Tool Time (Post # 48)

I remember the days when cars came with tool kits.  These days a lot of them don't even have a spare tire anymore.  If (when) you develop a problem with a modern car you hook it up to a computer.  We're not drivers anymore.  We're operators of self-propelled computer systems.

At least they still look like cars . . . .

The Alfatross was made when breakdowns and tune-ups were expected, not considered lamentable evidence of poor design or craftsmanship.  Making your own repairs were welcome opportunities to bond with your vehicle on a nice Saturday afternoon.  Your tool kit was an essential part of your vehicle and as such it was treated with respect.  It  included special tools specific to your vehicle: wrenches for adjusting the valves, removing and installing spark plugs, and appropriate tools for draining the oil pan and fuel tank.

The normal tool kit supplied with every Alfa 1900 according to the 136 page owner's manual.  The Alfatross' kit  may not have contained No. 10, the lug wrench, or No. 13, the hubcap lever because it came with wire wheels.   The little hammer is a mystery.  It's too small for knock-off hubs.What was it supposed to be used for?  

Miraculously, most of the Alfatross' tool kit somehow survived,  Here I have to admit that during the many decades I had the car but was not doing anything with it, I found some of these tools quite useful.  The open-end wrenches, the side-cutter pliers, the tubular socket wrench were all pressed into service at one time or another on other vehicles.  I know it sounds like sacrilege now, but from 1965 until 1990, The Alfatross was just another used car.  Who cared about its tool kit?

The tool roll and jack bags are long gone,  but I have all the original tools except the screwdriver, feeler gauge, little hammer, and  the rod for twisting the tubular socket wrench.  

I don't know what happened to the original tool bag or the one just for the jack and lug nut wrench.  They were not with the car when I bought it.  For all I know the tools associated with steel wheels and lug nuts were never included with the car because it wore Borrani wire wheels.  But the leather straps that held the tool kit were still there, withered and crusty, still screwed down to the top of the rear axle hump in the trunk.

One of the two leather straps that held the tool bag in place on top of the rear axle hump in the trunk.  

One of the previous owners, Paul Turner, inscribed his name on some of the tools.  If you Google Paul Turner you will get "about 60, 200,000" results. Before I start scrolling through 60 million results, I'd like to narrow the search down a little.  According to Pat Braden,  he "found" the car for Paul Turner who became owner number 4 in about 1960.  Turner lived in the Chicago area and was an Alfa Romeo Owners Club member.  Braden had the right of first refusal so when Turner was ready to sell, Braden bought it in about 1962, becoming owner number 5. 

That's all I know about owner number 4--other than he coveted the tools enough to scratch his name into them!  I tried tracing Paul through the AROC, but was told by the current  membership officer that old club member records were discarded years ago.  If Turner had lived in Lizard Lick North Carolina, I suppose it might be worth while to have a go at cold-calling all the Turners in town (how many could there be?),   But Chicago?  No way.   

You can just make out the name "Turner" on this valve adjuster tool.

Paul Turner's name is clearly visible on this open-end wrench,.  I don't know if he is still alive somewhere, but  the few minutes or seconds he spared to engrave his name on these tools firmly establish his claim to previous ownership of The Alfatross.  

If the original tools had not survived I probably would not have known that a tool kit came with it originally.  Or I might have assumed that normal Alfa 1900s may have had tool kits but Zagato would not have bothered to include them with the chassis that they re-bodied.  But now I feel I should find the three missing tools to complete the set.  Then there is locating a proper tool roll and jack bag . . . where does it all end?  

Tempus Fugit--whether you're having fun or not! (Post # 47)

With my initial overly-optimistic goal of substantially finishing The Alfatross by the end of 2013 now clearly unachievable, it's time for an honest progress evaluation.  On the whole, I am pleased with the progress made in 2013.  I learned a lot and made some very important connections.  The Santa Fe Concorso in September was a turning point, raising my awareness of what car collecting, restoration, and judging are all about and causing me to re-evaluate my previous decisions.

One area I neglected this year was research into the Alfatross' history. Establishing a race history for the car (if any) is important, and seems likely because it was built to race.  The Sanremo badge on the dash is still a mystery.  I know that there has been a Sanremo rally every year since 1997, but did they also exist in the 1950s?  I have written to the organizers of the modern rally, but so far I am none the wiser.  

The Sanremo badge on the Alfatross' dashboard.  Is it evidence of
competition history, or just a decoration?

Even more important is locating former owners Carl Joseph Michels, Will Henderson, and Paul Turner, the second, third, and fourth owners, respectively.  Did any of them race the car in the US?  This is a real challenge. You wouldn't believe how many Will Henderson and Paul Turner entries there are on the Internet--almost 64 million for Henderson!  I need more to go on than just a name.  

The following is a year-end review for the three main restoration tasks that I have entrusted to specialist restorers: the mechanicals and engine, the chassis and body, and the interior trim and upholstery.

The Mechanicals and Engine

The wheels, brakes, suspension, differential, drive shafts, u-joints and transmission were easy to restore and are now just waiting re-installation. But the engine is another story.  At this point the Alfatross' engine has spent almost 10 years in various restorer's shops and still seems to be a long way from finished.  

In my perception of the overall restoration process, I always considered paint, body, and interior to be the most difficult, time-consuming, and expensive elements requiring the most skill and experience.  In contrast, the engine is just . . . an engine . . . and a simple one at that.  Frankly, communication with the engine builders has been sporadic and terse, at least from my perspective.  They have not accomplished nearly as much as I expected of them.  It is probably my biggest disappointment this year.  That said, I will give them credit for their attention to engineering details.  They know what they're doing.  I am reluctant to second guess them, but there is not doubt my engine has spent more time on their back burner than it should.

Damage to the hemispherical combustion chamber of cylinder no, 3.  

Heavy wear on  this cab lobe will require building up and re-profiling.

What's been accomplished:

The engine is at Standard Machine, Phoenix AZ.  Disassembly revealed a number of obvious problem areas that require attention in addition to all the normal procedures required during an engine rebuild:

• damage to the hemispherical combustion chamber for cylinder number 3,
• heavy wear on several cam lobes,
• evidence of poor lubrication on one of the main bearings
• valve seats recessed into the head by previous valve work
• valve edges ground too thin
• wear in the cylinder walls and damage to one piston    

The block, head, crank, and major components of the engine were tested and inspected for "fatal flaws," but none were found. Pistons, rods, valves, valve springs, guides, main studs and timing chains have been purchased and the cams and crank are slated for machining and friction-reduction coatings.  Flow-bench testing produced data on how well the engine breathes.

My hope is that with all this preliminary work done the reassembly of the engine can proceed quickly.  Rebuilding the carburetors, refinishing the visible surfaces, test running the engine and tuning it still remain.

Flow bench testing the carbs, intake manifold, and cylinder head.  

Lessons learned: 

• With the engine I made the "How hard can it be?" mistake.  Yes, it is a simple, small-displacement 4-cylinder engine, but no, that doesn't mean just any mechanic or machinist can sort it out.  It can be a challenge to restore--not because it is technically difficult or because parts are hard to find, but because it is perceived as part of an historically important automobile and therefore every decision has to be agonized over. Consequently, progress is slow, deliberate and expensive.
• . . . But  the good news is that a lot of parts are readily available due to a resurgence in interest in Alfa 1900s and the efficiency of the Internet.
• In retrospect, I could have saved a lot of time and money if I had thoroughly researched the subject of 1900 engines to learn who the real experts are and which shops have produced the kind of final product I am looking for at a reasonable price and in a timely manner. 

The Chassis and Body

Perhaps because the Zagato body is what makes The Alfatross both rare and valuable, it has been the most critical element in the restoration.  The chassis and body are currently at Vintage Autocraft in Lebanon, TN, undergoing rust repair of the steel chassis, re-attachment of doors, windows, trim, hood and boot lids to check for fit, surface preparation and painting.  Tim Marinos is supervising all the work.  He estimates the time required at 1,000 hours.

The Alfatross is off its rotisserie and on a cart at Vintage Autocraft .

The steel chassis needs rust repair in several places such as
here at the bottom of the left front wheel well.

What's been accomplished: 

Plans supplied by Jean-Marc Freslon enabled us to build a rotisserie to make stripping the chassis and body down to bare metal using a combination of chemical and mechanical techniques both easier and more thorough. Hundreds of photos were taken to document the process.  

Even though The Alfatross was largely complete and original when I acquired it, part of my "due diligence" has been to look very carefully at other 1900 Zagatos that are thought to be original to see how they compare. After all, The Alfatross had 6 owners before me and at least one repaint.   So research has been a big part of the effort, particularly with respect to body paint color, colors and finishes under the hood, in the trunk, and on the undercarriage.

Lessons learned:  

• Money spent on equipment can save a tremendous amount of time.
•  . . . But you need a lot of equipment just to prepare the chassis and body for patching and painting.  So far I spent more than $10,000 on a new compressor and associated filters, hoses, electrical installation, etc. Luckily, I was able to borrow a $3,000 industrial soda blaster and blasting cabinet from son Dave. Even with recycling, the cost of various blasting media was more than $2,000.  
• Soda blasting is very effective and safe on aluminum, but for removing undercoating and rust from steel you need aluminum oxide, glass beads, or sand.
• . . . But blasting is a lot more involved than the literature led me to believe. It requires a lot of finesse, experimentation, equipment modification, and fiddling with the controls.
• Achieving the correct final finishes and colors is paramount for a car like The Alfatross and requires the skill, experience, and technical knowledge of a seasoned professional familiar with the current concepts of "correct" restoration practices.  

The Interior

I have to admit that I underestimated what it would take to restore the interior.  Like the engine, the interior is spartan.  There is no fine wood inlay in the dash, no plush carpeting, no two-tone leather upholstery.  The materials are all functional vinyl in two shades of blue and four different textures.  The Alfatross was lacking its original carpeting when I bought it, so that will have to be reproduced by copying the surviving original carpeting in Joe Hayes car, *01915* (formerly the Ed Leerdam car). 

What's been accomplished: 

Tim Marinos encouraged me to contact Derrick Dunbar at Paul Russel and Company for an evaluation of the condition of The Alfatross' upholstery.  I sent him copies of all the photos and research material I accumulated as well as the driver's seat and samples of the different types of upholstery used in the Alfatross' interior.  In a subsequent conversation we agreed that the original fabrics could not be restored to a state commensurate with the rest of the car, so the best option is going to be to re-trim most of the interior using new vinyl similar or identical to the original.  We are hoping that the original headliner can be re-used after cleaning.  Tomorrow I am shipping the rest of the interior components--the seats, door panels, rear window shelf, headliner and other elements--to him.  After a bad experience using FedEx Ground to ship the first items to Derrick, I spent the holidays building crates for this next shipment which will travel strapped down to a pallet!

Based on evaluation of the material I have already sent him and experience re-trimming other similar interiors from the same period, Derrick estimates it will take on the order of 336 hours to complete and install.

Derrick Dunbar, trim master at Paul Russell and Company.  Sports Car International, May 2006.

Shippers beware!  This box containing the driver's seat
arrived ripped and battered at Paul Russell via Federal
Express in this condition.  Fortunately, the  packing  inside
the  box around the seat protected it from damage.  

For additional security, I decided to box all the upholstered interior  panels and seats and send them together on a pallet to Paul Russel and Company in Massachusetts for re-trimming.    

Lessons learned:

• It is difficult to resist the temptation to "over-restore" a spartan interior like the Alfatross'.  
• Pack anything you have to send out with the certain knowledge that it will be handled roughly by the shippers.
• There is a big difference between a good trim shop and one that is good and has experience in the nuances of preserving authenticity and originality.
• Separating paint and body work from interior work means that your car will have to be shuttled from one shop to the next, adding time and expense to the overall restoration process. 

So much for 2013.  Today is the first day of 2014 and time for a new Completion Date goal:  September 1, 2014.  How hard can it be?  All it takes is time and money . . . .