It's not 80kg or anything but if you cut through the strut towers there is a fair whack of sheetmetal left in each rail.
Hi Sportiva
Will be done in Sydney in August is that isnt too far away. I am interested in the chassis in front of the strut towers..
I Just have to take the engine out to check the damage didnt extend to behind the strut towers before committing.
cheers
Here's a determined effort for cc to study up with: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2-sWoDJBPE
A panel shop will want to mock up all the outside skin and lighting in order to get the gapping right, while in theory someone could just replace the rails using data from their jig maker and checking level/diagonals it might lead to compromises in the overall fit/finish.