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Typhoon90
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Hi all! (Alfa 90 repair pics inside)

Post by Typhoon90 »

I like the looks of this forum! I have a newly acquired Alfa 90 2.5. Please accept me and my redheaded stepchild Alfa into the family! :D
It's destined to be a weekend fun/ trackday/ hillclimb car. I bought it because it was dirt cheap and ticked all the performance boxes for what I wanted. It also came with the factory Alfa rust, so I've been going at that pretty hard the last month or so.
I'm here because this looks to be one of the only forums around that actually specialises in the transaxle cars, has knowledgeable members and is very much about doing the work and modifying the car yourself. Also because there is pretty much nothing out there 90 specific and the GTV is the next closest thing in the Alfa family.
Most all the other Alfa forums I've looked at are all populated by people who seem to think the Alfa Romeo is a mysterious car that you need to spend $135/hr to have people cast magic spells at, and if you don't, you are a heathen!! ie, they have no idea.
So, look forward to tapping into the collective wisdom and maybe adding to it one day..
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Factory rust:
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Regards, Andrew.
Last edited by Typhoon90 on Sat Nov 13, 2010 2:30 am, edited 2 times in total.
Greg Gordon
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Re: Hi all!

Post by Greg Gordon »

Welcome to the forum. We never had the 90 in the U.S. but I always liked them. Where in the world are you?

Greg Gordon,
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MD
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Re: Hi all!

Post by MD »

Welcome to the Forum. Hope you're an electrics die hard. It will come in handy. But if it is stripped out for track work, you can make up your own cut down problem free loom I suppose. The rest will be on par with any other transaxle.

My guess is NSW, Oz ??
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Typhoon90
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Re: Hi all!

Post by Typhoon90 »

I'm in the ACT, Australia. I don't mind electrical issues, years of owning older cars means I know they're generally very easy fixes- earths, switches, relays or similar.
I'm actually pretty impressed with the 90, it's designed and built like a much more modern car, the body structure is quite light, but also very rigid, lots of box sections and sharp angles etc. The interior is also quite modern. I'm already in love with the drivetrain, that engine, what a beautiful thing!
It's not going to be a full on track car, weight will be removed where I can and suspension upgraded (an example is the 15kg sound proofing mat under the rear seat!), but it will still carry a full interior and no cage. I want the car to remain fully useable and street registered for when I just want to have some fun. Having the car registered also means I don't have to worry about transport to and from events.


Regards, Andrew.
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Re: Hi all!

Post by Typhoon90 »

Well, I don't see anywhere for car builds/ restos, so I may as well keep throwing some photos up here.
I've been pretty busy bashing, cutting and welding metal, throwing bog and sanding. Have tried to devote 15 hours a week to the car, which is working.
I have the repairs in filler, roof and quarter panels sanded back ready for primer. The plan is to paint roof and quarter panels plus beaver panel and inside boot. I am letting the filler sit for a couple of weeks to out gas then will prime.
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I have traced all the rust in the rear of my car to a torn filler neck boot. Moisture got in, carpets got wet, humidity in boot went up, condensation set in and the rust is history! :twisted:
This weekend I sorted out the slow wipers by disassembling the wiper motor gearbox, cleaning out the old solid grease and reassembling with a nice teflon grease. I also lubed all the wiper linkage points, got about another 10 wipes a minute out if the system!
Fortunately there is no rust below the windscreen, although I am glad I took the cowl grille off, there was mud under there, waiting to rust through the paint eventually.
Whilst the car has been sitting, it's developed a new trick, it's started to smoke when idling hot. It's oil smoke, I hope it's just a sticking ring or similar. :roll: I don't think it's too bad, it wasn't doing it before it was laid up and it's only been idle for six weeks so far. Probably just needs a good blast round the block.
So my next trick will be to pull the seats out and restitch them. I have no chance of finding replacement material, so they will just be restitched and put back together for now, they're faded but it will buy me time to find material that's close enough to use as a replacement. I also have to work on the motors for the seats too, hopefully it's just old grease and bad earths. I'm also going to mod the driver's seat a little to get it a bit further towards the rear of the car and an inch lower. Should be easily done I think!

Regards, Andrew.
Last edited by Typhoon90 on Sat Nov 13, 2010 2:31 am, edited 1 time in total.
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MD
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Re: Hi all!

Post by MD »

Tell me you are not using that kerosene heater in the boot to dry things out. :?:
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Re: Hi all!

Post by Typhoon90 »

MD wrote:Tell me you are not using that kerosene heater in the boot to dry things out. :?:

Hell no! It was just placed there whilst I was cleaning the floor up.
It's great for heating the garage though, I use my waste kerosene from parts cleaning in it, I run the kero through a paper filter first though (just those cheap paper fuel filters) to remove particles.

Regards, Andrew.
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Re: Hi all!

Post by Typhoon90 »

More pictures, sprayed butyl sealer/deadener onto the repairs. Yes I know, everyone says it's heavy, well, I put 500 grams of it on the car and I'll sleep much better at night knowing I have that corrosion protection there!
Besides, it smells soooo nice and hides a lot of my ugly welding.
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Regards, Andrew.
Last edited by Typhoon90 on Sat Nov 13, 2010 2:31 am, edited 1 time in total.
kevin
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Re: Hi all!

Post by kevin »

You might want to make few drain holes where well joins rear valence. Nearly all rust occurs there due to water coming in around the tail lights then sitting in well. If you can new seals for taillights then even better. Same time go through all drains holes front to back.
Typhoon90
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Re: Hi all!

Post by Typhoon90 »

I have access to some fantastic foam tape at work, used to seal windows into fibreglass canopies, I am going to use it around teh tail lights.
All the water in my car came in around the rubber fuel filler boot, someone had resprayed the car and torn that boot when reinstalling it. Being a 90, it had lots of cotton wadding soundproofing under the boot carpets and it held stacks of moisture.

Regards, Andrew.
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GTV27
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Re: Hi all!

Post by GTV27 »

cool project

90's are a much unrated car. Alfa put all of its tricks into that one and it was better designed and built than the 75 (or the GTV) - evidence being lots of sound deadening.

I presume this has the digital dash - there is a later model (Super?) that had analog dials - an aftermarket tacho might be wise for track work.

The longer wheelbase is gooing to be good for highspeed handling and as there is lots of stuff in it, there is therefore lots to take out - losing a 100 or so kg's out of it should make it go much better!

Also a bit of trivia - the self lowering spoiler is illegal according in CAMS/FIA (the fix is to lock it in position - not that I'd bother unless forced)
Jason
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Typhoon90
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Re: Hi all!

Post by Typhoon90 »

Yep, my car is a late 90, an 87 Super 2.5.
The bits and pieces in the car are actually pretty light. Of course the air conditioning is not light, but with a one hour trip each way to the track, I think I will leave it in. The sound deadening under the rear seat is going (it's a big rubber/foam mat, about 15kgs) and the driver's seat power height adjuster mechanism is gone. That was fortuitous that one, I needed to lower the seat and the tracks that bolt on to the bottom of the height adjuster are just the standard tracks, so pull the adjuster out and bolt tracks back on! Save 10 kgs and lower the seat 2".
I don't want to go too far with this car as it's also gong to be a weekend fun car, so I have to decide where to draw the line with weight saving.
I pulled the seat covers off the seats this weekend, some needed a resew. While they are off, they got a thorough washing. They're pretty supportive seats.
The body structure on this car is surprising, it's very rigid, lots of box sections, but light. Around the rear shock towers and De Dion link areas, it's very stout, a full height stamped metal bulkhead runs between the seats and ties boot floor, coil towers and wheelwells together with the C pillars.

Regards, Andrew.
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Re: Hi all!

Post by Typhoon90 »

I got a few "big" issues fixed on the weekend. The blower motor on the climate control system wasn't working, the wipers were really slow and the headlight switch made the lights flicker on and off.
The wiper was an easy fix, I've come across this issue before. Bosch wiper motors of this era have grease in the reduction gearbox, it goes hard and oxidises after 20-30 years. The solution is simply to disassemble the gearbox, clean and re grease, teflon fortified greases work extremely well. I also oiled all the wiper linkages and gained about 10 extra wipes per minute for free.
The blower motor, again an easy fix. I strongly suspected the resistor pack, I've seen it a lot on older cars. The symptom is no blower motor at all, or on some cars, just blower on full speed. What happens is the resistor pack gets covered in leaf litter, resistor wires overheat and fail. The fix is to just re form the end of the resistor wire and recrimp/resolder it into it's hole. The only side effect is a very slight change in motor speed on this setting.
The resistor wires are simple coiled wires, the control switch on the console simply chooses which resistor go go through to establish a certain blower speed. The resistor pack is also fitted into the side of the airbox so they are cooled by passing air, unfortunately, they are always put at some low point, so they either trap leaves or on one car I owned, get immersed in air conditioning condensate when the drain backs up due to leaves. The resistor pack on the 90 is up and behind the console, fortunately for me I have the console and seats out, else I'd have never gotten to it.
The headlight switch was even easier, pulled the combination switch off the console, soaked the internals with contact cleaner sprayed in through the top and all fixed.
Alfas aren't scary cars electrically, they're put together exactly the same way as anything else of the era. I used to hear that sort of thing all the time when I owned a Jaguar, but common sense and a wiring diagram allows anything to be fixed!
I also spent the weekend cleaning the interior of the car with citrus cleaner, it seemed a good time to do it with the console and seats out. it's come up well. A little faded, but it's faded everywhere so it works out o.k!
It's starting to warm up now, hopefully I can get some paint on the car in the next few weeks.

Regards, Andrew.
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GTV27
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Re: Hi all!

Post by GTV27 »

awesome - appreciate the tip on the wiper motor (presume my gtv6 is same/similar)
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Re: Hi all!

Post by GregoryV »

Watching and reading and looking forward to the final outcome :) any thoughts on paint color? GV
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